May 17, 2012
Sanderson Family and Friends,
The MTC is da Bomb! I love it here so much. The days are super long but they are totally worth it. It was so hard to tell everyone bye but I know there is nothing else I should be doing. Thank you so much for the letters, they really help me stay motivated and focused on being better at Inviting others to Christ. The first day was pretty nerve racking and extremely overwhelming. The MTC presidency talked to us about how our purpose and God's purpose are exactly the same. They made us where this ugly orange dot on our name tag which means you are new. This then doubles are a giant flag for every other missionary to tell you "Welcome to the MTC!" or ask you if your lost when clearly your not. It's funny to see how much this reminds me of my first day at BYU. My companion is Elder Barth, he is a pretty swell guy but is a tad bit weird at time. Es todo tranquilo (its all good) though because I'm guessing he thinks I'm a strange specimen myself. He is from California and insits that since I am from Idaho I must love potatoes and have no idea how to cunduct myself around "common folk." The sad thing is....he is probably right, but I'm working on it. The showers are by far the worst thing here though. You either bathe in ice water or lava, or if you are lucky, you can get both in 10 second intervals. They sure do help you wake up though!
My new district is great and they are all so different. There are 2 other Elders from idaho, one from Driggs and the other from Pocatello. The one from Poky is awesome and I pray he and I can be companions in Texas. My spanish teacher is Hermano Davis and I swear he is one of the 3 Nephites. His is fluent in over 6 different languages and is only 22. What a stud. The craziest thing is the fact he played basketball for Duke! He let me look through a mission binder of his and Coach K sent him a letter and a picture of the Duke team. He doesn't like to talk about it though because he had this freak accident in the middle of the season so his basketball days are over. He comes and plays ball with us on our gym time and can almost hit his head on the rim and he is only 6 feet tall. He teaches Spanish so well and I've heard from other elders that he is by far the best Spanish teacher, so very greatful for the blessing. Spanish is coming along good and I love the language so much. I think its so beautiful and so thankful for the opputunity to learn it. Its funny because I realized how truly worthless my 2 years of Spanish has helped me. I walked into class and everything I had learned in High School was on the board. We taught our first investigator on the 3rd day in the MTC...In Spanish! I was amazed how much I had learned in such a short period of time. I can now carry on a pretty good conversation with someone and its only been a week! The gift of tongues is real and I know every missionary here has been blessed with it.
Our first Devotional was this past Tuesday and we had a wonderful surprise. L Tom Perry was the speaker and I was on the second row! Elder Perry is such a big guy and looks so healthy even though he will be turning 90 this year. His wife spoke with him and she talked about the Book of Mormon. I loved when she said the the Book of Mormon is the greatest gift from God that we have recieved in the Latter-Days. Its crazy to think of all that we ahve been blessed with and this wonderful book of scripture is the by far the greatest. The Book of Mormon is the best missionary and I am simply the Representative of Christ that gets to bring it to people. Elder Perry talked about the Priesthood and the history behind it. He talked about where it came from and how to use it properly. So inspiring and his testimony of the Book of Mormon was amazing! The spirit at the MTC is unbelieveable and it is such a blessing to be here.
As pertaiing to my schedule, I have breakfast at 7:20, lunch at noon and Dinner at 5. Everything between that changes everyday so its hard to plan anything. If Bill and Bonnie want to see me, tell them to walk straight into the cafateria and they should see me somewhere amoungst the tables. I will keep my eye out for them because they should walk right past me. Wish I could write more but my time here to write letters is very limited. Love you all so very much and I'll be sure to keep you in my prayers. Let me know how everyone is doing and tell Steph to post this up on my wall for my friends!
con amor,
-Elder Craig Sanderon
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