MTC Week 4 - Quite a few things happened.......

Hello everyone. Quite a few things happened this week.


We got to host new people coming into the MTC, which means bringing brand new missionaries into the MTC. Each missionary gets a few minutes to say goodbye and then we have to tell them that it's time to go, and we carry their luggage, and tell them how good the MTC is. We walk them to all the places they need to go. It was an interesting experience. Some families cried a lot, and some just took a picture and that was it. There was this one elder that got dropped off by his dad, and they both acted like he was getting dropped off at soccer practice. At least that makes it easy for the host. I almost got emotional watching a couple of families, because it reminded me of when I got dropped off.
If you are in the MTC for over 3 weeks, you are bound to get sick, and I finally got sick. Luckily I got over it in 2 days.

A huge group of missionaries from our zone left. Many of them got called to Taiwan, but they got reassigned to states because their visas are not in yet. They think the visas will arrive in about a month. Missionaries going to places other than Taiwan got sent straight to their mission. It was a bittersweet experience to see them go, since they were our role models when we first came in. But I think they are happy to be in the field.
When people move out, we also get hand-me-downs. I got a seat pad, food, stationary, posters, and a bunch of other stuff. We decorated our room with the posters, so it looks a lot less dull. And when people hand down things, they sometimes sign it, and the seat pad I got was signed by Elder Karlinsey, who I knew from Startalk.
My family sent me a package. It had pictures from my sister, Almond Roca, muffins, Hi-chews, and my old watch. Thanks! The picture is hanging in my room, and those are all my favorite candies.
We finally got our full Chinese name-tags, but they put the wrong character on mine. They said they will get it straightened out. I will send a picture anyway.
We had TRC this week for the second time. TRC is when volunteer members come to the MTC and we share a message with them as if we are visiting a member's house. All in Chinese of course. And we just go from room to room doing this. We only got to teach 2 people this time though. It's a lot of fun and we get to meet some interesting people, and work on our conversational Chinese.
My good friend Elder Jones moved to this MTC a few days ago, and he left this morning at 3:00AM to Guadalajara. I got to see him one last time yesterday. Good luck Elder Jones!

MTC Week 3

We got to see an awesome devotional on Sunday (yesterday). It was by Chad Lewis. He played football for BYU and the Eagles. He talked about letting your light shine and he told us some good stories. I love Sunday devotionals. The devotional before that, we got to see Elder Lawrence from the 70.

There were a couple of times this week we needed to prepare a lesson and teach 2 mock investigators completely in Chinese, so things got a little stressful. We usually teach one lesson a day. We have taught a total of about 5 investigators. We really have to rely on the spirit, preparation, and sometimes miming words to teach the investigators. We are getting a lot better though.
I FINALLY got a letter from my mission president. I did not know that it could get down to 37 Degrees F during the winter. Looks like I'll need to get some colder clothes when I get there. It also looks like I will be biking, driving, walking and using public transportation. Unfortunately, he does not allow ipods or musical instruments. This frustrated me a little because the people going to Taiwan said that their mission president loves all genres of music, and will let them have instruments.
We got to do a session in the temple today. I saw one of the newer films. There was a lot of cool CGI. It takes up a lot of our P day, but it was worth it.

In my district, my companion and I are going to Melbourne, Australia. There are 2 elders going to Canada, and the rest are going to Taiwan. The more I hear about my mission and the area, the more excited I get. The Taiwan elders are having issues getting their visas, so they are getting reassigned state-side until they get the visas, which will probably be about a month.

My testimony of the Book of Mormon has really grown since I got here. It's teachings are remarkable. I encourage anyone reading this to read Joseph Smith's testimony in the beginning of the book, or on LDS.org.

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Elder Jordan Andersen
DEC01 AST-MEL
2007 N 900 E Unit 19
Provo UT 84602

Week 2 MTC - It's a small world and you never know who will know who.........

Well 2 weeks and I am already eager to leave the training center for Australia. Yesterday we saw a fireside by D Greg Droubay. He is in charge of a lot of the media for the church, and he showed us some "secret" stuff that is going to come out on Christmas.

The weather here in Utah is getting colder. In a few weeks there will be snow. There are orange plants growing on the mountains that make them look even more incredible.

For the most part, things here have been same old. We are studying the language hard. Last week I talked about how we were teaching a fake investigator. Well now we have a new investigator, and the old one is now our new language teacher. No one expected that. All the teachers are great.

In my last round of emails, I went over the time limit (one hour per week), and this time I am trying not to. So I am probably going to end up remembering stuff after I have written this letter. I will do my best to remember everything.

I found out a few days ago that an elder in my district, Elder Dallin Dorius, knows my aunt Verna's family. What a surprise. He is so funny, and I think we'll be friends for long after we leave the MTC.

Every day we get gym time, and a ton of people play four square. I learned how to play it and now it is my favorite thing to do during gym time. I usually get to be king at least once every day.

We got to do "service" a few days ago. We got the "fun" job of cleaning the bathrooms. Luckily I was with the sink crew. We got pretty good at it. First you have to spray this nasty chemical, then scrub, and then dump a bucket of water on all 4 sinks. We got creative with the last step. You have to try to cover all 4 sinks with one splash.

We are getting new missionaries in our district I think this Thursday. Our branch president's counselor showed us pictures of all of the new missionaries, and I recognized Sinclair Hancock from BYU Startalk. So that will be exciting.

We got to walk around the Provo Temple yesterday. It's so beautiful. And today we got to go in, and I got to see sealings for the first time. That was a neat experience.

Elder Dorius showed us a great talk called Safety for the Soul by Jeffrey R Holland. It is quite an amazing talk. It is on LDS.org. Definitely worth watching.


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Elder Jordan Andersen
DEC03 AST-MEL
2007 N 900 E Unit 19
Provo UT 84602

Week One in the MTC

This week flew by so fast. The first couple of days were rough, but every day things get way better. People say "just make it to the first Sunday, and then things fly". I see what they mean! But really things here aren't as rigorous as some people make it out to be, or at least not yet. The learning started almost immediately after I got dropped off. We went to a few orientation meetings, met our companions, unpacked, and then we met 3 mock investigators, and interacted with them. All on the first day!!

My companion is great. His name is Elder Padilla, and he is from Pennsylvania. He knows a lot about fashion and watches because he used to work at Fossil. He is a hard working elder. My whole district is cool. We are all about the same age. We are one of the few districts with no sisters. Our DL is named elder Matua. All of our church leaders here are very caring. Maybe the most caring leaders get called to the MTC because we miss the love of our family. The food here is also really good. It is much like the BYU cafeteria. It is all you can eat. I sent a few pictures.

The language classes feel a lot like Startalk. They try to immerse you as much as possible, and the teachers barely speak english. So a lot of the time it's like a game of cherades. On just the second day, we taught a mock investigator that only knew Chinese. As you can imagine, we couldn't say that much, and it was very awkward. But that is how they teach the language in 8 weeks. I thought I would have a head start because of my past Chinese experience, but everyone else in the class also has experience, so we are about even. Right now we are learning about how to pray, bear testimony, and say the missionary purpose in Chinese. This week was conference week, so we got a break from class to watch conference. I should have taken better notes. There was a great talk that stood out to me about moderation in all things, with an emphasis on the internet. He kind of called out BYU students about "anonymous Yacking" (It's an app). Another talk I enjoyed was by Todd D. Cristofferson (I don't know if that is spelled right). He talked a lot about why commandments and laws are important. He said "A God that does not make any demands is the functional equivalent of a God that does not exist". Everyone was excited to see the MTC Chior sing during priesthood session. I saw a couple of people I know in it. After conference, we watched a film called Character of Christ. It was very interesting, and I learned a lot about the character and nature of Christ. We also had the oppertunity to hear a kind of modivational talk from a semi-famous Mormon guy named Vai Sikahema. He told us some great stories. Today is Preparation day. We got to go to the MTC store. I wish I would have just bought some of my stuff there, because everything is super cheap. We also got to go to the Provo temple to do as session. There was an elder that explained some of the symbolism, and everything is way less weird if you know the symbolism behind it.

I got to see Brother Dallin Jones for the first time during conference. Unfortunately, he is at the other smaller MTC campus. He is doing well, and it was great to finally see him. I have seen about 6 people that I knew at BYU.

I also briefly ran into Sister Murdock from Startalk. She's going to Korea! I really appreciate all of your letters. I miss you guys. I think I have gotten more letters than most of the missionaries in my district. I keep all of them and try to respond. By the way, if you use DearElder, I get the mail faster than email. -- Elder Jordan Andersen Provo MTC Mailbox/section #19 Going to Melbourne, Australia Leaving MTC Dec 1

Reporting into the MTC

What an exciting yet emotional day it was for Elder Andersen and his family as he was dropped off at the MTC on October 1, 2014. As we were all saying our good-byes to him he was greeted by the President of the MTC. It was such a pleasant surprise for all.