Week 5 of 104 :)

March 17, 2011

HAPPY ST PATRICKS DAY!!! I totally forget holidays here. Apparently we don't have holidays, isn't that a bummer? Luckily I have a green tie though so I've been safe from pinching. Some of the other elders... aren't so lucky.

Well my time here at the MTC is just flying by, I can't believe how quickly it is going. 24 more days and I'll be on a plane to Germany. Yeah that’s definitely very intimidating.

Okay well funny story for the week. Last week my mitarbeiter and myself were working on a lesson for one of our investigators, and our lesson was centered around the plan of salvation. He asked me if I would do the section on "the final judgment". But when he said it for some reason I thought of the song, "The Final Countdown." Then I thought about how funny it would be to make a music video about "The Final Judgment" set to the music of the final countdown. Hopefully I can explain this imagery right.

Everyone is going to be walking around, doing their normal stuff, living life and such, and suddenly from the Heavens you are going to hear the " da da da da! da da da da da" (you know the music from “The Final Countdown”) Everyone is going to be looking at around, confused, and then we are all going to be jumping up and down like we are at a rock concert, while some angels play "Its the final countdown" on their trumpets and choirs are singing "Its the Final Judgment!" everyone is going to be having a blast, and then the pyrotechnics start. The wicked people just start spontaneously combusting, one by one, like fireworks at a concert. So here we are, everyone jumping up and down, singing along, and wicked people just "whoop" spontaneously combust.

HAHAHAHA the image was SUPER funny in my head, and when I told my district they all busted up laughing. We have been singing the final judgment ever since. Hopefully all of you understand that, and hopefully it’s funny. I think it might be missionary humor. There isn't really much we can joke about so we have to work with what we have.

Well besides my future job as a music video director, life here at the MTC is amazing. This place is a spiritual powerhouse. I'm learning so so so much, its really quite fun. It’s amazing how you can read the scriptures and study the gospel everyday and not get tired of it. It must mean the church is true. I've really learned to love my personal and companionship study time, and I learn something new and exciting every day. The language is a little bit harder though. I think the new program is to just not teach German, but force us to teach in it, and assume we will teach ourselves. Just kidding, it’s not that bad, but sometimes it feels like it. There are days where we don't learn any German at all. But that is starting to change, and we are starting to get to the grammar principles that I don't already know, so I'm guessing it will get harder. Okay it’s probably not as bad as I made it sound. We really do learn a lot, and it is cool to teach in German, Its just frustrating because you have this cute little lesson plan, and you have studied the vocab, and you are teaching, and suddenly your investigator asks some random question, like "doesn't the pope say he has the priesthood authority?" and my companion and I just look at each other because we can answer in English, but how are we supposed to answer questions like that in German? Most the time we try anyways, and then end up confusing our investigator more, and in the end we just say, "hold on to the question and we will answer next time." hahaha yeah its tons of fun though. I'm excited to teach the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity in German. Unless we get some "new investigators" aka our teachers pretend to be someone new, we will probably teach those lessons sometime this next week or so, so everyone pray for us so that we don't say something offensive.

The MTC really is great though, and I'm learning a lot about German, and the gospel and life. My companion and I will probably be replaced as zone leaders sometime next week, since the branch president talked to us, and said he likes to change zone leaders every couple of weeks. He says he has a new job for us though, so we will have to see what it is. Anyways, thank you everyone for the letters, the prayers, and the support. I love all of you. The church is true, it’s important, and the work will keep moving forward. I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have to be a part of it, and I'm truly grateful for the opportunity to focus on "the things that matter most" in my life.

With much love

Elder Ander Terry