Week #1 at the MTC

Hello Family!

Well I'm going to start from the beginning. Wow! You cannot believe how much that letter where you all said little snippets meant to me. You are seriously so inspired because my mindset totally changed after reading your letters.

We are so exceptionally busy 100% of the time. Literally, I don't think I've worked this hard in all my high school years combined. Its quite overwhelming and makes me grateful that I'm not here for 9-12 weeks like some of my friends have been. Elder Smith is a good guy and we work extremely well together. He is also serving in Phoenix but so is my ENTIRE district which is pretty rare I guess. My district is awesome. At the three day mark it was as if we were already best friends. We pray, sing, study, eat, bear testimony, cry, joke, listen, teach, laugh, learn, and tell stories non-stop together. I call us the Elderhood. On Thursday night we had an amazing experience. Earlier that day we had been challenged by our zone leaders (who are amazing and love our district) to exercise our Priesthood, and be prepared for any situation that may arise where we would need to use it. So Thursday night, I asked for a blessing because of the tough time I was having with not being at home and had some bizarre feelings of homesickness. Elder Smith gave me a much needed, very comforting blessing. After that, Elder's Choules and Halligan (district leader) gave each other blessings and then Elder Smith asked me for one. The spirit was so thick it was amazing! My roommates are so great!

Saturday I finally understood what I'm here to teach and how I'm supposed to teach it. The entire Gospel is centered around the Atonement and that is what the teaching should be centered around. We signed up for a T.E.C (Teaching Evaluation Counselor) session which is where we and Elder Smith were taught about the importance of the Atonement. This counselor was unbelievable and it was the first time we had a one-on-one lesson. I finally understood that the gospel is what we are inviting others to come to and have faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. This is also known as our Purpose as missionaries: To invite all to come unto those things. It gives the restoration a whole new meaning and understanding about how, when, where, and why the gospel was restored.

Sunday is fun day. We had breakfast, studied, went to Priesthood meeting, District meeting (I volunteered to speak about the atonement because that’s what the meeting topic was), then we went to lunch, then sacrament meeting where the Branch President randomly chose me to give a talk on prayer while he was giving announcements from the pulpit. Luckily I had one prepared because they told us that there may be a chance that we would be speaking. All the elders said they loved it! I told the story that I used in my farewell talk about when dad and I were up in the hills running and I messed up my ankle.

Tuesday was our first T.A. (Teaching Appointment). This is where we are given an investigator, and we have to teach them the entire first lesson and they do not break character (meaning they act like they know nothing about the church or the gospel, they play the perfect part of an investigator). One word... Ownage. Elder Smith and I worked well and I committed her to reading the entire Book of Mormon, praying, and if she comes to find it to be true, she said she would be baptized! haha. It went really well for our first lesson

Today, we went to the temple, which was awesome. Did an endowment session, service in the laundry room (which by the way Mom it looks like a space station with how many and how massive the washers and dryers are), then ate lunch up there and now I'm writing letters.

P-Day is sweet! I hope you are all doing awesome and I want you to know that I love you all so much! The church is true and that’s a fact. Thanks so much for everything! Bailee and Leah you guys need to write sometime haha. Letters are like GOLD! Hope all is going well and please stay safe and don't hurt yourselves. That is my biggest fear while I'm gone. That I won't be there if anything happens or to protect you girls from whatever high school or jr high may bring! Keep reading (as a family or however!) haha

Love you guys so much,

Elder Mouritsen

Quote of the Week:

“This is the beginning of a new day. God has given this day to use as I will. I can waste it – or use it for good, but what I do today is important, because I am exchanging a day of my life for it! When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever, leaving in its place something that I have traded for it. I want it to be gain, and not loss; good and not evil; success, and not failure, in order that I shall not regret the price that I have paid for it.”

By Dr. Hartsell Wilson