P-Day #1

Hey everybody! Coming to you live from the MTC on my fist preparation day! In short, it rocks here! The food is questionable at best but other than that it's great! The days are a lot longer than i'm used to. I am literally tired all the time. The work of god is hastening.

My first companion is Elder Timmerman, he rocks. He is going to play football at SUU when he gets back, and is from Arizona. That being said its still hard to be with someone 24/7 so its going to be hard when I get a companion that I dont like. The second day we were here we must've been doing something right because we were called to be Zone Leaders, so that's been awesome to get to know some more Elders and Sisters and have a chance to further serve our Heavenly Father.

Elders Timmerman and Rapier

Leaf throwing

The first night we were here we got "hazed" which wasn't hazing at all, they just squirted the drinking fountain in our mouths while we lay on the ground and counted how many seconds we could do it for. It was still fun. 

Also, we have 6 elders staying in our room and it is a love/hate relationship. You get to know all of them super quick, but it also smells rank in there. One of the elders has an alarm clock that measures humidity. At one point it was so bad - the humidity was above 80%. We proceeded to steal a fan from our classroom and walk all the way across the MTC campus with it! One of the biggest things I've learned is that elders are still just regular dudes that like to have fun. Some like to have just a little too much fun but that's a whole other story.

The contraband

Also last night the Zone leaders that were in charge when I got here left, and that was a bummer. On the other hand the way we showed them off was awesome. We have accumulated a stash of about 30 nerf guns in a massive box. We spent and hour last night having a floor wide nerf battle. My companion was in sliders and smashed his toe into a wall so bad it was bleeding. There is also this frog that was ceremonially passed down from the zone leaders that left to us. It has been passed down from districts sine 2008!! It's this gross webkins looking thing that I didn't want to be anywhere near! 

Now to more spiritual things, my testimony has grown immensely from being here. You spend so much time in study that it really makes you ponder your relationship with Christ. I almost can't wait to get out into the field. The biggest thing I have learned, and that I want to share with you, is that you must act. As I prepared to serve a mission I always thought that a soon as I actually got my mission call I would become this super spiritual guy who was converted unto Christ through some sort of magic or something. When that didn't happen, I figured it would be when I went through the temple, and when it didn't happen then I figured it surely had to happen when I was set apart - wrong strike three. 

Since coming to the MTC I've learned you must actively seek out God and his teachings. The work you put in will be reciprocated in the level of spirituality that you feel. Right now the main thing I am working on is teaching our investigators by the spirit and humbling myself enough to listen for the promptings! 

Love you all! Write me back so I have something to read in a week, lol. 

Much love,

Elder J Steele Rapier