Week 1 @ The MTC (The Grand Adventure, Part Yksi)

Terve, everyone, from the MTC!

I can't believe it's already been a week! I've so much to say! Firstly: My P-days are on Thursdays. We can read emails all week, we just can't write any until P-days. So expect to hear from me every Thursday for the next few weeks! Secondly: We don't get a ton of time to write, so I'm going to try to put all of this info into a short amount of time.

Well, one week in the MTC. It was quite a rush. As soon as I was dropped off(with no small amount of tears), I was guided to my residence building, where I dropped off all of my stuff. I was then taken to our classroom, and introduced to my teacher - who didn't speak a word of English to me. He had me do a few preliminary things on the computer to make sure I was signed in, and then we started class after the rest of the missionaries came in as well. Our teacher's name is Velli(brother) Ryan(yes, that's his last name), and he only speaks English to us if he absolutely has to. It's difficult, but fun! It's also incredible how fast we've gotten the hang of Finnish. On our third day, we were already teaching our first lesson to our investigator, Anna. (No, she's not a real investigator.) And after a week, we've already taught our third lesson to her, and we're somewhat conversational in Finnish! Every time we teach and learn, I'm reminded of the gift of tongues. It's real, my friends. Otherwise, I'd still be floundering in the murky waters of the Finnish language. Seriously, it's a strange language. I'll write about it in more detail in a bit.

My fellow Finns are awesome! On the first picture, from left to right, is: Sisaret(Sisters) Nordin and Brinton, Vanhinma(Elders) Payne, Olsen, Moats, Weeks, Gamett, Eyring(yes, he's related to Pres. Eyring), Bolingbroke, Garnett, Sisar Atkinson, Vanhin Manner(my companion!) and Sisar Hooser. 13 of us, all Finns! We're awesome.

Our residence is crazy though. On our floor of the building, we have all of the Eastern European missions, and we all have nicknames for each other - the Danes, Swedes, Nords, Icee's, Finns, Etc. - and one Elder going to Mongolia. He's here for ten straight weeks by himself. We call him Papa Mongo. We've all got the same schedule, so we play volleyball and foursquare(throwback to elementary school days) together, and it gets intense. We've also been getting gifts from the past shipment of Finns - Two little Christmas trees, an old tie, a huge Finnish flag, and some candy.

We've also had a ton of spiritual experiences. On Fast Sunday, We had meetings and devotionals galore, and then choir! The choir director is Brother Eggett, and he truly teaches the spirit with music. Sunday evening, we had a devotional where Jenny Oaks Baker spoke and played, and then Elder Bednar was here! He did a Q&A with the entire MTC, as well as a pretty good cookie monster impression.

We also went to L.A. on Tuesday. Woke up at 2:30 A.M., got on a shuttle to SLC airport, and got to the Los Angeles Finnish Consulate at about 10:00 A.M. California time. We were worried we wouldn't make our flight back, but all we had to do at the consulate was scan our fingerprints and get our signatures. Then we went back to LAX and flew back, got to the MTC at 8:30. Pretty simple. Tiring day. I'm still working on recovering from the lack of sleep.

When you live with a bunch of 18-year old males, funny things tend to happen. I've written down a few humorous sayings from the other Elders.

"A district divided against itself cannot stand. It's gonna die."

-Vanhin Weeks

"Don't miss the spiritual cheesecake."

-Aldste(Elder in Danish) Radford

"It's not study, it's help[pronounced haylp]."

-Vanhin Gamett, upon being told not to study after 9:00 P.M.

"GIVE ME COOKIE NOWWW."

-Elder Bednar(yes, from the Quorum of the Twelve)

"Oh, you boys are going to Finland? Make sure to bring lots of vodka!"

-Some random lady at the Finnish Consulate

"Quit worrying if you're good enough.

You're not.

Nobody is. That's why we have the Spirit."

-Elder Bednar, telling us that the Spirit teaches the gospel, not us.

In short, it's been a crazy, eventful, spiritual, awesome week. And it's gone by so fast already! Miss you all, and I hope everything's swell at home!

Love,

Vanhin Bolingbroke

P.S. One of the pictures is Moroni 10:5 in Finnish. I've attached a recording of me saying the scripture too. Just to give you an idea of how we learn the language.