MTC Week 1

My first week in the MTC has been extraordinary. I am a true believer that your attitude plays a great part in your success in life. I've met people that absolutely love the MTC, and its opposite being people who are tired of it. I fortunately fall into the category of those who love it. I wake up at 6:00 every morning and retire at 10:30. The entire day is packed with learning the language of Thai and learning Gospel Doctrine. Physically, the MTC isn't very difficult as we just sit in class all day(Other than 1hr of exercise time). Mentally, it has been a trial all on its own. I feel like a genius one hour, and feel like an inadequate child way over his head the next.

You see, while in class I feel like I'm grasping and truly understanding the concepts. However, on day three, we were thrown into a pit of fiery as we had to teach our first mock investigator Jami. She wouldn't help us out at all in English as she "couldn't" speak English. My companion tried to say "Do you understand?" but messed up one of the tones. The result in his error was "Do you stab heart?" It was one of the funniest exchanges. She also said a sentence with a word which sounded like "Bible." My companion and I assumed just so. However, what she really said was "pay bood" which means "go to church." She may have been asking us how she could go to church. She was surely interested in going to church. All we said was "Dii Maag" which means "Very good" and then dropped her question simply moving on with the lesson. It was a disaster upon reflection. Fortunately, relying and putting my faith in the Lord has made all the difference in how we reflect upon our mistakes.

My companion Elder Feller has been a great influence to me. He is diligent in reading and studying his flashcards and staying exactly obedient. That is probably another key principle taught in the MTC. Exact obedience. We share a room with four people. Elder Feller, Elder Brown, Elder Libey, and myself. Elder Brown is our District Leader. He really does all he can to magnify his calling. I feel so blessed to have so many who make me want to become greater. Elder Libey is his companion. We always tease him about his lover back at home. We keep on telling him, your success is our success so it has been nice having a lover in Indiana too. He won't give us her email though. It's been so fun to grow together as Elder's. Teasing and joking(Appropriately) around tends to speed up the process.

Exercise time which is only one hour a day has been my one hour where I don't have to think so hard. Being competitive by nature, I have had to be very careful in my mentality when we play soccer because one of the great rules in the MTC is that there is no competition. We literally don't keep score and I'm okay with that, but my competitive nature and pride is being slowly stifled out of me. It's been a good experience. We recently watched Elder Bednar's talk entitled, "The Character of Christ." My MTC experience has in large part being about turning outwards opposed to in. To turn away from the natural man. To serve and love despite fighting through adversity. To care for the needs of others before our own. It's definitely easier said than done as I don't really feel like I'm in adversity at the moment.

After day 3, the days have gone by so quickly. I stopped counting already and in my current mental state, I refuse to strain my brain to count the few days it has been since I have entered the MTC.  

I am so happy to be here. I really am. I'm grateful for the large influence all of you have played in allowing me to be in the position I am in now. In my faith and in my confidence. As requested by some, my MTC mailing address is:

Elder Christian Seiya Miyagi
NOV16  THAI-BAN
2005 N 900 E Unit 179
Provo UT 84602

phom pen phayaan wa phrayeesukhrid rag raw.