and......

Oh, and one more thing! On Sunday, I was in a room with 10 of the 12 apostles. That's all. :)

5 days left in the MTC...

MOM....

 

Saturday was my P-day this week because yesterday was "In-field Orientation", which consisted of 13 hours of sitting in a room and learning about how to work with church members in the field and how important it is to teach lessons with members present. I haven't gotten a calling card yet, but I will, and it should last for much longer than I'll probably have to talk. I think I'll probably only be able to call from one airport, and my companion and I are on splits because he needed a haircut, so I can't ask him what time we'll probably call. I'll probably call during my layover in Phoenix, and hopefully that will be in the morning but not too early. We have to leave at about 5, so I figure that the call will probably be somewhere between 8:00 and 10:00. I'll try the house first and then the cell phone. I think that I should be okay in terms of traveling there! I'm excited to get out in the field and work.

 

The past couple weeks have just been crazy. I realize now that I should have done so much more to prepare me for my mission. We're so blessed to be members of the Church. I know that this church is true, and I love having the constant companionship of the Spirit here. The MTC has been awesome in terms of testimony building. I'm going to give the Lord 2 years of awesome service, and I know that a mission isn't even a sacrifice because of the blessings He will pile on in return. It's impossible to "get even" with the Lord because even if you try to, He blesses you seventy times seven whatever you do.

 

Well, this email is a little short because I have a little less time today than usual to write emails. I should have more time in the field on P-days, and I'll also hopefully a bunch of awesome stories to tell as well!

 

I sure miss you, mother! You were (and still are, ha ha) an awesome Mom. Thanks for getting me here. I love you.

 

Elder Blotter

Moommm.....

Mother! Thanks for writing me a lot on Dear Elder... I just don't have those with me right now, so I can't really respond to them! I guess I can write letters during laundry though! Now I feel bad for not writing Joe Day more than once, because he probably wanted to hear from me! Me and Elder Nelson have yet to hear from any of our friends, although I've heard from Amelia, and it's really funny to see how much it's bugging him. Heh heh.Apparently I'm permitted to email my immediate family and my grandparents from this email on my mission. Also, we don't really have any time on the computers in the MTC... like this took me 25 minutes to write. And... we get 30 minutes total. So... in the field I'll actually be able to write a bit more on P-day, I believe.

 

Well, I made it to my first real P-day! In the MTC, it's shorter than in the field, but we still get to do everything than we need to and go to the temple and stuff. It's great. You would be so proud to see my correctly hung pants each night. I'm also keeping up in my journal so far, so that much is good! And, for all my sort-of complaints about the food, and despite the fact that I still run a 5k during the first half of our Gym time, I think I've gained 10 pounds at the MTC. I weighed about 155 before I entered the MTC, and I weighed myself on the suitcase scale thing, and now I weigh like 165. Ha ha, it's not noticeable, but I'll have to lose it before I come home!

 

At the MTC, we're usually doing one of like four things. We get an hour of Gym time, where we can go outside and run or be inside and play basketball or volleyball, or we're in personal study or class time. Class time is organized into 3 hour blocks that used to be soooo long (it's like... as long as church is, after all), but now they seem really short. And whenever there's an hour long devotional in the evening, those seem really really short, ha ha. Or, we're teaching the paid-actor-or-real-investigators-we-don't-really-know people in these role-play lessons. Which is really cool. Me and Elder Duersch have one of our investigators committing to be baptized, one really confused unfortunately, and kind of everything in between. It's a lot harder to be a missionary than I thought it would be because of how much you need to rely on the Spirit.

 

The Spirit at the MTC is so awesome. The last time I wrote, I probably talked about how slow the days were going by. They really did speed up, I gotta tell you. Elder Duersch had to convince me that Tuesday had happened the other day. I could have sworn it was still Tuesday. Anyways, I really love it here. It's so so awesome. I'm especially excited to go to the temple later today, and for Sunday later in the week.

 

We got our travel itenerary! Or however you spell that. Usually, I would google search it, but I'm not allowed to. (Although Brother Brown, who's in our branch presidency, said that in meetings they're planning on giving iPads and iPhones or comparable devices to missionaries in modernized missions because it's how the world communicates, and by the time our missions are over we'll probably be able to use those devices. They say that they're just going to have to trust missionaries more. I think it's awesome, because it's really annoying to not be able to use the resources that scripture apps have. Like... I'll remember a phrase from a scripture, and on my iPad I could just search for it, but in here I have to try and hunt it down through the topical guide or bible dictionary, and it takes forever. Anyways...) We're leaving on the 4th of July in the wee hours of the morning. Annoyingly enough, we're being routed to Phoenix, Arizona for a layover before flying up to Vancouver. Oh! And we're allowed to phone home at the airport, so I'll have to get some prepaid phone cards here for the airport. So... on the 4th of July, be readyish for a phone call!

 

Well Mother, in the proclamation to the family, it says that parents are held accountable for ignoring their charge of raising their children. But we have a perfect loving and just Heavenly Father who rewards us when we do good just as when he punishes us when we do bad. And I know that you did awesome in raising me. I'm so blessed to have been able to grow up with a Mom as awesome as you with as awesome as a testimony as you have. I love you so much and I miss you guys a lot. Know that I've never been happier than where I am right now. I know that this church is true. And I know that I am so blessed to be able to call myself a Representative of Christ. So. Amazing.

 

Anyways, until next week!

Josh

 

PS- mail me my Patriarchal blessing when you get the chance! Or is it packed away somewhere in my suitcase or in that folder? I'll have to look.

 

Part 2

Moooommmmmm..... PART 2

That was not supposed to send yet! These computers are scaring me. At one point, it kicked me off and I thought that everything that I had written was deleted. I figured out how to get my message back, but still!

 

Anyways,

Even though I say that time is passing very slowly, it's not painful by any means. It's so amazing here. The void that is created when you're separared from friends and worldly distractions is filled by the Spirit, and it's so great. We're in classes most of the time, and we're learning how to teach people. I've definitely been humbled here, because I've realized how much I need to learn and grow before I leave here. We had to teach our first "investigator" today. (really, it was just one of our teachers role-playing as an investigator. The MTC nowadays is very oriented towards role-playing as teachers and investigators. They even have paid actors come in and everything. Kinda weird to get used to, but to learn, you have to take it seriously, even though you know the "investigator" is really Sister Thomas or Brother Hoopes or whoever else.) Me and Elder Dursch went in with a lesson plan prepared, and all these answers prepared for her questions, and we went over half the stuff we were supposed to before our time ran out. I learned that you can't treat preaching the gospel like a debate round. You can't go in with "arguments" and expect to convince them to join the church. You have to almost entirely rely on the Spirit to have any success. It was a really neat and humbling experience.

Well. My time is almost up. I love you guys, and I miss you tons! It's been a great couple days. I'm excited to see what else the mission has in store for me, and I'm excited to serve our Heavenly Father over the next couple years! I know that this chuch is true and that through it, we can be together forever as a family. That's awesome! These two years will be a flash compared to that.

 

 I might have time to write a physical letter to Jed, since he wrote me a letter. :)

 

Josh

Family!

Mooooooommmmm....

 

It's finally P-day! This week, we only get half a p-day and it's well, obviously on Saturday. Next week, and I believe in future weeks, it will be on Friday! We were allowed to write our families the first day, and you've probably gotten that letter by now, but it didn't really answer your questions, because I didn't know what they were yet. My companion, as I belive I said in my first letter, is Elder Duersch! It's been great getting to know him. And also weird getting used to never not being with him, ha ha. And yes, he's also going to Vancouver. In our room, there's another companionship, and we're all going to Vancouver. Of the other companionship, one elder is from Preston, so the room is pretty Cache Valley heavy. The other elder is from Ontario in Canada, and I'm constantly asking him questions about Canada, which he is fine with because he's the type who likes to talk and talk and talk. I've seen so many people and cousins of people that I know. I saw David the first day, but I have yet to see Elder Clegg! I've seen people ranging from Andrea Halling's Cousin to Elder Devin Hinkson to who knows who else. It's a very, very, small world it feels like at the MTC. I belive I'm tying my ties and hanging up my pants correctly! So.. no complaints there. Time goes by extremely, extremely, extremely slowly at the MTC! I got a couple letters from people who wrote me the day I left, and they implied that they were jumping the gun by writing me so quickly. Well, I got those letters Friday evening, and they say down here that for your first week, it feels like days happen between meals, so for me, it felt like I hadn't heard from the outside world in forever! They say that once you get to Sunday, the days start to blur together and it feels like you're packing your bags after you blink. I sincerely hope this happens, because I want to get up in Canada and serve! Ha ha... yeah. And our dinner time is at 4:30... I still feel uncomfortably full from lunch when it's dinner time, and then when it's 10:30 and it's bedtime, we're all starving. I guess it's good to get used to that though, since we'll be proselyting without food for a while for a lot of evenings!

 

 

Love,

Elder Blotter

 

PS We need to figure out how I'm going to do these emails. This email was kinda for the whole family, and I can email the whole family directly, I just need everyone's addresses.

The DROP OFF...

I told Josh to make sure and turn around to wave goodbye to his family! I have heard that missionaries don't do that. He didn't. And I was crying so hard I couldn't have seen if I tried. We left Wednesday morning and drove to Provo. We had time to stop for lunch at a restaurant and went up to the temple grounds to take a few pics and say our good byes.

I took one last pic before we left for the MTC.

Best big brother...EVER.

Setting Apart

On Tuesday, June 12, President Marty Salisbury set Josh apart to be a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. President Randall was out of town. (Nauvoo) He did such a GREAT job and just gave Josh a big bear hug. It sure seemed that Josh was ready and so excited to go on his mission. We went home and did a little last minute packing and finished a little before 10:00. Then just before 10:00 pm he had a few friends drop by for a final good bye.

The day before Josh left G&G stopped by on their way to Armenia.

   Elder Joshua Thomas Blotter