My New Area

The MTC was a blast. I met missionaries that will probably be close
friends with me for a long time. We learned how to have tons of fun
and focus on work and learning at the same time. Work hard, play
hard. I learned SO MUCH in the MTC. Information was pouring into my
head and coming out my ears. But coming into the mission field feels
like I don't know anything. There is so much more that I need to learn!

The food at the MTC was really good some days and horrible other days. But I'll guarantee anyone who is planning on going to the MTC that all
of the food will give you the worst bowel problems ever! And don't
drink the orange juice!  But looking back, I now wish I could just have a
full meal handed to me every time I ate. I gained like 5 pounds at the
MTC but now I feel like I'm starving. When we don't have dinner
apointments, I just live off of chimichangas and I'm trying to get
used to not stuffing myself with two full plates at every meal like I did at
the MTC.

My teachers were awsome!! Brother Blunck is a guy who has been off his
mission for about three years. He is a great teacher. He reminded me
a lot of Sean Russel but a little less happy. haha. Another teacher we
had was Brother Anderson. He was hired to be a teacher at the MTC the
third day we were there. He served his mission in the Portland OR
mission. He loves Oregon. He was a very sincere, spiritual and focused
teacher. The third teacher was Sister Rosenvall.  She
was loud, funny, cute and spiritual. I don't know how she brought the
spirit in the room when she was teaching, but she did. She would also
throw her shoes at you if you were falling asleep in class.
One night , at a fireside, Elder Jeffery R. Holland came to the MTC
and spoke to us. I was kinda bummed that I couldn't get a seat in the
gym where he was because of how packed it was. I sat in one of the
overflows and watched it on a big screen like general confrence in the
church. His talk was the best talk I have ever heard. I loved it so
much because it was specifically to us as missionaries. The biggest thing
in his talk that probably stuck out to everyone who listened, was when
he started yelling over the pulpit. He was saying that the one thing
that "pushes his buttons the most" is when missionaries go home after
their mission and forget everything. They stop living the way they''re
supposed to because they think they can get away with it off their
missions. I learned how important it is to stay focused and endure to
the end.

Being a District leader made me feel like the bishop of my district. I
had to interview all of the elders to make sure the companionships
were working well and effectively. There were two companionships
that had issues. One worked out their problems but then one of the
elders in that companionship had issues with a girlfriend at BYU (just
down the street) and he felt like he was in jail being at the MTC and
resented having a comp by his side all the time.

I loved being a leader though. I taught lessons to my district every sunday and it made me become more
comfortable with it.
But now I'm out in the field with my new comp Elder Naisbitt (Nez-bit).
He's a good trainer as far as I know. He is also the district leader of
our tiny district. I'm serving in a small, redneck place called Elk
City in the Western side of Oklahoma. Our area covers Burnsflat and Sayer.

Our area is dead. People
are so protective about their religion too. Our church building is in
a city called Clinton, a 20 min drive from our apartment. We are
trying to bring the area back to life but it is soooo hard to do that.
The other day a man saw us tracting and stopped his car in the middle
of the street to Bible bash with us. I love oklahoma! But tracting on
Friday nights or on Saturday or Sunday when a game is on during
football season, is usless. There are a lot of hard core football fans
around here.

Anyway, I'm havin fun.
-Elder Shumway