November 10, 2015

Bonjour!

It's great to finally be able to contact the outside world, I feel a little sequestered here, but it's fun. First off, My P-day is Tuesday (obviously) so that's when I'll get all your emails. :) If you want to send me a package or a letter though, my mailing address is:

Elder Jaden William Miner

DEC15  VAN-PV
2005 N 900 E Unit  38
Provo UT 84602

and I get those right away. I feel a little lonely, I haven't gotten any packages or letters yet... (hint, hint) ;)

The MTC is really a lot of fun, they certainly whisk you off quickly and get you everything you need. I was a little shell-shocked for the first couple of days, but by Friday our schedule normalized and we've really been settling in. I have some wonderful teachers for French, Frere Nollet is a native Belgian who was an exchange student and served in Washington DC, so his French and English are impeccable. Frere Keenan served in Quebec, so his French is a little weird, but he's so fun to work with. Our district is an absolute blast, we laugh all the time and we've bonded really quick. There are 4 elders and 4 sisters going to New Caledonia, and we have another two elders going to the DRC, French speaking. (I'll have pictures in a later email, I don't have my camera right now.)

My companion is named Elder Graham. He was raised in Minnesota, and he's sharp as a tack and way diligent. We think on the same wavelength almost all the time, and he's definintely my favorite person at the MTC. Since he grew up outside of Utah, his experience with the church has been quite different, and it's fun to compare ward and stake boundary sizes and temple trips and stuff. He's a big Doctor Who fan, so I wish I was a little more into it, but we like a lot of the same memes and we both like all kinds of the same nerdy stuff and similar books, so we relate super well. We also can teach really well together. His conversational French is fantastic, and he's been picking everything up really quick. 

I was also called as the District Leader for my district for the first three weeks. I don't really do anything besides get the mail and start meetings, but it was still quite stressful to recieve that calling at first. Again, I've been able to settle into it and I hope I'm doing a good job. Elder Graham assures me that I am.

The MTC was not exactly what I expected, there's really a huge emphasis on teaching here. Our teachers all act as investigators inbetween lessons, and we're teaching at least one lesson a day now, in French too. I'm so grateful that I have the French experience I've had as a base to build my Gospel vocabulary off of. There are also a number of "Gold Tags" around campus. Some of them are members, some of the aren't, and we're encouraged to teach lessons to them. Elder Graham and I had an opportunity to teach a Gold Tag named Lisa yesterday. She stopped us on our way to get the district's mail and asked us why some other missionaries had offered her a Book of Mormon, but not a Bible. We explained that we usually assume people have a Bible, and talked about the importance of both to us. She seemed reassured by our answer, and we continued talking for a while. She told us that her youngest son had recently been "baptized Mormon" and it was a surprise to her family. She told us that she had raised her family to be anti-organized-religion, and a lot of her other sons were mad at him, and she was trying to figure out how she was going to have Thanksgiving with everyone now. She also wanted to understand her son's decison. We did our best to help her, and we have another lesson with her tomorrow. She feels like she might be a real investigator, so hopefully we can help her. 

Really though, the MTC is just a lot of fun. It's different, and a little weird, but all in a good way.

See you soon!

Elder Miner

Here's a picture of Jaden and his companion, Elder Graham.

And his district.