#3 MTC: Hungarian All the Time, For Everybody!!

Hello!

This week as been pretty sweet!

I'm go start this weeks email by answering the questions my mom sent me, maybe the answers will interest some of you too. If not you can skip this Q&A.

QUESTION #1: How is the church organized at the MTC? Do you have wards? Do you have callings in your wards like in regular wards? Do have you have all three hours of meetings on Sunday? Do you get to rest on Sunday? Do you ever get a Sunday nap?

**For those friends and family of mine who don't speak "Mormon," A ward is what Mormons call their local congregations. There are also what we call branches, a branch is a local congregation smaller than a few hundred people. A number of wards and branches make up larger regional groups we call stakes, a reference from Isaiah... "Strengthen thy stakes..." Isaiah 54:2. Stakes, wards, and branches of the church are organized under "Priesthood" leadership. The Priesthood is that power Jesus Christ gave to his apostles when he was on earth. By the "laying on of hands" he ordained them with power to act in His name, to administer the gospel, and to bind on earth and in heaven. We believe this power was restored to the earth through angelic messengers to Joseph Smith, you can read more about this on lds.org.

In the church, units are organized under a "presidency," three leaders consisting of a branch president, or Bishop in the case of a ward, and two counselors, or assistants who work as one united leadership unit. The Priesthood in the church are not paid ministers, and all of the duties of the ward organization are carried out by members who are chosen by Priesthood leaders, through prayer and inspiration, and asked to serve, we refer to this as "being called to serve," or having a "calling." 

Normally we attend three hours of church services on Sundays. One hour is our sacred sacrament meeting, where we partake of what many Christians refer to as communion, but we call it "Sacrament." Also there are what most Christians call sermons given during what we call Sacrament meeting. Members of the ward are asked to speak in Sacrament meeting, and when they speak we say they "give a talk." Sounds kind of funny, but we don't call them sermons. The other two hours are broken into Sunday School (co-ed) and Priesthood (men) and Relief Society (women's organization in the church).

ANSWER #1: OK, so at the MTC (mission training center), the Priesthood leadership here has organized us into branches. Each branch is one mission zone (mission zones are groups of missionaries within a mission area), so our branch is just our zone. Our branch is #11, and there are probably 3 dozen missionaries in our branch/zone. The branch presidency consists of senior couple missionaries (in the retirement years many married couples serve missions together, we call these older couple missionaries, senior missionaries) from the surrounding stakes here in Utah, they are wonderful!!

Elder Blonquist in a suitcase

Technically besides the district leader (DL) and zone leaders (ZL), there is a music leader and sacrament coordinator in each branch/zone. Currently Elder Blonquist is both of those (he is the missionary in the suitcase picture) We have Sacrament meeting where missionaries give talks in their language, and then a member of the branch presidency gives a long talk. Then we have district meeting (in place of Sunday School), which I conduct (lead), because I'm the district leader, and then after that meeting we have priesthood meeting, just like Elder's Quorum back home, (A quorum is a group of priesthood in the same office, such as Elders, which is an office within the priesthood) which my companion and I taught last week.

No rest on Sundays!! It is probably the busiest day at the MTC. Technically we can take a nap today, on our preparation day, IF we can find time. Speaking of which, there is an Elder from the Papillion, Nebraska Stake coming in today to speak Albanian, and he will be in our zone, his name is Elder Theobald. I don't think I'll have time for a nap today, but I'm excited to meet him.

QUESTION #2: How is the food at the MTC? Are there meals you like? Is the chocolate milk all it was cracked up to be?

ANSWER #2: The food is okay, it has gotten old kind of quick. They have good dessert, and jello, and BYU ice cream. The Chocolate milk is as good as promised, it's like whole chocolate milk, you need to be careful how much you have. They have really good wraps and salads here. 

QUESTION #3: How is your room at the MTC? Is it comfortable? How about your bed, do you sleep comfortably? What about your shower and bathroom?

ANSWER #3: My room is pretty good, its built for 4, so we have lots of space with just the two of us in there. The bed is okay, not as comfortable as home, but I procured another pillow. Don't worry, I get so tired, that I sleep great. The showers are pretty good, our floor was originally build for sisters missionaries (that's what we call girl missionaries), so our rooms, and bathroom is much nicer than what most Elders have. 

QUESTION #4: Do you have a convenience store, a place to shop and get supplies?

ANSWER #4: We do have a convenience store. I've bought study supplies, ordered a mission t-shirt, and I bought a ten dollar tie yesterday. We also have a church distribution center (For garments and books, etc), barber shop, and a supper overpriced dry cleaners.

QUESTION #5: Have you been sick? With all the missionaries from all over the country (world) coming to the MTC do the missionaries get sick alot?

ANSWER #5: I was sick the second week, but I'm feeling okay now.

*************End of Q&A*********************

OK! I hope that answers all your question about MTC life and you are comfortable that I am well taken care of. NOW... Here's my news:

The big news this week is that this week we started all Hungarian all the time in class, for everybody!!! It was stressful and way more difficult. I hope it will get easier. I think there has been improvement though, its kind of hard to tell. 

We'll Bring the World His Truth

Friday we had TRC and I saw Brandon Nabrotzky (who mom connected with on Facebook apparently). He was so excited to see Udy Elder and I, and gave us big hugs. Said the hugs were from our moms. After our lesson, he explained everything in English. It was cool. My teacher Feil Nover also said she saw the picture mom posted on the Budapest Mission Facebook Group. 

We moved class rooms yesterday because the MTC had to do some last minute drywall repairs before they dedicated the new building in October and our new classroom was ready, it has a less awesome view, but it is a lot bigger.

Yesterday, Elder and Sister Cook (Elder Quentin L. Cook is an Apostle) came and spoke to us. He talked about his mission in England. He also gave his "4 loves" for a successful missionary.

1. love for your companion
2. love for the people
3. love for you mission president
4. and love for the Savior.

Me at the Provo Temple

Elder Cook also spoke on how we should remember that our calls and assignments come from a prophet, seer, and revelator, and that we should remember that when they speak they speak the words of Christ. At the end of his talk he left an Apostolic Blessing on the missionaries, a blessing that we would grow closer to the Savior than ever before. It was amazing, the spirit was so strong, and it felt as if his hands were laid on my head. In a sense, they were.

Its been a difficult week, but good week. I'm doing pretty okay!

--Elder Morgan