Last P-day in the MTC

Elder Kleven was called as a Zone Leader last week and will be released this week before he heads to Australia. Short and sweet leadership experience. 

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Provo, Utah

Hello! 

Today is my Last P-day in the MTC. I got my travel plans this week, and I'm leaving Monday afternoon on the 14th. We fly to LA, then to Sydney, then to Perth. I also completely skip a day along the way -- I leave on the 14th and arrive in Australia on the 16th. FUN STUFF!

Elder Kleven's MTC District. Some are going to Brisbane, Australia, and others to Riverside, California.

This last week, though, has been a blur. It went by so fast that I don't remember quite what I wanted to share with you. My TRCs (investigators who may or may not be members) are great; I really enjoy teaching them and getting to know them. Every week you get two new TRCs. Last week we had an old man named Arnold, who was most definitely a member because he kept giving us advice about what we should say in the middle of our lesson.  The other TRC was Benjamin; he is super cool, and I totally get along with him. He is rather difficult to teach because we go in with a lesson plan and always end up answering his questions the whole time. I find myself really looking forward to his lessons, though, because we are learning to love our investigators and to teach by the Spirit -- WHICH IS SWEET! As we went into the new week, we swapped Arnold for a new TRC, Cindy, who is a widowed mother of 4. She is also rather cool, but we've only had one lesson with her. We also kept Benjamin, which I'm super excited about because we have a lot in common and I'm starting to see him as a friend. I hope I have a lot more investigators like him when I head into the field.

Elder Kleven, the Elders in his District, and "the water bottle" (grey) in the front left corner.

Fun story about my second day here, which I forgot to tell last week: My water bottle lid has a flap thingy that covers the mouth piece, which you can push back to let the water flow out of the bottle.  So, as we finished our morning class, we went to the cafeteria for lunch. I packed up my bag and put the bottle in the bag (because there's a flap in there for said bottle). When you walk into the cafeteria, you have to walk around a row of shelves -- these shelves are for all the missionaries' bags to rest on while they chow on the holy meals. My companions set their bags on the shelf, and I threw mine on top because there was no other room on the shelf.  After we finished our chow, we picked up our bags and went back to our residency to study the good word. The straps of our bags were wet, but we paid it no mind; however, as we were walking, I realized that the bottom of my bag was dripping. I had neglected to close the flap of my bottle lid , and the water had spilled everywhere. Way to start my MTC experience! My scriptures and such were only briefly touched by the flood in the bag and aren't ruined. Quite the tender mercy!

Learning and growing lots, 

Elder Kleven