Week 2- MTC

Wow you guys actually got a dog? I thought it was all talk. I'm glad that you named him after me. Bentley Park Shurtz sounds pretty good. I hope he doesn't turn out to be a menace!! He can take my place for the next 2 years. Are tyler, and Kristy so happy to be able to play with him? The MTC is still going great! We do lots of teaching and many of them see to go great. In TRC me and Elder Thomas teach a man who came over from Kenya. He is kinda hard to teach because he is really quiet, and doesn't full answer questions. We get a lot of yes, um sure, and no's. It wasn't until our third lesson that we were finally able to figure out what was holding him back from really listening, and wanting to come unto Christ. He had questions about different things such as ''why did God take a rib from Adam to make eve? or Why can't women have the priesthood." we were able to start talking to him about how we don't have all the answers to life's questions. That there are still mysterys that God has yet to reaveal to us. This really helped him understand it along with reading to him a verse in Alma 32 about how having faith doesn't mean having a perfect knowledge of everything. It was a really good learning experience working with someone who doesn't want to listen, and learn. The food is pretty great, but i feel really unhealthy. I feel like i've gained 10 pounds already! I guess that could be my own fault but there is just a lot of processed foods. We had one of our teachers go on a trip and will be gone until we leave the MTC which was really sad because he really knew how to get things across and help us when we were feeling down about how our TRC lessons went. I've seen a lot of friends here like Alex my old roommate at school, Jeremy, Mark, Elvon, and I just barely ran into Jacob Gutke who just walked into the MTC. It is great to catch up with them in the short conversations we have due to the busy schedule they keep us on. The days here feel like weeks, and the weeks feel like days. It is kind of a weird concept until you experience it. The days are so jammed that you feel like they'll never end, but by the end of the week you wonder where all the time went. Happy Birthday to my 17 year old sister, and 26 year old brother! you guys are so freakin old! What happened to all of us? I mean our parents are getting freakin old too ! I hope you all have an amazing week and i love you all! I got my flight itinerary and will be leaving next wednesday to Missouri so be expecting a phone call somewhere between 7 and 8 on wednesday morning! I love the experience i am having here, and love this gospel. I can't wait to go out and teach and bring people to Christ. Thank you so much for all the support you've given to me!! oh ps i got the package last wednesday after writing email's thanks so much for everything and i really love that quote in there too!!

Love Elder Shurtz