Week 3 at the MTC

Hey all!

Wow, 3 weeks down!  It feels like 3 days.  Does that mean that 104 weeks will feel like 104 days??  Hmm...

Everything is well here.  Just pluggin along, learning more and more every day.  Jeff I'll make time to write you your own email next week, but I'm short on time this week.  Don't worry, it will happen!

Mom and Dad

Can you send me more labels with my address on them?  I only have 4 left after today!  I'm doing some serious writing haha.  Lots of people to talk to!  I got my raincoat, thanks for calling them.  I also got your package with my jeans, paraguay shirt, and spanish hymn book.  Thanks a bunch, I really appreciate everything you guys are doing, really.  And the See's candy is already half gone!  Hehe.

Will you also send me my Paraguay addresses so I have them to give to my friends here?  Thanks!

I'm good with the money situation.  Still have quite a bit of cash, we get 50% off here at the bookstore, so everything is really cheap.  The most expensive thing I've had to buy was a watch, because mine broke, but that's it.

Papa Bear, good try with that Spanish!  You were close.  "Creo" means "I believe", "Yo sé que" means "I know that", so say you know it instead of believe it!  Here's what you were trying to say:  Hola, me lammo Danny Moore.  Yo se que Jesucristo nos ama.  l sufrió para nosotros y quitó nuestros pecados.  ¿Le gustaría más acerca de la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Días?"  Close though!

We're speaking more and more Spanish outside of class now.  Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays, we're not allowed to speak English during meal times.  Everyday at breakfast we speak Spanish.  We always sing in Spanish, and whoever gives the spiritual thought before class starts has to start doing it in Spanish now.  It's a lot to handle, but the more we hear and speak it the faster we'll learn it.

My companion and I are getting really good at teaching the lessons.  In the TE where we teach a teacher who acts like a progressing investigator, he said we taught him one of the best first lessons he's heard in a long time.  We just taught him the plan of salvation 2 days ago, and he said he actually wished we would have committed him to baptism because he would have said yes.  So I guess we're doing well haha.  He tries to play out different scenarios that we'll encounter in the field, like last time he started asking all these random questions in the beginning and getting off topic to see if we could focus him back on the lesson we were supposed to teach.  When he said "Let's look up your last name in the index!" we were pretty sure we knew what he was doing haha.  It's really weird, this John Arpeggio character that he made up is really real to us.  Its incredible how you can have such love for a made up character and want him to know the Gospel even in a simulated situation with a made up person who has a made up life.  I think it's because he might be fake, but his problems are real problems people have and we really have come to love that character.  It's amazing.

They're teaching us a lot of things on how to improve our lessons.  We're learning to ask a lot of questions, it's much more like having a conversation rather than teaching somebody about Jesus Christ.  We learn to ask them about themselves before we start and pick up on little tid bits of information about them to really discern what their concerns and needs are, and we adapt the lesson to their needs as we go.  One time, we entirely changed the lesson on the fly because we got a question out of left field and what we had planned to say just wouldn't have done any good.  We're taught "Don't teach the lessons, teach the investigator".

Where's Brother El Halta moving to?  Tell him that I wish him and his family luck!  And tell Rick that I'm sad I'll be missing the day they ordain a Bishop Rick.  Hehe.  We have an Elder in our district named Elder Bishop, so if he's ever called to be a bishop, he'll be Bishop Bishop.  Kinda funny.

My district is doing great though!!  We all get along sooo well now.  People think we're weird because we're always laughing at lunch and stuff.  We're like family out here.  My companion wasn't doing so well though, but he's doing better now.  He has a girl at home he misses, so that's something we talk about a lot and kinda have in common.  I gave him lots of advice about that.  All is well though, we all love each other so it's a blast.

Again, thanks so so much for all the Dear Elders everyone is sending.  They're one of the best parts of my day, I love hearing from everyone.  Sorry I can't respond to everything everyone says in them (doing the Lord's work is a busy job!) but I try my best.  Please please keep them coming, I love them.

That's all for this week.  Love and miss you all so much!  Hasta luego!

Love,

Elder Moore

Week 2 at the MTC

Hello all!
>
> So much to talk about, so little time!!  First thing's first, happy birthday B-ryce!  Hope it was a good one.  Sorry I didn't get to write ya, this missionary business is busy!  But I do have a quote for you to make up for it by Elder Dallin H Oaks about missionary work: "We invite all to come unto Christ by repentance and baptism and confirmation in order to open the doors of the celestial kingdom to the sons and daughters of God.  No one else can do this."  Get excited bud!
>
> Chief:  Thanks for the  scriptures and encouragement!  I have some scriptures for you in return.  Helaman 5:12, Alma 26:10-12, 2 Nephi 4:19, 2 Nephi 9:39.  It was hard to pick just 4, but there ya have it!  Love and miss my second family.
>
> Thanks to everyone who has sent me letters and Dear Elders, and just words of encouragement!  Sister Hunt and family, Oma and Opa, everyone else, I'll get to writing you at some point, I promise!  I'm a busy boy, but you'll all get your letters!
>

Hello from Tim at the MTC

     Sept 10, 2009

Hey Friends and Family!!

We finally got a letter from Tim and thought that we would send it on to you. We sure were glad to hear from him! You can see by the letter why we are so proud of him and how important going on a mission was to him. We love you all and will forward more as we get them.

Danny and Tracy

  

Hey everyone!

Sorry it's taken so long for you guys to hear from me.  We only get to email/write on our P-days (Thursdays) and we didn't get one last week.

Wow, where to even begin!  First of all, thank you soooo so much for all the Dear Elders you're sending.  I really love them and they help me out a lot. Please keep sending them, I love getting mail.  I leave for Paraguay on November 2.  I'm released on September 6, 2011.  Start counting down!

The first day here was so insane.  I checked in, verified my information, and got my packet (my room key, fancy shmancy nametag, etc).  Then we dropped my stuff off in my room and went to my classroom.  We will have the same classroom with the same 2 teachers and same 12 missionaries with me the whole time I'm here.  The 12 of us are called a "district", and we're district E in branch 50 (doesn't mean anything, it's just for organizational purposes).  We have 4 awesome Sister missionaries in our district, which apparently is uncommon.  In the classroom, I met my companion, Elder Short.

He is a great Elder (we call everyone Elder/Sister here, they told us that the "guys" and "dudes" are all back home dating our girlfriends hahah). He's from Toledo, Ohio, and we're getting along great!  Then we went to orientation where the MTC presidency talked to us and we got aquainted.

Thursday morning when we had class like usual, we opened with a prayer and our teacher said "Well I hope you all enjoyed that prayer, because it's the last one any of you will be saying in English for the next 2 years".  I'm

sorry, I don't think I heard you correctly, can you repeat that?  I could have sworn you said we will be praying in Spanish by tonight...How crazy, right?!  As crazy as that sounds, by that night and ever since then we have all been saying our prayers in Spanish.  That's about the rate at which we have been learning Spanish.  Last Sunday was fast Sunday, and from the time I got here until then, I was already able to bear my testimony in Spanish in sacrament meeting (which is here in the MTC).  The Spirit is so strong here, we are all truly blessed with the gift on tongues in every way possible.

I really love it here, but I'm so busy!  We're up at 6:30 every morning, have to be in class by 7, have a good 3 hours of class each day, and at LEAST 3 hours of study time every day.  Holy smokes.  But I'm doing alright, the Lord takes care of His missionaries.  Tuesdays are busy days for us.  We have a workshop called the TRC (Training Resource Center) every Tuesday. Members in the area volunteer to come in and be trained to act as investigators, and we go contact them (in Spanish) and teach them Lesson 1 (not yet in Spanish).  Each time the scenario is different - for example, this week we acted like we were contacting people in a park and went to their house to teach them later, and the volunteers are all given back stories and specific doubts to express and things, so it's like really being in the mission field.  It's incredibly helpful.  And then at night, we have devotional where either members of the Quorum of the 12 come and talk to us, or some other well-known person.  This week was President Hinckley's son, Richard Hinckley, and his wife.  What a marvelous experience!  They are so smart and such spiritual people, it was a treat to hear from them.

The lessons we're learning to teach are definitely NOT memorizing doctrines and reciting talking points to investigators.  The first lesson is about the Restoration and the Joseph Smith story.  But we are taught to make it very personal to the invesigators.  We ask them questions, we find out about their lives so we can better tend to their needs and answer their questions, we learn techniques on how to address certain questions, and so much more.

It's so in-depth, it's ridiculous.  Much more than I thought it would be, but I like it much better this way.  It helps us to really get to know our investigators and connect with their lives, so we truly will love them and want to help them which is probably the number 1 rule of missionary work. Love the people you teach.

On Sunday, I was assigned to be district leader!  Assigned, not called, because we already have callings - a missionary.  But it is an excellent opportunity to serve the 12 missionaries in my district!  I meet with the branch presidency once a week, who are all so nice.  I get specific information and the district comes to me if they have any questions, I'm the first resource (besides the Lord, of course) for resolving disputes between companions, and things like that.  I really love it, except it's hard when

you have to tell somebody to stay on task or something, because I love my district so much it's hard to be the bad guy.  (Now I know what it feels like to be a dad!  or...kinda.  haha).

Man, there is so much to tell!  I just love it here in the MTC and am learning a ridiculous amount.  Today we're doing laundry and get to kinda relax and hang out a bit, which is a nice break.  And we get to go to the temple today, which I am WAY excited for.  I've been dying to go.  We go every Thursday at 2:30.

Well I only have 2 minutes left, so I gotta go.  We get half an hour to email so everybody gets a turn.  But just know that I'm doing quite well, loving it here, learning so much, and enjoying the presence of the Spirit as strongly as it is here.  Can't wait to get out in the field, and I'll write you guys next week!  Keep the letters coming, please please please, I love hearing from everybody.  I love you all and can't wait to see you again!

Love,

Elder Moore

P.S.  Please don't forget to forward this to everyone, including Katie :]

Your Missionary Has Arrived!!

Dear family of Timothy Jerry Moore,
>
> We are pleased to inform you that your missionary has been safely checked in at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah.  We thank you for supporting your missionary and know that your family will be blessed as a result.
>
> Your missionary's mailing address while at the MTC is:
> Timothy Jerry Moore
> MTC Mailbox # 100
> PAR-ASU 1102
> 2005 N 900 E
> Provo, UT 84604-1793
>