This last week has gone by so fast! All the Elders and Sisters at the MTC told us that after the first Sunday your time at the MTC flies and it sure has. I have had so many amazing experiences this past week and I am extremely grateful. My testimony has grown so much over the past couple of days. I have learned so much doctrine and knowledge concerning the gospel and it blows my mind just knowing how much I still have to learn. My district and zone were all so amazing and it was sad having to say goodbye to them, they left at 3 this morning, but I know they will do great on their missions because they are all fantastic people especially because we are always matching with ties and outfits. We gave so many priesthood blessings yesterday before they all left and we'll give the rest tonight but now my tally of blessings without my dad's help is up to 2. General conference was superb as always, and even though I have pretty much forgotten everything that was said, I still have the good feeling in my heart. My companion, Elder Thompson, was in the choir for priesthood session but you probably never say him because we only saw him 3 times. He was in the very front on the very left. He is a funny guy. He has a girlfriend back in Colorado but he has already had three girls from back home confess there love for him. So Elder Ham came up the nickname Two-Timin-Thomas-Thompson. We also call him Triple-Threat-Thompson (it was my idea). He falls asleep in class and conference just as often, maybe even more than, me. He also found a survey thingy that our teachers fill out and he read the stuff about us and it said that we are good missionaries but we fall asleep a lot and early on we didn't work together well and one even said that they were going to try to get me more involved.... Well towards the end of our time here at the MTC we did start working together really well, in fact we were probably the best in the class and I personally think that I got more involved and I still fall asleep a lot... So everyone here at the MTC when they give you advice they tell you to not drink the orange juice because it gives you the runs. So, Elder Ham and I decided that we were all going to drink the orange juice because we can't just come to the MTC and not drink the fabled orange juice. So yesterday we drank the orange juice and right before class Elder Ham comes up to me and tells me "The myth is true!" and then later that night while we were pretending to teach people on airplanes Elder Thompson gets up suddenly, whispers to Elder Ham: "That orange juice is crazy!" On Saturday night all the Elders in my room pushed all the bunk beds together and mad a fort. Kinda... Really it was just three bunk beds pushed together with a sheet hanging over the side that was not pushed against the wall. Don't worry it was not against the rules. And Elder Shaum came across the scripture 3 Nephi 22:2 which talks about tents so take that as you will.
It's been crazy teaching all the "investigators" here. Really it's just our teachers pretending to be somebody else and then TRCs we get to teach someone who isn't LDS or they're a recent convert. Elder Thompson and I were teaching a russian lady who was like 26 I think and she was a foreign exchanges student and actually she went to Bingham so that was cool. Right now she is a student at BYU because she has a lot of friends there. I think she might actually be a member. Our first lesson with her I feel like we just confused her a ton because all Elder Thompson wants to do is pretty much bear his testimony and all I want to do is teach the lesson. So I taught a little bit of the lesson and then Elder Thompson just started talking and talking and talking about the same thing pretty much and then I feel like she (her name is Kya) was just super confused and I didn't feel the spirit so I didn't say anything the whole rest of the time. It sucked. But the next lesson went so much better! We taught the lesson like a boss and traded off perfectly with each other. I read her Alma 7:11 and she asked me where it was and wrote it down on her phone or looked it up or something. So we know it struck her. We closed it off really well and it was just awesome. Then our third lesson was a skype lesson and Kya didn't show so that's cool I guess. Our teacher investigator was progressing well but then we ran out of lessons. So all in all Elder Thompson and I learned a lot and we learned that there is still some stuff we need to practice like actually getting our investigators to commit to things instead of just saying "hey read this" So basically we are going to be awesome missionaries.
I leave tomorrow morning at 2:30! Our flight is at 5:55 and we fly to Denver and then on to Tulsa! I can't wait. Even though the weather there is like in the 80s and we are going to have to wear our full suits because it is not summer. And our mission president wants us to have the Book of Mormon read by December! I'm on 1 Nephi chapter 3 so yeah... We got $98 on our ecclesiastical cards and now we all feel super rich even though that money is probably going to go to something like toilet paper.
Basically the coolest parts of the week were when we sang Joseph Smith's first prayer and then went on a "nature" walk around the MTC parking lot and then we all sat down and I read Joseph Smith history and then prayed about it. Ten minutes later I was about to start studying and I opened my scriptures randomly and the scripture I opened to was Jacob 7:13-14 which basically says you know that God exists and stuff (Jacob talking to Nehor I think) and it was really cool because I had always heard about people randomly opening there scriptures and getting an answer and now I have too! Then the other cool part was yesterday when we were learning to teach by the spirit and then we practiced with people trying to commit them to baptism and I was trying to commit sister Burt to baptism and I talked to her and read some scriptures and then when she finally said "yeah I guess I'll get baptized" I just had a wave of relief and joy and everybody thought I was going crazy because I was super smiley and out of it for the next 5 minutes. So now I can't wait for the real thing! Basically the lesson here is that if you pay your tithing you will be blessed.
Love you all,
Elder Naegle
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