SURVIVING THE MTC

Pre MTC suggestions:

1.      Read Preach My Gospel, the whole thing - you won't have time to do it here.

2.      Study Scripture Mastery and mark them all - in your mission language too if you have a copy of them - the scripture mastery scriptures are EXTREMELY helpful for teaching and you will have to teach in your mission language on day three!

3.      Learn all of the lessons in chapter 3 of Preach My Gospel.

4.      Study the scriptures as much as possible (Study topics such as the atonement, faith, service, plan of salvation, etc to have good scriptures for teaching.)

 

What to expect your first days at the MTC:

The first day that you get there you are greeted by a host missionary, who has been there anywhere from one week to twelve weeks. You are taken to 1M where you are herded through various lines to get your keys, card, nametag, etc. You then meet back up with your host who takes you and your luggage to your residence hall and you leave your stuff there (Make sure to get a bottom bunk if you can, if not make sure that your companions switch top/bottom every Thursday for linen exchange. The bottom is easier to get on and easier to make - plus you can put a sheet up and make a man cave J). Then you are taken to your classroom where you spend all your days at the MTC. When you first get there you will be greeted by your teacher who will only speak the language of the mission you are going to. You will then watch an orientation video and meet your companion(s). You will get to go to dinner and it is always a single choice dinner night but you do get ice-cream every Wednesday and Sunday. You will then go to some rooms and teach “investigators” as a group of about thirty or so. After this your Zone leaders will introduce themselves and tell you about some of the rules. You then are taken back to the residence halls to unpack for the night. This concludes your first day!

On the second day, as long as it doesn't change, which it probably will because that is the one thing you can expect at the MTC is change, you will start to have a somewhat normal schedule. You will have study and class time with your district which is what you will do most days pretty much all day. You will have to turn in you immunization record the first week, I don't know for sure what day. On the night of the second day you will meet with the Branch Presidency and they will decide a district leader, after interviewing the whole district. They will also decide senior companion, which is the person who comes alphabetically first, haha. The district leader will also switch after three weeks. Then your zone leaders will take you on a tour of the MTC and hopefully tell you all the tricks, if not that is hopefully what this letter is for!

Some things to know at the MTC:

1.      When sending mail make sure to use the blue mailbox outside of 2M not the one in the laundry room - the one in the laundry room doesn't get checked!

2.      The computers in the laundry room are the only ones that can send pictures!

3.      If you don't feel like getting dressed up to eat in the cafeteria you can get a sack breakfast but you have to wake up early because the line gets long fast! It starts at 6:30 so be there at least by 6:20 if you don't want to wait a half hour+

4.      You can mix and match the food, but I don't know what kind of food they will have when new people come because they keep getting rid of more and more of the options each week.

5.      Wake up early for showers so you don't have to wait a half hour. I get up around 6:05 and pretty much all the showers are open at that time!

6.      In your mission call book in your address there is a line with initials of your mission, for me ARG-RES 0225 which has a predicted date of departure from the MTC namely 0225 or February 25! I wish I would have known that.

7.      Find out how much you weight before you come to the MTC, it is interesting to see how your weight changes - there is a luggage scale in the gym in the north west stairwell that you can check your weight on while there

8.      You will probably buy a clip attachment for your magnet name tag and if you do make sure to buy the black one not the pearl one - the pearl one is the girls one and some Elders don't realize this, haha.

9.      Make sure to let all your friends know about Dear Elder it makes it easier for them to write you and therefore more likely. You will find out, mail here is like gold.

10.  If you have a rough time the first week, just make it through Sunday. A lot of people told me this and I didn’t believing it, but after that Sunday night’s devotional I found out it was true, haha. 

“Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God. For in His strength I can do all things; yea; behold many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise His name forever.” Alma 26:12 I know that I alone could do nothing to make a difference, but with the Lord’s help anything is possible. I would like the world to know that Jesus is the Christ; he bled and died for us on the cross so we can live again with our loving Heavenly Father and our families. This church is the only true church here on this earth with the full truth and restored gospel. I am so grateful to be a part of it; it has truly blessed my life. I am excited for your turn to serve and be a part of this great work. The gospel is true! Elder Pickle

 

It's hard to say goodbye... but not when you're going to California!

I was so excited when I found out I got to talk to you, even if it was only five minutes! but I cant wait to talk to you all more when I go to California!

I am currently in the process of writing Emily and Nathan letters the problem is that I have so much to say and I have been thinking a lot about what I am saying that it has been taking a long time to finish, but don't despair, they are coming! I love you both soo much!

I did get my package yesterday and it was awesome! Everyone loved the Krispy Creme doughnuts! They were very delicious! It did have the phone so all is great! Also my companions said thanks for the felsnaptha!

I am not sure as to the number of letters exactly that I got for my birthday because the Dear elders combine multiple peoples letters on the same page if the letter doesn't take up the front and back of the page. I got one from all of the family though! Well, besides Cody who was on a vacation. It was great to hear from everyone! It was a lot of letters! Thanks everyone!!

 

For my birthday the Hermanas found some stuff in the free box and wrapped it and gave it to me, haha it was funny. They found some barbie cell phone thing that they gave me, haha the best part was they were joking around that I got one free call with it and the teacher was like Really? and then we had to explain it was a joke, haha

My Carlsbad mission home address is:

415w Bobier Dr.

Vista, CALIFORNIA 92083-1906

I hope that I'll be hearing from you guys there soon!

I am happy and sad to see the end of the MTC. The thing that I will miss the most is the friends that I have made and my zone. We have grown to be very close of the short amount of time that we have spent together. You really grow close to people really fast here. Normally if I were going to school or something I would never have been as close to any of them as we are. I have made some really great friends and we have already planned that we will hang out after the mission! I am very excited though to go out into the field and teach real investigators! It will be an amazing experience! I am also very glad that I am going to California! It is an awesome temporary mission and it will be nice and warm! I have a lot of advice for anyone coming into the MTC and I will write a separate email about it because I want to make sure to include all the things they need to know!

 

 

CAMERON IS THAT YOU ?!?!

Today I ran to answer the phone and almost didn’t make it but I hurriedly said, “Hello”. The person on the other line said, “Hi!” “Cameron! Is that you?!?!”

Cameron was allowed to call home to let us know that his visa did not come this week so he will be getting a temporary reassignment for anywhere from 1-6 weeks. He has been temporarily assigned to labor in Carlsbad California. Cali!! He sounded very excited to be going somewhere warm and have the opportunity to teach REAL investigators. He leaves for California Tuesday the 26^th at 8:31a.m. (For any friends who work at the airport and want to pop in and say HI and take a picture for me hint hint).

It was so amazing to talk to my awesome son! He sounds happy and just so excited to be where he is and have this opportunity. I am so blessed to be his mother!

The Young Men repeated this every week for mutual last year. I feel it reflects perfectly Cameron's purpose now.

“The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.”      Joseph Smith Jr.

I am so proud to be a missionary mom and have my son be a part of this great work!

How many Ashcrofts do you weigh?

February 15, 2013

Dear Family,

The events of this week haven’t been exciting at all. During the time I was sick my day consisted of lying there, sleeping, or nibbling on a little food at meals. The best part of my day was when I got to hear stories from the outside world. Since I really didn’t do anything I’ll just talk about the funny things that have happened recently.

One great thing was on Valentine’s Day Elder Whitfield was pretending to ask a Hermana to the “Valentines Dance”. So Elder Smith, who is a little odd or more than a little odd ha ha, quickly asked Hermana Jensen to the Valentines Dance (thinking there really was one). The joke for the rest of the day was who was going with who to the dance that night. We all thought it was hilarious that Smith thought there was a dance when there is a no hugging girls and no dancing, while as a missionary rule.

There is an Elder here, Elder Ashcroft who is very skinny and only weighs 125lbs. We decided that we would weigh things in Ashcrofts. I weighed 1.5 Ashcrofts until I got sick now I weigh only 1.4 Ashcrofts. Some Elders are 2.5 Ashcrofts. We now convert all weights to Ashcrofts.

As for our visas we are now just waiting for them. The earliest we could get them would be this Wednesday so we’ll see. We didn’t get travel plans with the rest of our District either. We won’t get them until we either get our Visas or get a temporary reassignment.

Thanks again for the birthday packages and please thank both Grandparents for me! I love you all very much!  Elder Pickle

Happy Wallentines Day!

This picture is of the hermanas in our zone who made signs that read "Will you be our Wallentine?"

 for Elder Wallentine in our Zone they had one person go in and have him stand up

 then they each came in one by one with their sign then hermana Crosby gave him a ring-pop, haha

 

First of all Happy Birthday Nathan! Sorry I couldn't tell you yesterday, I didn't get a chance to write letters while I was sick in bed so by the time I could have written one you would have got it later than this email since it takes like four days! But I hope that you had a great Birthday! Also please tell Grandma Happy Birthday for me!

My favorite Devotional so far was by a Brother Clayton in the Seventy who talked on the importance of being a missionary who is very conserned about both the investigators and the members. He said that we should know all of the members in the area so that when we are teaching investigators we will know who they can be freinds with in the ward when they go to church. He related this to the story of the lost sheep and how when the master found it he picked it up and carried it (not dragged it) back to the fold then encircled it in its freinds so that they could help the sheep to want to stay.

I haven't met any general authorities, hijole! Elder Holland was here for a devotional the night before I got there! Elder Reynolds actually was there a day early and got to see it, it sounded like it was amazing!

 

As far as embarassing things that have happened it has pretty much just been saying stupid things in Spanish such as:

We all fish sometimes - pecado vs pescado

I once asked to help the bed in a prayer when I meant to say bless the house - ayuda la cama vs bendigo la casa - this was in the first few days
I once told our investigator that our message was strange because I couldn't think of the word for different
Elder Reynolds once said that the BoM is a ring in a lesson
I can't think of any particularly weird habits that my companions have besides that Elder Reynolds will snore on occasion.

A Very Blue District

 

It has been great being a zone leader. The only downsides are that you have a lot of meetings to go to on sunday, but thats not too bad. We get to introduce the new districts in our zone to the MTC and give them a tour of the MTC. The only thing about that is we haven't had new districts for the past two weeks because of the new intermediate spanish zone that was made. We are incharge of looking out for all of the people in our zone and we interview the district leader each week to see how everone is doing then report the the branch president on this. We are also the ones incharge of making sure that our zone is following the rules.

As far as letters I wish everyone would write me more letters :P I have had people write and say that they will keep their letter short because I probably don't have enought time to read them but that is not true. Make sure that myth is corrected! I have plenty of time to read letters the only thing we don't have as much time for is writing back. I try to write everone back either personally or answer their questions in my family letters! I wish that I had the time to write each individual back always but that doesn't always happen. But I love getting them and have plenty of time to read them! As for specific people I haven't got many from freinds and that would be nice. But I aways love hearing from my family especially because I used to be able to talk to all of you every day and now I feel like I hardly even know what you are doing! I love to hear what is going on in your days!

I have to get off for now but hopefully I'll have time to write you in the laundery room too, love you guys very much!

I am getting better! I am not totally better but I haven't been spending all day in bed since tuesday! Today I have pretty much only a cough left so I am almost over it! I did get the birthday packages! they are awesome! I love all of it! the canteen tie is way cool, I had never heard of one before! The umbrella will be awesome for Argentina! I got a ton of candy between the three packages! It is all very delicious! Please thank both grandparents for me and Thank you for your package! Thanks again, It was crazy because I got three packages all on the same day, haha it was awesome!

 

The first picture is of the sheets me and Elder Decker put up on our beds when I was sick all day

and so we made "man caves". We are lucky because with all the new elders coming in they have

been putting in a third bunkbed in each room except ours because it is slightly smaller than the rest,

so while we have only three missionaries in our room most everyone else had six :P

Spiders and Snakes Oh my!

Latrodectus (Very venomous) 

Argentina Boa

 

Dear Family,

So this week has been pretty crazy so far! We met with the Visa reps yesterday and we had to do fingerprints for our Visas. They are VERY strict! We had to make sure our full square fingerprint was on the paper, with no smudges and not touching the line. If that didn’t happen the visa would be rejected and you could get a permanent reassignment. Luckily the lady said mine were perfect. (Quick side note: The lady who took Cameron’s fingerprints used to live in our ward and we heard that he is doing well and seems like he is really enjoying himself.) Today we met with the consul and talked about Argentina. We were told not to talk about religion to him or our Visa would likely be denied. They made the consul sound like this old angry guy, but he wasn’t. He was very nice and we all asked him questions about the culture and areas.

We were told that our Visas would be two to three weeks minimum and have been commonly taking a month. We are hoping ours will get here in time because if we get sent to a temp assignment we have to stay until the next transfer which are every six weeks. We are hoping that even if we don’t go on our dates that they will keep us in the MTC for a week or two to see if our Visa comes.

I really hope that I get sent straight to Argentina but it will be just my luck that I will probably get a temp assignment and two weeks past transfer date our Visas will come and so we will have to wait another month to go to Argentina!

When we were talking to the consul he said that the tap water is good everywhere but Resistencia. He said that he would shower and brush his teeth but not drink the water. He also said that there are snakes and spiders in the North (Resistencia) area. He said that when we eat meals there it is polite to keep your hands on the table and rude not to.

I hope all is going well and to hear from you soon.

Love, Elder Pickle



Days feel like weeks... Especially when your sick :(

Don’t forget that this Friday, February 15th is Elder Pickle’s Birthday. I am hoping that everyone will take a minute on Thursday night or Friday morning to get on dearelder.com and write him a quick note wishing him Happy Birthday and giving him a few words of encouragement. If you have never used dearelder.com before just email me  (wendy@wendypickle.com) your message and I will take care of it for you. Thanks, let's fill up his mailbox on his birthday!

Hi! How are things going? I just got your dear Elder about Hallie taking the discussions and your young women's lesson. I haven't been sick this whole time until yesterday the day I got the letter :P Hopefully I will be able to get over it rather fast! I took some Ibuprofen and sudafedrine for it and the branch president said to go to the medical clinic where they told me to take exactly what I was taking, ha ha so hopefully that will be done soon! You should write more about what is going on at home, I miss you guys and don't know anything that is going on! It is my one chance to get a small taste of what happened!
Not too much has been happening here.. We met with the visa reps and consul like I told you. So we're really hoping that we will hear back from them in the two weeks so that we can leave by our expected date! I don't particularly want to get a temp assignment because then you have to stay until the next transfer date which is every six weeks. We have been learning a lot about Spanish such as commands, conditional tense, passive voice, and started learning about the subjunctive. The time here seems to be passing faster and faster. When we started out each day felt like a week but now they go by a lot faster, although they still feel like a week, ha ha While time does seem to be passing faster it also seems like I should have been here longer than I have. It feels like I have been here months. I really miss you guys and hope that all is going well! If you have any questions about stuff here, just ask because I don't know exactly what to write about and if I had a direction it would be a lot easier to write more.
We haven't got any new districts this week because they made a new zone that is the same kind as our zone, Spanish intermediate, and we lost one of our newest districts to that zone. We were all sad about that. I am getting really excited to go out to the field because here it seems like everyday is the same. Anything different in in the day is nice. I am excited to have an opportunity of having new experiences and not doing the same thing everyday, ha ha
Even though I am not a runner I have had to become accustomed to in here since we can't swim. I have been running an average of 3 miles a day. I would be able to do a lot better if my legs weren't so weak, ha ha I feel like I could run forever but my legs kill and that is what eventually makes me stop. I did learn just yesterday however some exercises that I can do to strengthen them from a runner. I think that will help and make me not so bad at running :P
Well I need to save some time to send some pictures so I'll wrap this up and write a letter for what ever else I think of! I love you guys so much and miss you everyday!

Breaking Grandpa's Rule "Don't marry a native woman"

Dear Family,
I am writing you all personal letters back but it might take some time because we don't have too much for writing especially when I am writing you all, ha ha but keep the letters coming, I love getting them!
As for the pictures of our room I had to take the top one (bunk) because I was the last one here but now I am on the bottom and the other Elder likes it so he might just stay up there.
I'm sorry I haven't had much time to write this week hopefully I'll get it done today!
Tell Emily good job on her backstroke! Also good job on her freestyle and if she would have gone barracuda style she would have broke the time but it's a good thing she didn't so she wouldn't hurt her other styles! that is awesome that there were a lot of people there to support the Barlow's, I wish I could have been there to see it!
Don't worry about me being cold it isn't bad, we aren't outside much and with my jacket its plenty warm! The story about Foster's extra styles was great! Ha ha.
We've been told that here at the MTC there are around 3000 missionaries (with a capacity around that) and this next Wednesday there will be 1000 more coming in! There are a lot of moving trucks full of bunk beds that are around, we are just wondering where the beds will go! We have also heard that they might take some of the BYU's dorms for the MTC and they are opening a new MTC in Mexico that can hold 2100 missionaries really soon.
Grandma said you guys had the luau dinner and I'm jealous, it sounds delicious! Also I'm leaking the info that if she were to send cookies tang would hit the spot!
Thanks for the package you sent it was great! It was fun to get that and I liked the card it was awesome!
It is awesome that you are getting to know some peoples families that are going to my mission it sounds cool! There might also be some people by the name of Sasser because there is a Hermana in my district who is also going to  Resistencia.
I'm really glad to hear that Sister Heyman is doing better and they are going back to the mission! They sound like awesome mission presidents and I would hate to not get them as my mission president.
I don't remember if I told you guys this story so I'll tell it now, ha ha. So when we met Hermano wood he told us about how he was engaged and so all the Hermanas demanded he tell the story. He told us how he went to Texas for his mission, Spanish speaking. When he left a member told him they wanted to set him up with their cousin who lives in Honduras! So he bought an international calling card and tried to call her when he got home. He wasn't able to get a hold of her so he forgot about it for a few months. Then his member family called him and said their cousin wants to talk to him. So he got another calling card and  tried again. This time it worked and they started calling each other often. Then since it was expensive to buy the international calling cards they decided to set up skype to talk. While they were in the process of getting their skype set up Hermano Wood asked if she would marry him over a text! They had only talked on the phone and facebook at this point. She said yes! They had never been to each others country or seen each other in person. Then when they had skype set up he proposed to her a second time over skype video. He then went down to visit her and her family for the first time this last December. There he proposed to her for a third time in person. Also apparently they started a restaurant down there as well, ha ha. So that was his story! Crazy, huh?
So I know of someone who is going to Argentina that is here and they have been here TWENTY THREE weeks! Luckily I have received amazing news that I (along with the others in my district going to Argentina) will be meeting with the Argentine Consul and Visa Reps for Argentina next week! Hopefully that means that I will head out on my expected date which is February 25th if I hadn't said so yet! Also I don't remember if I said my return date but it is December 30, 2014.

The Famous MTC Map

I really want to get out in the field and start teaching, days at the MTC feel like weeks but weeks feel like days.
I love you guys very much! I miss you all the time! Hopefully I'll be able to finish my individual letters to you guys during this week! love Elder Pickle.

A Week In The Life of Elder Pickle

Hey! I'm not the District Leader any more, I guess they didn't like me so they kicked me out early. Instead I am now a Zone Leader in training and will be a Zone Leader along with Elder Reynolds starting tomorrow. Elder Decker is now our District Leader.

 Elder Pickle's Companionship

 Elder Pickle"s District

Elder Pickle's Zone

The last two weeks have been pretty much the same thing. We have six hours of class every day with a teacher, we have around four hours of personal/language/companion/aditional study times where it is just our District in the classroom and we are studying based on the type of study it is and the lessons that are coming up for our investigators. We now have two new investigators Christian and Jonathan. Christian is Hermano Tidwell and Jonathan is Hermano Wood. It was kind of weird having Hermano Tidwell be a investigator for us since he was our teacher for the first week. With Hermano Wood it wasn't so wierd as it was sometimes hard to remember that we are now teaching him as Jonathan instead of Edgar.

When we taught Christian for the first time we thought that we had our best lession yet, but when we got out of it Hermano Painter (who we had come as an investigator) told us that if Christian was a real investigator he would have dropped us. Because of this we had to start over with Christian and taught him again yesterday. We did much better and we really connected with him and we were able to get through pretty much the whole first lesson and he agreed to read the first chapter of the Book of Mormon and pray about it! We also taught Jonathan and it went pretty good. We were able to cover half the first lesson and he agreed to read the first chapter of the Book of Mormon.

We have been learning about the past, past participles, preterite, imperfect, conditional, and other such Spanish principles and refining those. I have started writing a letter in Spanish to you guys that I will probably finish during some language study and you can have Paul or Bryan read it to you.

In our standard week here we have normal days on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. On Tuesdays we do service in the morning which usually entails cleaning something in the building. The first week we cleaned the toilets.. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. We would spray them down with acid and then scrub them with a long brush and throw a bucket of water on them to rinse them off. This last week we cleaned the sinks which was the same proccess for cleaning them but it wasn't the nasty toilets. When we were cleaning the toilets one of them was all clogged and nasty and the custodial guy had to go grab his plunger and unplug it. Elder Decker was the unfortunate soul who had to clean that toilet :P We also have a Devotional usually from a general authority that night! On Wednesdays all the new missionaries come in from 12:30 - 2:30 so that night we meet the new districts in our Zone which is growing to be huge and then since Elder Reynolds and I are now Zone Leaders we give them an introduction to the MTC and introduce ourselves and they Introduces themselves then we talk about a few of the rules. On Thursday nights we also give the new Districts a tour of the MTC and talk about a few more rules. On Fridays we have Pday! We start the day by going to the temple at 6:30 in the morning and since we are there during breakfast we buy it there or we don't get to eat so that was what I bought today, haha Then we have some personal time to write emails and letters and do laundry. Then we have only three hours of class that night. Sundays we have Priesthood, Sacrement, Temple walk, and a devotional that night! The devotionals are always great here! They are one of my favorite parts of the MTC. I was sad that the day right before I got here Elder Holland came and spoke but I didn't get a chance to see him! We have heard from people such as Brother Evans  who was over the missionaries, Brother Clayton who is in the seventy and some others whose name I cannot think of right this moment.

We spend pretty much our whole day in the classroom. We do get some gym time that me and Elder Decker have been running during. I am not a runner, my legs get sore well before I am ever tired of running. We started running and we ran two miles two days ago and two and a half yesterday. Tomorrow we are planning on running three and keep going up a half mile until we get to six.

Well I have to cut this letter here but I will be sending pictures in a bit and I will write more letters! Hope to hear from you soon!