1st Email....

Wednesday, October 16, 2019 - Day 1

Hey everyone, this is Elder Dodd. After months of preparation, I finally made it to the MTC and now sending out my first email! The campus is amazing and i'm already learning so much and I already have so much I want to talk about so bare with me. When I first got to the MTC, I was greeted by a missionary host who took my luggage and guided me through crowds of missionaries waiting to cheer my arrival. He brought me to the welcome hall where he told me that he would meet me on the other side. This is where I received my missionary badges, missionary ID (see photo 2), residence key, and first day schedule. I met the host at the exit and proceeded walking to my residence where I will be staying for the next 6 weeks.

We get the entrance of the residence building and he showed me how to use my missionary ID. So they use them to open doors and purchase items at the missionary store. We got in and dropped my luggage into the room and sent me on my way to my first class of the day. The buildings are separated into three sections of the campus: Service (S), Residence (R), and Teaching (T). So my first class was in T3. It was so exciting, walking towards the modern building. The architecture is beautiful, unfortunately, I don't have any pictures at this time except for one (See photo 1) but I'll make sure to get more before I leave. Before I got to class, me and some other new missionaries stopped and picked up a MTC smart phone (Galaxy J3) which I will get into later. I got to class and I met my companions, Elder Reynolds (on the right in photo 1) and Elder Higgins (to the left in photo 1). They are amazing people and I'm thankful that they are my companions.

I met my wonderful teachers, Sister Christensen and Brother Hulick and we went over a few things about the MTC. Unfortunately, my smart phone wasn't reset properly and I couldn't set things up. So after about an hour or so, we and my companions went to S1 (which is the main building) to meet the MTC president. Afterwards, I took my phone to the IT information desk to get it replaced, then we went to dinner. Which by the way, their food is actually really good, we had country fried beef with mashed potatoes and corn. I also checked the cereal wall (I couldn't take a photo since taking pictures in the cafeteria is not allowed) and all I could say. It was pretty disappointing. Our next class involved the introduction of teaching investigators. We met Samuel, Dwain, and Daniel. Everyone was sharing the gospel and it was so spiritual, me and my companions gave out our first Book of Mormon.

Some funny things that have happened, whenever we would walk out, every Elder and Sister would greet us with "Welcome to the MTC". It was pretty funny after a while, also people kept pronouncing my last name wrong. Either they would say something like Elder Dood or Elder Dodo. All I could do was laugh and correct them. So it's a ton of information and a great introduction to my journey. Honestly it was an amazing first day. Sorry I wasn't able to call home, my schedule didn't allow it. Thank you everyone for the love and support and I miss you all.

Thursday, October 17, 2019 - Day 2

Kumusta po kayo!

Our district wanted to get up at 6:00 AM so we could take a shower. I slept fine, the bunk beds are nothing to write home about. I'm just glad that my feet don't dangle off and I get a bunk to myself. Me and the district went and got breakfast (breakfast burrito and blueberry pancake batter sausage sticks). For only being two days, I have already improved my Tagalog ten fold (see video). Sorry, not sure why I was so nervous haha. I'm meeting a lot of great people and love speaking the language.

It is actually a lot more difficult to journalize and write out this letter than I thought. Trying to put together thoughts, experiences and emotions onto paper proves challenging but I'm trying my best. Me and my companions had some free time so we made our way to the missionary store to pick up some items which has a prepaid amount of $10, so that's awesome. Bought some Twizzlers and Cheese Ritz. Some of these items happened to be 5 books for Tagalog, it's absolutely insane but im thankful for the information they provide. At around 6:00 PM, we headed over to the T4 building where we talked to our branch president and got to know him as well as he got to know us. It went on for about 3 hours but it was fun.

I found out that I visit the temple every P-Day which happens to be Friday so i'm very excited for that. According to the missionary handbook, i'm not allowed to bring my temple clothing so I might ship it home before I leave for the Philippines. Unfortunately, as I'm writing this, I won't be able to call home this week but plan on hearing me next Friday. Thank you for reading and enjoy the photos and the video. Remember that God loves all of you and I'll see you next time.