Elder Mason Moon: Final Countdown

Only a few more days until Riverside! When I look back, I’ve had a very fortunate MTC experience: grew my testimony a LOT, learned a lot of Spanish from some great teachers, feel a lot more comfortable teaching, adjusted more to missionary life, made some great friends, had the opportunity to go to the temple 6 times, witnessed an Apostle of the Lord speak on Thanksgiving, etc.

This last week has been a little different. A lot less class time with our teachers because we have been doing In Field orientation. It’s for all the missionaries who are departing the following week, so we were just paired up with random districts and all the presentations were in English. We had lessons on goals, planning, doctrine of Christ, working with members, and finding.

An exciting part of the week was when we hosted newly arrived missionaries! The MTC has a really efficient way of receiving missionaries on the first day and getting them started quick. The new missionaries say goodbye to their families in the parking garage beneath the MTC, and then we take them up onto campus and get them all of their keys, name tags, badges, etc. Then, help them find their residence, drop their stuff off in their room, and then take them to find their class, so they can start learning. After this, we as hosts, just go back to the parking garage to help the next missionary. We didn’t have that many missionaries this week, so it was a really quick process. I just made sure to get my missionaries excited and hyped for the MTC! I’ve seen both of them again and they said they loved their first day and the MTC so far, which is sweet!

I have also continued the tradition of injuries among Moons playing MTC basketball. Just a finger jam that had my finger swollen for a few days, so not bad. That experience kind of made me miss all the random injuries I would get in lacrosse haha.

A scripture that our teacher shared with us this week that I really loved is 1 Nephi 21:16. The Lord has literally engraved us on the palms of his hands and is right beside us willing to help us when we have challenges. To be free from sorrow is to recognize the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for all of us and to have faith that you can be healed through His Atonement.

I hope everyone is able to spend some quality time with loved ones for the Holidays! Next Monday when I write, it will be a warm and sunny California Christmas day.

Feliz Navidad!

Elder Moon

Pictures
#1 district pic celebrating a week with some cookies (S/O to Aubrey Turner for the cookies)