Friday, June 24, 2016

Officially On a Mission

Well I am officially on a mission now, and am currently about half way finished with my MTC experience.  A lot has occurred over the past week and a half, so I will do my best with what I can remember of what has happened!

After the missionary drop off, the MTC guides rushed us all over the campus showing us where we would live and where are classroom was, along with several orientations.  I met my first companion, named Elder Kellerstrass who is from Hooper, Utah and is fairly similar to myself.  We get along and when we teach our "investigators" we can usually teach with a powerful spirit and come out feeling great with how our lessons have went.

The following days included a lot of class times where the teachers hammered down that we are teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ which is also the missionary purpose.  Following class, the teachers will have us do a role play with them as companionships.  At the end of the day we then have our TRC investigators who include a nice, excitable person named James and another from Peru named Braulio who comes from a Catholic background.  It has been fun to come to know and understand them, and it feels like we are doing good for them whether they really are members or are not.

Beyond the classroom we have visited the temple once, seen 730 new missionaries and over a hundred new mission presidents come to the MTC, and have been taught by one of the seventy in a devotional the previous Tuesday.  The devotional was centered around how to be a successful missionary, and was fairly powerful.  Beyond those things, we also saw a great talk from Elder Bednar about the Character of Christ that really layed out what we need to be as missionaries and in regular life to become more perfect.

There is still a lot to talk about, but until then I would like to say that I love what I am learning about the Gospel here and I am really anxious to leave the MTC and get back out into the world again.

Thanks for reading,

Elder Baxter

Carlton and his companion

The name tag

Room at the MTC

At the MTC

At the Provo Temple

Going to the temple

At the Provo temple

Studying

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Called to Serve

On June 15th 2016 Carlton entered the Provo MTC to start his mission.  

Elder Carlton

Saying goodbye