The MTC is CrAzy!

Everyone!!!!

Hi! I love you so much!

The MTC is crazy! There are missionaries everywhere going all over the world! Different languages are being taught all around me. People always ask you if they can practice teaching on you. It's nuts. My companion's name is Elder Maughan. We share a room with 2 other missionaries who are also going to the Atlanta North Mission! The rest of the guys in our district are going to Washington D.C. north.

My zone is pretty cool, we all get along well. A zone is about 30 missionaries and that is our church branch also. Every minute of the day they have planned out for us. We have personal study at 7, breakfast at 815, companion study, class, MDT (missionary directed time, we can either read, or learn the lessons, or practice on people) zone activities and lots of other crazy stuff. It's much harder than I thought it would be. The first 3 days are very stressful, emotionally and physically.

One thing that I have learned while out here though is that I am needed in the mission field. There are people out there who I can help and I have an obligation to them and to God to learn everything that I can here so that I can be the best missionary that I can be. Our zone motto is "do your best and the Lord will do the rest"!

One thing that superrrrr surprised me is what they focus on here at the MTC. We are taught daily to "teach the person, not the lesson". We have pretty much only studied how to get to know people, show your love for them, because "no one cares how much you know about the gospel until they know how much you care about them." I have learned a lot here and I am sure that I will learn tons more. I have had about 3 mock preaching experiences and expect to have about 50 more before I leave.

There are SO MANY KIDS THAT I KNOW HERE. Haha. I see kids from BYU and home all the time. It really makes it easier. Ben Layton's group has meals the same time as me, and another kid from BYU lives right down the hall from me. They all give me advice about this place. Work hard. Stay busy. Use your free time wisely.

Well. Here's a little lecture for you. I can only get email on my P-day, which is Monday, so use dearelder.com to write me! I'm the only kid who hasn't got mail from his family yet! We get mail daily. I love you all very much and have seriously realized that my family is the only thing that I really care about now that I am in here.

Please feel free to dearelder me daily (it's free) and send a box of homemade cookies or whatnot. Also send pictures, I will send some to you too :)

I only get half an hour of email time so I will write you more over the post!

Love you lots and miss you lots!

Elder Caplin