Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them;
and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain,
and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks. Jeremiah 16:16

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Nathan: The MTC: a Mixture of Scout Camp, EFY, College, and Prison

Dear family and friends!!

I’ve been here for one week so far in the Provo MTC. I have weird feelings about this place.  It’s a mixture of a boy scout camp/prison/efy/ and college, so it is pretty great! My companion is Elder King. He is from Maryland! He is a great guy, however I’m trying my best to not get annoyed by him sometimes, but the lord requires us to all love all men and I’m stuck with him for nine weeks soo. Anywho the branch president made me the district leader so that’s a sorta stressful calling. I don’t know why they would chose me the first day to be the district leader only after one interview, but if the Lord called me then I guess I need to do it to my best ability! The elders in my district and zone are great guys! There aren’t really any weird elders in my zone, so that's great! The food here is okay, I guess, again a mixture of prison and boy scout camp food. Yum!!!

The Russian is terrifying me! However, each day I’m picking up more and more. I wouldn't be able to learn Russian in I couldn't feel the spirit or if this church wasn't true! We already got our first investigator. His name is Oleg and he is from Ukraine. All the discussions are all in Russian. The second day I had to meet with him already. It was a weird experience!!  My companion is fairly decent already with the language and can speak it decently, however he doesn't understand a single thing that is going on. However then there is me. I can only say "hello" and "Thanks" and I went in calm and relied on the spirit, and I understood mostly the entire discussion where my companion was going from topic to topic with out communication with Oleg, which I thought that was interesting. I might not have the gift of tongues where I can speak it but I think I might have the gift of tongues in sense of understanding the language.  Our teacher Sister Hyde is a great teacher. She is a BYU student who went to Saratov Russia for her mission. No English is allowed during class. If you need to speak in English you must ask for permission. Wednesdays are my prep-days in the MTC. The rest of the days I have nine hours of studying Russian.  It is exhausting!!!! For gym time the Elders in my Zone or the missionaries going to Russia are the only ones who are crazy enough to play sand volleyball and yes I am a crazy Russian as well.

Well my first thought as I got here was the same reaction when a little kid meets their favorite super hero or a preteen girl meeting Justin or One Direction! So, pretty excited!!!! Well everyone, thanks for your support and love and for being there for me. Love you all and wish you all a happy Thanksgiving!!!! I'll email you all next week!!!

Love Elder Nathan VanBuskirk



MOM!!!! Thank you so much for the package it was awesome!!!! However, I would like an actual YO-YO next time hahaha. But thanks and the buns were delicious!!!  Well, I would say that I’m missing you but I am far too busy to be missing you. That’s a good thing!!! Tell every one of my friends that I am praying for them. I went to the temple today. We did initiatories so that was excellent! My companion is trying to follow the rules precisely but he goes too far. He is focusing on more of the letter of the law then the spirit of the law, so that kinda bugs me. Oh send me more of those glowing balls!!!!! They are awesome!!!!! I don’t know how to add photos yet so next week I will do that for sure!! Sorry. Well tell everyone I love them and that I’m praying for them. Happy Thanksgiving.  Thanks for teaching me all that I know. I’ll text you next week.
 Love, Elder VanBuskirk forever!!  



No comments:

Post a Comment