There was a lot that happened this week. I will talk about the various events that I have taken note of throughout the week. So first, I have gotten really good at taking other Elder's name tags and swapping them with my own...even when they are still wearing the tag on them. I took Elder Wilde's tag one time when he left the room and left his badge on his jacket. I simply swapped it and that was it. He didn't know for about an hour. The funny thing is this: when our teachers were saying bye to us, one of my teachers looked at my name tag and called me Elder Wilde. She kept saying bye to all the others like nothing happened. My own teacher forgot my name! Hahaha! Another time, I was sitting next to him at a devotional. This is when we have a speaker come and speak to everyone at the MTC. I was able to snatch his tag from his breast pocket while he was talking to his companion. I grabbed mine and started to slide mine onto his pocket. He caught me in the act, but he thought I was in the middle of taking his tag. So, naturally, he pushes "his" tag back onto him. Success! He didn't even know how much he helped me out. It again took some time for him to realize what had happened. He was so confused. My last successful act was with my own companion. I took his name tag while we were talking to someone across the hall. He knew what I did but he didn't make a big deal of it. Darn. So I put "his" tag back on him. He thought that it was back to normal. I proceeded to place Elder Bank's tag on me while he was preoccupied. It was great!
We also received our flight plans to Germany on 11/21! I am so excited! I fly from SLC to Chicago, then from there I fly straight to Deutschland. I am so stoked!!
One day was very eventful. This all happened on the 22nd. So first, we were sitting at lunch and there were some Tater Tots that were served with our meal. This one Elder in our zone, Elder Oldroyd, comes up with a "genius" idea. He said that he would make Tater Tot cereal. He had a bowl of fry sauce and put a handful of tots in. He then proceeded to eat it with a spoon. Nasty.
Afterwards, we went to class. Our teacher started out the day with a joke. He said (in German of course), "What is the best thing about Frankfurt? The train to Berlin." It was stupid, but for whatever reason it made us all laugh. Everyone, but one person in our classroom, is going to Frankfurt.
Once we retired to our rooms for the night, two Elders were teasing another Elder about the way he did crunches. The one doing the crunches was Elder Gurlock. He proceeded to show them his abs as proof of the results from his crunches. All of the teasing going on wasn't serious of course. Elder Clemins proceeds to show back his nothingness under his shirt. They decide to punch each other in the gut for fun to see if they could take it. They both could. The same Elder Oldroyd from before then comes by and says, "Hey, slap me as hard as you can right here Elder Gurlock." He pulled up his shirt and pointed to the left side of his stomach. Gurlock didn't argue against it and straight up slapped him. It was so loud it made my ears ring! Afterwards, there was a huge hand marks with prints in it from the bones of Gurlock's hands. There was also a line in the middle of the hand print and it was bleeding a little. Holy crap! An awesome 5-Star slap!
I also noticed that something wasn't right when I looked at one of our Elders. I spoke with him for a bit about what was going on. Long story short, he apparently was suffering from severe depression. He got sent home on the 25th. Hopefully he can come back in the future!
Yesterday, I was drinking a mountain dew and was doing some pretty gnarly burps. Elder Wilde told me that when you yell something while you burp, it is your battle cry. We both tried that out and it was the funniest.
That night, we had a devotional. It was by one of the apostles. It was Elder Dalin H. Oaks. It was awesome!! Some cool insights that stood out to me was this-
We are here to do something, for someone, that cannot do it themselves. We are motivated by the pure love of Christ and we serve with all of our heart, might, mind and strength. All four of those points are equally important. This life is also about what we can become when we lose ourselves in the service of others. He used an analogy of a pen and a missionary. When someone uses a pen, they write what they want to write, not what the pen wants to write. The pen doesn't say, "It is my P-Day (Preparation Day) so I am going to take a break from writing." A pen must also be filled with ink or else it is of no use to the writer. Elder Oaks also spoke about why our church is so different from all the other churches. There are three reasons. 1. It has the fullness of the doctrine of Christ. 2. We have the power of the Priesthood. 3. We have a unique testimony of God, Christ and the Holy Ghost. One example is the fact that we know that they are three distinct beings in identity, but one in purpose. We know about our relationship to God. Lastly, he testified that Jesus is our support for our trials of mortality. With him, I know that our hard times will be made a little bit more easy.
I also learned some cool insights this week as well. It takes courage to be a chicken. It takes courage to just walk away instead of starting a fight. That might be a little tough for me because, if someone is going to mug me, I am not going to just allow it to happen. I am going to give him a piece of my mind....and my fist. I also learned that I should go out of my way to talk with others. I might just help them out. I might even make a new friend.
The next time you will hear from me is next week when I am on German soil!
Aufwiedersehen!
Elder Grow
My Companion and I
Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders
Kayl's District
My Companion with the Branch President
