Dear Mom, Dad, Ricky and Michelle
I know that all is well at home, but I want you to know that the Lord is in all things. So don't worry about the dark future.
Daddy asked that I would share a little about how MTC life is. So I thought I'd do that while I'm trying to think of other things to say.
I wake up at six in the morning, which I think my body is finally getting used to, and get ready for the day ahead. Up until last night, I've been waking up probably around two to six times a night. Last night, however, I slept all night. We have breakfast at seven, lunch at eleven-thirty and dinner at four-thirty. Then we get home between nine and nine-thirty. We get ready for bed and have lights out at ten-thirty. That's about everything that is the same from day to day.
On Friday mornings, once we get to the classroom at seven-thirty, we spend an hour planning our next week. We have a big calendar that we plan out every minute of every day. A few of the things that we can schedule are personal study (a time where we can study the scriptures on our own), companionship study (we discuss what we studied in personal study and/or prepare the lessons we're going to teach that day, scripture study (where the teacher chooses a question or comment that they heard commonly on their mission and we try to find a scriptural answer for it; this past week we did, "Why do I need to go to church to be saved?" and "God died during the war," meaning tthat a god wouldn't allow something that bad to happen, grammar studies, language study (where you get to study the language on your own), MDT (missionary decided time- get to choose to do something alone or with your companions; Elder Horvath wants to use some every week to play piano), TE (we get to to to a teacher that we sign up for in advance to either practice teaching or try to learn a certain concept or principle), and RC (referral center- a place where you go to take phone calls from people who call in to get free resources from the church, where people's chats from http://www.mormon.org/ go, and where calls are made to people to see if they got the item that they requested.
I think that the RC is my favorite place right now because it is the most like real mission work. This last week, we had an hour and a half. Starsi Jones and I had only done calls to see if people got their items before this and we decided to try chats. Starsi Horvath doesn't feel comfortable with his English enough to try it yet, but I think he'll try this coming week. Anyway, Starsi Jones and I both got about eleven or twelve chats in that time period and about four for each of us actually had interest in the church and its beliefs, or had concerns that they wanted help with.
Two women that I received in chat really stand out in my mind right now. One was a very nice woman named Edna who had a question about where we're going after this life. We talked for a long time about the Plan of Salvation and the Book of Mormon. She was confused about the Book of Mormon but was receptive and I think she finally saw it as a complement to the Bible.
The other woman, whose name I did not get, opened a message with me and I started the conversation. However, I did not get an answer back. At the two-minute marker, I asked my teacher if I should hang up. He told me to say, "hello?" or something. So I did and waited for a moment longer. After three and a half minutes of waiting after she had initiated the conversation, I received a block of text instead of a "hello." It basically outlined that she's married and has two kids, if I remember are two boys of the ages of twenty and twenty-two, and that she loves her family. It then changed tones and talked about how she recently found a friend of hers from back in high school on Facebook, and then the last line that I can't forget, "I don't want to cheat on my family."
At that moment, I realized that I was talking to real people with real problems, but I was also thinking, "I'm not qualified to answer this plea for help." Then the Lord opened my mind and my heard and told me that I am to go and speak to all people despite their backgrounds. I then knew that I had to help this woman in the way I could: through the gospel. I told her that she should read "A Proclamation to the World," after I sent her the link on http://www.mormon.org/. Then I continued to tell her that she knows what to do, but that she should ask the Lord for what to say. She begged for me to pray for her, and that night I did, and I got the overwhelming feeling that I had helped this woman and that she had done the right thing.
The RC is an amazing place, but when I get to the field it's going to be even more real, wonderful and fantastic. I can't even begin to imagine the wonderful work in which I am enlisted.
Vím, že Bůh žije. Vím, že Ježíš Kristus miluje my. Já vím, skrze Ježíše Krista, moje rodina může být spolu navždy. Vím, že Joseph Smith je prorok znovuzrizeni. A vím, že Ježíš Kristus je náš Spasitel.
That roughly comes out to: I know that God lives. I know Jesus Christ loves us. I know that through Jesus Christ my family can be together forever. I know Joseph Smith is the prophet of the restoration. And I know Jesus Christ is our Savior.
I love you all so much and my love for you has only grown exponentially since I've been here.
I pray for you all and love each one of you,
Starsi Monk
PS- my companions' names are Kevin Jones and Janos Horvath. Pronounced like "Yawn-oh-sh Hoar-vah-t."
PSS- I know that Starsi Horvath loves getting mail just as much as Starsi Jones and me. He even loved the one from you, Dad. He got it and said, "My first one!" very excitedly. His family members are not members of the church with the exception of his little brother who is sixteen. The rest of his family are atheist. I encourage any of you to write to him. I know he'll love it and it'll give him that little boost of spirit.