MTC Week Two!

Dear Family,

Well, here comes and goes yet another week. I cannot believe how fast everything is going by. There's a saying going on around here that says, "Days feel like weeks and weeks feel like days." Sounds stupid, but we have seen that this is true. You get to the end of the day and feel like it sped by, and then you think back to the first thing that you did that day, and you can't believe that it was in the same day because you had done so much.

Already, I can see that the RC (referral center) is one of my favorite places. There I can talk to real people who are trying to find the gospel and answer their questions. This is not to put down my teachers when I have to teach them. They often pretend to be investigators and we have to teach them. It's all good and fun. At the RC, I've found that doing the chats are extremely fun. When people go to mormon.org, they can click the button that says, "click here to speak to a representative." When they click that button, it sends them straight to a missionary who is logged onto the RC client and there they can chat with the person. I have found many people that are trying to find out what we believe, trying to find out answers to questions that they are having, or even some people that turn to us for counsel! Yes, I, of all people, had to try and give advice to people about things as important as what they should do about getting a job when they get laid off. Yeah, that's been interesting. The way that we go about that is trying to turn it toward the gospel and how that can bless their lives and through those blessings, all things will be all right.

Another thing that I have come to love here at the MTC is the thought of me not having to be somewhere else. Unless it's class after lunch. One of our teachers is a real stickler for being on time and has instituted the "Snickers rule." The Snickers rule says that if you are late, you owe the teacher a Snickers bar. However, it's true for the flipside, too. If our teacher is late, he owes each one of us a Snickers bar. One day we ran into class and we only had four or five seconds to spare before we were late but our teacher wasn't there! About twenty or thirty seconds later, our teacher came running in. He said that he was on time because his watch still said it was 12:14. Pah... oh well. Almost had him.

Oh, wow! Snickers tangent. I like having the thought of not needing to be somewhere else. I know that I can relax and just study everything in depth as much as I'd like. I've found things about the scriptures that I had never known before. I've continued to read "Jesus the Christ" and have found very awesome things about the Jesus Christ that I have never even thought about before. Like: who were the pharisees and the scribes? Where did they come from? There's no talk about there needing to be scribes and pharisees in the Bible. It gives a wonderful background on where these class groups within the Jewish culture at that time came from.

One of our teachers, Brother Bott (yes he teaches at BYU), gave us some very helpful advice about memorizing scriptures. He said that whenever you study the scriptures, remember where they are because chances are, that day you will have someone ask you a question that you can answer specifically with those scriptures. He's accumulated so many scriptures, it's hard to comprehend. He'll give a lecture, and in the middle like coming from his own words, he'll blurt out a scripture and then tell you exactly where it is in the scriptures. Sometimes he'll even use quotes from books that the modern-day prophets wrote. He has such a vast knowledge of the scriptures and modern writings of the prophets that it's hard to keep up with him, even when he's telling you where they are. He is definitely a person that I want to be like, so I've been taking his advice seriously, and I've already had the scriptures I've studied put to use.

The other day we had pizza day in the cafeteria, and I wish that they'd never do it again and spare all the poor new missionaries from this horrible experience. The pizza was actually pretty good, but the lines were monstrous. I came to dinner at the usual time and it took me nearly thirty minutes to get through line. This left me with ten minutes to eat and get to class. As you could imagine, we were late for class, and now we owe our teacher Snickers bars. The lines in the cafeteria aren't really ever that bad except for on pizza day because they have each missionary pull off their own pieces of pizza from the box, which doesn't have them completely cut. So each missionary has to rip the two or three pieces that they want from the box. Not a fun experience.

The spirit here at the MTC is nothing short of amazing. You can feel it everywhere and can feel it in everything that you do. The language is coming along very quickly and we can already introduce ourselves, introduce our family, bare a very simple testimony, pray, and contact people. Also, in my scripture study, I'm seeing things that I don't think that I would have ever seen. It takes me about five to eight minutes to read a page of scripture, but that's because I'm reading into each verse and marking them as much/neatly as possible. I have probably marked my scriptures twenty or thirty times as much this last week than I have in my life. It's truly mind boggling. I'm also a little bit glad that I haven't marked my scriptures up before, because I have a marking system that goes completely against the "mark everything red!" method. I bought one of those mechanical scripture marking pencils that has eight different colors. It was expensive, but I'm making it worth it.

I thank all of you who have been writing me and I ask that you continue. I've found that when I get letters from home, I know what's going on and that gives me peace of mind so that I don't have to worry about what is happening. That way I can concentrate during the day instead of daydreaming about what could be happening at home. However, please don't send your emails to my email that is posted on this blog (monka90@myldsmail.net) because I can only access it for thirty minutes once a week. That's barely enough time for me to write this monster of a letter! So, if you'd mind, please send me DearElders. They're completely free and they deliver it to my mailbox the same day. The URL for it is: www.dearelder.com. I love to hear from all of you, and I will write you back if you write me. It's a promise.

I love you all very much and pray for your well-being,
Starsi Monk

First Week at the MTC

Dear Family,

All I can say for this first week at the MTC is that these next two years are going to be extremely rewarding. That is if everything continues to go the way that they are right now.

As for my mission group, there are only three of us, including myself. There is Starsi (Elder, pronounced Star She) Jones who is, I think, twenty one or twenty two years old. He had gone inactive a few years back and went to the University of Oregon. Then this last year, he decided to go to BYU Idaho to see a girl and later decided to take a semester there. He eventually became active again and decided to serve a mission. Then there is Starsi Horvath (Hor Vat) who is from Hungary. He's only been a member of the church for three years and has decided to go on a mission. He is very good at the piano, however, he can't read music quickly. He is more into improv in the baroque style of mainly Bach. He has a very strong testimony through music that he loves to share. Very occasionally he will ask if we can go to the piano for just a few minutes to play the piano, but we have to tell him that we are on a very tight schedule and can't spend the time to do so.

Starsi Jones, even though he was inactive, has a very strong testimony and knowledge of the gospel. I know that he is really going to help our companionship with his knowledge. Starsi Horvath has so much that he wants to tell everyone that sometimes it comes out sounding very disorganized. This especially comes out whenever we're "teaching investigators" who are really our teachers. He gets so excited that he has a hard time focusing on what there is to say. We are all one companionship, but I think that Starsi Horvath has a little bit of a hard time keeping that in his mind. Sometimes Starsi Jones and I will turn around to find that Starsi Horvath has disappeared. We'll search for a little while and then find that he either went to go to the bathroom, get a drink of water, or probably his favorite activity: talking to the Hungarian missionaries. Here at the MTC are a few return missionaries from Hungary who taught Starsi Horvath. He takes every opportunity to harrass them by speaking in Hungarian.

The food here at the MTC is exactly like the food at the Cannon Center on BYU Provo campus, so there's not really much to complain about. I haven't really been eating as much as I used to. It just seems like I'm getting fuller faster. I'll usually eat about one plate and perhaps a salad and then I'm done, so you don't have to worry about me coming back forty pounds heavier -- if I continue to eat this way.

The schedule here at the MTC is just like a bat to the face compared to my schedule before coming here, although I do like having every minute of my day planned out before hand, because then I don't have to think, "what shall I do next?" There is lots of language study, which is AWESOME. And dad, no... my pre-MTC language study did not help any. Maybe with the exception with the ch, j, and c. The rest of the pronunciation was basically new. They taught us a grammatically correct phrase here at the MTC that is comprised of only consonants. The sentance is: Strc (stirch) Prst (pirst) Skrz (skirs) Krk (kirk). However, in pronouncing each one, the "ir" is very short and the "r"s are very rolled. The translation of this is "Stick Finger Through Neck." It's a fun little thing to say when you want to show off to some of the Spanish speakers.

Yesterday, we went out into the hallway one at a time and tried holding a five minute conversation with an "investigator," and I have to say, I failed miserably. Basically the conversation was, "Dobry Den" (good day), "Jak se jmenuete" (what is your name), "odkud jste?" (where are you from?), "jsem/jsme misionar/misionari Jezisi Kristu" (I am a missionary/we are missionaries of Jesus Christ), and then that's where I bombed. I didn't know how to ask anything like, "what do you think of Jesus Christ?" or "would you like to know more?" Anyway, our teacher took us back into the classroom and taught us those simple phrases that would potentially help us transition from introduction to getting a contact.

I've seen quite a few Elders here from school, a few of whom are in the photos I have attached. In the photos, Starsi Horvath is the one with the glasses and Starsi Jones is the one without. And if you don't know which one is me, we'll have a long talk after I get back in two years.

Nevermind. There may be no pictures because I only have three and a half more minutes and I can't get these computers to recognize my camera with all the restrictions they put on them. So you'll have to wait until I send a full card of pictures home and my parents upload them.

I just want to say in closing that I have been having the time of my life here. It is a very spiritual place and you can always feel the Spirit in all the things you do. I highly suggest that you read "Jesus the Christ" if you haven't before. I hadn't and I'm only three chapters in and it's amazing to see the Spirit it's imparted to me.

I love you all and am looking forward to hearing from you,
Starsi Monk

Andy's Departure Pictures

Getting ready to go to the airport (Oct 10, 2009)

"The Last ... Breakfast?" (Oct 10, 2009)

Goodbye to Mom (Oct 10, 2009)

Goodbye to Dad (Oct 10, 2009)

On his way... (Oct 10, 2009)

Michelle called from school to say one last goodbye.
(Oct 14, 2009)

"What have I gotten myself into?" (Oct 14, 2009)

Michelle and Andy in Connecticut (Oct 10, 2009)

Andy and Ricky at MTC (Oct 14, 2009)

Suzie and Andy at MTC (Oct 14, 2009)

Ricky, Andy and Michelle in Connecticut. (Oct 10, 2009)

"The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly..."
and Grandma in Connecticut (August 2009)

MTC Address

For anyone who wants to send mail to Andy (oops, I mean Elder Monk) while he's at the MTC, his address is:

Andrew Michael Monk
MTC Mailbox # 88
CZE-PRA 1214
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

He can also get email (printed, sealed in an envelope and delivered to his mail box) through www.dearelder.com.

October 9, 2009

Dear Family,

The time is drawing near and I finally feel that the mission is real. It was the same way when we moved from Texas to Connecticut, but I feel a little more worried about this one: I can actually screw up my mission. Despite these feelings, the local missionaries came to visit me at work, because I had been telling them that I'd like to see them before I leave and they happened to come while I was at work. They said that I am more prepared right now than they were when they left because I am actually in contact with my missionaries! They said that neither of them, Elder Fattelah and Elder Vuyk, hadn't really spoken to their local missionaries, much less knew them well. They pointed out that I had been out with the missionaries on multiple occasions on splits and teaching investigators, one of whom has gotten baptized. I am very proud of Nigel. I hope that I am able to be as good as the missionaries in this area and bring other people unto Christ.

This is the last night I'm going to be spending here in Connecticut, and it turns out to be just a normal day. It just goes to show me that life goes on and will continue to go on even after I leave on this exciting time in my life. I know that I'm going to have an awesome time. I just hope that everyone else will be as happy as I will be these next few years.

Love you all,
Soon to be Elder Monk