MTC Pictures

Elder Andrew Monk, Elder Kevin Jones
and Elder Janos Horvath at the MTC

Elder Andrew Monk at the MTC

Elder Horvath and Elder Jones

Elder Kevin J. Jones

Elder Janos Horvath

Provo Temple spire and Squaw Peak

What week is this?

Dear Family,

This week has flown by quicker than any of the others have and it's spinning my head like crazy. I looked at Starsi Jones yesterday night and said something that I should have realized sooner: "Ya know, this mission is going to be amazing." The reason that I said that was because at the RC yesterday (which is our scheduled time) I had an amazing experience. I only had two interactions in the entire hour and a half that I was there, but they were both amazing.

The first that I want to tell you about was a man who called in and said he wanted to have one of our free books. I looked at the computer screen and saw that he was talking about the Book of Mormon. He seemed to be in a hurry so I took his information as he pushed it onto me, but something strange was in his voice. It seemed that he wanted to know more, and there was a sincerety to it. So I took all of his information, but I wished that there was more that I could do. I knew of course, that I couldn't because of the situation he was in. He really was in a hurry and he even told me that a few times. So, I took it and had his book sent. I know that this book is going to change his life, just like the millions of other people who have read it with a humble heart trying to know the truth of God.

Then the other interaction was a man who chatted in. I don't remember his name, but I remember calling him Brother Bond. He was very friendly I was very willing to try and help him along. He asked me how he could get in contact with some missionaries in his area, so I was imediately stirred with curiosity as to why he wanted to meet with them. I asked about and found out that he was an inactive member and hadn't been to church in about eight years. He had gotten mixed up in alcohol and tobacco and had been an addict (to what, I don't know). He told me about how he wanted to clean up his life, how he wanted to come back to church, how he wanted to have a spouse that wouldn't cheat on him. The biggest one that hit me was that he said he wanted to come back to church and feel the same way he did when he was growing up. It seemed to me that he wanted to be happy, and I know that the only way that he could be happy is through the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. By the end of the conversation I could just sense the gratitude that this man had for me and for what I was doing for him. I just wished that there was more that I could do. I felt so helpless in this entire thing, but I also knew that what I did, no matter how insignificant it seemed to me, was going to change his life. At the end he thanked me for my kindness and the way that I helped him, but I knew that it was not me who was helping him, it was the Lord who told him that he needed to come onto mormon.org and talk to someone about how he could come back to the happiness he once knew.

I know that the Lord is always in our lives but the problem is, we are sometimes walking throught the dark and we cannot see Him there. We just have to reach out our hand and grasp His. I know that the simple leap of faith this man made was stretching his hand and trying to find the Lord's. I know that the missionaries will be able to help him find the Lord and the happiness that he once knew. I know that he will be blessed.

I'm sorry that I am writing a small letter this week, but I am very limited on time today. All of you are in my prayers and I thank you all for your support.

I love you all very much,
Starsi Monk

PS- I thank my ward very much for what they have done about my mission fund. However, now I am endebted to all of them. The Lord has a funny way of blessing you and then once you repay Him for those blessings, He blesses you even more for repaying Him. I feel that He's done this so now I am over my head in debt to my family and to my ward! Oh no! I know that these are blessings from our loving Heavenly Father and I thank Him for them. I also thank our ward members very much. I know that this will be a blessing to me and to my family.

October 29 Letter to Family

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.

MTC Week Three! Can you believe it?

Dear Family,

I cannot even begin to imagine how this week flew by so quickly. It feels like just a few days ago when I last had P-day (preparation day; the day when I can do personal mail, email, laundry and other such things.) I can't really say that there was anything super significant about this week. Just alot more learning and I must say, I'm grateful for it.

This last week, our companionship really made some progress. My companionship consists of three members including me, which happens to be the entire Czech group for this transfer (9 weeks). Starsi Horvath has been having a hard time feeling like he could fit in with Starsi Jones and me because we're both American, we both speak fluent English, and just the fact that he is having a hard time coping with being in a strange land for the first time. Despite this, this last week he's really been opening up to us.

He's been sick for a while now, but doesn't show enough symptoms for the clinic to really do anything. They just keep giving him cough syrup, ibuprofen (spelling?) and nasal decongestant. They gave him one Z-pack which is an antibiotic and that seemed to help a little bit, but they never tested him to see what he had. They'd rather have us keep running in there every day to tell them that there IS something wrong. Oh well, I guess it's the same in the world as well.

Well, back to Starsi Horvath's opening up. I think because he doesn't speak English as his first language, and has only been taking it for three years seriously, I think he has to focus very hard to always understand what everyone's saying. I must say though, he speaks quite well. It's just that you'll find him zoning out alot more than he should. He even takes naps during personal study time, MDT time, and other times when he should be studying. I think that he doesn't understand how important the MTC is. He'd rather be out doing missionary work, but doesn't want to invest into doing the preparation. We'll have to show him that preparation is important somehow.

Another thing that he seems to have difficulty with is using scriptures from the Book of Mormon. I can understand this to an extent because he did only join the church three years ago, but he doesn't seem to want to use the Book of Mormon to teach. He uses scriptures, but they're almost always from the book of Matthew or Mark. Those aren't the easiest books to understand all the time, especially when quoting Jesus Christ.

Anyway, concerning this, Starsi Jones and I have spoken many many times about what we should do. We don't want to tell him flat out because that could be more destructive than constructive and we're realizing that telling him indirectly isn't working. So one day I prayed about what we should do and I received the answer that we should tell him the next day. I was quite blown away by this answer, but I thought that if the Lord told me to, I should do it. Anyway, next day came and we went through the entire day but I didn't see a clear opening to tell him. That night, I said my prayer to go to bed and then as Starsi Jones and I were about to crawl into bed, Starsi Horvath asked us if we could talk for a little while. He started off by talking about how he loves having us as companions and how much he is learning from us. He also went on to ask us about what he could do better.

The Lord is so mindful of us and knows how we need to be helped. I know that Starsi Horvath was feeling the Spirit when he asked us to sit and talk for a while. I also know that the Lord understood that I was looking for the opportune time to talk, but also realized that I was too timid to speak, so He had Starsi Horvath start the conversation.

I cannot begin to list all the blessings the Lord has given me while I've been here and how He has blessed my companionship.

I'd like to thank Bishop Larson and Sister Saunders for their kind letters that I received yesterday. Bishop Larson, I know that I can always look toward you for kind words of encouragement. I'll be sure to write you when I manage to find some time. Sister Saunders, I thank you so much for the missionary newsletter that you sent me and that I could read of the good that the other missionaries from our ward are doing. It strengthens my testimony to know that I might be able to be as good as those elders in just a few short weeks.

As for my family, I can't believe that you sent me that picture of me when I was in the CougarEat. I am appalled! Haha, you know I'm joking. I showed it to Starsi Horvath and Jones right when I got it and they both found it quite amusing. Also thank you for the USB SD card converter. The computer recognizes that there is a new device plugged into the computer, but I can't access it because of the computer restrictions. Oh well. I guess you really will have to wait for me to send you an entire card of pictures.

Yesterday my companions and I realized that we've almost been here three weeks and that means we're one third done with the MTC. That, to be honest, scared me a little bit because I don't feel like I've really learned enough Czech. I'm probably going to end up going to the field barely knowing anything. But that's all right. Nearly all the talks we've had here at the MTC are about missionaries who have gone to the field barely knowing their language, or only knowing a few sentences, and still baptizing people. I know that the Lord will bless me as I strive to learn as much as I can.

I guess I lied when I said that I don't really know any Czech. I've started praying only in Czech, and I must say that it's really cool once you can start putting your own thoughts into it instead of short phrases that you've memorized. The teachers here are great because after your prayer, they know that you had a hard time with it and that you know that there was a lot wrong with it, but they just tell you one little thing that'll make it better like, "Starsi Monk, when you want to make 'Starsi Horvath' fourth case (accusitive/direct object), you need to make it 'Starsihu Horvathu.'"

I'm a little scared of tomorrow because we're going to try and teach the first lesson in Czech. I really hope that you can acquire the gift of tongues over night, otherwise, I'm going to not say much. I'll probably add in a "tesi me" every now and then which means "it is pleasing to me." The English equivelant is "oh, cool." Starsi Jones is really the one who holds up conversations for us.

Anyway, my time is coming to an end. I'd like to leave a short testimony in Czech for you all, but I can't type in Czech fast enough.

I love you all and I look forward to hearing from all of you,
Starsi Monk

PS - I'm sure that Starsi Horvath would love to get mail from any of you if you'd like to send him some. He's not really getting any mail because he's outside his home country and his family (besides his younger brother) aren't members. He was excited to get a letter from my dad, and knowing my dad, it probably didn't say much. So I know that anything you write to him, he'll enjoy.

Our address is:
Starsi Monk (or Starsi Horvath)
MTC Mailbox #88
CZE-PRA 1214
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604

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