MTC- We Leave Here in Less Than 2 Weeks!

 Our Zone on our last Temple day

Seriously, I am having the greatest experience ever here. Don't even worry about me, I'm doing awesome! Although I do miss our awesome Christmas decorations at home. Those are super fun.

Basically our whole district and lots of zone died from a heart attack when we realized that we are leaving the MTC in less than 2 weeks. That was a crazy realization. We will get a 30 minute phone call on Christmas! 4:45 my time I believe. No idea about P-day and Christmas schedule next week other than that. Hopefully I will find out soon. No travel plans for us yet but I think those come out on Fridays, so maybe tomorrow. But thank you for letting me know about the Visa. Other than that, the MTC schedule is still virtually the same, with a few fun little changes this week.

• First off, our devotional on Sunday was AWESOME. BYU Men's Chorus came and sang and people bore testimony about missions and it was basically a dream come true. And one of the 3 members who got up and talked had recently returned from the Czech/Slovak mission. And our district freaked out a little and talked to him after the devotional for about twenty minutes. It was so great. It just helped to get us all excited for leaving in a few weeks. And wow, Men's Chorus is awesome. They sang a bunch of Christmas songs, some that I knew and some that I did not, but all of them were incredible.

Czech district with the Men's Chorus returned missionary who served in the Czech Republic

• We also found out on Sunday that the "A Savior is Born" video is in CZECH! This is pretty much the most significant thing has ever happened for a Church website in our opinion. It is seriously so great to watch that in Czech. Super cool.  https://www.lds.org/youth/video/a-savior-is-born?lang=eng  A Savior is Born (in English!).. a short 2 min video worth your time!

• On a sadder note we are losing two of our teachers for the last week (since it is Christmas week). It is very sad. Our 3 teachers are super great, and we are going to miss all of them when we go to the Czech Republic, but they are so excited for us.

Our Czech District with our teacher

• I saw Elder Brown a few more times, including on Monday before he left, so I got to say a quick goodbye for the next 2 years.
• The Elder Pickle ornament is awesome! I will take a picture of my Christmas stuff, Starší Chadwick and I decorated the other day when he got Christmas stuff too.
• Starší Chadwick and I have our own room made for 6. We are also the zone leaders. So we were told that we would probably have an early arriving Polish Elder (in our zone) from England. So we set up a bed in our room, no big deal, and just hoped that he would not arrive in the middle of the night. He didn't. Tuesday morning we got a call from the front desk that our new Elder had arrived and we should come to pick him up. So we went up there and started looking for the Elder with the English accent. But there wasn't one. So then we asked if there was an Elder going to Poland, and there was! He was from Alaska though. So after we were done being confused, we took him back to our room and got him all set up and put him in with the other Polish people who have been here for 7 weeks. And then continued on our merry way, off to lunch. On our way into the cafeteria we received another phone call. The Redcoats arrived! Well, just one, and he was wearing a suit, so not really. But our English Elder was here. So we scrambled to get him all of the necessary materials, and steps for check-in and bartered and stole blankets and what not (basically just politely asked if anyone had any extras) and got him a bed set-up. And then had a late lunch and we were late to class, but it was all good. And then, at 10:10, we received ANOTHER phone call. The other Elder going to Poland from Alaska had arrived! So, we again scrambled to get blankets together and find room to store his luggage in another room for the night, because we were a little full. Basically in the end, we planned on 1 Elder, and 3 arrived instead. It was crazy fun. Quite the adventure.
• Spiritual thought for the week/challenge. During our devotional on Tuesday, Elder Lynn G Robins of the 70 came and spoke. He talked about a whole lot of awesome principles in Preach My Gospel chapter 6 (great chapter). One thing specifically was the idea of "to-do" lists. He suggested we should not just have a "to-do" list, but also a "to-be" list. Which is impossible to ever check off. But what you can do is set weekly "to-do" goals that will help to aim you to your "to-be" goals. Very good advice. So my challenge to you all is to choose something you want "to-be" and then set a weeks "to-do" list to point you in that direction. He also talked about that we can not fully realize those "to-be" goals without the Enabling Power of the Atonement, so rely on that as well.    https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2004/10/in-the-strength-of-the-lord?lang=eng  Elder David A. Bednar’s talk in Oct 2004 General Conference for a testimony building message about the Enabling Power of the Atonement

Love you all, thank you for the support and letters! The love I have received this week is from the Goolds (lots in the past weeks) the Hollands (yummy dear elder cookies) the Sirmans (Christmas card) the Lewis (Christmas card and fun letters) Sobczak (Christmas card)

- Starší Pickett

 

In honor of Star Wars opening, here is my attempt to use the Force to get MTC pictures. 

If I am on the computer when Starší Brad is emailing, I can have a short back and forth exchange.  Here’s my favorite Starší showing me that the Gospel is stronger than the Force.

Starší Brad: Also, I don't have any good pictures this week unfortunately... I am working on picture taking, but we take them at random times when I don't have my camera!

Mom: Okay.  I will be needing the emails of the Moms who get all the pictures then.  I hope Sestra DeMann comes through for me this week.  She is a pretty dependable photo sender!! (and the pictures this week ARE from Sestra DeMann!) More more more pictures.  I can never have enough.  That is all I want for Christmas.

Starší Brad:  Yes, I will work on that. Omlouvam se. That needs an accent mark that I can't do on this computer. She is good, yes. My companion may have a few that I can steal from him.

Mom:  Can you send me some of Starší Chadwick’s pictures please?  We have needs over here.

Starší Brad:  I will do my very bestest.  I might not send any pictures this week! Sorry, but I am out of time and without Starší Chadwick's camera.

Mom:  There is no try… only do.

Starší Brad:  No, in the gospel there is also try.