26 July 2018 - WELCOME TO THE MTC (#1)

Hey Everybody!

Okay so the MTC is crazy. I wont be able to share everything because sooooo much has happened since i entered on July 18th. The second counselor of my branch presidency put it well. The MTC is like standing in front of a fire hose and it knocks you down! So you just need to step out of the way and take gulps out of the water because theres only one Elder Milius that needs to learn what he needs to learn. On the first day we showed up and were led from place to place. We eventually ended up in a big room with all the new missionaries to be welcomed by the MTC presidency. There was around 500 new missionaries entering the MTC that day (btw on your first day your tag has an orange dot so everyone knows you are new and you hear "Welcome to the MTC" 500 million times it was driving me crazy). We opened by singing "called to serve" which was really powerful. The spirit of 500 18-20 year olds who just gave up their lives for a few months for other people was amazing! the Presidency shared great messages then we closed by singing "we'll bring the world His truth" and instead of "we will be the lords missionaries" we sand "we are now the lords missionaries". It felt super cool and I recognized how great of a calling I have to be the Lord's missionary...to bring the world His Truth!!!

At the MTC they put you in a district, which is in a zone, and the whole zone is in a branch. Our district is awesome! theres 4 sets of Elders and one set of Sisters and the sisters pretty much make us all look bad. One of the sisters (Sister Clark, shes from Kingsmsan? Arizna) has only been baptized for a year and her enthusiasm for the gospel is AWESOME. Multiple times we have shared with each other how we gained our testimony and why we are on our missions. Hearing everyone's story I could see how the Lord's hand was in each of their lives. And I know He is in everyone's lives. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are there just turn to them! We met with our Branch Presidency the second day and they are really awesome. Our president is President Christofferson (Elder Christofferson's cousin). All of us had a one on one meeting with a member of the presidency and I met with the second counselor Brother Chandler. I love that guy. HE told me about how the MTC is like a fire hose and stuff then he shared something really cool with me. He showed me a picture of two men standing in front of a light with a giant shadow behind them. He told me that the shadow is my spirit. Before I came here my spirit decided to be a part of this great plan and come down here to this earth. My spirit was shoved into this little baby body. And I grew up and my body learned how to walk, and talk, and eat, and i gained my testimony along the way to grow my spirit. But how that I am here on my mission my spirit is like "YEEES" and gets a chance to grow and i feel the Holy Ghost almost every second of the day. But my body is still just small so sometimes it will be hard. He told me that he does not share that with everyone and that the picture was only taken last week, but he felt like he needed to share it with me.

The next couple days were great. We spend 100% of our time in class learning, studying, eating, and get a 1 hour optional exercise time during the day. Its weird how close I was able to get to my district and roomates and companion so quickly. I have never been able to do that before. I know the Lord is helping me and all the prayers coming my way are helping. We sometimes do Book of Mormon reads together and we barely get a couple verses without talking about something. We talked for like 20 minutes about 1 Nephi 2:15 which is "And my father dwelt in a tent" haha. But it was really cool, we mentioned how Lehi had a lot of worldly things but he gave it all up to follow what he was told and was literally living in a tent in the wilderness when he could be in Jerusalem in a hows with all his stuff. It inspired us becuase although what we are doing is hard we, If Lehi was able to do that because the Lord told him to, then we can give up two years of our lives and still have it easier than Lehi.

Sunday was great. Each branch has a room for sacrament meeting. Our branch does talks, by assigning everyone to write a 3-5 minute talk on a certain topic throughout the week and by calling on someone randomly on Sunday. We also had a time set apart to go look at a mural (the new buildings have murals all over with scriptures theyre really cool i took some pictures). We looked at a mural of Moses parting the red sea and read the scripture Exodus 3:11 "And Moses said unto God, who am I, That I should go unto Pharoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt". Even Moses felt inadequate?! but if you have enough faith, you can accomplish anything that the Lord will ask of you. Sunday night was the best though. We watched the character of Christ by Elder Bednar, which you can only see at the MTC. I thought I knew what i was doing but no, Elder Bednar told me whats up. It was honestly life changing. The Character of Christ is to turn outward when the natural man would turn inward. After he suffered in the garden and felt pains unimaginable, he cared to heal a soldiers ear. When he was on the cross he made sure his mother was taken care of. Not once did He ever think about himself. As a missionary, nobody cares what I want. It isnt about me, nobody cares how many baptisms you want, just turn to other people. Blessings will come as we do that but we should not do it for that reasons. He mentioned a lot of great things i dont have the time to mention. One other thing that stuck out is that we are all inadequate. He said that He isnt qualified to be an apostle of Jesus Christ. But with Christs enabling power he can. I am 18 years old, I cant go out and preach the gospel, learn everything i need to in 3 weeks, function correctly when everything I know is all left behind. I can not do it. I am inadequate! But with Christ, I can. With he Atonement of Jesus Christ I can receive power beyond my own! And everyone can. Stop trying to do things by yourself. Turn to Christ he will strengthen us.

This is already too long so Im gong to wrap this up, but just know that THIS PLACE IS AMAZING. My testimony of my Savior has never grown so quickly.

Fun stuff that happened:

-Elder Ward is a cowboy from Nebraska (i LOVE him) and he says the funniest stuff: "In Wyoming theyve got hail sized footballs!!" (flipped hail and footballs hahaha), "Imma put that in my dictionary!" (meaning to say journal)

-Me and Elder Gregg (He is my companion) are pro spikeball players

-Elder Bolton is in drama and stuff but his name is not Troy

-Sister Clark asked me if I was Mexican

-Brother Chandler (Second counselor in branch presidency) is HILARIOUS! We were using tools as examples for a lesson and he told Sister Clark and Sister Young that "You sisters can switch it to something else...like an egg beater, or whatever else they got in the kitchen...spatulas" We were DEAD.

btw extra blessings come when you give missionaries gifts so heres my mailing address for the MTC:

Elder Brigham Murray Milius
AUG07 CO-FRTC
2005 N 900 E Unit 44
Provo UT 84602

Also, my roommates really love ALL the Candy you are sending, Please send more.-Elder Bolton wrote that

Elders Milius