Dear Family,
The
MTC is awesome! Sorry I couldn’t email yesterday, the wifi here was broken so I
couldn’t email anyone during our computer time. I was so bummed about that, but
this works too I guess. Takes a lot longer, that’s for sure. Basically the MTC
rocks and my district is way cool! We have 8 elders in our district. Elder
Fjeldsted is my companion (the j is silent) he’s from Minnesota, not really by
Andrew and Lindsay, but he lives kinda by your friend, Dad. He’s pretty cool
and loves the gospel and we get along super well. He knows basically every
single sister at the MTC, which still confuses me because I wouldn’t really
call him a ladies man… The
companionship that shares our room with us is Elder Kekauoha from L.A. and
Elder Brown from Orange County, CA.
Elder Kekauoha is one of my favorite human beings because he’s so funny.
The TV character I’d compare him to is a more funny version of Tom from Parks
and Rec. Or Gus when he’s doing
the radio show. Either one. Elder Brown plays volleyball all year and has a
photographic memory so he’s the best at Thai so far. The people in the other
room are Elder Holland and Elder Decker, and Elder Turley and Elder
Brinkerhoff. Elder Holland is
really cool. He played a year of
college basketball at SVU before he came, so he’s easily the best one here.
He’s from Portland. His companion,
Elder Decker is also way funny ad he’s from Las Vegas. If Elder Decker starts laughing, Elder
Kekauoha starts laughing too and it just turns into a domino effect at that
point. Elder Turley is from Cottonwood Heights and went to Brighton. He’s
really calm but is still fun and jokes around with us. His companion Elder
Brinkerhoff, is from Indiana, I feel like he’s the black sheep of the group at
this point so I’ll have to work on that. When I can email again I’ll send
pictures of them all and of my room and stuff too. Hopefully this has been
enough detail for you, Mom? J
The
MTC is awesome, and I think I’ll survive the 9 weeks I’m here. It’s crazy to
contrast my life before I came and my life now because I could just be lazy and
I”d consider it a successful day if I accomplished ANYTHING, didn’t matter
what. Now my day is 100% scheduled
and I’m doing things from 6:30am-10:30pm. Here’s my typical day here: wake up
at 6:30 and shower/get ready until I go to breakfast (The food here isn’t
terrible, but I definitely miss your cooking, Mom). After breakfast we have 3
hours of class until 11 when we get to have exercise time. I play basketball
from an hour with Elder Holland, Elder Kekauoha, and Elder Turley and Elder
Decker. We can only play half court 3 vs 3 games to 7 ( by 1’s and 2’s) but
it’s fun because we can get lots of games in . I can easily dunk now, but it’s
not allowed so that’s a bummer. Elder Holland is a beast and usually just
wrecks ‘em all. After exercise time we have lunch fro 45 minutes and then back
to class. 3 hours later we have dinner and then another 3 hour class after
that. So 9 hours of class total which isn’t as bad as it sounds actually. One
of our class clocks is used for Personal Study, Companion study, and language
learning. Another one is where our teacher comes and teaches us more Thai. The
last block is for teaching “investigators” (they don’t trust us with real ones
apparently). Our investigator right now is Phii Cee (pronounced like PJ) and
our lessons are going way well even though they’re all in Thai. The spirit definitely has a role in
that. We finish class at 9:30pm and have until 10:15pm to get ready for bed and
mess around and then it’s lights
out at 10:30[m. So we get 8 hours of sleep. I’m during. It’s so hard not to
fall asleep during devotional and I kept almost dozing off during the temple
yesterday, so that was bad…
So
all in all, I’m loving it here and in the MTC! Great start to my mission. I’ve
really come to love my district and the opportunities I get to read from the
Book of Mormon. We read for an hour today and I didn’t want to have to stop
when we moved on to something else. I’m so grateful for the spirit I’ve felt
here and I’ve already seen myself grow, both mentally and spiritually. I know
that missions definitely bless lives, increase testimonies, and bring people
closer to God. I can already tell this is the best decision I’ve ever made.
Now for the family stuff… It’s so awesome getting all these
“Dear Elders” and food survival kits! Thank you guys so much for your letters
too! Amelia and Eve, I loved your pictures. They’re hanging up above my desk in
our room. I now know why missionaries say handwritten letters are absolutely
the best and the highlight of my week. What I want most to hear about in
letters/emails is funny family
moments (i.e. Aubree sitting on dead bees and she gets stung or more elevator
dreams from Dad), big things happening in the family (i.e. sports, dances,
school), sports (especially Packers, Utes, Olympics, or any other big news. Dad
and Hayden will know), and just how you guys are doing!
I’ll
email each of you individually on future P-days. For now though, I’ll just write
a little blip here for each of you. I briefly read all my emails while I was
able to so I’ll have to see what I remember…
DAD-
Tony Dungy and Brett Favre are definitely great people to b going into the Hall
of Fame. I’m glad he wants to be
remembered as a Packer too, I woudn’t have been happy if he wanted it otherwise.
Let me know if you have any other life-changing pieces of advice from your
mission. Good luck getting those horses under control. And don’t kill Tucker.
Or Charlie.
MOM-
I’m surprised you survived this long! Way to go, keep surviving. How is it
having an actual kitchen to work with again? And what else has changed? When
the kids all go off to school, and if you find some spare time, you should
start watching Parks and Rec on Netflix. My entire district is in love with the
show and we’ve been quoting it 24/7.
Good luck handling the kids.
Keep doing what you’re doing and Hayden and Seth will be perfectly ready
for a mission too.
AUBREE-
If you stopped showering I bet that guy wouldn’t ask you to the dance. Food for
thought. I’m not sure if any elders are hot, cuz I’m not like that… I’ll let
you decide.
HAYDEN-
Yes, flirt with your coach. Take him to a nice dinner. If you’re buddies with
the coach you have a step up. Keep working out, you’ll be grateful in high
school if you play. Good luck at
the scrimmage and basketball camp. I need you to keep me updated on sports, ok?
Especially the Pack and Utes.
SETH-
Lacrosse will be perfect! I don’t know how we didn’t think of that before! You’ll
have so much fun. I’m so excited for you. How is everything with school going?
I bet the ladies just can’t stay away, can they? You’re a great kid, just be
yourself and you’ll have tons of great friends in no time. It’s hard going to a
new school, but you’re gonna kill it.
AMELIA-
I bet you’re a little cowgirl by now with all these lessons from dad, huh? I
miss your cute little laugh. What have Eve and you been up to lately? Keep
being so adorable for me, ok? P.S.
I loved your picture!
EVE-
Your picture you drew for me is so perfect! I look at it everyday Are you going
to play any sports? I miss playing baseball and basketball with you. Keep practicing so we can play when I
get back. Also, can I have another picture from you?
Things I need:
-bigger shoulder bag
-less powerful flashlight for night
-blue slacks? Don’t know if I brought time…
-Electric razor. I know, mom, you told me so…
Thank you so much for your support! You guys are the season
I’m out here and the person I am. I know that this is where I need to be!
There’s no where else I’d rather be, and I know that the Lord will bless me and
the other missionaries as we five Him our best effort. See ya in 103 weeks!
Love,
Elder
Wilcox
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