Third Week - MTC - Church History Tour - Girl Scout Cookies

This week in the MTC was pretty great. I definitely felt the spirit this week as we went through out the week. On Tuesdays, we go to the Preston Temple and it is always a great experience. I really like the Preston Temple. Today and tomorrow the current England going missionaries are leaving and it is quite sad as we have made friends within their ranks. They are really funny and we are going to miss them. 

Last Thursday, we went on a Church History tour of England. We saw where Heber C. Kimball preached to people in Preston, England. We also saw the house where Gordon B. Hinkley wrore his famous letter to his dad saying he wanted to come home and where he read his dad's return letter saying, "forget yourself and go to work". It was really cool and the bus we rode on was really hot. I got a lot of pictures of sheep.

Elder Bennion and I have been wanting get to a picture together of us holding up a Come and Take it flag that he brought, and we finally did and it is glorious. If your opinion on Texas being the best state is different than mine, your opinion is wrong.

Elder Pickard drew a picture of our district family including our teachers and it is wonderful. Elder Gubler and his companions were giving a lesson on families and he used a picture of the drawing to show his family to the investigator. The investigator started laughing because they knew about the drawing and they were included in it.

We take laps around the MTC pretty often because we want to. We pass by all the classes and wave to them as we pass by. We even pass by windows where there is a progressing investigator lesson going on, those are the best ones ones to run by because everybody will stop their lesson and just watch us all run by. Elder Pickard and I really want to one of these days, instead of using the door to enter into the house, knock on  the window to get in. I think we might do that the last time we teach in one of those rooms.

Today I broke out the Girl Scouts cookies and people loved them. (I would really like some more thin mints and Samoas because I have given most of them away, send to:
England Missionary Training Centre
Temple Way
Chorley PR6 7EQ
Thanks in advance)
Elder Richardson just had his first one while I was writing this and earlier he said "I will not partake" when I offered him one earlier and when he took one he said "I will partake" it's really funny to endowed members of the church. 

We had quite a few devotionals this week and a testimony meeting on Sunday . We had a devotional from a local 70, Elder Alan Philips. He was really good and pretty funny. We had a recorded devotional from President Nelson that was recorded at BYU and his wife talked about marital intimacy which was really awkward because she was going into how it should be done and it as being shown to a bunch of missionaries. President Nelson talked about the prophets that he has known. He said the amount he has personally known tells more about his age. He went on to say that is a reason that he doesn't by green bananas anymore and that he can hide his own easter eggs. We had another devotional from M. Russell Ballard which was a recorded MTC devotional in Provo. My companion's buddies gave the prayers and they are going to the same mission as Keith Weaver. Small world. After the devotionals on Sunday, President Bunker talked a bit and asked us what we learned. The topic of baptism came up and Elder Goodwin was saying that in his mission, you are considered lucky to get 1 baptism. The Athens Greece mission is not a high baptizing mission. President Bunker pointed to him and said, "you will baptize. You will baptize more than one by the Holy name of the Lord Jesus Christ, you will baptize." I'm pretty sure that got everyone's attention. We all witnessed a prophecy being given. It is a testimony to me that God does still live and that he still talks to his children on Earth. Prophecies and Miracles are still given and done by the authority of God and Jesus.

Elder Gubler drew a few puns on the board and drew a very good SpongeBob and Squidward on a desk. Those are included.

I can't think of anything else at moment so I am signing off until next week. There will be more pictures in another email.

Mit Liebe, 

       Elder Gavin Damron

Gavin instructed us to post these pictures, all of them.

Two Texan Elders in England

Second Week in the MTC - Fun and Learning.

Second week in the MTC. the weeks seem to just be flying by, it's crazy. Last week I wanted to share some funny stories but I ran out of time so I'm going to share those this week.

The first day in the MTC, the MTC President was talking about companions and the rules on companions, I was falling asleep hoping that I didn't get called out by the mission president but i still did. But my companion said he was falling asleep as well so the MTC president responded to that with, "well unity in all things I guess". It was pretty funny and many people chuckled at that. 

On the second day, After lunch everyone in my room, good Ole room 11, decided to take a quick nap so we did. We had some extra time and everyone was tired. So anyway when  we were about to go back downstairs to our class we learned that we didn't have to be there until 11:45, or so we thought. Turns out we had to be there at 11:30 but Elder Richardson, the elder that told us that info, was wrong. We all woke up to the PA system calling us out "would the elders of the Alma district please go to your class". So I guess I'm 2 for 2 on getting called out by people who run this place. 

On the third day, Elder Molbek, the one from Denmark, wanted to get his suit pockets opened so he went to the MTC President's wife's office to get help with opening it. After she got it open for him he mentioned that he had pockets on the back of his pants. The quote from him was, "I told Sister Bunker that it had pockets on the back of my pants and the next thing I know is Sister Bunker is touching my butt". 

A lot happened on the 4th day, At dinner, a bunch of the English elders were asking a Japanese missionary what fish he eats and he didn't know what a sea horse was so Elder Spragg, a Welsh missionary, tried drawing a sea horse and it was really bad. So, another one tried drawing it and it was really bad as well.  So a few of us tried drawing it and we all had a good laugh. Elder Pickard and I then gave the task to our district and everyone but Elder Gluber drew a really good one. 

When we got back to class from our lesson that day, Elder Pickard asked Bruder Robertson, one of our teachers, about a funny mission story because he went to the same mission as we are going on. The story he decided to tell us was when his companion climbed under a train. So him and his companion were riding on the train  and they got off and as he was going down the stairs off the platform he got a feeling that his companion was not following him so he went back and saw that his companion had gotten underneath the train to get his planner that he had dropped down and went under the train. Bruder Robertson then was yelling at him to get up and off the platform before the train went. He began to walk away from the train and heard some ladies say "you don't have to do it" thinking he was trying to kill himself. Bruder Robertson then went back and saw the doors beginning to close and in  Switzerland as soon as the doors close the train goes off. So Bruder Robertson was yelling at his companion to get up right then but his companion was saying he almost had his planner. Bruder Robertson began to walk away because he wasn't going to watch him die and right before the train  left his companion got back up onto the platform. 

As we were getting ready to go to sleep our window was open and we heard some people talking outside. Elder Richardson aka Mr. Incredible started to look out the window to who it was because we thought it was one of our teachers Schwester Konietz. It turns out it was her and she saw him and he quickly pulled his head out, His head hit the window and as a result the window slammed shut. 

On the 12th day, Elder Pickard and Elder Gubler, someone from our district, got some socks that they got on the plane ride over here and they stretched them out and tried putting them on their heads. Pictures are included.

Just last night on the 13th day, when we were getting ready for bed, Elder Walton, another person in our district, got the idea from Elder Gubler to feed some dental floss up through his nose and out of his mouth. Elder Gubler was trying to do it as well but couldn't. Elder Walton was able to do it and it was pretty weird. There is a picture of it included. 

This morning when I was reading my emails, I was told that I forgot to add someone in my district. His name is Elder Williams from Canada.

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 There is sure to be more funny stories in the MTC to come.

The people in my district are really cool and really funny, especially Elder Gubler. He started out rather shy but has become one of the funniest people I know to date. I really like all of them and we have grown closer as friends and we have become like a family.

This week, Elder Pickard and I taught several lessons to "investigators". There have been a few times where we just dropped our planned lesson and just taught by the spirit which is way better than any lesson you could teach. This is the Lords work and if you try to do it without him, you will fail. He needs to be included in all aspects of your life on a mission. You have to be 100% obedient and you will get the authority and power you need from Him. Love people you teach like the Savior would and He will bless you with the words you need to say. These are some of the things I have learned in the MTC so far as far as Gospel teachings go.

The learning German part is coming along nicely and we started learning grammar. I don't think anyone was more excited to start learning grammar as we were as a district. We were excited until we learned just how many grammar rules there were. But with assistance from the Lord we can do all things. Especially when on His errand. Put your trust in the Lord when you are on a mission and you will be blessed in all aspects of life. Whether you see it now or later in life, you will be blessed.

Next week I will tell more stories and more of what I have learned in the MTC. England is beautiful and I am glad I am here and not in Provo. It is small and it that is good. You can actually get to know everybody in the MTC. 

Gluecklich Valentines Tag,

            Elder Gavin Damron

Elder Gavin Damron's First Missionary Training Center (MTC) Letter

February 7th, 2017

The MTC experience so far has been great! I am really enjoying all class and my district and I get along greatly. I miss you all back home and hope that you are all having fun with life. 

When I got to the MTC back last Wednesday, I was the only one here for about an hour. I even beat all the missionaries from England here. After about an hour an Elder came in, his name is Elder Goodwin. He is from England and he is going to the Athens Greek mission. 

First day was alright, a lot of sitting around waiting to do something. We got to know each other a bit at lunch. Met some really cool people there including a sister from Northern Ireland named Sister Moffett, she is also going to the Alpine German Speaking mission. We had some chips but in the UK they are called crisps. So I decided to turn to her and just say, "these are chips". I told her that because I knew that I would get a reaction out of her just from little that I learned about her. I succeeded in my goal in getting into a playful argument about the name of food. It was quite comical. 

There 11 people in my district:

• 2 Sisters; 
• Sister Soukko, she is from Finland, 
• and Sister Moffett. (mentioned above)
• 9 Elders
• Elder Pickard, he is my companion and he is from Utah, 
• Elder Richardson, he is from Washington State, 
• Elder Benninon, he is from Allen, Texas, 
• Elder Molbek, he is from Denmark and the really cool part about him is his sister is also in the MTC at the same time, 
• Elder Larson, he is from St. Louis, 
• Elder Walton and Elder Gubler, they are both from Utah. 

Our teachers are really cool and really nice. There is Schwester Konietz, she is from Frankfurt, Schwester Schumann, she is from Hamburg, Bruder Robertson, he is from England, and Bruder Murray, he is from Wales. They really like us and want to teach us forever. They say that we are the best district they have in a while. 

We have taught a total of 4 lessons to "investigators", they are really just our teachers pretending to be investigators. The first lesson went horrible, we couldn't understand what she was saying the entire time and our German was horrible and the investigator didn't believe in God. We just had a lesson written down in German from a handy dandy book that gives us the entire lesson in German. So the first lesson went really poorly but at least we didn't do what sisters did and after she said she didn't believe in God say good, good. The second lesson went a whole lot better, we were teaching an easier investigator and we could understand a lot of what she was saying. She was very nice and was really interested. For the 3rd lesson we taught someone new again and it was really good again, and we could understand a bit more, the lesson could have gone better if we were fluent in German or were speaking in English. But we are going to Germany so we need to learn German. The 4th lesson was the best one we have had so far. I understood about 90% of what she said. I am surprised how far we have come in the language. I know that the Gift of Tongues is real because I have seen it my life already. 

The spirit is so strong in here and it is great. I really like it here and the food is really good. There's actually been sunlight in England recently and that's a rarity around this time of year. We went to the Temple today and the Preston Temple is really beautiful. I had some good thoughts today in there. It just shows me that the temple really is the house of God. 

We went to the local town today, Chorley. There are plenty of fun times in here and I love it here, the food is good and I feel at home here. I wish you all the best, there are other things I would like to say but can't due to time restraints. So I'll email next week with pictures and stories and such but I'll attach a picture of my district and companion in here. 

           Mit Liebe,

                  Elder Gavin Damron