Second Week Success

Buna Ziua!

Another great and intense week at the MTC has passed. I can't believe how much is happening and how much I am growing.

Since it is the halfway week for our district, the leadership has changed.  I am senior companion. We leave for Romania in less than three weeks! It's coming a lot faster than I expected.

Language study is still productive, and I really enjoy it. I am starting to understand the grammar a lot more now. We have great teachers for that, and teaching lessons in Romanian is really good practice, both for language and teaching skills. We were lucky to get to do so much. And both A and G accepted baptismal invitations! (Role-play) Such a cool experience. I love singing hymns in Romanian too. It is so pretty.

We went to the Provo temple this morning, and it was wonderful! The temple is an amazing place.  (Note from Elder Lybbert's mom..... he has now been through a temple session 4 times and each time at a different temple... Calgary, Idaho Falls, Salt Lake City, and Provo.) 

This Tuesday for our devotional at the Marriott center we had Elder Richard G. Scott. It was great. He gave a very powerful and insightful message on prayer, since that is really important for missionaries. It was also the first time that the devotional was broadcast to some of the other MTCs.

The food is just fine. There is lots available at the cafeteria, and I enjoy it. We get pizza on Friday night (and today for lunch as well), and there is pop too. Caffeine free soda, juice, milk, all I can drink. There is also unlimited ice cream.

For exercise, I get three gym times a week, plus personal exercise time on the days without gym. We almost always do volleyball, and I have lots of fun. I have gone running on the track a couple of times too.

The daily schedule is mostly in class time, which is a mix of language, teaching, and spiritual lessons. The teachers mostly just speak in Romanian.

In some ways the MTC is like EFY, since we grow really close to new people really fast, we follow a strict schedule, eat cafeteria food, and feel the spirit all the time. but I would call it more hardcore, because we have a purpose that is a lot bigger than just having fun. I have it memorized in Romanian too, but this is our purpose in English:

Our Purpose:

To invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. Every single thing we do ties back to helping others come unto Christ, even when we are bringing ourselves closer to him in the process.

Another fun thing we do is play banana-grams in Romanian. I surprise myself with how many words I know now. Romanian is becoming another language for me, though I am sure it won't really get ingrained until I hit the mission field.

I can't wait to see Christmas in Romania. Fratele V (teaches the other class, and is actually from Romania) has told us a lot of cool things about Romania. Christmas and Easter are a big deal, and the food, especially Romanian soup, sounds really good, for the most part. I'm sure I will encounter some weird things as well.

My life has so much purpose now, and the mission feels so real. I can't think of anything else I'd rather be doing. This is just so right for me now, and the Lord is really helping me. It is the most incredible experience of my life so far, and I know it will only get better.

La revedere!

Elder Lybbert