Week 2 - MTC

First Off I want to thank all of you that sent me emails. The bad news is that I wasn't able to read them. Let me explain. At the MTC we are given litterally 30 min to use Email. In order to type an indepth report of what happened this week I need the full 30 minutes just to type the email.

I do want to hear from you though please simply copy and paste the email that you originally sent me and send it through DearElder.com. It will be like sending and email for you and it will be like reciving a physical letter for me and I will be able to recieve it the same day! I will write you back a handwritten letter. The emails are simply to update you on what is going on through out the mission.

Please write me any questions or personal comments via Dearelder.com and I will write you back via US mail.
My adress is
Elder James Curran
Rostov na Danu mission
Provo MTC
Box 148
2005 N 900 E
Provo UT 84604.

Sweet, now that we have gotten that out of the way. Lets go over the What's HOT and What's not at the MTC.

What's Hot
- Swine Flu Jokes
- Home made swine flu T shirts
- T shirts representative of your mission call
- Building towers of paper cups during meal times
- Dearelder.com contests to see who gets the most letters in a week and day

What's NOT

- Quarentine (5 day isolation for swine flu/ flu victims)
- Meetings about district members who are currently in Quarentine
- "Tamiflu" the pill we take to prevent us from entering Quarentine

You are prbably curious why quarentine is soooo not HOT? Good Question. Because it is litterally like LORD of the FLIES in there. No supervision. No rules. Every man for himself. Food is slim and people use letters and food to barter. Gangs have been formed and battles have been fought. I know most of you think this is come kind of Joke, but no it is not. Elder Valasquez was sent in and reported. His account has been confirmed by several other witnesses and yes Quarentine is not hot. Because of these rumors noone is reporting thier sickness and therefore spreading disease throughout the MTC. EVERYone is sick! Seriously it's gross.

Ok onto other matters. Elder Bednar came and spoke at our devotional last Tuesday and gave a wonderful talk about the Holy Ghost. I will pass on his words. if you ever question whether your actions are prompted by yourself or the Holy Ghost . . . quit worrying about it! If you are being good, obeying the commandments, and honoring your covenants, you will always be guided by the Holy Ghost whether you know it or not. Don't wait for a special feeling just act!

K.Russian . . .As most of you know, I already knew Russian b4 coming here. Even though that is true, the other elders and I were all on the same page when it comes to gospel terms. As of now, we can Pray, Testify and teach the first lesson in Russian. In only 2 weeks. 2 weeks ago these elders didnt even know the alphabet in Russian. Brothers and Sisters the Holy Ghost will help you in everything that you stuggle with as long as you are doing everything you can to overcome your weakness! I can testify of that!

Last Wed I contacted a person in Russian. Successful, and we taught the whole first lesson in English with our Companions. It was SOOOO tight. A very spiritual experiance to say the least. Something that was not so tight was when we, as a district, were in the Refferal center and the only person that picked up was a strict Prebaterian and chewed me out about there only being one Book of Scripture, THE BIBLE. I still was able to share my testimony of the truthfulness of the BOM and we went our seperate ways.

In church each week they give us topics to prepare talks on, and each week the bishop picks two unlucky souls to come us and give them. I was lucky this week. It wasn't me. But we are here for 10 more weeks. . . . Ill let you know what happens.

Some notes. P DAy is litterally a holiday. We sing about it. We are grateful for it in our prayers and it is just sweet. . . .Also I would like you to know that I am currently writing a musical that I hope to produce when I return in 2011 called, "MTC, the musical." Several songs are currently in the works such as "PDAY, such a a special day" and "ITS TEMPLE TIME."

I hope you enjoyed this week's update. Please remember to write me via DEARELDER.com and not through email. please ;)

I love you all, and I want you to know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ will bring you so much JOY! I would like to commit all of you to pray to your Heavenly Father, who loves you so much, to feel the spirit in your lives each day.

I love you so much.Elder Curran
;)

P.S. please fwd this to anyone who you think would enjoy it!