Week 8 in the MTC

Week 8 in the MTC !!!!!

I cant belive it but I have made it this far. I have 3 weeks left. Actually 2 weeks and 5 days. And just typing that brings a tear to my eye. I'm not gonna lie to you. Although the MTC is an extremely spiritual experience, it does begin to wear on you.

3 days ago I tried to remember my phone number I have had for literally 5 years and could not for the life of me. After putting down some rough sketches of a few potentials, I finally figured it out. After 23 minutes! :( Also as I was sitting on a bench reading my scriptures outside, I watched a few cars drive by. As they did, I honestly thought to myself "how are they making those things go so fast?" I then tried to remember how to drive a car and couldnt. I looked to my companion for help, but he had forgotten as well. We then consulted a few missionaries who had only been here for 2 weeks and were able to tell us this crazy story about keys, engines and brakes. They also kept saying some funny words like ignition and gears? I dont know . . . I had them write down the steps so I can read over it bi-monthly and not be completely lost when I return to the real world.

Also I would like to talk a little bit about the Apples in the MTC. What I'm about to tell you actually isn't something that I have found out recently but is something I have neglected to mention. The apples here taste like they nourish them with water from heaven and as they are just starting to grow inject honey into them. When they are perfectly ripe, the MTC cafeteria workers walk outside to the orchard that must be located somewhere inside the MTC and pick them daily. Long story short, the Apples are honestly the greatest apples I have ever eaten. The apple bar in my life has been raised, and I refuse to eat anything less than a perfect MTC apple.

Something else that is way sweet is that I received my Russian name tags. for those of you who can't read syrillic it sounds like "Star-ye-shi-na" for elder. and apperently my name in Russian means sometype of chicken dish, and I was warned that I would be made fun of. Sooo . . . . yeah. :( But all is well. Hopefully, before a group of Russians decides to beat up the missionaries in their area, they will read my name tag, laugh, and I will be able to run away safely.

So probably the biggest news that I have is that 4 days ago while Elder Kempton in our district was digging around his room he found a "Black Journal." In the journal were seperate books like the book of Horn and the book of Smith etc . . and It was like a little Book of Mormon of all the Russian speaking Missionaries who had been living on that floor for the past year. Each section was written as if they were writting in the Book of Mormon too. With common phrases such as "And it came to pass" and "In the 4th week of the reign of district 10." It was way sweet and had some great advice for getting through the MTC and how to "endure to the end" of our MTC stay. Well our district has decided to keep the legacy going and share our stories.

Some crazy stories they had to share with us were the tale of the 404 ceral boxes where for 5 weeks they collected all their cereal boxes till they had 404 and made a gigantic wall of cereal boxes outside the door of some new missionaries. Also a funny prank where they put 8 hidden alarm clocks in some new missionaries room and had them go off at different random times during the night. So we will try and leave our legacy with some of the many things that we have done throughout our MTC stay. I'm excited to create the Book of Curran.

Elder Apsley developed a fun game that we have been playing called the black spot. All it is is a piece of paper with a black spot on it, and the game point is to hide the black spot in creative ways on each others person or things and the last person to have it at the end of the day loses. It might not seem fun, but I promise you it is intense.

Well, to wrap up, I want you to know I know that the Church of Jesus Christ has been Restored to the Earth. We have a living Prophet and by listening and obeying the counsel of the prophet and apostles we will be able to live, will our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ again one day. We also have the opportunity to live with our Familes forever! I know that God loves you and so do I.

Love,

Elder Curran.

P.S. If there is anyone you know that would like to read this please forward this to them. :)