Dos Mas Dias En La CCM!!!

Im legitimately stoked out of my mind to leave!!!

I have been feeling such a strong spirit lately in the MTC. It has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life so far for sure. I almost wish that i could be here for a little longer. I Really eant to get to mexico though! I kinda dont want to leave because sending physical mail will be much harder than it is here, but I know that i have such a potential to teach out there in Tuxtla. THis week has been really slow without district b goofin around with us all the time. I really miss the lot of em. Quick shoutout to all of you guys in district 141 B! West side for life!!! 

Elder Harris from the other district had a passport mishap so he was able to spend the night with us and leave early Tuesday morning. I was able to teach some fake investigators with him, and learned a lot, and it was neat to have him hang around with us.

The tuesday devo was absolutely swell. I was able to pick up on a lot of things from what he said, and I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to hear his talk. But the thing that hit me the hardest was something that he may have only briefly mentioned. Insomuch that i missed it while writing a sentence of notes. I felt the prompting from the spirit, and was able to receive excellent personal revelation though. It was about how 2 years is actually a really long time. I need to use my time more wisely so that i can learn as much as possible while my spiritual power is at its peak. I don't want to have any regrets in mexico or the rest of my life thinking that I needed to have spent more time learning or studying the scriptures or the gospel in some way so that I can teach the people of mexico and everyone i meet through my entire life, about the incredible spirit that comes with the message of the restored gospel. It was really shocking to me. I don't think my brain subconsciously knows that i am going to be gone on the lords errand for two years. I think it thinks i am coming home on Monday. 

We finally got to host the new missionaries on Wednesday, and it was absolutely swell!!! I got to meet a couple of elders who are going to the Salt lake mission! sadly I forgot their names... But i will try to track them down so I can get the info off to all of mi amigos y famillia en SLC!!! 

Infield orientation was yesterday, and it was super fun, and super boring all at the same time... Im really not sure how that works... They basically taught us everything we don't already know about the field. TONS of information.

Also, Craziness is going on. I HAVE FINISHED READING THE BOOK OF MORMON!

It has been such a blessing in my life, and has been such a massive help here in the MTC, and I know that it will be through my life, and it can be in all of yours too. I pray that you will all read it, and ask if it is true, so that you can know for yourself, all of the incredible joy, and glory we have in store for us!

People ive seen in the MTC this week:

Preston Brown

Kaiu 

We have permission to be on for the next 2 days before we leave, so HMU!

Scripture of the week : Alma 33:14 Read it. Ponder it. Act upon what you discover.

Querria que estes aqui!

                    Elder Runyan

Que Pasa Mufasa!?

Oct 17 at 5:22 PM 

 

This week has been mostly pretty normal aside from the spanish is coming along very well. We committed two of our real investigators to baptism and our new one is going to read and pray about the book of mormon! Sadly we can't baptise the two of them but thats ok. We met an elder who might. His name is E. Maya. He is from TUXTLA!!!! He told us all about our mission, and we told him all about utah, and how in provo, he is going to be fed every night. But he is such a cool kid! He and his companion, E. Correa. He is going to St. Geezy to serve it up there. I also met two other elders who are serving in the salt lake west mission! I told them to look out for the Staniforths, and so Knappy, can you send that info along to them? I am going to get his info written down, and then ill send it over. I also met another elder who is fluent in 9 languages.... It blew my mind. He is from Mexico too. But he is from Pueblo. He knows Spanish, English, Cantonese, French, Italian, German, Tongan, Filipino, and Arabic. I dont get it. Either his brain is huge or he just doesn't know anything else.... It is the most incredible thing i have witnessed. Ok, other than that, we got to do some service during the middle of the day because we forgot to clean our classroom before inspection, but we had the coolest counselors to do service with! We were singing and making songs the whole time! We then proceeded to have a dunk competition with the 80 garbage bags that we had to take to the dumpsters. We got some mean alley oops, and some windmills, one between the legs from E. Lemperle. He went hard. Then we had a 2 hour gym time to go play some ball and We crushed it. my team went undefeated and then I won 8 games of dynamite in a row. #ballislyfe Then we had class, we taught Jose. He is our super hard investigator that asks deep doctrinal questions and refuses to pray, or read until we answer them. I immediately got frustrated and lost the spirit, and therefore the gift of tongues, and i was practically mute for the rest of the lesson. It was probably good for me to experience that though. I need to always have faith and trust in the spirit, and in the gift of tongues or I can't talk ever. That was quite a good testimony builder for me. Tuesday was sweet. The devotional speaker was Larry R. Lawrence of the 70 and he talked about Satan. He talked about how we can stay away from him and how he tries to get us to fall into temptation. He mentioned that “Your mind is like a stage where people are auditioning. You can't control what comes on, or when it comes on, but you can control how long it entertains.” That is super powerful. There are going to be bad thoughts that come in your head, but you have the authority to dismiss them. He also asked us “ How much harder would you work to escape the devil if you knew that he was trying his hardest every second to get you to falter.” We need to always have our guard up. Also he talked about how he will tell us 10 truths and slip in 1 lie. he tries to get us to want the counterfeit blessings. He counterfeits everything. He also talked about how we constantly have concourses of angels surrounding us. If we had our “spiritual goggles” so to speak, we would be able to see thousands of angels surrounding us all the time. We just need to remember that we are on the good side. We need to work for it, but we have the power and authority to rid satan from our presence. After that we talked about it and just chilled around at our apartment. Good times with the guys. E. Barry got a birthday cake and there is a slow mo video of him smashing his face into it for your viewing pleasure. He also got an album called popcorn bopping which is a bunch of primary songs with heavy beats mixed in! It is FANTASTIC!!! One month is over, and we have 11 days until Viva Mexico! I am so stoked! We got our flight plans today! we leave at 3:30 am on Tuesday morning! Its awesome here, but i just really wanna be doing the real thing… Well thats all I've got! I might be on for a few mins, so HMU!!!

Scripture of the week : Mosiah 4:30 Read it. Ponder it. Act upon what you discover.

Querria Que Estes Aqui!!!

      Love,

           Elder Runyan

In full swing, and sickess ensues!

The start of the week was Saturday (seems weird to say) and it was Conference Generale!

Me gusta Conference Generale! It was awesome to hear from all of the apostles and the prophet!

The one that hit me during the morning session on Saturday was "Rescue in unity" by Elder Chi Hong Wong. Not only was it good because it was spoken in Cantonese, but I also liked the topic of unity. I am not the best at working with people and would sometimes rather do my own work or personal study, and I needed to hear that to help me work on being more united with my companion, district, zone, and all other missionaries. Saturday night it was Tad R. Callister that hit me. He talked about how parents are the prime gospel teachers for their children. I need to be doing my best work through my entire life, and my most important investigators are going to be my children. they are going to carry my family name on, and i want to make sure they are living righteous lives, and that they have the gospel, and keep the commandments. I also need to find a worthy companion who will be with me 100% when teaching our children. I realized that I need to really pray, and know what to look for in an EC (Eternal Companion). MTC lingo. Super fun stuff. Priesthood session was all good stuff, but the one that hit me was from Uchtdorf. "lord is it I?" I had a really long deep thought about that. It was eye opening, and extremely helpful. I want to challenge all of you to do the sane thing. look inward at yourself, and ask if you are doing all that you can.

   Sunday was more conference, and relaxation.Nothing really had me up against the wall during the morning session. It was pretty good though. Then we had a nice lunch (not) (the food still sucks) and then on to the afternoon session. The talk that stuck out to me was Elder Larry S. Kacher s talk on trifling not with sacred things. It stuck out to me because I have been hearing that phrase a lot lately. it makes me think its important. lol. After that we had a nice long time for a nap, and then Sunday devotional. The speaker was VAI SIKAHEMA!!!!! Sickest thing ever!!! He talked to us about how The best way to do missionary work is to always open your mouth and talk about the church. You never know who you are going to convert around you. Then I got to talk to him for a min and take a pic!!!! it was the raddest thing ever!!! 

   Monday was pretty normal all day with bad food, mi companero is still moi enfermo. Oh well. so we got to sleep a little extra. Then after a lot of scripture study that day, he asked for a blessing. I was shocked. So we went into a room with everyone from our zone (about 40 people) and I gave my first blessing with a huge circle! It was totally nerve racking at first. There was a long silence, and then all at once the words started to flow. I had no idea what I was saying. It was incredible. I have never felt that feeling before! I had to go look up one of their words that I said because I didn't even know what it meant!!! Instant self conversion right there!!! As soon as i said amen, everyone said amen, and backed away from the circle with one synonymous cough! it was awesome to hear everyone after, and how they felt the spirit so strongly in the room. THE PRIESTHOOD IS TRUE!!!

   Tuesday was pretty average. I still wasn't sick. We taught some people, including our first real investigator, and it was super cool. I felt the spirit a lot. It was way cool to see the glow in their eyes! (thanks Kim Osborne) and we got them to say the closing prayer, and we gave them a book of Mormon!

   Wednesday was just a normal day, other than i did a little trio number on the piano with some elders that we met. It was kinda cool. Video is in the dropbox somewhere! It was super cool, and super dumb. but i got to rattle off some of my piano skills for a couple of the companionships from my district. Good stuff, and a good way to let of some emotion. MUSIC IS THE BEST RELEASE.

   Thursday was cool, we got to meet with our real investigator again, and she said she really felt that when she prayed about the book that it was true! so we talked to her about repenting, and baptism. It was mad real. Super slick stuff! We also taught members, which was super cool because they help us too. They are embers acting as members. One of them was an East High graduate from 51'! he was super exited, and jumped up and gave me a big hi 5!!! That was super cool! Then we taught our new fake investigator named "jose" He is super hard and asks deep doctrinal question;s about god. I was able to answer a few of them but he stumped me on a couple. After that we went home, and I stayed up till 1:00 reading the BOM I am going to try to finish it before I leave the MTC. I am almost done with 2nd Nephi, and i have only been reading for 2 days. I also already finished D&C in its entirety. That has some super cool, deep, outright stuff in it! WOW!

Querria Que Estes Aqui!

      Elder Runyan 

Scripture of the week : Jacob 5:49 Read it. Ponder it. Act upon what you discover.

Week 2

Week 2 and some more is up. The start of the week was good, and fairly usual. Lots of class, and lots of bad food ( I have gained 6.5 pounds)(yay...) Basketball took a turn, and i caught an elbow to the eye, and hit my head on the floor for a quick 2 hit KO. Out cold for a few mins, and I had a pretty gnarly black eye for a while, but its just smeared makeup now. That was fun, and I am getting awful tired of telling people the story behind the mysterious black eye... After that, more teaching. Spanish is coming along well, but I still suck at speaking it... I'm sure it will come in time. We have been teaching our investigator at the MTC, and have, after 5 lessons, committed him to baptism. He will be getting baptized in 2 weeks. FUN stuff i suppose. I am really string to feel the spirit, and let it guide me when i am teaching lessons. I can get a lot more across, and i can relay my message of the saviors love, and affection for a person, and challenge them to do something, as well as bear my testimony, and give opening and closing prayers. I really do love it.

Our last day on the WEST SIDE (West campus) was a way good one. To start off, we found the pillow room(basically a room 3/4 full of excess pillows from the unused dorms) and we climbed in the window, and had a massive pillow fight, diving into all of them is a feeling unlike any other. It truly is a rush. Then we set up all of the mattresses from 2 dorms, in one of the living rooms, and had a big wrestling tournament(sorry, no pics,camera was dead) There were a few casualties including a couple broken fingers, and a broken nose (great wholesome fun) and then when we got home, we realized that Elder McDonald had clogged the toilet on his last visit, and it had erupted in a rank mess all over the bathroom floor. It was REEEEEEALLY bad. They cleaned it up though, and we finally got to bed at 1:00. YAY.

We were exported to main campus on Wednesday, and it sucks..... Six to a room, and way less room for all of my crap. Oh well. It is kinda fun being in a huge dorm with all of the guys though. I can feel the spirit her a lot more too. It is really a cool experience to have had both of the different campuses. The classrooms, are worse, but we have fun chairs with wheels, and little flip up desks, so on break time we take them into the halls, and have jousting matches with some of those extendable pointers that we all got from the bookstore. The chairs, are maybe the thing that will get me through this whole experience. They are bomb. Other than that. It has been slow but good. 

Yesterday, we went to the Mexican Consulate in salt lake. It is literally like right east of the bees stadium. that was maybe the hardest thing i have ever done. On our way down, we took 13th east, and drove straight past browning ave...... ),; Super sad. Tons of feelings rushed back, and I was a wreck for a few mins. When we got to the consulates office, we were early, and so they let us walk around to get lunch. We walked to the sonic on 13th and state. Waaaaay too close for comfort. It took everything I had to not just walk home. I am feeling much better about the whole thing now that it is over but it still made me way sad. we then went in and got our visas, and it was the easiest thing i have ever done. Idk why its so hard for some people... Then we rode the trax to the frontrunner station in Murray, and then took the front runner all the way back to Provo. We talked to some very interesting people on the train ride, one of whom was a guy who was going to school to learn french and sign language. He taught is how to say hello my name is ______ from the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints. It is pretty cool. I was also able to have a conversation with him in french and Spanish as well as English. All of these languages can really come in handy. He is fluent in English, Spanish, french, Arabic, Japanese, and ASL. CRAZY STUFF.

Anyway,, our p day is now on Friday since being moved to main campus, Sorry I didn't get the chance to tell you. We didn't get our Wednesday p day, and had to wait until to day to send these off. Anyway, link to the dropbox with new pictures is below, I love you all, I might be on for a little longer if you want to chat, and i will talk to you all next week!

Querria que estes aqui!

              Elder Ethan Runyan

P.S. I have been loving all of the packages, and letters that I have been receiving! they brighten up my days! and my companion, and district love all of the candy! 

HOLA OUTSIDE WORLD!

One week down in the mtc, and it is a huge difference from what Im used to! The schedule is awful, (wake up @ 6:30, breakfast @ 7:30, then 3 hours of class, lunch for 30 mins, and then an hour of workout time for b ball #ballislyfe jk #laxislyfe, then another 3 hour class period where we have to teach an investigator in our mission language which is awful and no bueno because I still cant speak Spanish very well, then dinner, and then another 3 hour class period of personal study, head back to our apartments, and then in bed at 10:30) Yes the food is awful. I feel like I am just eating out of boredom though.... Oh well.

We are currently in the Raintree apartments, which are super nice, and we have a kitchen, and 6 to an apartment, two to a decent size room. The little campus down here is nice, but super small. We get to leave campus on p days to go get Jamba at Brighams Landing though!!! Rumor has it that we will be moving up to main campus within the next week. Im glad we get to experience both though! i cant wait to have the true mtc experience! 

The first couple days were super hard, and two of the people from our district went home. One didn't even last 24 hours! lol. But all of the sitting inside and studying, really gets to you. I miss hanging with the homies, and fam, and definitely miss scoot rides. There are 4 zumas at the campus down here, and I want to go steal one for just a few hours... 

Mi companeros nombre es Elder Hansen, and he is from Rupert Idaho. He is a big wrestler, and is a totally funny guy. He reminds me a lot of Nigel. We had some somber news yesterday when we received word that his brother had passed away in a farming accident that morning. Terrible stuff. He isn't going home though, because he said that the gospel taught him that through the plan of salvation, families can be together forever, and he will be able to see his brother again. And if he chose to go home, he would be taking that knowledge away from people in mexico who might need that. He is a very spiritually strong guy. 

The Other guys are super cool too! There is elder Lempearle who is from South Jordan, and went to Bingham. he is 21 now, but he says he knows Rachel, and Sarah Nance! He is totally funny, and is a baller with a shock collar. Then there is elder Armstrong who lived in cali, and went to irvine. Big dude, and way chill too. He balls up pretty good, and is way good at spanish. Then there is elder McDonald from Hyrum Utah. He is hilarious, and has a hillbilly accent. He always carries his knife around, and wears a texas longhorns hat whenever possible. His companion is elder Prows, from provo. He is a little too exited about everything, and has been practically on a mission his whole life. He never had a cellphone, and has never been on social media. He sings, way too much, and makes the most obnoxious noises ever....... He is like an older, less funny, and way more overkill version of Kody. Then there is a trio. There is elder wixom from idaho, who is just super chill, and all he likes to do is raft and fish. Way nice guy, and tends to shut people out but i got talking to him the other day, and he really opened up, and is a way cool kid. Then there is elder Palmer from somewhere in utah, who is a total stud. He looks funny, but he played lacrosse at mountain crest, and he is super friendly and helpful when it comes to figuring out espanol. Then there is elder Russel Who is from Lancaster Pennsylvania, and is our DL and Gods Hallmonitor. He is going to have a hard time in the field, when things don't go his way. He is a good guy though. He ran xc (but a pansy version. His longest distance is like 6 miles.) and no, he doesn't know the Leitz family. 

People i have seen here in the MTC

Zach Chizholm

Taylor Frey

Matt Orlandi

Naomi Rhondeau

Eric Seximexi

Spencer Wilson

Eric Bowen.

I will be online for a little while longer, so feel free to email me back, but please dont reply to all!!!

Con Amor

     Elder Ethan Runyan. <3