Week 1 - Missionary Training Center, Provo, Utah

Bonjour,

I have so much to say but I want all of you to know that I am doing very well and that I have learned so much here at the MTC. I have never felt closer to God then in these last few days. The first day was super crazy! I was pretty much running the whole time as soon as I got out of Uncle Bryce's car. We spend most of the day learning language, teaching and studying. Everything revolves around our missionary purpose which is 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"! Everything we do is something that helps us fulfill our purpose.

My companion is awesome! His name is Elder Taylor, he is from Riverton Utah and he really likes art and working out. We get along really well. We are in a district with three other Elders going to Lyon who are in a three person companionship. There are three other Districts in my Zone. The people in my Zone go to church with us and are in class rooms and residences next to each other. We also eat together and have the same schedules. Two of the other districts are going to Tahiti and are learning French and Tahitian. The other one is going to Canada. It is a bit of an adjustment being with my companion literally 24/7 but it is fun and I really like everyone in my district. We have a teacher for about 3 hours a day but the rest of the time we just do everything on our own. We are all pretty good at staying focused and working hard. 

I almost forgot to tell you that I saw about 10 of my friends from BYU and Ryan Doss! It has been super fun seeing people around the MTC. There are a lot more people here that I know than I thought. Elder Doss, Elder Gibson, Elder Ritter and Elder Thomas.

French is going really well. Sometimes it can be discouraging to think about how far I still have to go but one thing I learned is that it is better to think of how far we have come and not how far we have to go. This can also apply to all of our lives in thinking about our spiritual progress in coming closer to Christ. One way we learn French in the MTC is by SYL. "speak your language". This means that the teacher pretty much only speaks in French! It is super hard but he makes sure we understand the important stuff and it has helped me so much. My teacher said that the reason missionary's learn languages so fast is because 1. we learn all day every day. 2. we have a purpose for learning the language. and 3 the most important reason is that we have the Gift of Tongues  which means that God helps us learn faster because we are doing what he wants us to do. One thing that my Branch president told us that I thought was really cool is that I am EXACTLY where God want me to be and doing EXACTLY what God wants me to be doing. 

I really like the 2nd reason; we learn the language so fast because we have a purpose. When we learn French we learn the words and phrases we need as missionaries. On the 3rd day we taught our first lesson with a pretend investigator named Nicholas. (one thing I love about French is that instead of calling the people who are looking into the church Investigators, we call them "amis de l'eglise" which means "friends of the Church" . I like this way a lot more because I think it is a much happier and less formal definition.) Every day we teach Nicholas and we do it in 100% French. When we study French or the scriptures in our personal study we are supposed to focus on how we can help Nicholas. This is exactly how we will be studying in the Mission field so it is a super great way to prepare. When we study, it is not just to learn French but to be able to communicate with Nicholas and help him come unto Christ. 

So far It has been a full week since coming to the MTC and my favorite day was defiantly Sunday. P day is today and it is a close second. Sunday truly was a day of rest because we have been super busy and working really hard. We listened to a devotional given my Elder Bednar on Christmas in the MTC and it was the best talk I have ever heard. He talked about how Christ is our perfect example and we should always be looking to be more like Him. One attribute that Christ had was that he was ALWAYS looking outward and helping others. He never did anything for himself even is the most painful moments of His life. I am so happy to be here. My experience so far has been super humbling and is really hard work but I have never been happier. I hope all of you are doing well. 

Love

Elder Bake