Leaving the MTC--July 27

Well, I am excited for the trip. It is really weird finally leaving the MTC. It both feels like I just got here and I have been here for my whole life. It will be interesting to see how much I understand and can say out on the field in Spanish. I am hoping I have a good trainer!

Well, this is what I have been doing this week. My comp left on early Sunday morning. He is going to Argentina. They had 27 hours of plane travel, then 18 hours of bus travel. I am glad I am only going to Cali. It took all day yesterday to pack everything up; I have so much stuff.

Travel Plans

Well, not much has happened in the last week. Every week is the same here in the MTC. But one more week and this next week is a little bit different. Ok, one of the few things that happened this week is a pipe burst in the bathroom at about 10:25 at night. It was way funny and everyone was all giddy, especially my comp. Ha-ha. He is funny. Nothing out of the normal happens here, so it was a special occasion. 

We got our travel plans, I am leaving the MTC on Wednesday.  Any letters have to get here on Tuesday, Dear elders by Monday. Everything else, send it to Fresno at the mission home. I don’t know where I will be living yet. We had a travel plan "party." It was a no sound party. Ha-ha. Elder West got sick on Friday, so we stayed in the resident hall on Friday morning. That was good to get extra study time. O we convinced Elder Petersen, the tall one at 6’8”, that a snipe was real on Monday. Ha-ha, way funny. We might be going snipe hunting soon. Ha-ha.

I was in choir again on Tuesday. We got recorded on some African missionary film thing, so I might be in some movie. The Devotional was about the Book of Mormon. It was way good like always. The spirit is way strong here in the MTC.  Well, that is my week. Sorry it is not long.

MTC Records

This week has been a very non interesting week. I have gone to class, studied, ate and that is about it. I am continuing to teach my progressive investigator, Jonathan, we are making good progress on him. He is going to church, loving it and really interested in everything we say. It is really great. 

Another teacher left because he had a lot of things going on with his family. This was early last week, forgot to put that into the letter. So we have had lots of subs. But I like subs; they bring in a new way of looking at things. It is great. We have had 13 teachers, subs and real teachers, at my time here. I think that is an MTC record. Ha-ha. People usually just have 2 teachers, with subs maybe 4.  Our teacher on Saturday just forgot about us and never showed. That was funny, but we just studied more.

I am ready to get out into the field, but I need these 2 weeks more of studying and learning Spanish.  
As a side note, the gym has been closed for refinishing, which also means no basketball for a couple weeks. I have been playing soccer. O boy, I should have taken lessons from my brothers before I came. I will be glad when the gym opens up on Monday again.

The fireside was on repentance was really good!! The devotional on Tuesday was about Christ and what he did for us. It was soooo good. Everything here is so spiritual.

Elder Melanson and his new Mission President

On lds.org there's a news article about the new mission presidents training at the MTC.  TJ's new mission president was there.  There are two glimpses of Elder Melanson on the video while the Fresno missionaries are meeting with President and Sister Gelwix.  A fun treat to see him and get to know a little more about his mission president!  Here's the link to the news article and the video.

http://lds.org/church/news/new-mission-presidents-blessed-for-exercise-of-faith?lang=eng

Joining the Choir

Well this week has been a really good week, but I am so ready to get out of the MTC and start really doing missionary work. Well last week was my last week that I could go to the temple because they have it closed for cleaning. But it was a really good last session. I love the temple; it really makes my week so much better. For the TRC this week we did comp. switches. It was good, but way different; it caught me by surprise. I hope we do it again and I will be more prepared and be able to say more and be able to know what is going on the whole time. But it was a good learning experience and really fun!

Well I had my first Spanish mistake. Elder West and I were teaching our progressive investigator about baptism and he asked if he had to see God while he was in the water. We did not understand and so we said yes. Ha-ha. Ya, we had a good laugh and had to fix it up the next time. It was way funny. The teacher called us in after and told us what we had said to him. Ha-ha.

On Thursday, we had a Spanish Feast or English Fast. It was way fun and way good! But I had the biggest headache after translating for a whole day. We are doing another one tomorrow. I am excited. I am really starting to get used to the Spanish language. But I am still not very good. The verb conjugations are really hard and different.

Utah is starting to get green; the snow has almost melted from all the peaks finally!! We had snow just a month ago at the MTC. People are complaining it is way hot. I love it!!

Well Monday was probably the worst 4th of July I have ever had in my life. We did not do anything. It was just a normal day at the MTC. But I guess that is how missionary work goes. We celebrated on Saturday the 2^nd, which was cool. We had a speaker talk about the US and its freedoms, and then had bagpipers. It was cool, but not a real 4^th. Then we watched the Stadium of Fire fireworks from the MTC. It was alright.

We played district soccer on Friday. It was fun. I am so bad a soccer. Ha-ha. O and on Sunday we had a really good fireside. Jenny Oaks Baker came to play the violin. She is so good. It was a good thing to hear music for a change. We can't listen to music here.

Well yesterday I joined the missionary choir. It was way cool. I am not the best singer, but I am good enough for the choir. It was a good break on the normal schedule. I bet my friends are a little surprised I joined a choir. Ha-ha. We had the best fireside yet. An emeritus seventy talked about obedience and the spirit. It was the best talk I have heard here. Obedience is the key to everything.

Well I love you all!

Elder TJ Melanson

Missionary Blessings

Studying in class with Elder Carlson

This week has been a good week, but very up and down. It seems that I wake up every morning down and then my Father in Heaven turns around my day and by the end of the day it has been a good day. It is so evident how I am blessed here as a missionary.

A week ago I got to go to the temple again and my comp, we were on splits so it was Elder Covey, forgot his temple recommend. So we had to walk back and go to a later session. It was a blessing because I got to know him better and know he is the new district leader. We taught the older district, it was nice because they helped out my Spanish and teaching while I taught.  I have been running for gym with Elder Blake. It has been nice; it reminds me of my runs at BYU. It is weird being in Provo in such a different setting. I look at the Y every day and it brings back memories. Haha. They are all good and I am glad.



Elder Blake and Elder Covey



I gave the best lesson I ever gave. We taught one of our progressive investigators and it was amazing; the spirit was so strong. We taught about how god loves him as a person. It was great.  We sat in silence for about 3 minutes. I never knew how powerful silence was.

I got to meet my mission president. It was great. He is such a great guy. He has so much love for everyone. There will be a movie on lds.org of us, I think. Before that, Elder Bednar spoke to all of us about being preach my gospel missionaries. It was a great talk!! So inspiring. Every talk here is inspiring and lifts you up. I have never enjoyed talks that much. I pray that I will get the message I need from the speaker. I think it helps a lot.

O cleaning this week. I cleaned the bathroom floors, which includes the women’s bathroom. And we found a secret room with beds in the girl’s bathroom. I did not know girl’s bathrooms had beds in them. I knew about couches, but not beds. It was kinda funny. That was my funny story for the week.

God has also really humbled me here as well. I have definitely seen my weaknesses. I have a few quotes when I write a real letter.

Love, Elder TJ Melanson

Our Best Lesson

Well on last Wednesday, Elder West and I taught our best lesson we have ever taught. It was at the TRC, so it was in English about the plan of salvation. For the first time we taught an equal amount and I did not control the whole lesson. It was great!! It was such a good feeling to teach a good lesson.

One of our progressive investigators dropped us on Thursday. He asked about polygamy the time before and he was just in a mood where he wanted to prove us wrong, so we did not answer the way we wanted. So he kicked us out. It was a great learning experience. I now know what to do if that stuff comes up again. I went on a run on Friday with a couple of elders from my district. We just spoke Spanish. It was a good confidence builder and really taught me a lot. We played a Jeopardy game on Saturday with one of our teachers. It was way fun!!

I love Sundays. It is a great study day!! I studied faith this week. It was great. I love studying the gospel. It is something I have definitely learned to love. On Monday, we had service. The mission presidents are coming today, so we had special cleaning. We first put up the flags for all the nations. Then we scrubbed bricks. Very interesting service. I thought they only cleaned bricks in prison. Haha jk it was fun. We had a sub teacher 2 months of the mish. It was great. His testimony was so inspiring. He made me so pumped to go teach the Latin people. They are a great people and I have already started to love them.

We got our new progressive investigator from Hermano Kohn. His name is Jonathan. It is cool. I like him a lot better. He is in a band and has lots of questions.

Yesterday was a great day. Hermano Johnson was very inspirational. He is such a great guy and a great teacher. The devo was amazing. It got me ready to go serve the Lord and walk with the Lord, always ready to open my mouth, so He can fill my mouth with His words.

Well, that’s my week.