Week 4 at the MTC

Holy cow!!!!!!!!

I can't believe it's already been a week since my last letter to y'all! It's just flown by like crazy!!!!! I hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving!!!! I know I did. But first, my week started well. I am now in a "tripanionship" since my District Leader left for the Peru MTC, and so I have another companion named Elder McKinley. He's a total goof from Oregon, who's totally into Oregon football, and is just a huge dork(not like me, in a different way.) So, life is good. No visa yet, either. Still waiting for any word. I wouldn't be surprised if I am here in Provo until January.

So, my Thanksgiving was totally EPIC!!!! The absolute best I could have asked for outside from my Thanksgivings at home. We started the day off with a fireside(after breakfast of course.) and we had the best speaker possible besides the Prophet(rumor is that he'll be here for Christmas)- Elder Jeffery R. Holland!!!!! He's my favorite apostle to listen to! He taught us so many good things, powerful things too. The quote that he said to me that stuck the most is that thorough missionary work, we are walking ALONGSIDE Jesus Christ, so he doesn't have to work as hard to save the souls of the children of men. That quote just brought new meaning to my mission. It brought a whole new perspective to my work and time I'm spending serving the Lord. After having the MTC bawl our eyes out with Elder Holland's words, we got our Thanksgiving dinner! It was probably the least I've ever eaten at Thanksgiving, jaja! It was good, though. And yes, I did get my pumpkin pie, and plenty of it. :) Then we got the opportunity to have another meeting in which we found out what our service project was for the day. We got to make backpacks that would be filled with school supplies for children in impovershed areas of the world(including the US). I ended up drawing the outlines for the other Elders and Sisters to cut the squares out. We ended up making over 33,400 backpacks! Such a cool experience. Then we just really relaxed the rest of the day. To finish the day we had a thankful fireside in which about 50 Elders and Sisters got to tell everyone what they were thankful for. It was an awesome day.

The rest of the week has been the same ol' same ol'. I've been studying the language and the scriptures. I'm now well into 3rd Nephi in my reading of the Book of Mormon, and I hope to be into Ether by this time next week. I'm loving reading the scriptures because they show me how I can learn from others and become a better person in general. On Sunday evening, we got to watch "Legacy", the old pioneer movie that we used to watch in the Joseph Smith building. It's a lot cheesier than I remember, jajaja! It made me laugh. It's still a good movie, though.

I'm still healthy, I'm not fat(I work out everyday), I love getting your letters!!!!!!

Mom- I would send pics, but these computers don't allow you to attach cameras or anything to them. You're going to have to wait until I'm in the field for pics. Sorry!!!!!

Dad- Hope Brighton's treating you well. It was awesome to wake up the other morning with snow on the ground! I hope your job search is going well too! I pray for you every day.

Alyssa- Thanks for your letter!!!!! I'm glad to hear you had a good Thanksgiving. It's nice to hear that I'm missed(not in a prideful way, lol). Tell Angie she is more than welcome to write me.

EMI- Thanks for letting me know how your first week of school was. "Stupid, stupid counselor" was my favorite quote in that letter. Let me know how everything goes.

Thanks to all for writing me!!!!!!! Don't forget to write!

I love you all!!

Elder Christian Craig