Perth Here I Come!!

We may not get a P-day this week because we leave on Monday for Perth. There are 5 of us going to Perth and our flight leaves at approximately at 8:10 pm on Monday (7/3/17) from Salt Lake City, UT. I will arrive at the airport as early as 3:00 pm. I will most likely call home around 5:00 pm my time if I can so around 4:00 pm your time. 

Everything is going great here. I love the MTC. We are now back in the cafeteria and the food has gotten a little better. I am thankful for the packages and the shirts. Especially for the Blackfish one. Apparently Blackfish is a gang out of Orem and so I have been receiving weird looks but I don't mind. 

I am set to leave for Australia and have not heard about any visa problems so I would assume that I am in the clear. We had the longest class this week which was called infield orientation which was a meeting that took 9 hours that could have been finished in 1. 

Out of the three TRC investigators that we have, all three of them have accepted the commitment to be baptized at some point which is super cool. Tell Matt and Hunter that the key to having a good time at the MTC is all attitude and waking up right at 6:30.

The MTC Rollercoaster

It has been a stress filled week. There are lots of things going on that make us look inward. By Wednesday I would say that all of the Elders in our district, so Elders Daggrafnreid , Mackliet, Elms, Allen, Colby and I all had a "come to Jesus" experience in which we just broke down and questioned everything in the gospel. The reason that I think the MTC is hard on missionaries is because they breakdown the confidence you have in teaching and don't give you enough time to prepare mentally.
The problem that I am having the most is having time to prepare for things in addition to all of the responsibilities that I have as a Zone Leader.

Our TRC or Teaching Resource Center lessons with possible investigators are going well. we taught Sam and Koji last week and they were just amazing. We were able to commit Sam to baptism and he said yes after some hard grilling interview questions of his own. He asked me and Elder Colby if he could be saved by Christs atonement even if he has killed people while in his service in the military. Crazy stuff. We do not have Sam again this week but we have a new investigator named Amy she is pretty cool and prepared to be baptized so we are hoping for good things; we also have Koji again which makes it fun, he is probably mine and Elder Colby's favorite because he can just talk for days and has interesting insight because he is Buddhist.

The MTC experience is a great one. It is filled with a lot of ups and downs. It is interesting to see how many people of our zone that we watch over are utilizing the priesthood. One of the things that we emphasize is priesthood blessings and I can say that over the course of the past two weeks that there hasn't been a day in which we did not give one either to our Elders or our Sisters. The zone leaders before me and Elder Colby where in charge said that at the MTC priesthood blessings should be given out like candy so that people can be happy and feel of there sweet blessings; I thought that was pretty neat.

Over the very recent past and future there has been a lot of hustle and bustle going on at the MTC. The new Mission Presidents from all around the world are being taught and are touring the new facilities. We were taught yesterday by the new mission president of the Adriatic North Mission which is the east side of the Mediterranean sea next to Italy which was pretty cool. Today we probably will get to have a devotional from an Apostle which is also really exciting. They said out of the first presidency and the twelve, that only the Prophet had not been around the grounds which is super exciting.

Sunday feels like an eternity in the MTC we started off with a bunch of meetings and then me and Elder Colby had to teach on the fall, creation, agency. Guess who was in there participating in the lesson. The MTC president! That was pretty crazy. He and the Branch president kept giving us death glares and didn't participate in the lesson so Elder Colby and I thought that we were donzo. apparently though we gave the best lesson that he has heard at the MTC and so all is well.

My weeks feel like days and my days feel like weeks. The MTC is like a roller coaster and has a lot going on all of the time . Peace and Love, wish everyone the best at their camps.

Love
Elder Gunter

Life at the MTC!

Life in the MTC has been pretty fun these last couple of days. We are still getting settled into our first P-Day and weekly schedule ha-ha. All of the Laundry was full :( 

This week has gone by fairly quick and has been a blast. The exercise time has been a real help. It helps us focus and take things one step at a time. The food transition has been rough though. Cafeteria food is nothing like the food from home! ha-ha. 

The teachers I have are Brother Myers and Sister Bingham and they are just the best. Unless we are doing a role play where they are progressing investigators, then they can literally be Satan. We just started our TRC's this week which are like members who are acting like they where before converting which is super cool. We are teaching a Samoan named Sam and a Japanese Buddhist attending BYU named Koji. They are pretty awesome and the lessons in those discussions are going well. 

The actual classroom material kinda sucks but you know it is whatever. The new facilities are amazing though. We have the new T4 building for class and the resources that they give us have been super cool such as awesome murals and scriptures to the ponder rooms at the end of each hall that lightly play music and have awesome nature art. 

The only devotional that we have had so far was actually on Sunday and given by Donny Osmond which was pretty cool and pretty unorthodox. We also got to have movie time after the devotional which is awesome we have a wide variety of options to watch such as Meet the Mormons and movies on Christ and what He did for us. It is definitely nice to get away today though. 

My first week has been crazy, me and my companion, Elder Colby, where called to be Zone Leaders over about 50 kids going all over the Pacific and the US which is pretty cool. The people in my District are amazing though and that has made the transition all the more easier. We have Elder Allen who is just funny and always super happy, Elder Elms a chill guy from Cali who went to BYU-H, Elder Dagraffnried who is a basketball player who is laid back and really likes to have fun and make it his own. Elder Mackliet is the king of all one liners. Elder Colby honestly reminds me of Shea Sullivan so much its uncanny. Then the Sisters, Sister Walker and Sister Seversen are amazing and one of them is a recent convert to the church which I think is super cool. Sister S. is really sassy and from Texas and Sister Walker is from the Spokane area. Sister Falletoguoi is a Samoan and 27 which is unreal but she is the most genuine human out there and her Comp Sister Jackson from Cedar City are the perfect match of weird and happy. Sorry for the no pictures this week I didn't get to it and no one remembered to send me any! ha-ha!

My washing machine just broke down on me and so my clothes were laying in a puddle of sopping wet detergent and it was not good.  Elder Colby was gracious enough to help me wring them out but they were still crazy wet.  Going to the dryer so fingers crossed that they actually are dry!

Missionary Training Center - Day 1

After an emotional few days as Chance was saying goodbye to friends and family, Elder Gunter entered the Missionary Training Center (MTC). Though this blog will consist of letters, pictures, and etc. from Elder Gunter with little editorial from anyone, we wanted to get out some early pictures of Elder Gunter on Day 1 of his mission. He was excited and ready to get out and do the work! Enjoy the pictures, limited as they are.