Week 1 at MTC Completed!

Alex has now finished his first week at the MTC. He is doing "fabulously" and "splendidly" and is really feeling the spirit of missionary work!

The first evening at the MTC he was assigned a companion. As you may know, missionaries work together in pairs at all times. Alex's companion in the MTC is Elder Lokeni Rocky Utai (pronounced "U tie"). Elder Utai is Samoan, but comes from New Whales, Australia. He and Alex seem to make a great team. Alex said that Elder Utai is "amazingly enthusiastic and is a great help in pressing forward."

Alex's biggest struggle right now and for weeks to come is the Japanese language. At the MTC, they waste no time in introducing the language to the new missioaries. Talking about his first day in the MTC, he said, "we sang 'I am a Child of God' tonight in Japanese!" Later in his letters home this week Alex said, "Japanese is such a struggle for me, but in some ways I'm glad it's such a huge challenge."

Alex's first "preparation day" or "P-day" as it is known by the missionaries is Friday. So every Friday, Alex will get some personal time to take care of laundry, letters home, recreation and other personal tasks. Unfortunately on his first P-day, there were so many meetings he had to attend that he only ended up with about 45 minutes of personal time. Luckily since he had only been there a couple of days, he was able to forego the laundry and write his parents a letter! Good choice Alex!

Alex is very thankful for the prayers and support being provided on his behalf. He says that he can feel them, they help sustain him and he hopes they will continue.

Alex is very excited about going to Japan. He mentioned that some of the church leaders who recently visited Japan have stated, "This is the era of Asia." The growth of the church in this part of the world has enormous potential and Alex is excited to be a part of it.

Special Note: If you would like to send a short message to Alex, simply click the comment link and leave a short message followed by the notation "(msg for Alex)" and I will see that he gets it.