Week one in the MTC

What's up guys. I just finished up my first week in the MTC and it's honestly been an absolute blast. I'm just gonna go day-by-day in order to give the full story. Wednesday (1st Day): This day wasn't all that fun. It was a complete culture shock, they throw you into a classroom immediately and the spirit kind of just gets shoved down your throat. I'm not used to having spiritual lessons being done for an entire day, so that was very tiring. I also had to explain to anyone who ever say my name tag the origin of the last name EVERY single time, "Is that really your last name?!... Dude, you should totally marry a girl with the name Robin...etc" so yeah, just a joy to have to go through all that again. Everything kind of sucked for a little bit until I actually met my companion (Elder Pitcher) and a few of the Elders in my district. They were all super chill and we had a lot of similar interests which got me excited. The last thing I wanted was the weird guy of the whole group, and for anyone who knew my old college roommate, I already dealt with the weirdest it gets. We actually got to teach 3 investigators with a whole classroom of people and that kind of made me feel unprepared. I guess I just wanted to be able to answer all of their questions immediately, but I need to give myself some time to grow and learn. The beds are actually comfy which surprised all of us in my room. I slept decent the first night and that was also a comfort to me. Thursday: Probably the longest day in the MTC I've had so far. It was the day we actually started learning in our classrooms, but the problem with that is that's all we did. It was like 10 hours in a classroom learning about basic gospel principles, it was not ideal. But, the day got so much better when later that night Elder Rizzi brought out 6 nerf guns so we had a little tournament doing a sort of cowboy quick draw 1v1 competition. I didn't win, but that's obviously because they were cheating. Friday: This was a very enjoyable day except for one part. I was learning so much and starting to teach things I never knew I could teach. I was participating in class as much as I could, drinking a TON of water to stay focused since you can't have energy drinks in the MTC and that's all I ever drank when I worked at Walmart. I don't know, I was just so focused and ready to learn more, it's weird how the MTC does that to people. The sad part of this day was when that guy who brought out the nerf guns, Elder Rizzi, left the MTC at midnight due to some family and mental health problems. I really liked that dude, sad to see him go, so now I am put into a trio with Elder Rizzi's old companion Elder Virgo and I wasn't too happy about that. Saturday: Besides going to class and going to different learning workshops, today was the first day we were able to go to the gym and exercise. There are options between actually working out with weights upstairs, or you can go to the gym floor below and play either basketball, volleyball, or four square. I tried out basketball for a while, but I wasn't liking the shoes I had because they felt to big on me so I went to something that involves less movement: four square. Anyone who knows our family knows we play this all the time for family game night so I already knew what I was doing. I was kind of demolishing everyone in my path. All these people were so confident, these big bad elders, and then I come in and reality sets in. I got a pretty big reputation that day and I also got a pretty big target on my head because now everyone tries their hardest to get me out every single time. They even team up, but it's not too much to handle. Sunday: First Sunday in the MTC was very peaceful. I got to partake of the sacrament and that reminded me so much of my normal life. They do this scary thing though where they randomly call up people to speak and those will be the speakers for the day. You're supposed to always have a talk prepped because they give a topic earlier in the week, still really scary though. I didn't get called up luckily, but some people in my district did. There was a musical number by two guys with Cellos which blew my mind with how amazing it sounded. After sacrament was just priesthood meeting and that was taught by some newer Elders, but it was still really good. After church there is a lot of free time, so we all decided to do some Personal Revelation Time (PRT), or take a fat nap. We do quite a bit of PRT in the MTC and I ain't complaining. Monday: I got to teach my first lesson to a hired investigator in this program called TRC's. My companionship and I were nervous as heck because we are still learning how to teach and we weren't sure if we could teach with the spirit yet. Well, it's safe to say we actually killed it. The spirit was so strong in that room and I was actually the one to lead the discussion. The investigator, whose name was Paul, asked about Joseph Smith and I actually told him the whole story of the top of my head really well where he could fully understand. So I was really proud of that and the guy was in love with the 3 of us. He definitely is excited for next visit. Tuesday: Christmas Eve, which means a little bit of class in the morning and then the second half of the day is all presentations and devotionals on Christ's birth. The earlier devotional was actually a talk given by member of the seventy and it was a lot better than I was expecting. His message was great, he made the point that when we were in Heaven and deciding to choose between Heavenly Father's plan and Satan's plan, we chose Heavenly Father's plan even though we had no idea if Jesus Christ was going to be able to fulfill the Atonement. Satan's plan was very tempting, but we put all our money on Jesus Christ and it paid off infinitely. The next devotional was a play about Christ's birth done by a bunch of children and it was.. alright I guess. Idk, it felt very low budget but it is just a bunch of kids so I should just shut up and not complain. Wednesday: Christmas Day, such a spiritual experience. We got spoken to by a member of the twelve apostles, Elder D. Todd Christofferson. His talk was really good, it didn't blow me away like I was expecting it to, but it was still amazing. After him, we had another singing devotional done by the one and only; David Archuleta. He's so talented, so many girls were fangirling over am and I kind of was too because he sounds like an angel. He also gave a few experiences from his mission, and it's really funny because he's kind of awkward when he speaks so of course girls fall for him even more. Anyway, Christmas day was also a lot of free time and PRT. We play a whole floor nerf battle 3 on 3 tournament and that was so fricken fun. Well that's my week, not nearly what I expected the MTC to be like. I'm loving it here guys and I know it's where I need to be right now. Love you guys, Elder Jackson Batman

Hey mom, I made it

Hey mama, I'm supposed to send an email to tell you I made it to class just fine 😂. I am allowed to facetime on Christmas Day at some time that day and also my next P-Day is next Thursday the 26th. I feel really great right now, the teachers I have are amazing people. I was actually the first one to get to class so I talked with them for a while and they're super cool. Anyway, don't worry about me, I'll figure this all out. I always do. I love you, I know you got emotional right when I left but I'm in the right place in great hands. I can't reply to this email if you respond back just to let you know. Anyway, I'll see you on Christmas. Elder Jackson Batman