Gish On A Mish: Week One at the MTC!

Dear Family and Friends,

I am absolutely loving the MTC! I love my district, teachers, and of course learning more about the Gospel of Jesus Christ! The new buildings are amazing... I cannot even imagine having to study in the dungeons. It is pretty crazy to think about all of my family members that served missions walking the same grounds as I am now.

I was pretty nervous the morning I was leaving, but Tom gave me a blessing of comfort which was really beautiful and helped me so much! It was so fun to spend time with family and friends in the days before i entered the MTC! It was so fun to have Donna, Susan, Samantha, and Katelyn drop me off! I cannot believe that Samantha will be joining me in a couple of weeks!

My Companion's name is Sister Harkness. She is from California. She is very sweet and humble. My district is really what makes the MTC so much fun! We have 6 elders going to Chicago, 4 going to DC South, and then all 4 sisters are going to Fort Collins. We are constantly laughing! It is great. One of my favorite experiences this week was when we met our branch presidency and everyone bore their testimonies. The spirit was so strong and I just know that every single one of them will do amazing things.

My teachers are Brother Lihm and Brother Hackman! They are so awesome! They make learning the gospel so interesting and fun! Brother Hackman served in Anaheim so he knows Christian Durney! I have seen so many people that I know this week! I saw Joe Bradley, Joe Lard, Ben, April Meaders, and Elijah Harmon!!

We were supposed to have a lesson with this girl named Whitney, but she didn't show up at the MTC that day so me and Sister Harkness just studied instead, but when people in our district asked how it went I told them that we invited her to be baptized and she said yes. I used her bio and created a pretty solid backstory. They believed me until after dinner when Elder Scoresby was like "I hear we have a liar in our midst" I laughed and asked him how he knew I was kidding and he said he didn't he just wanted to see if I would fess up. We were all dying laughing about it. Everyone in the district said I was very convincing. Of course, I apologized to them after class!

I really love the sisters in my district! We have so much fun together!! I have especially become close with Sister Fuge! I met her on instagram before my mission. Our teacher let us out of class early to go watch the eclipse. Elder Scoresby's dad sent him two pairs of glasses so we all just passed the glasses around and looked at it. It was so fun. It made our shadows look warped.

We got to watch Character of Christ by David A Bednar on Sunday. It is a beautiful talk about putting off the natural man and turning outward to serve others. I walked away feeling very guilty, but it really set the tone for the kind of missionary I want to be. I also got a calling in sacrament meeting, but they definitely called me Elder Gish, sooooo that was really funny.

I also have been giving Elder Eltsosie bean boozled jelly beans and I can't tell if he's getting bad ones because he keeps asking for more. I went to the temple with the sisters in my district this morning, as well as Sister Caten (our STL) her companion went home though, so she just hangs out with us. She is so cute and fun!! The Provo temple was amazing and I could not believe how massive it was compared to our cute little temple in OKC. I love the temple and like I said in my farewell, do whatever you need to do to be worthy to enter it!

Since I have a tablet, I can read my emails all week and I am allowed to repond my whole p-day so I would absolutely love to hear from anyone, whether they email or dear elder me!

I am forever changed because of the experiences that I have had here at the MTC and it has only been week one. I have found that the reason I came on my mission and the reasons I want to stay are very different things. I know that Christ is our savior and he is at the center of everything we believe! I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week!!