Entering the MTC

Bula Vinaka!

Hello to everyone from the MTC. My first few days here have been CRAZY. So busy. But soooo fun. I already LOVE the MTC. There are so many missionaries here. 600 new missionaries arrived with me on Wednesday! So right when I when you pull into the MTC there are tons of missionaries acting as "Hosts", helping all the new missionaries unload their luggage and escort them around to get our nametags, books, find our room, and take us right to our first class. Take a wild guess who my Host was... Elder Will Burchett!! (One of my best friends during high school) It was so fun to see him and talk to him! I've also seen TONS of my Olympus buddies, including Matt and Spencer. They all look so happy, and are all doing great! They're the veterans to me... Haha.

Anyways, everything happened SO fast. We fit so much in our first few days. The VERY first thing you do when you arrive is you walk in the front doors, and they hand you your name tag. So it hit me right away! I looked down and saw the name tag on my chest and thought.... Holy cow. I'm a missionary. I had to keep telling myself that throughout the day. 

Like I said, we went right to our first class, which was language class. I think I got lucky with my teacher, because from what I've heard from all the other missionaries, all the other language teachers don't speak a LICK of English the first day. My teacher helped us out a little in English. :) The Fijian language is INSANE, but I already know how to bear a simple testimony and how to say a prayer! So that's good. I LOVE my companion, Elder Nelson. He's from Stansbury Park, Utah. He's the nicest guy you'll ever meet. Loves to smile. My zone, which includes the Fijian, Samoan, Tongan, and Marshallese missionaries is EASILY the best zone in the MTC. We had zone prayer my first night, and after a spiritual thought and prayer we had a zone "Group Hug". Which was just basically 70 huge Polynesians and a few little white guys screaming at the top of our lungs and hugging. 

One of the most significant moments of my first few days, was our opening orientation. All 600 missionaries came together and the MTC President spoke to us. Our closing hymn was "We'll Bring the World His Truth". But as we got to the chorus they changed it a little bit. We sang it like this:

We are as the Armies of Helaman.

We have been taught in our youth,

And we ARE NOW the Lord's missionaries

to bring the world His truth.

I got goosebumps when I sang those words. I looked around me and saw all the Elders and Sisters with bright beaming faces and I was hit with so much spirit. I knew right then that that I'm doing the right thing. 

So all in all it has been pretty much the longest 2 days of my life, but the most exciting. I can't wait to keep learning the language, and to keep learning how to be a missionary. I love this gospel so much. Talk to you guys next week!

Au lomani iko!

Elder Jaxson Miller