Aloha

Hey everybody,

        It's me your son and brother who is in the MTC. Things are going great and I'm learning lots. Mom, you would be proud of me to know that I never leave my room in the morning without making my bed first.

        Things started a little rough  on Wednesday. They threw us right into the fire Wednesday night to teach an investigator. There were about 30 companionships in a room just trying to get a feel of how to start or what to teach without any real instruction from anyone. Honestly I felt a little over my head, but I feel like it set the tone for studying. I love all the study time we get and the Spirit has helped me learn a ton!

        We are now teaching our 2 teachers who are posing as investigators that they met and taught on their missions. Its been a great learning experience to see how the basic things that make perfect sense to us as members are totally foreign to them! I am learning you have to really break it down and  teach them like they are new to primary. Preach my gospel is incredible. Its very descriptive and explains doctrine into the simple truths that they are.

My companion is Elder Penatani, he is 24 years old and from Tonga, but moved to Sacramento around age 10. We get along pretty well and aren't butting heads too much.
 Our district has 10 elders and no sisters. Looking around, I feel like there are 5 that I would just love to be companions with. I think I could really gel with them and do some great things, so hopefully that means in Hawaii I should get along great with everyone.

        The devotional last night was great. We had sister Wixom, the general primary president come talk to us. She had us sing some primary songs and had some great messages. The Spirit was as strong as I think I have ever felt it. I decided to follow the rest of the district and join the choir ha ha. I'm not a great singer as I'm sure you guys know but it was a great time and I'm glad I did it. I also happened to sit next to Elder Kyle Collinsworth and his companion (got a chance to pick his brain about basketball and learning Russian). He seems like a really great guy. I don't think ill be joining ward choir when I come home though ha ha, but I guess we will see.

       

There are lots of familiar faces around. Lots of people I played basketball with through high school, and many from Grantsville. Elder Levine is one my zone leaders and his room is about 3 doors down from mine. So that's nice that there is a familiar face that close by. Its been such a blessing to me to have the same meal and gym times as Elder Hutchins. He is great to play basketball with and is a great reassurance when I have questions or think about home a little bit. It was great to see him Wednesday afternoon as I had only been here about 10 minutes.

        We just got back to the temple and that was nice for sure. Great way to start P-day. I've taken a few pictures and I'll probably print out a few next week to send home. This is my email for you guys to email me if you would like, although I only get 30 minutes on the computer and I would like to spend that time replying not reading at least while in the MTC: www.dearelder.com is great, I got all of your messages the day you sent them and its nice  to have message to read so I can think about what I would like to say in this email.

        Great to hear about Natalie and the competition and all that. That's awesome! Thanks for the cookies and message. I enjoyed seeing Eric Hales as well. Thanks for the advice Jake and the letter you sent. Thanks for the letter and newspaper mom and dad. I enjoyed that as well. If you don't mind, could you send me some pens? I didn't bring many and could use more. I also wouldn't mind if you sent my Carolina shorts and that blue t-shirt as well.

        Well, my time is running out so I better wrap this up. I don't remember dad or Jake's email or George and Kimi's so forward this to them.

        Maybe send a shout out from my Facebook to my friends to send me a message on dearelder.com and be sure to have them leave a return mailing address so I can reply. I would love to here from them all! That would be much appreciated. Well hope all is going well where you guys are at. I know I'm being blessed here and you guys have nothing to worry about me.

Love you guys!

Aloha,

Elder Tripp