Made it Through the First Week...Barely

Hello to all…

I hope you are all doing well.  Well it has officially been a week and it has been the most stressful but spiritual week of my life.  The schedule has been so crazy, you pull 16 hour days and by about day 4 it really begins to hit you with burn out and exhaustion.  The schedule has been insane.  Think of your most crammed packed scheduled day ever then times it by like a 100.  With that you sometimes really get so physically spiritually and emotionally exhausted you feel like you have been run over by a freight train. Before I forget I had a really crappy first night sleep but that is expected. 

My companion has been awesome.  His name is Elder Larsen and he is from Everett, Washington.  The other 2 that are in my room are Elder Whipple from Minersville, UT and his companion is Elder Lewis from Spanish Fork. 

Class has been a real struggle for me the past few days.  It is 6 hours a day broken up into 3 hour blocks.  Our teachers are Brother Lisonbee and Brother Godfrey.  They are really nice.  The first few days were pretty easy because I was not really tired and I was able to focus and I was not really homesick.  But now that exhaustion and homesickness are setting in it has been really hard to try and focus. 

In class we have really been focusing on how to meet peoples’ needs and apply the lessons to their needs.  That has been one of the biggest challenges for me to overcome.  Brother Lisonbee has really been trying to push me out of my comfort zone to try and get me to do that.  I have prayed really hard to Heavenly Father to help me with that but it is still my biggest challenge.  I know eventually it will come over time and Heavenly Father will help me get better at that. 

We have been doing tons of role plays which have been fun, but unfortunately they kind of get boring after a while.  Also, as a companionship we have been teaching investigators.  Our investigator is John (really it is Brother Lisonbee role playing someone.)  That is where I really struggle when I get into that situation.  I have been really good at bearing testimony and teaching the doctrine, but I struggle with asking questions to get to know his needs. 

As I was getting stressed out and homesick I was told by the zone leaders just to make it to Sunday for church and make it to sacrament and then I would have time to relax.  That reminded me of a talk by Elder Wirthlin called Sunday Will Come.  In it he talked about Christ and how on that Friday as he was crucified, he was humiliated and bruised. I think about how terribly hard it must have been for Him.  But His despair did not linger because Sunday came and he was resurrected.  He uses that in the context of how we all have our own Fridays in life and our world may be shattered into a million little pieces and it may seem really hard, but Sunday really will come.  That is how I felt before Sunday but after Sunday I felt so much better. 

The devotionals have been really amazing.  We had one Sunday night and then one on Tuesday.  The one on Tuesday was the first devotional in the MTC history held at the Marriott Center.  You may have seen something about it on the news.  That walk over there was amazing.  Getting out of the confinement of the MTC was good and it was amazing to walk over there.  Unfortunately I don't really have time to talk about them.  However, on the way back the soccer camp kids were walking around and they were so excited to see 3000 missionaries walking…seeing the smiles on their faces made my day and was probably one of the highlights of my week.

Well I am out of time, so I love you all.

Love,

Elder Muir

Update...Zach has to be at the MTC travel office at 9:00 pm on Sunday, June 16th.  We hope to hear from him by phone around 10 or 11 pm that night.  His flight leaves @ 1:00 am (ouch) and goes through Atlanta.  He arrives in Pittsburgh Monday morning at 9:00 am. 

Today (Friday, June 14th) is the last day to use DearElder.com to send him a letter at the MTC.  Letters have to be submitted to DearElder.com by noon in order to be delivered.  He would love to hear from you before he leaves.