First Week in the MTC

Hey everyone,

The MTC is way different than what I expected. But it’s great. I don’t love the MTC, but I don’t dislike it. I came into the MTC with 823 missionaries. It’s very busy. Everyone tells the new missionaries, “Just to make it to Sunday, then it will get better. So the first few days felt like weeks. But since Sunday until today (Wednesday) the week has flown by. I love my district. Four of the Elders are going to the same mission as me. The others are going to West Virginia, and Arizona. My companion is pretty cool. He is from Orem Utah, and we get along very well, his name is Elder Hickman. My teachers are Sister Hoyt and Sister Miller. They both act as investigators too for us to teach.

We do something here called TRC which is when you get to meet with investigators that are either members or nonmembers. My companion and I think that one investigator named Grace is a nonmember and the other named Brice who we think is a member. So our first lesson with Brice didn’t go well. We didn’t focus the lesson on Christ enough and we just couldn’t get him to recognize the spirit. So after that lesson I was discouraged about my teaching skills, even though it was my first lesson. I just thought I would have done better. So I took it as motivation to make me study the lesson more and focus the lesson more on Christ. Cuz when you do that, it brings the spirit more. So later that evening we had our first lesson with Grace.  It went amazing, she was able to feel the spirit and she wanted to be able to feel it more in her life. So we invited her to get baptized and she said, "YES"!! We were so excited. And she has set up a date to get baptized on the 27 of this month. It’s awesome, we both were able to see how much a lesson can change and feel if you just listen to the spirit while teaching.

I can honestly say that being here is hard, but I can testify that my testimony has strengthened tremendously. I also can say that I have probably double the amount of knowledge I have about the gospel.

Today is p-day, so we went to the temple and I was able to do a session with my district. It was awesome cuz the film was my mom favorite film. I felt like she was there with me. It was awesome.

So everyone always talks about the food here, and they say it’s bad. But I love it. It’s really good. I’m kind of sad though cuz I thought I was gaining weight, but when I weighed in I was the same. So I guess I need to eat more if I’m going to prepare myself for the cold winters of Minnesota ha-ha. Also, in my district some people get callings and I have been called to be the online coordinator. Which is super funny cuz I’m am the worst at computers. God definitely has a sense of humor.

So yesterday we had a devotional from one of the Twelve. It was Elder Neil L. Anderson. It was so cool to see the spirit that HE BRINGS when he walks in the door. It’s an experience that I will never forget. He said, "Miracles must be a part of missions," which I think is so true. The Lord works in mysterious ways. Also my whole district has joined choir so we were able to all sing for him. It was very neat.

The other cool thing that I’m pretty sure all missionaries in the MTC are able to watch, is a video of Elder Bednar and its titled Characters of Christ. It is amazing. I’m definitely going to watch it again. So what he focused the talk about was how Christ always turned outwards when the natural man would want to turn inwards. Meaning that when something during Christ’s ministry was hard, he would go and help others instead of doing something for himself like we all would have. That is a goal of mine for my mission. It is to help others when my lie gets tough. Also Bednar taught about how we need to not only have a testimony, but become truly converted.

Well I will just end with my testimony. I know that this church is true, I know that God loves and knows each one of us individually. I know that there isn’t any better place for me to be right now than here. Eventhough it’s hard, tiring, and I want to be with my family and friends, this is the place for me. I know that we have the restored gospel on the earth today and that Joseph Smith translated the book of Mormon through the power that God gave him.

I love you all and miss you. I’m so excited to hear from some of you, and I have loved all the letters I have gotten.

Love, 

Elder Schauers

P.S. Having a name tag is pretty sweet!!​