Sep 25, 2012

Got my mail fixed! At first it wasn't working today either, so Elder R and I went to the technology services offices and they got it figured out. Funny thing though--the guy working in the tech lab's *first* name was Ladd! I've never heard of anybody with the first name of Ladd. He was a big polynesian fellow, and said his mom had met another polynesian person with the first name Ladd and liked the name so she chose it. He's never heard of anybody with the *last* name of Ladd. The world is a funny place sometimes.

But the important part is that I'm writing my email now!

There are a few items of note this week. The first is that the new elders get in tomorrow! And sisters--there will actually be more sisters in this small group of 20 or so coming in that we have right now in our larger group. Also, apparently, there aren't any people going to Brisbane, just Sydney I think.

On a related note, there are still I think maybe 2 of the older generation who have yet to leave. They are going tomorrow I believe. It's the New York South missionaries who stayed a week longer than the rest of their generation.

We had one major change to our district this week: Elder H had to return home to get a few things sorted out before coming back on his mission. It was sad to see him leave but I know it was a tough, and very brave choice he made. He's a great guy, I know when he works everything out and comes back to the MTC he'll make an excellent missionary. Elder F2, his companion, is now with W and S. One good thing came out of this, though, since we only have 11 people in our district now we were able to take out one of the desks in our tiny, cramped classroom and move the others so they are now a big semicircle with plenty of space in the middle, instead of an awkward multiple-row thing we had going on before that.

Last Thursday--this was before H departed--our disctrict tackled one of the cereal towers in the cafeteria. It's a little difficult to explain, they are like big tall plastic cereal dispensers. Maybe you understand what I'm talking about already, haha. Anyways, we finished one, with fruit loops, *completely* just within our disrict without too much effort--I ate 5 bowls of fruit loops personally--and then decided since we were at it, we might as well try to continue and take down two. Long story short, we failed. We got the second tower a good 3/4 the way empty though. But I was out after 8 bowls total (3 of cinnamon toast crunch), that was about average in terms of performance. I think we ate a total, among the 12 of us, of 90-95 some bowls of cereal. I've never felt so disgusting in my life, haha. It's not something any of us will ever, ever try again. But sometimes you do strange things here at the MTC to entertain yourselves :)

In TRC on Saturday, I had the opportunity to teach the older brother of my former roommate, Elder T. Both he and his older brother were called to Taibei, Taiwan, isn't that cool? The other fellow was taught was also very chill, he is studying Chinese at BYU. His name was Bro. P. 

On Sunday I had the opportunity to participate, along with all of the other elders and sisters at the MTC, in the dedication of the Brigham City temple, the 139th temple. It was broadcast in 19M, the same building the Firesides and devotionals are held in (and the same building my district cleans up after Firesides and devotionals in). It was my first dedication, and was very enjoyable. That's all I can think of for this week. 

Take care everyone! 

Elder Ladd