July 9

Mom (and family),

Thanks for all the letters! I got Aimee's letter today and I got your Dear Elder a few days ago and the package on Saturday (but I didn't pick it up until Monday because the package center closed). I got the ID just fine and all is good!

Like I said in my postcard, I am district leader (my whole district is my same mission, along with two other districts I haven't met) and my companion is great... I don't feel too nervous when teaching, but I am still learning what I need to do to really teach the individual better. This time in the MTC has been awesome spiritually. The first full day, Thursday, I had a bit of a hard time understanding what my purpose as a missionary is. The missionary purpose is to "[i]nvite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in jesus Christ and His Atonmenet, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end." That makes sense well, but in my class they were telling us that we shouldn't be afraid to invite investigators to be baptized in our first lesson, but that didn't really make sense to me because, first, I was worried about being abrasive and, second, I couldn't really understand why we wouldn't begin working on faith and repentance before inviting them to baptism. However, on Friday morning as I pondered this, the spirit revealed unto me a more full understanding of covenants. I understood that while faith and repentance can help us become good people, we are limited in eternal progression until we establish a relationship with God and become covenant people. This first step is baptism. As I learned this, I wanted to go to the temple immediately to ponder further but the Provo temple is closed! How unfortunate.

Today is my P-day for the MTC, but that is only for this week since we leave next Monday...

The food is great for being mass produced. I am sleeping alright, but we have 6:30 AM breakfast (the earliest breakfast) so I have to wake up at 5:45 and we usually don't get in bed until 10:30 or soon after, so I have been pretty tired, especially because we have long days just sitting in a classroom being taught or studying. They are keeping us pretty busy.

Tell people that I love getting mail, especially here in the MTC! I only will be here until Sunday essentially, so send it soon and Dear Elder is great too! Hope I didn't forget too much more. I have grown a lot in the short time I have been here already.

Love,
Elder Schaelling