WEEK #1 - MTC

Hello everyone!!

Greetings from the Missionary Training Center! This is so cool writing my first official email to all of you! The MTC is SO awesome, and so far has been one of the BEST experiences of my life. The Spirit is so strong here, you can just feel the Love of God and of Jesus Christ as thousands of Elders and Sisters all between 18-20 years old come to learn how to teach about truth and to help invite others to come closer to Christ!

Just a few baselines before I write about the week:
-P Day is Tuesdays so I can read emails throughout the week but I can only respond on Tuesdays
-Ill have two more weeks left in the MTC before heading out to Colorado!

Alright! To start off, I flew out to Utah on Monday the 22nd and said goodbye to McKayd and Londyn, that was super hard but I know leaving for two years will be worth it! I then spent some time with my cousins, parents and Kyler and Shaylee before heading into the MTC on Wednesday July 24th!

Wednesday:
I said goodbye to my family and we all cried a bunch but as we drove down into the subfloors of the dropoff level I was more excited than remorseful. I got whisked away by a fellow missionary and led through so many stairs and stations. I finally got my nametags with the honor of having my name, Elder LaRose, representing our Savior Jesus Christ and His church! I got a quick tour of my dorm and then was rushed off to a class where I met my District or small group of missionaries who you go to small class with. My companion never arrived till around 5pm but Elder Bethers is a wonderful Elder who's actually served three months of his mission in Boise for health reasons got reassigned to Colorado Denver South! The day was long but the Spirit was definitely strong :)

(The first week email is probably going to be long sorry, haha)

Thursday:
We had class about our purpose which simply is to invite others to come unto Christ! What a simple yet profound invitation, I know that as we strive to improve our lives and make the "harder right instead of the easier wrong" we will be blessed for trying to turn our lives towards Christs perfect example! Every meal I'd scan the crowd to try and find my cousin Elder Barnes who's serving in Italy but he will be here in the MTC longer than me. Low and behold I stumble across the  absolute LEGEND himself and we got a picture with each other, so stoked I got to see him! I love going to all the classes we have, I still have much to learn!

LEGEND Elder Barnes

Friday:
My dorm is so funny, I have my companion Elder Bethers and then Elder Miller with Elder Toney they are all funny and we connect all really well. In class we did a lot of role plays where we act out situations in order to best help real people and their concerns. I got an awesome package today from my family and of course they sent me pretzels!! Thank you I really appreciate it, and I realize how valuable this stuff is to missionaries now haha. One great lesson I've learned is "the best teacher is a good role model." Elder Bethers and I work really well, he laughs at almost anything haha.

  Elder Bethers!
 My District

Saturday:
We got our District Leader, Elder Park, who is really cool and basically just conducts meetings or gets our schedules. Class we learned a bunch of new stuff and my comp and I got to do TRC (Teaching Resource Center) and teach a random person and just get to know their needs/concerns and how we can best help them, Jessica was really great to get to know and we invited her to pray, asking Heavenly Father in faith, if He loves her individually and guess what? I can promise you that he loves you no matter what point you're at in your life or no matter how far you feel you are from God! I got to volleyball after which was always fun, the days are long and the nights are short but the Spirit definitely strengthens us to get through all right.

Me on my third day... haha

Sunday:
Today was amazing. Truly a spiritual experience never to forget! Sacrament mtg was awesome and we had tons of meetings but the highlight was watching a special talk by Elder Bednar, an Apostle of our Church, it was definitely life changing and he had really great advice. Basically he said to lose yourself in service and turn outward towards Christ. Powerful.

Monday:
We had a couple great classroom discussions and Elder Bethers and I got to teach Jessica again! I played volleyball with my District and that was good. :)

How my companions found me after I ate too many pretzels... haha

Today I get to reply to emails, exercise and try to figure out what the heck to do with my laundry please help... haha. Feel free to email me anytime seriously!

Love you all,
Elder LaRose

EMAIL ME AT: keldon.larose@missionary.org

SEND MAIL TO:
Colorado Denver South Mission
ATTN: Elder Keldon LaRose
999 E. Tufts Ave.
Cherry Hills Village, CO 80113

MTC - 7/24/2019 - 8/16/2019

 COMPANIONS:

FAREWELL