Oct. 15, 2014: My First (and only) Letter from the MTC

Sister Wood (my companion) and I

My District (some going to Jamaica and others

to the West Indies)

My Zone

Dear family and friends,

YAYAYA!! My first and only letter in the MTC! First of all I just want to crack a myth about the MTC. I have never once had to wake up at 5:30. The very earliest is 6:15. If anyone ever tells you that, tell them it is a lie. Next I just want to let you know how hard one hour of email time is for me. I am so used to telling everyone (especially mom) every part of my day. There have been so many moments when I have thought, man I need an hour of email time every day. Well mom and dad I hope you got my letter, and hopefully you now understand what happens on the first day. I cannot even tell you how quickly things get going around here. Even though it has only been one week I really feel like I have adjusted to missionary life. And to tell you the truth, I really am loving it. It sounds so crazy and cliché, but it's really great here.

The food here really is pretty awful. I pretty much eat a bagel for breakfast and salads for lunch and dinner every day. Also, since I am not snacking throughout the day, I know I have already lost weight. Other than that the MTC is wonderful. I learn so much every day. We have around three hours of study time every day and then six hours of class. We have two teachers, Sister Jordan and Brother Crosby. They are great teachers and I am so grateful for them.

On the first day here the district welcoming us to the MTC told us that our zone holds hands (of course not sisters and elders! Scandalous) while we pray. It was so uncomfortable! Then a few sisters in our zone started enforcing that tradish in our district. We pray a lot, which means a lot of uncomfortable hand holding. Finally Sister Jordan said, "how about we try folding our arms today". Ever since then we have not held hands. THANK YOU SISTER JORDAN! Also on the first night our branch president told us that everyone had to prepare a talk for Sunday and we wouldn't find out who was giving it until he announced it in sacrament meeting. All I could think was, what is this? The Hunger Games?

Every day we do something called progressing investigator.  This is where our teachers pretend to be investigators. This is the real deal. One of the Elders in our district thought it was pretend so he offered Sister Jordan (acting as investigator Alyssa) an imaginary Book of Mormon. The investigator asked him what book and it ended pretty awkwardly. Thank goodness he made that mistake before we taught Brother Crosby (acting as investigator George). Every time Sister Wood and I teach George I learn something new. It is the coolest experience to truly feel God's love for his children. It’s so weird that even though Brother Crosby is just acting as George, I have truly grown to love George. It is difficult, but I look forward to teaching him every time.  It has been really hard for me to learn how to teach by the spirit. I feel like my whole life every time I have felt the spirit it has been in a meeting or when someone is bearing their testimony. I have learned how to recognize that spirit, but teaching with the spirit is completely different. Some of the Elders in our Zone gave me a blessing to help discern the spirit while teaching. It was so comforting.  It is difficult, but I am learning.

We also teach members here at the MTC and yesterday we taught a member over skype. I love teaching members. It's so comfortable to teach someone who already understands the things we are trying to convey. Besides teaching our teachers and members we also do TRC (teacher resource center). Every other day we teach an investigator who may or may not be a member of the church. Sister Wood and I teach Melissa. The first day we taught her we wanted to focus on getting to know her first. We ended up spending over 40 minutes getting to know her and ended with about a 10 minute lesson. After our TRC we had class and coincidentally our lesson was on starting lessons and getting to know our investigators. Brother Crosby said, "If you know your investigators cat’s name, you are probably getting to know them too much." Melissa's cats name is Jinxie. Well, we learn from those experiences.

I LOVE Sister Wood. We get along so well and we are so alike. We literally showed up with a bunch of the same clothes. Also her major is family studies. It's so cool to be companions and friends. I know the Lord put me with Sister Wood for a reason. She teaches me so much and I am so sad she is going to the West Indies and not Jamaica. Oh well, she lives in Provo so we will have to see each other after our missions. Also Sister Wood is John and Merrie Wood’s niece. How cool is that? You will have to let them know!

When I wrote the letter home I told you that there were 4 elders and 4 sisters in my district. Well one of the elders went home on Sunday. Pray for him. It was so sad to see him leave and it was such an eye opening experience. THIS IS REAL!

Well I love you all. Thank you for your prayers. And keep choosing the right. Remember your goals.

With all my love,
Sister Tuttle

P.S. Sister Wood gets like 5 Dear Elder letters every day. I wanna humble her a little:) So write me lots of letters every day. Also I just love hearing from everyone.

The small amount of mountain I see every day.

I kind of miss seeing that.