Writing letters while doing laundry
The MTC laundry room!
Elder Janis' desk
His stash from all his packages
Putting away his laundry
The package pyramid. A monument to all these elder's fans!
Sunday, August 30, 2009
More Pics of the MTC
Writing letters while doing laundry The MTC laundry room!Elder Janis' deskHis stash from all his packages Putting away his laundry The package pyramid. A monument to all these elder's fans!
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Care First and Then They Will Listen
Hola family and friends!
This week has been long and eventful for me. I reached my one-month mark in the MTC, and I learned a lot about a lot of things. I'm loving the MTC, and I'm really grateful that I got a language for my mission, if only to be able to be in this place for 9 weeks instead of 3!
I had a cool experience this week in the RC (Referral Center), which is where we make calls to follow up with people who ordered free Bibles, copies of the Book of Mormon, or church videos, and we make sure that they receive them and bear testimony about the principles in those things and the restored gospel. So one of the calls I made was to follow up with a lady who had ordered a Book of Mormon, and her husband answered the phone and was a bit rude in asking who I was and why I wanted to talk to his wife. I explained that I was calling as a representative of the church, and was just following up to see if his wife had received her Book of Mormon. The man told me that his wife had been in the hospital for a few weeks, and from his tone of voice it didn't sound too good. I did my best to try and be human instead of following my script, and tried to sympathize and really care. It was interesting because when I did that he really softened up and accepted more of what I was saying. Because of the situation, I wasn't able to bear a powerful testimony or get a commitment to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, but I did learn a valuable lesson about people, that when they can tell that someone genuinely cares about them, they become much more willing to listen to what that person has to say. Also, I hopefully planted a seed, and who knows if because of that the wife and husband might actually read the Book of Mormon to find out what our Church is all about. :)
It's really nice having gym for an hour almost every day here. In spite of the terribly unhealthy food here I think I'm actually getting in better shape! I've been running a few days a week and I'm up to about a mile and a half, and that should hopefully get longer soon as my heart and lungs adjust to the altitude better. I've been told that if the doctors here had it their way, we wouldn't even have a gym period because of the frequency of injuries, but I really think it's one of the most important aspects of our learning here. The day where my district has gym as the last thing before bedtime, the missionaries start acting like the 6 and under age group on the swim team right before practice. :) You just have all this pent-up energy from sitting in class and studying all day, and a lot of us start fidgeting around and doing immature things like a 6th grade boys history class. We've been playing volleyball against the other districts recently, and we've beat everyone so far. We did lose one game, but it wasn't really fair because our sister missionaries played on our team and some other guy joined the other team and played with them even though they didn't want him and he wasn't in their district, and he was just pounding the ball toward the sisters and really exploiting that weak spot. However, we had a rematch a few days later without those things, and we beat them 3-2 in a best out of 5 matches game. Our district is solid, and we don't have any weak spots even though none of us are incredible volleyball players.
Missionary work is the greatest thing on earth! Helping people experience the gospel so they can receive the fullness of the atonement is the greatest feeling in the world, and I wouldn't trade this opportunity for anything. I love you all, God bless you and thank you all so much for your prayers and support!
Elder Damon Janis
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Food, Choir, and Sharing the Gospel
Hi Everyone!
Thank you for all of your love and support and letters, I really appreciate it! Also, thank you to my YSA Sunday school class who all took the time to write their encouragement and support!
I'd like to take a minute to talk about the food here. :) For some reason, I like the cafeteria here a lot better than I liked the Cannon Center. I think the main reason is because here the food is presented in a cafeteria like way, with cafeteria like quality. At the Cannon, they tried to make the environment like a restaurant, and the presentation was much better than a cafeteria, but the food quality was exactly the same. Either way, the food I'm eating right now is probably the same stuff they were serving when my dad was here, and probably about the same as when the MTC was established back in the 60's or 70's. They seem to enjoy putting lots of stuff that gives you really bad gas in the food, and don't seem to understand what it's like to be in an 18' by 8' classroom with 7 other guys and 2 sisters almost all day every day. Yesterday it was really bad, and a couple guys let one on accident and got chewed out by the teacher. :)
The choir here is really cool, I've been participating in it and I'm loving it! It's really cool to hear about 600 missionaries singing in a choir, there's not much like it. I just wish I could be here for general conference, which is about 2 weeks after I leave. Who knows, maybe I'll sprain an ankle or something in soccer and get delayed! :) Well it's in the Lord's hands, but I certainly wouldn't mind getting delayed just a few weeks so I could have a little more time with the language and be able to sing in General Conference!
I'm starting to realize a little more what I could have done to prepare better, and also what I could have done to be a better member missionary. One of the main keys is reading and having a powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon. There is incredible power in that book, and it's the most effective tool we have to share the gospel, because when people read it and pray, they feel the spirit. Also, if someone gains a testimony of the Book of Mormon, they gain a testimony of a bunch of other things as well, such as that God exists, Jesus Christ is the son of God and performed the Atonement so we can repent and be clean, Joseph Smith was a prophet called of God, his successors were also prophets called of God and had and have the authority to do the things we claim, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is God's true church on the earth. So if we have a desire to share the gospel, either as a missionary or as a member, the key is to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, gain a powerful testimony of it, and then do what you can to get other people to do the same. As a missionary, it's my job to do all the background teaching, to make sure the person understands all the details of the gospel, but without a testimony of the Book of Mormon, no investigator will ever get baptized. So for member missionaries, it's useful but not essential to know the doctrine, know the Preach My Gospel lessons, and be able to answer most questions, but really all that can be left up to the missionaries. The main thing is to get the Book of Mormon into people's hands in a non-awkward way so they are curious and read it. That's the way to "find" people as members, just talk about the Book of Mormon if the topic of religion comes up with our friends, and make sure we have copies we can give them either on hand or at home. :)
I love you all, things are going great here at the MTC, the language is coming along, slowly, but I'm about where I need to be in it right now. We taught our first lesson in all Spanish last Saturday. :) Thanks so much for your support and love and prayers and letters, may God bless you all!
Elder Damon Janis
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Pictures!!
Elder Janis with his companion, Elder Robertson
Elder Robertson, Elder Breeze, Elder Johnson, and Elder Janis (the 4 roommates)
Elder Janis' district
At his desk
Doing the chores
Enjoying yummy treats with roommates (thanks to Aunt Shelby!)
Emily got him a fun ball and he likes it!
At the Provo TempleTuesday, August 11, 2009
"God bless you please, Elder Robertson..."
Hi family and friends!
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'm going to try and say more than I usually can by virtue of pictures I'll hopefully be able to upload. :)
Ugh, it won't let me directly upload the pictures, so I'll have to find a way to send the memory card to my parents so they can upload them. Unfortunately I can't send it in a regular letter due to some mail restrictions from the postmaster general, but I think I can send it in a small packet or something. I'll find out hopefully today at the mail room and see if I can get those to you guys. :)
The MTC is really funny because it puts you in situations where you're forced to use all of the skills you've developed that apply to missionary work, but they don't really give you any more skills before they ask you to do stuff. For example, I was asked to play the piano in our zone priesthood meeting, but wasn't given practice time, so I had to struggle through Choose the Right and Count your Blessings. :) Also, with the spanish language, from day 1 we were expected to SYL (speak your language) as much as possible, and even though all I'd had was 1 semester of spanish in highschool they expected me to be praying and testifying in the first couple days. I'm learning more and more that the MTC doesn't really teach all that much, it just forces you to rise to the level of your preparation. They actually don't have a set language study program that we follow, which absolutely blew me away. Instead, they teach some grammar and some basic things in class, and then expect you to create your own individual language study plan for the week and each day, and use an hour of language study time they give you as well as whenever else you can do it. For materials, we get a little red book with most of the grammar and vocabulary a missionary needs to get by and teach lessons, and a dictionary and the scriptures in spanish. The language is coming for me, slowly, but I think as soon as we switch to all spanish in our classes and start teaching the lessons in spanish (this saturday) I'll probably start learning more rapidly.
Funny story of the week (sort of, it's the funniest one that comes to mind for me, hopefully you'll appreciate it): Me and a few of the missionaries in my district were in the classroom doing personal study, and my companion turns to me and says: "Elder Janis, companion study starts in an hour" and then slumped forward onto his desk with his head resting on his folded arms and looked like he was about to sleep for the next hour (which we're not supposed to do). I wanted to say something to him to keep him from sleeping, and the first thing that popped into my head was that song that goes: "God bless you please, Mrs. Robinson, Heaven holds a place for those who pray" and instead I said Elder Robertson, and then he starts busting up laughing and it turns out he was actually praying! It was so funny, everyone was dying and it took a few minutes to settle down and get to work again. :)
I love you all! Thank you so much for your letters and your support! I appreciate it more than you know! The church is so true!
Elder Damon Janis
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'm going to try and say more than I usually can by virtue of pictures I'll hopefully be able to upload. :)
Ugh, it won't let me directly upload the pictures, so I'll have to find a way to send the memory card to my parents so they can upload them. Unfortunately I can't send it in a regular letter due to some mail restrictions from the postmaster general, but I think I can send it in a small packet or something. I'll find out hopefully today at the mail room and see if I can get those to you guys. :)
The MTC is really funny because it puts you in situations where you're forced to use all of the skills you've developed that apply to missionary work, but they don't really give you any more skills before they ask you to do stuff. For example, I was asked to play the piano in our zone priesthood meeting, but wasn't given practice time, so I had to struggle through Choose the Right and Count your Blessings. :) Also, with the spanish language, from day 1 we were expected to SYL (speak your language) as much as possible, and even though all I'd had was 1 semester of spanish in highschool they expected me to be praying and testifying in the first couple days. I'm learning more and more that the MTC doesn't really teach all that much, it just forces you to rise to the level of your preparation. They actually don't have a set language study program that we follow, which absolutely blew me away. Instead, they teach some grammar and some basic things in class, and then expect you to create your own individual language study plan for the week and each day, and use an hour of language study time they give you as well as whenever else you can do it. For materials, we get a little red book with most of the grammar and vocabulary a missionary needs to get by and teach lessons, and a dictionary and the scriptures in spanish. The language is coming for me, slowly, but I think as soon as we switch to all spanish in our classes and start teaching the lessons in spanish (this saturday) I'll probably start learning more rapidly.
Funny story of the week (sort of, it's the funniest one that comes to mind for me, hopefully you'll appreciate it): Me and a few of the missionaries in my district were in the classroom doing personal study, and my companion turns to me and says: "Elder Janis, companion study starts in an hour" and then slumped forward onto his desk with his head resting on his folded arms and looked like he was about to sleep for the next hour (which we're not supposed to do). I wanted to say something to him to keep him from sleeping, and the first thing that popped into my head was that song that goes: "God bless you please, Mrs. Robinson, Heaven holds a place for those who pray" and instead I said Elder Robertson, and then he starts busting up laughing and it turns out he was actually praying! It was so funny, everyone was dying and it took a few minutes to settle down and get to work again. :)
I love you all! Thank you so much for your letters and your support! I appreciate it more than you know! The church is so true!
Elder Damon Janis
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Overjoyed and Brimming Over Letters and The MTC is GREAT
Dear Family and Friends,
Thank you so much for all the support you've given me through letters and notes and such! It's really amazing how much you appreciate letters from home when you're in the MTC. We pick up the mail twice a day here, and since my companion Elder Robertson is the district leader I get to go with him to pick it up! The excitement surrounding the mail room right after lunch and right after dinner (the designated mail pickup times) is unrivaled here except for the excitement to share the gospel! The DearElder.com mail gets here right before the evening mail pickup, and it's same day. :) If you can't tell, I really love letters and mail, and if you send me anything you can have full confidence that I'll be overjoyed and brimming with thanks and appreciation, even though I probably won't be able to send you a very long response. About that, I got probably the most restrictive p-day schedule at the MTC, because it just so happens that my day coincides with the massive weekly MTC fireside, and since I'm also in the MTC chior I lose about three and a half hours that most of the missionaries get. We also go to the temple on p-day, and also do our laundry, and for some reason they also schedule out our personal study, companionship study, language study, and Missionary Directive Time (MDT, where you can do any of the other 3 for and hour) and all of those are an hour long. In other words, I really don't have any time that I can write letters and email without breaking the rules except during the laundry time. I'm working with my teacher Brother Gamez though and I'll be talking to my Branch President about it to see how flexible those few hours of study are. Again, sorry if I can't get you a real response, just know that I'm full of things I'd love to write and express my thanks. :)
I'd like to take just a minute to describe a few of the significant people in my MTC experience. First is my companion Elder Robertson! I got sooooo blessed to have him as a companion, he's solid in the gospel and wants to keep the mission rules to the best of his ability. He's the district leader right now, and he's a beast at the language and helps me out every day. He's from California, in No. Cal, in a small city called Orriville (spell?). He went to BYU last year and lived in Wy-view. He's about my height and super athletic. He's one of the greatest guys I know and I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to learn from his example.
Ok actually time is running short, so I'll share a couple more interesting things. :) I'm teaching my companion how to sing! He can hear what songs are supposed to sound like in his head and with effort can match notes, and I really think he just needs more experience with music and singing to get more control over his pitches. I'm super excited, I'm also teaching him to play the piano (hymns of course!) and that'll probably help a lot! It's awesome to be able to share with him something that makes me happy, kinda like the gospel on a small scale!
A few days ago me and my roommates got locked out of our room while showering! We'd forgotten to take our room keys with us and just assumed that the other guys would take care of it or be in the room when we were done, and so we all got to our door in our towels and had a terrible realization! Haha we almost missed dinner because of it, but fortunately one of the Anziani (Italian elders) on our floor was able to card the door we got in to change before dinner. :)
I hope everything is going well for everyone, the MTC is great! I'm coming along in the language, it's getting a little easier, which is very good and relieving for me. :) I love you all! Stay strong in the Gospel, it's an amazing plan God has for us!
Love,
Elder Damon Janis
Thank you so much for all the support you've given me through letters and notes and such! It's really amazing how much you appreciate letters from home when you're in the MTC. We pick up the mail twice a day here, and since my companion Elder Robertson is the district leader I get to go with him to pick it up! The excitement surrounding the mail room right after lunch and right after dinner (the designated mail pickup times) is unrivaled here except for the excitement to share the gospel! The DearElder.com mail gets here right before the evening mail pickup, and it's same day. :) If you can't tell, I really love letters and mail, and if you send me anything you can have full confidence that I'll be overjoyed and brimming with thanks and appreciation, even though I probably won't be able to send you a very long response. About that, I got probably the most restrictive p-day schedule at the MTC, because it just so happens that my day coincides with the massive weekly MTC fireside, and since I'm also in the MTC chior I lose about three and a half hours that most of the missionaries get. We also go to the temple on p-day, and also do our laundry, and for some reason they also schedule out our personal study, companionship study, language study, and Missionary Directive Time (MDT, where you can do any of the other 3 for and hour) and all of those are an hour long. In other words, I really don't have any time that I can write letters and email without breaking the rules except during the laundry time. I'm working with my teacher Brother Gamez though and I'll be talking to my Branch President about it to see how flexible those few hours of study are. Again, sorry if I can't get you a real response, just know that I'm full of things I'd love to write and express my thanks. :)
I'd like to take just a minute to describe a few of the significant people in my MTC experience. First is my companion Elder Robertson! I got sooooo blessed to have him as a companion, he's solid in the gospel and wants to keep the mission rules to the best of his ability. He's the district leader right now, and he's a beast at the language and helps me out every day. He's from California, in No. Cal, in a small city called Orriville (spell?). He went to BYU last year and lived in Wy-view. He's about my height and super athletic. He's one of the greatest guys I know and I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to learn from his example.
Ok actually time is running short, so I'll share a couple more interesting things. :) I'm teaching my companion how to sing! He can hear what songs are supposed to sound like in his head and with effort can match notes, and I really think he just needs more experience with music and singing to get more control over his pitches. I'm super excited, I'm also teaching him to play the piano (hymns of course!) and that'll probably help a lot! It's awesome to be able to share with him something that makes me happy, kinda like the gospel on a small scale!
A few days ago me and my roommates got locked out of our room while showering! We'd forgotten to take our room keys with us and just assumed that the other guys would take care of it or be in the room when we were done, and so we all got to our door in our towels and had a terrible realization! Haha we almost missed dinner because of it, but fortunately one of the Anziani (Italian elders) on our floor was able to card the door we got in to change before dinner. :)
I hope everything is going well for everyone, the MTC is great! I'm coming along in the language, it's getting a little easier, which is very good and relieving for me. :) I love you all! Stay strong in the Gospel, it's an amazing plan God has for us!
Love,
Elder Damon Janis
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