MTC E-mail: Dec. 31, 2008

Here's the most recent e-mail from Bryan, sent on Dec. 31, 2008. He also sent
a letter telling us that he got to meet and hear from Elder Bednar on Christmas
Eve and Elder Holland on Christmas Day. He said, "So, Elder Bednar has really
small hands, and Elder Holland has really blue eyes." Now on to his recent e-mail:

"Okay so here we go!  I've got 14 min left on my timer and 20 min left on my
laundry so I'm going to try to fit everything in that I need to.  First of all
thanks for the e-mail and Dad's hand written letter, it's the only piece of mail
that I've gotten all week :(. 

"So I can't remember what area of Ohio the women was from (who he commited to
baptism over the phone in the referral center), her name was Cynthia, ironically
enough, she is 42 and got baptized yesterday!! I called her last night to see
how she was doing and she told me that.  I spend about 4-5 hours in the RC every
week.  Elder Wright and I have decided to center our goals around the referral
center because they're real investigators and not pretend ones like everyone
else in the MTC that we teach.

"So this week was quite uneventful.  I've heard the MTC referred to as a tunnel.
You start out great and you can see the light, then the longer your there the
harder it is to stay focused, then you get to your last week and you realize that
your not ready for the field yet and then you study like mad, and all of a sudden
you're out of the tunnel into the field.  So my district is starting to lose
focus but Elder Wright and I do a pretty good job of separating ourselves from
the group when we need to for study and we get a lot more done.  So the most
eventful thing that happened this week was in the RC yesterday I called 59 people
and got hung up on by 58 people, and the one person who didnt hang up on me,
bless her heart, yelled at me first and then hung up on me.  :)  Awesome!!!
It was discouraging but I'm glad to have those experiances now because I know
it'll be happening in the field but face to face and with a door instead of a
phone.

"Thanks for sending the package. I'm excited to get it and hopefully this week
will be more eventful.  I love you all and hope everything's going all right back
home.  Send my regards to Matthew when you pick him up from the airport.

"Love you!!"

Elder Carpenter