First Week at the MTC

     And so the journey at the MTC begins.

     Before the MTC, I got to see my family in Northern and Southern Utah, and I got to run in my old neighborhood in Orem. I ran late at night, and had a blast doing that. I call that run "memory lane" since I ran from my old church, to my elementary school, to my junior high, then to my high school, and down to my old neighborhood.

     Soo it's almost been a week at the Missionary training center here in Provo Utah, and it was not as what I expected.

     The first few days were a bit overwhelming, but it has been pretty fun. Over 800 missionaries came into the MTC the day I left. Our teacher taught us how to pray in Thai on the second day, and we already have been trying to teach lessons to "investigators" in Thai. One elder in my district accidentally said that he has 10 kids. We got down to business learning Thai, and it's tricky. I'm just trying to memorize as many vocab words as possible; we have a goal of memorizing 300 Thai words by next Monday. I will be here for 9-10 weeks, and leave for Thailand on October 5th.

     I have been meeting a lot of people here. We always ask each other, "Where are you going?" and "Where are you from?" One Elder is a Heaton and is from St. George (going to Cambodia), so I might be related to him somehow someway. I've also met a bunch of friends I haven't seen in years when I lived in Utah, I saw Elder Curtis Parker (going to Russia), and one of my best friends in middle school, Elder Austin Thornton (going to Russia too). I have also seen Elder Matthew Baldwin here too, and we run into each other about every other day. I also met a few Thailand missionaries who are going to SUU. I also talked to Elder Brown who is going to Thailand in 3 weeks. His grandma and my grandma live on the same street in Cedar City, Utah. 

     My companion is a lot of fun. Elder Turley is from Cottonwood heights, Utah. He played tennis and volleyball in high school, and he is a lot of fun. He's always so positive and has a good sense of humor. 

     There are 8 people that are in my District (Thai group). There are 2 districts that came in, and 2 other Thailand districts have been here for 6 weeks already. There are 13 people per district in the "veteran" districts. So there's about 40+ people who are training to go to Thailand. 

     Our district is a lot of fun. One Elder in my group makes us laugh like crazy, and when he laughs hard, he stomps his legs up and down and it makes us laugh even more. If he laughs harder he rolls on the floor. He's talking out loud when he is emailing, and he's saying that he is suffering Pokemon withdrawals, and making us laugh. I will tell about my district next week. We have given each other nicknames, and we try to figure out what movie or TV character we look like. My nickname is "Char Char Brinks" while others are like "little baby elephant" and "Ballin Holland" 

     We also have lots of inside jokes in our District, like Dips like Ranch, What's good?, and Savage in Thai.

     We get an hour of gym time per day. On our first gym day, I was running around the small track, and started talking to another runner. Turns out he is running for SUU too, so I've got a teammate already! He's serving in Chicago. There's also MTC records too, and the mile record is 4:39. It's tempting to try and train hard for a few weeks, and see if I can break the record. Yesterday a girl broke the women's MTC mile record by a full minute, running a 5:13 mile. She runs for Utah. 

     Sunday was by far one of the best Sundays I have experienced. We had church and numerous church meetings, and they all were great. My comp and I were deciding if we should join the choir, and we decided to go. If I didn't go I wouldn't have run into Elder Thornton, one of my best friends in junior high. We sat next to each other and talked for a while. There were 1600 people in the choir, and that was amazing. Then the devotional started, and Elder Holland's son spoke on the life of Joseph Smith, and in the end 1600 people and I sang the Hymn "Praise to the Man." That was very powerful and spiritual, which I loved. We also got to do a "temple walk" where we get to walk around the Provo Temple. 

     Some of the funniest things happen at the last hour of the

day. There are pull-up bars in our floor, and we take turns doing pull-ups. One night someone brought doughnuts, and I held a doughnut above the bar and one elder who's going to Indonesia took a bite of the doughnut after each pull-up. And almost every night we practice the "Samoan Haka" with one of our Samoan friends. Last night we were up to about 20 guys doing it together. On our first night at the MTC I was praying while my companion turned off the lights. The 3 other guys in the room started laughing and I looked up, and the ENTIRE CEILING is covered in glow in the dark stars. 

     Also, if anyone wishes to send me a letter online, there's a website called Dearelder.com where anyone can send me a letter and it will be sent to me in a letter the same day. I would love to receive letters from anyone! But you can still send me emails too if you like. 

How to do it:

go to dearelder.com

Select "write a letter"

Select "Provo MTC"

Elder Charles Brinkerhoff

Thailand Bangkok Mission

Leaving October 5th

That's about it! 

Much love from the 801 (as said from our funniest elder),

Elder Brinkerhoff