Joshua's Song of Singapore: Week 3: Missionary Training Center, Provo, Utah

Hello everyone! I am so so excited to be able to write to all of you today! It sounds like you've all been up to awesome things this week, thank you so much for keeping me in the loop!

This week was SOO fantastic at the MTC! My homesickness actually wore off really quickly; it was really bad last week, but this week wasn't bad at all. I still saw lots of cute things that reminded me of you guys, but instead of making me miss you and feel sad, it just made me excited to see you guys again and so grateful that I have all of you in my life.

My new companion, Elder Tu'atonga, is hilarious. On one of my first nights of having him as my companion, I woke up really late at night to use the bathroom, and when I walked into the bathroom, he was there giving a random guy I didn't recognize a haircut (which is breaking like SOOO many MTC rules). But, he is actually the nicest guy ever...I am so grateful to have him as my companion. He is my Tongan teddy bear, and we call each other Hoa, because that means "Elder" in Tongan. :)

This week has mostly been full of classes and study time. We have been practice teaching our teacher as if she was someone who is interested in the church, and we taught her for the last time on Thursday. I always felt the Spirit so strongly when we taught her, it was a great experience.

One night this week, we got some new missionaries. One of them arrived at midnight, and then one arrived at 3:00 AM. Because they were sleeping in our room, we all had to wake up when they arrived and welcome them and show them where there beds were. The problem was, we had 7 elders and only 6 beds, so suffice it to say we were all pretty tired the next day. :D

I still can't believe that I am leaving for Singapore on Monday! I have met most of the people who are leaving with me for Singapore (I met two sister missionaries who are Mandarin speaking and then a few Elders who are Malay speaking, one of whom is from Australia and his accent melts my heart), and I also met a senior missionary couple who is leaving for Singapore on Monday. They all seem super nice!

I leave the MTC at 8:45 AM, and then I will fly to Los Angeles, and then to Hong Kong, and then to Singapore. I think that when I actually arrive in Singapore, it will already be Wednesday afternoon. It is going to be a long travel, especially because I can't watch endless rom-coms on the plane to keep myself occupied. :P

I love you all so so much! I am very grateful that you are all so supportive of me serving a mission; it has been hard to be so far away from you guys, but I also really feel that I am meant to be here. It has been an amazing growing opportunity and thank you for being there with me every step of the way. I love you all so much and I can't wait to hear back from you!

Best,

Elder Joshua Weatherford

P.S. I am pretty sure that while I am in Singapore, I will only be able to check email once a week on P-Day (which should be Monday). You guys are free to email me whenever you want, but I don't think I will be able to read them every day like I can here at the MTC.

Spiritual Experiences

I thought that I would start sending a separate email every week with my most spiritual experiences. I guess that this can be like my small plates haha.

This week, I fasted on Tuesday to feel reassured that I was meant to be here. I had felt really strongly that I was meant to serve a mission while I was at home, but I wanted to feel that same feeling, because part of my was really overwhelmed by how much I missed home and how much I still had to grow into becoming the teacher that I want to be. And then, the day after I fasted, I had a really cool experience while I was practicing teaching my teacher. Earlier in class, we specifically talked about how it is important to actively listen to the people we are teaching, and not get worried about thinking about what we were going to say. And then, while I was teaching Mei, she was talking about some concerns that she had about being baptized. As she was teaching, I felt a very specific scripture pop into my head. I shared the scripture with her, and then we talked through it and we both started crying. She then committed to being baptized, which was so cool even though she was just pretending. I felt the Spirit so strongly, and it was such an answer to my prayers; I felt that, even though I am so inadequate as a teacher and there is so much I could be doing better, the Lord is enough. With Him on my side, I don't need to be perfect. It was such an amazing experience.

I also have been thinking about the lyrics to "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" a lot today. I would invite you guys to go look them up, they are very deep.

I love you all so much! Elder Tu'atonga has an appointment at 10:00 so I need to run to that, but then I will email you guys separately later today.

Best,

Elder Weatherford