Week Three in the MTC

Grady and his MTC companion, Elder Wiser

We received Grady's third email from the MTC today. I love opening my email and seeing "Konichiwa" in the subject line. He sounds like he's doing so well and with each letter, he tells us a little more. I especially love reading his testimony. I can tell that it's growing and maturing. Here's an excerpt from today:

May 26, 2009 Hey family! I got your email and I can't believe Adam didn't win. That’s pretty crazy. (He's referring to American Idol!) My days are pretty busy and packed with learning. I have between 7-9 hours a day of class time, (excluding Sundays and Tuesdays). I have 3-4 hours of MDT time during the week which is just my time for studying with my companion and personal study. During those 7-9 hours the teachers split us up between gospel and language study. I really enjoy class and my teachers, they are awesome. One of my teachers was in the air force so he is pretty strict, but I like it. My other teacher is more laid back and likes to involve us more with stories and stuff like that. Yesterday was his birthday and all of us got him a present out of the cafeteria. It was pretty funny. Ya, the language is going pretty well. I can kind of form my own sentences, but it takes me a while to think in my head. Japanese is completely opposite of English. In English I would say, The cat ran home. In Japanese it would be cat home ran, and this is an extremely simple sentence. It has taken me a while to get use to this but I feel that I am almost at a breakthrough point. I can say my prayers, bear testimony, and converse very simply. It is pretty fun to learn. I watched the Testaments for the first time this Sunday. It was great. It made me realize how little I know about the Book of Mormon. It actually scared me so I have been studying the BOM more diligently. Since coming here I have heard two devotionals. At one Elder Ballard came! He gave a really short talk but it was pretty good. Last weeks was a seventy, Neunswander. I totally butchered his name but he was pretty awesome. He was the first mission President over the Russian missions. This included, Egypt, Russia, Turkey, and like 5 or six other countries. There were under a hundred missionaries in all. These missionaries would go for months without even communicating with Brother Neunswander! It was a trial of their faith. The other day we watched an Elder Holland talk that he gave at the MTC a while ago. It was amazing. You should try to look it up. It was called The Miracle of Serving I think. It pretty much told all of us missionaries that we should stop thinking of ourselves and realize that our missions will mean so much to us. He said multiple times " My mission meant everything to me" This really touched me and it gave me a little boost. I know that this message that I am learning about will change millions of peoples lives around the world. I love my savior and am very thankful for the atonement. Well I’ve gotta go but thanks for everything and tell everyone hi.