Elder Bryson Farley: Week #2 MTC Nov. 4, 2017

Dear Family & Friends,

Well, the MTC continues to be quite the experience! I have learned so much more about the gospel and my testimony has grown a lot. I have grown so much closer to my District and we consider each other family. We now always eat together and go to gym together, encourage each other, and laugh together. I have no doubt that we will be keeping in touch over our missions and long after. With that, we have gotten to know a little bit more about each other and our true characters. While I do get along with my companion and we are close, Elder Greenwood is my closest friend here. We do everything together and our jokes are the best :) He doesn't always get along with his companion, Elder Vann, because Elder Vann is always on his case about rules, how he can't talk about his girlfriend back home, and he is very strict on bed time. Once it hits 10:00, literally every 5 minutes he will remind everyone that bed time is 10:30. I am not the first to say this, but it gets on my nerves to. Good news is, despite Elder Vann's terrible puns and being a stickler, we still have good times with him. He is a funny guy and most ironically, he is from Dallas but reminds all of us of a stereotypical good Mormon boy. Literally! I mean when Elder Rowe said that he though Vann was the funniest Elder in our District, Greenwood immediately questioned it saying "What?! Elder Vann and his stupid puns??" (Needkess to say, his puns have thrown Greenwood off the charts :)) On the topic of this, my companion, Elder Hawkes, and I had our first argument. He had scheduled an appointment with an investigator for 7:30 (which was gym time) without letting me know. Reason why it upset me was because we had previously discussed not planning during eating time or exercise time. When I found out, he told me he didn't need gym time or didn't seem to care to go, so he didn't think it was a big deal. We ended up skipping gym time and he promised to never schedule it during gym time (He did it twice). Other than that, I like him as a companion. He is strict and a tad prideful but honestly, I still think it's his calling as a District Leader. Elder Greenwood and I love to mess with him and he takes it well haha we are too much for the kid sometimes. He kind of reminds me of a shy version of McCade. About his height, loves to exercise and he is stronger than most of us, and seemed to have been a lady's man Haha!

Anyways, enough talk about that. Brie was asking about if I had any funny stories this week so here are some! So we had Devotional on Tuesday and I was sitting next to Sister Barnett and Elder Greenwood. Barnett saw two Elders where one fell asleep on the other's shoulder while the other had falken asleep with his head back. She leaned over and pointed them out to us and when Devotional was over, I looked at Greenwood and said "I honestly think falling asleep on your shoulder wouldn't be so weird." And he replied "That is how you know it's true friendship and brotherhood." And the next morning during breakfast he fell asleep and his head landed on my shoulders :)

Another moment was when my District and another were combined to watch our teachers teach a pretend investigator who was my companion. After a few minutes, my teacher, Brother Bate asked us to share our thoughts and Elder Greenwood and I had our hands raised and so did another Elder and that Elder was picked to share the thought and when he did, he was asked to switch Brother Bate spots and teach the investigator. Greenwood looks at me real quick and says "Don't raise your hand anymore." (It was funnier being there)

Okay, so another was during lunch and Greenwood leans over to Hawkes and says "I have a compromise. Because Elder Farley and I like to stay up and have bonding time with Elder Rowe and Schneiter, I say Elder Vann and Farley switch beds so you two can sleep peacefully on the same bunk and Farley isn't so far away." Hawkes, shaking his head, just says "No no no, not happening." And Greenwood shakes his head and leans to talk to me "We gon' start a revolution." I responded "While they be sleeping, we will take action." Yeah, we are still in the same beds we have been in since Day 1.

We have started teaching investigators, one of which was a non-member and the other we are not sure even though some Elders told us she was so I guess so! She just asked tough questions. The non-member was our favorite. Her name is Aubrey and she grew up Baptist. She started learning more about the church when her friends and I think her boyfriend brought it up to her. She met with some Provo Missionaries and decided to participate in the TRC Program at the MTC to learn more. I felt a prompting to talk to her and I understand now why I did. I knew she was different from the rest. Elder Hawkes and I taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Prayer, Holy Ghost and how to recognise him, The Restoration of The Gospel, The Atonement, and the Plan of Salvation with both of our investigators but in different order according to their needs. Teaching the Plan of Salvation because we were more engaging with the investigators and they were more comfortable with us. Elder Hawkes and I are super happy because we hear Aubrey is considering baptism! We miss teaching her already and she plans to learn more and both of our investigators may even stay in touch. It was an incredible experience! One of my favorite moments while teaching was also a funny one. We were teaching Emily (agnostic and asks hard questions) about the Plan and she kept asking about why we needed Jesus and why Heavenly Father couldn't just "BAM everyone is saved and everything is perfect. Amen!" And after Elder Hawkes tried using a few scriptures and explain to the best of his knowledge, I felt the urge to ask "Hold up here, okay, you've seem Lord of The Rings, right?"

"Yes of course!"

"The Eagles! Why couldn't they just carry Frodo and Sam to Mount Doom and drop the ring and BAM everyone is saved from evil and the movie comes to a close."

"Uh because then the movie would be pointless and wouldn't make sense."

"Exactly my point. Without Jesus Christ and his Atonement, the Plan would be pointless and wouldn't exactly make sense."

Safe to say, she understood the analogy. I did come to learn that the investigators love my stories and analogies that they admit to writing about them in their journals. Pretty cool! I remember the other day when we were practicing teaching with a random companion and a random Elder or Sister to observe or be an investigator with a unique story. I was placed with Elder Cook and the investigator was another Elder, forgot his name, Pratt I think who played a man he knew back home named Todd. Todd felt like he did not need church in his life and felt he could just read the Bible, be a good person, and call it good. He said he felt like his Mormon friends had something that he didn't and he simply wanted to know what it was. Elder Cook and the Sister observing kept teaching what they were and I tried my best to help. I then decided to share a little bit about myself once being in his shoes and did not see a need for those things either but later saw how it blessed my life. The investigator, when evaluating us as teachers said that yeah we all made good points but we were taking shots in the dark and I happened to take the right shot. I thought that was really nice to hear because I felt inadequate with the way the others were teaching (which seemed flawless to me). It goes to show that it does not matter!

I have been told a lot since I have gotten here that I have a hinted "Western-Tex" accent I guess. Elder Rowe says he loves the way Greenwood and I pronounce our "Th" I am not sure what he means but okay! My District wants me to sing country and so maybe. Maybe. I really only sang once and that was when Elder Greenwood and I sang "Misty Mountains" and we were pretty good I'd say! It was a funny but awesome moment. Anyways, that is a little bit about my week!

With Love,

Elder Farley

As awkward as we look, this is our only picture as a District so far (second day
at the MTC so that explains why we look so awkward around each other)