Handwritten letter written December 29, 2013

Dear Family,

So I got a chance to write another letter and I figured that I better take the chance to despite not knowing when it will arrive.  I sent one before this so hopefully it has made it or will arrive soon.  I can't imagine where it is or where it has been.

This is the last letter that I am writing before I leave the MTC.  They give so little time to try and understand how this all works.  I think I got a pretty good idea of how to teach investigators.  It's pretty cool how they do it here.  The teachers are all returned missionaries.  What they have us do is pretend they are investigators,, and we have to plan according to their needs.  They have separate rooms where they do this, and even have cameras set up to record the teaching.  It's full on, you can't stop in the middle of the lesson and ask a question and then keep going.  If you do they will continue to play the role of the investigator and act puzzled.  So it's a great learning system.  We sometimes would look at the tapes to see what we can do better and what we did good.  It's kind of cool they got a whole network setup so they can watch the footage from the classroom (that's for the teachers) but also play back any of the lessons.

I hope that it has helped me enough to be a good companion for my first trainer companion.  I don't want to be quiet and not contribute to the lessons.  i will be all right.  I'll figure it out.  So far it's been a great testimony builder to be in the MTC.  A lot of which I have realized I have to rely on faith.  i remember the apostle Elder Bednar said in one of the devotionals that I watched, "Don't let what you don't know unravel what you do know."  Those words brought some comfort to me.  I'm still learning a lot about the scriptures and they go hand in hand, or the Book of Mormon, and Bile.  Stuart make sure that you understand how the Bible contains "truths" and the Book of Mormon contains the "fullness" of the gospel, and know the scriptures in preach My Gospel.  These scriptures explain a lot of specific principles and doctrines that are in the Church.  That's another thing, know what a "principle" is and a "doctrine".  These are just some small things that you can do to be better prepared for the mission.

I don't know where I will be assigned to work in this next week.  These letters may be repetitive, it is hard to keep track of what I have said already.  I should be e-mailing soon before I leave.  Can't wait to hear from you guys finally!

Lots of Love,
Elder Ward

PS The Tongans, and all the Pacific Islander people here are crazy cool!

Oh!  I got to go through the Hamilton Temple!  It is amazing and it was wonderful.  I would send a picture I bought there but it is to big to fit in the envelope.  I will send you guys a package soon when I get out in the field.