Week 3 MTC!!! 1 MONTH LETS GOOOOOO!!!!!!!  May 23, 2012

Dear family and friends,

Can you believe another week is down and that I now have been in the MTC for a month!!!  What!!!!???? That is crazy……. I never thought I would be here for a month, but now I have two more to go and it seems like it is just flying by so quickly. The older group that is in the MTC with us will be leaving on Tuesday of next week. We will be all alone for a week until the new districts come in. It’s going to be so sad without them. They were such a great group of people and so friendly and such a good example to all of us. It was so nice to be with them. But since they are leaving we will be restructuring and we will be gaining 3 or 4 more districts. So that will be crazy!!!!!! Oh and on top of that, MY COMPANION AND I ARE ZONE LEADERS!!! We are going to have to be in charge of 7 districts. I think it’s going to be quite the task but I cannot wait for this opportunity to serve these people. We’ll show them how amazing the MTC can be, if you put your mind in the right place and focus and give up everything and serve The Lord!

      We teach on Wednesdays and last week my companion had been telling me this word which sounded like “garmoshkeh” and so he kept telling me it meant tennis.    He was trying to get me to say it, but I just wouldn’t say it….. So, finally he got me to say it and apparently it means a “small accordions”…………. he thought that was pretty funny!!!! But it didn’t really work out like he planned because the investigator didn’t know what”garmoshkeh” was.  So the joke ended up being on my companion!!.

      On Thursday we have workshops and we were learning how to follow the spirit in order to find answers to our questions. One of the things I was asking, was why would Our Heavenly Father let Joseph Smith be killed? So as I was studying…… I read somewhere those who die will go and teach to those in the spirit world.  And it just hit me………… Joseph was such a great teacher, leader and example to all. Of course it was his time to go, and he would be going to the spirit world and teach all those who have not yet received the gospel. It was so cool to receive that answer, even though it may have been obvious, I knew it was from the spirit.

    We were reading some scriptures the other day and someone read the scripture about Adam fell that men are that they might have joy.... and it just reminded me of seminary when we would say at the end of that and woman are that they might provide it... Gotta love the O’Neill’s ha ha they are the best!!! So many things I remember from them!!

    Well now to fill you all in on the kind of weekend I had.... so it was Friday night and we are just about to pray and go to bed. I was saying the prayer and as I started to pray my companion liked kicked me in the leg. I was thinking, what the heck!  I thought…… just kept going. After I said amen and opened my eyes I found out that apparently my companion had been spasming/having a seizure. So we called the front and they took awhile to get to us. Then we went to the hospital that night. We needed to get my companion checked out. They weren’t sure really what had happened to him. We ended up going to the hospital around 11 pm and we sat in the waiting room for about an hour or 2 until finally they put us into a room. We sat in the room for a little bit and then they took him back and did an EKG and a CAT scan. They could not find anything wrong, so they gave him a heart monitor.  They wanted to see if the heart monitor would give them any ideas of what was wrong. By the time this was all said and done, it was about 3 or 3:30 in the morning.  By the time we got to sleep it was probably about 4 am, which means that we only got, at the most, 3 hours of sleep and it was Saturday.  Saturday is like the longest and hardest day of the week. We were both exhausted and it was crazy that we made it somehow through the day.  We tried to teach the plan of salvation on no sleep and it was quite the lesson, I can’t remember what we said, but it made some sense. So then on Sunday morning we went to go back to the hospital to get the monitor taken off of my companion. On Monday we went to go see the doctor and now my companion Elder Packard will have to get some brain scan thing from some neurologist or something like that.  I feel bad for him!  This is something we will need to do next week.  Yeah, that is how it went for us over the weekend.  Oh so while we were at the hospital on Sunday………………… first you have to picture the little boy RJ from the movie The Blind Side.  This little boy was just like RJ, his height, looks, attitude, demeanor and how he talked……... okay so he comes up to us and sees my sweats that have BYU-I on them and he asked if I went there?  I said yes. Then he said, hey me too!  He was pointing to his shorts.   He didn’t go to school at BYU-I but he had shorts from BYU-I. Then he looks and sees our name tags.    He asked, "hey are you missionaries?!" We said yes and then he says I’M MORMON TOO!...........Right mom?……….. it was the cutest and funniest thing. A little bit later they asked us where we were going to be serving our mission. We told them in the Ukraine. I asked the little boy if he wanted to serve a mission.   He said yes!! I was glad to hear that.  I found some good in going to the hospital even though it was a scary moment.
Well on a less serious note……….. When we give church talks, we have to give them all in Russian now. So wish me luck! I hope I can pull off the talk. I hope I can get my point across and be able to pronounce what I write down on my paper. ha ha  It should be fun.  It just helps us get more prepared for serving our mission in the Ukraine.  Many times we sing in our residence or whenever and Elder Samuelson joins in and as he joins in……….. We all of a sudden stop singing.  It’s not really on purpose, but it seems like it is.  So Elder Samuelson gets really mad because he is just singing by himself. We just say, “What are you doing?”  It is all in fun. We love him and I love everyone in my district and zone. They are so great and I know we are all here for a reason.     The food here in the MTC is causing me to gain a few pounds………….. not good!!!   I got to work harder in gym!!

When we are watching Mormon Messages it makes me want to go serve so bad and I know that I am here doing the Lords work and that I have a divine purpose and that is to teach the gospel. I have received multiple answers……… that this church is true and that Joseph Smith did restore the true gospel and that the book of Mormon is true and it is here to guide us through our lives. I love this gospel and any of you debating whether or not to serve……… please go to the Lord and ask Him. Our Heavenly Father will testify to you what you should do. He will testify to you through the Holy Ghost. Make sure you stay worthy to always have the Holy Ghost with you.

He is truly there to guide us. The Holy Ghost helps me in the MTC and will be there throughout my life!!!!!! 

I love you all and wish you all the best! I will continue to pray for you all! Prayer is the one of the most powerful things in the world!!!!!!! I love you all!!!!

Elder Anthony Litchfield

Week 3 MTC  May 16, 2012

Dear Family and Friends

So another week is down in the MTC and as Michael so kindly pointed out to me I have got 3 weeks down 101 to go ha-ha. He thinks he is funny. Anyway, right after I sent my email last week my companion and I got to go off campus to the dry cleaners, so we got so see the outside world, which was nice for a change. We will be going to the dry cleaners again this week after we get done with emails today.  We need to go pick up his things. So it’s nice that we get to do that.  It is looking a little cloudy outside today so hopefully we get a rain storm or something. They are awesome!!! As you know I sprained my ankle last week and so instead of playing basketball, which I love to do, I had to resort to playing four- square for a few days. I need to let my ankle heal... They take 4- square quite seriously here. Just a heads up to those who will be coming in soon! Ha Ha   Get ready & practice up!!!!  Every so often during our class time we get to watch a video about the district or something that is beneficial and every time I see that coming up I like scream "YES"! Everyone looks at me funny but I think it’s cool to just sit down and watch a few minutes of video…….. they are the best!!! I don’t know if I mentioned this, but on Saturday nights we all go and sing Russian hymns, which is so cool and I get to practice up on some reading. It is really helpful to work on that and enjoy singing the hymns at the same time. Friday we again had “Field Day Friday” and I had to kick left footed because of my ankle. I kicked better when I did that……….. so maybe I’ll continue  with my left foot. It was fun and I actually got to run the bases and not just stand in line. Each night when we get back to our residence it’s like a party. People are always all over the place and it’s a mad house some nights, so we have to keep our door closed or else people will come into our room. They like us I guess…….. for whatever reason.  Ha  Ha    It’s fun sometimes to relax and just chill but other times it’s nice to have some time to write and think. To learn the colors in Russian, we played the game “Signs”, which was fun but super hard at the same time. Not only did you have to remember their sign but you had to remember how to say the color and do it to a beat.  It was like a mix of ”Signs” and “Big Booty” for those of you who know what those games are.    It was fun!   So this last week……. I have had the worst cold of my life! I swear, I have had horrible headaches and a runny nose and it’s not been the best, but I have kept a positive attitude and I continued to work hard in my studies because I know the Lord blesses us when we are obedient and when we are trying our hardest. I am almost over my cold so hopefully it will be all gone by next week………. I love my district & we work well together and support each other!!!! Oh so sad news……. we lost our funny & exciting teacher. We now we have a new teacher who we only have had once. He said that he taught this class before and his kids were sleeping and playing the rubber pencil games.

 I don’t know how he is going to be, but hopefully we can learn a lot.

 Yesterday during devotional we got to hear from L. TOM PERRY!!!!!!!!!!!  It was so great to hear from another apostle. He talked about the priesthood, but what got me………. was that he told the story about how this boy was talking to an older man. The older man asked if he had read the Book of Mormon. The boy said, yes!   He asked the boy if he knew the three witnesses.  And he said yes. The older man was Martin Harris. It just hit me that the beginning of the Book of Mormon, before 1st Nephi, is just as important as the rest of the book. I read that today and found a lot of new things in there that I never knew.  It was really cool. We got to go to the temple, which is always the place to be, to get a piece of mind and to just think about whatever is on your mind. I love the temple, it will be sad not going every week once I get to Ukraine……… But I know the blessings will still be there. 

Now on a funny note, my companion and I get bored when we walk sometimes, so we find new things to do.  The other day we were walking in exact unison and he kept trying to walk opposite of me, but I wouldn’t let him. It was just a dumb little thing that we did, but it was fun.  Sometimes you just have to entertain yourselves!!!!  Well I don’t know what else to say, since the weeks are pretty much the same.  But I’ll try to find new and exciting things to talk about each week.  No promises though!    Ha Ha  . I love you all and want you to know I pray for you every night and I know that the Lord is blessing all of you. Love you all!  Thanks for the support!!!  I love getting your letters!

Love Elder Litchfield

Week 2 MTC

Dear Family and Friends

Another week is down and as Michael pointed out to me I have another 102 to go but I’m loving it and things are surely on their way. To start off I’ll let you all in on something that happened to me on Monday. As you all probably know I am basketball lover and every time I get to go to the gym I play some basketball, well this last Monday I was playing and in the first 5 minutes I rolled my ankle pretty bad, so it swelled up hard core and it was not a pretty sight. But today is Wednesday it has gone down quite a bit and I should be able to play again in the next few days.

I was so bummed I twisted it and it really hurt and I heard it crack but luckily it didn’t break. I hope that these emails do not get to repetitive since it’s mostly the same thing every day but I will try to share what is going on and some spiritual thoughts. Anyway, things are going good here just moving along trying to learn Russian. Every Sunday and Tuesday we have a devotional and it is so cool because every time we get to sing three hymns before we start to invite the spirit and then another one right before the prayer, I love it and it’s amazing how good all of the elders and sisters sound together. I can feel the spirit so strongly when I am in there. Yesterday during our devotional we got to hear from D Todd Christofferson and it was amazing. It was so cool to hear from an apostle of the Lord. He was an amazing speaker and it was all about the doctrine of Christ and how we need to bring others unto Christ. It was all around amazing. Last week we finished up with our "investigator" who is now our teacher as well as another investigator.

Also last week we didn’t teach for three days and it was so weird for me not to teach for those three days. I didn’t ever think I would miss the teaching but I know that the Lord is watching out for me and the spirit is testifying that this is where I need to be. So now we have two investigators we will be teaching and they are both our teachers playing as investigators. It will be fun. I really enjoy teaching even though it’s difficult to get my exact point across. I know they understand it for the most part and I can just always bear my testimony because that is the strongest thing I have! Now for some of the other stuff I get to do. On Fridays our group that has gym together calls it field day Friday and we all go out to the field and play kickball or some sort of sport out there. It is so much fun because we are all just having such a good time all together.  I love it. On Sunday nights we have a fireside and then at the end of the fireside they show a movie and this is my favorite part of the week because I can sit there not think about anything and just enjoy a good uplifting movie, it’s so wonderful I love it. I also love being able to do personal study, before I didn’t really know what to do or how to study or what to study, but I just make sure that I pray for the spirit and somehow I am always able to find something that is relevant to what I am teaching. It is wonderful. I just want everyone to know how thankful I am to them and how much support I have gotten it. It is so great to be supported and know there are people out there loving me through all of this. So if anyone is ever feeling down or feeling like everything is just a trial they should look up the hymn Count Your Many Blessings. With all of the things we have in our lives, I know that the blessings will always outweigh our trials and the Lord will always prepare a way for us to accomplish or overcome our trials. My favorite scripture 1st Corinthians 10:13..... I know the Lord loves all of us. No matter what we do, so we can always turn to him in our time of need and I know that for a fact. I love you all and you are the best support a person could ask for!!!

Now just on a side note…... my companion is just like Michael.  He does everything the same I swear and it’s just weird when he does something that reminds me of Michael. I’m just like no……….. You didn’t just do that, but it is funny.

I love the work and I will keep working hard. You are all in my prayers and I love you all so much!!! Keep the letters coming; they get me through each day. You are all wonderful! The Lord loves you and will bless you continually, just make sure you thank him for your blessings :)

Love you all

Love Elder Litchfield

P.S. my teacher one day answered a question and said "I can’t explain it, it’s just Russian".... great! Gotta  love it~!!!!

Dear Family and Friends

Week one of the MTC!

So my p day is on Wednesday and I only get a short 30 minutes to email so hopefully I can type fast enough to get all out what I want to say! WOW! Let me tell you that the first 4 days of the MTC are quite a doozy they are ridiculous, right away they start speaking to you in Russian and occasionally stop to make sure you understand what they say and usually I just sit with a blank stare because it went right over my head. But I am loving it so far I can feel the spirit so strongly here and I know this is what I am supposed to be doing with my live at this moment. Oh and mom I just found out we don’t get to call on mother’s day but I will keep writing you letters don’t worry.  The first couple of days were really hard on me I really missed you guys and the rest of the family and so to not be able to talk to you like at all is really tough. but I prayed for strength every moment I needed some help and that has gotten me through each day so far and now I am on day 8 and I feel so much better and things are going a ton better as well. My companions are super nice and cool I have elder Packard as my companion (he is the one I went to school with) and elder Samuelsson as well as elder Kunferman they went to BYU Provo.  We all get along well and things are going good with us. they all have some previous experience with Russian so it is a little unfair ;) but it’s okay they are always there to help me out with what I need so it’s nice to get extra help but the language is quite overwhelming.  The second day we were here we taught our first lesson in Russian. that was quite the experience. it’s hard to get the point across when I don’t know  a whole lot of Russian but I do know how to bear my testimony and that is extremely powerful and that is a great feeling to do so. Sundays and Mondays are probably going to be my favorite days (Wednesdays are nice but we don’t get a ton of time to do stuff like email.) so far we have now taught 5 lessons in Russian and our last one is tomorrow. I also can pray a little bit in Russian which is crazy because I have only been here for a few days. But I know that I am able to do all of these things through the spirit and that I would be lost without it. we study a ton I think we are in our classroom for like 10 hours out of the day or more ill count next time not enough time now ha-ha. I have already learned so much and by listening to the spirit teach to me and to guide me is such a great thing to know and have. I never really knew what it felt like but it is amazing to know he is there helping me out.   Everyday minus Sunday and p-day I get to play some basketball (the guys here are not that good either) ha-ha but it is still fun so I get my good work out in :)  The work is definitely hard and it is going to be tough from here on out but I know that the spirit is here for me teaching through me and helping me as long as I am putting in my time. wow I have written a lot and still have 15 minutes not bad ha-ha anyway I do love what I am doing and now that this is where I am supposed to be. when I get discouraged I just pray for strength and that is the most important thing we have is prayer and ask  for strength the lord will bless us I know he will. I cannot believe it’s been a week the days seem so long then they are over and I feel like it wasn’t that bad. I love you all and want you all to know I pray for everyone especially our family everyday and I always tear up when I think of you guys... I’m such a sap now ha-ha love you all!!!!

Also if you don’t know what dear elder is please check it out I get the mail that same day it is sent and it is always great to get a letter even if it is just you saying hello I still will appreciate it. It’s always a sad day when our mailbox is empty. I will have time to write you also if you send it by dear elder because I can write it throughout the week and so it’s just great

Dad I do want you to keep sending the updates I love it makes me so happy to see what’s going and it is not distracting I look at it have a laugh and then carry on my way.... oh one last thing we had a meeting where we all talked about the devotional and every single person said um to start and at least 4 times I didn’t say it at all... aren’t you proud :) I love you

Mom you can send me as many dear elders as you want 5...6 a day if you want that might be pushing it but I love them and didn’t realize how much I would ha-ha I love you

I love you all

Elder (Anthony) Litchfield