Tuesday, July 16, 2013

As you can probably guess, my P-day in the Mission Training Center (MTC) is Tuesday. There are 17 of us leaving for Norway on the 20th of August. There are nine people in my district: 6 elders and 3 sisters (the other 8 going to Norway are all elders, but the last group that went to Norway had way more sisters than elders). I am staying at the main MTC (Missionary Training Center). I think that Norwegian is going as well as can be expected, but it certainly isn't easy. We have a pretend investigator named Orjan, who is actually going to be our teacher starting next week. We have taught him 3 lessons already. My companion is Elder Nielson. My branch president was companions with the guy who was the last Mission President in Norway while they were both in the language training center. My branch President was tall and athletic and his companion was a scrawny 5 ft. 7 musician. I thought it was so cool and certainly not a coincidence that Eldste, elder in Norwegian, Nielson and I fit that same description. He is tall and athletic, social and outgoing but we can still get along very well as those two companions did way back when.

I am getting along very well with my district, and I think the MTC is going well, but I would much rather be out there teaching. Still, I know that I am not ready for that yet, not in Norwegian anyway. We heard a wonderful talk rebroadcast by a former Relief Society Presidency member who became the President of Deseret Books about using our time in the best way and drawing close to the Lord. She quoted something Elder Holland once said; "Many of us live our lives like we're going to be here forever when we aren't, we can't and we won't”.

What strikes me most about the gospel is the unique and precious truth it proclaims that all people are children of God and because of this all people can themselves become like him. In difficult times, when our faith is tried we must remember this. We must remember that we are here to accomplish things. We are here to serve. We are here to love. We are here to grow. We all have our weaknesses, but we need not lose hope or faith. If we do our best, we all can be exalted and become like our Heavenly parents. I am supposed to give a word in Norwegian every week, so this week it is "fred" which means peace. I wish you peace, love and happiness.

Love,

Elder Ankenman


While Elder Ankenman is in the MTC in Provo he can receive daily messages from Dear Elder.com. If anyone would like to contact him this way here is a link: http://www.dearelder.com/. He will still have access to email every Tuesday.