Weird things we did in MTC..

So anybody thats even a little normal will think this is weird.. but it's something we used to do ALL the time and I guess it shoes just how bored you get in MTC and what things you find entertaining after being in the same building for 3 months straight!

Here is a picture of me and my MTC companions... Sister Prusse, Me & Sister Hynynen.. Behind us is another picture - of President Heber J Grant - this building was dedicated to him - it was called: Heber J. Grant (I'm pretty sure thats what it was called - must have been hard thinking up all the names)...

so anyway, everyday we would walk past this picture of him, and everyday we used to say hello to him, and then one day my campanions and I wrote a song about him. They really like the 'Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree' - although they grew up learning different words - I am not sure which one is correct.. but this is what they sang:

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree, eating all the gum nuts that do fall.. 

laugh kookaburra laugh kookaburra, 

gay your life must be.

we sing:

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree, 

merry merry king of the bush is he, 

laugh kookaburra, laugh kookaburra,

gay your life must be..

Maybe there is two verses.. I don't know. 

So anyway, this is the song we (they) wrote about Heber J. Grant - to the tune of the previous song... 

Heber baby sits on the old brick wall, 

reading all the letters that do fall. 

read heber baby, read heber baby,

(and I can't remember the last line)

If you are wondering why they wrote 'reading all the letters' - Sister Hynynen had a joke with Sister prusse that she had no one to write to except for Heber!! - so there you have it folks..... 

What happens after seeing the SAME picture about 20 times a day for THREE months!!

Getting out of the MTC

So, as I said before, being in the MTC for 3 months straight - you want to get the hell out of there whenever you can - well for me - was blessed!! - I got to leave that place TWICE - YES, TWICE - my Elders were SO mad - it was GREAT. So the first time I got to leave was to visit Temple Square - all foreign Missionaries got to do this - as this is totally a once in a life-time opportunity for most of us. Here are some pics of my first time out in the real world after about 6 weeks in the MTC - doing the same thing, every single day - this was BLISS...

This was the first sister i met in MTC - Sister Pierson - we were lucky enough to go to Temple Square the same day -it was awesome! - 

So we are on the bus in this photo, and something really.... funny happened on the bus, i guess it happens all the time as the same MTC couple take the missionaries to Temple Square. Anyway, so they had a microphone on the bus, and because everyone was 'foreign' they asked where everyone was from, their tongans, canadians, a FINNISH kid, mexicans, and, I don't remember where else, but anyway, so someone thought it would be a great idea to sing the national anthems from our countries - well, the tongans did like this cool duet thing - seriously, it was AWESOME, the canadians shouted theirs from the roof top, the mexicans didn't really understand that much english, so they didn't do it, the finnish guy even sang on his own (which is really rare for a finn to do ANYTHING in public - even speak), and then it was my turn... umm.. YEAH.. I had to sing the Australian national anthem ALL ON MY OWN into a MICROPHONE so that everyone on the bus could hear it... YIKESIES - I won't mention I couldn't remember the very last line.. but i just ended it and no one even knew I was singing the theme from Home & Away!! (just kidding)

As missionaries, we got heaps of 'special' privledges (i cant's spell that word and I tried about four times, that will have to do!) - we got special tours - they were all so fast though because we only had a day there - but something really really special that we got to do was go to the very top of the church offices there -as in the offices that all the church Presidency have their meetings, offices etc in - HOW COOL is THAT! From the very top - I can't remember how many floors it was, but it was a looooon way up in the elevator, anyway, so when we got to the top - we got to go outside and check out the view - INCREDIABLE - this is what we saw!

The conference centre - so this was the SECOND reason I got to leave the MTC. While in the MTC the MTC choir was chosen or it was their annual turn or something, to sing at General Conference... and YES, I got to go. It was awesome. I was sitting in a REAL LIVE general conference - and I was SINGING IN THE CHOIR - in front of the WHOLE CHURCH! - It was AWESOME - very very awesome, and I think you should all be envious (although a person really shouldn't wish that upon another, but this was SO great, that you should all wish you had the chance). so lets move on to what else we saw on Temple square..

Salt Lake Temple - basically a birds eye view - this is something you only see in photos... and I guess this IS a photo, but... well.. I was REALLY there!

Everyone knows what this is :) Again - awesome!

AND - of course, certainly the most exciting, and best thing ever... was this building.. why?? because this is where President Hinckley lives!!! - or lived, i should say - awesome huh? I guess President Monson lives there now..?? Anyway so the MTC guy told us that Pesident Hinckley lives on the top floor of this building, to the left of it - I can't remember if he said the whole floor or what, maybe his room was just in the left corner or something, i don't know.. but anyway, so it's made of bullet proof glass and is very well watched over!!

And, of course we got to see the Temple... in the square!! 

I PROMISE in the MTC i DID NOT...

 

And we certainly DID NOT.....

My First Birthday

My First Birthday As A Missionary I Was In The MTC - 

On The Same Day As My Birthday, The NEW Finns Arrived - So, I Guess You Could Say For My Birthday I Got A New Companion - Sister Beckwith!

Sister Hynynen Made Me a Birthday Cake - There Are Limited Supplies In the MTC, So She Made It From Stuff From The Vending Machines - I Was Made Of Donuts, M&M's,  Lifesavers, And Lollie Snake Things! - It Was Pretty Cool!!

Here We Are Holding The Wonderful Creation - THE CAKE

THE CAKE

facebook..

For those of you who have face book and want to check it out - I have just uploaded the video of me opening my call - it's not the WHOLE vid, just the actual opening.... I am still trying to upload it to blogger, but it still isn't uploading - not sure why. Anyway.. so if you go to facebook you should be able to see "the call" on video

SeRviCe & RooM inSpecTIons...

Service:

Every Thursday morning at 630am we had Service. Because my companions and I were 'solo' we were never actually assigned anywhere to clean - so we could have technically not done it, slept in, or just went to breakfast earlier - BUT, we didn't. We would always get up at 620am, pray and then go to our service - we always headed down stairs and asked what could be done in our building - we always had the SAME job - cleaning the BATHROOMS!! We got a litte trolly with loo papers and paper towels on it, we had to make sure everything was stocked up, and clean out all the bins - had to do every bathroom on every floor of our building, we had 5 floors and there were two bathrooms on every floor - in every bathroom there were maybe 5-6 dunnies! Once we cleaned out the bins, we took the garbage down stairs and put it in one of those massive wheelie bins - you know the ones with FOUR wheels - yep, one of those. Then we had to roll that wheelie bin out to another HUGER steel bin- then empty all of our rubbish into that!

Sister Hynynen with the trolly - I think we named it, Rosy or something - I don't remember, it was always so early we probably even changed it every week...

This is me - I am the 'key' holder - and I found a very helpful 'Key holder' on my pants!! This key opened up the toilet and paper towel dispenser - no wonder I got to be the 'key holder'.

(and you can tell from this photo that it was 630 in the morning as I look like I just rolled out of bed - and literally, I did!)

Room inspection:

Every Tuesday someone came around and check our rooms to make sure they were spick and span - we got marked on it, and then our mark went to our branch president at the MTC. Every Monday night we vacuumed, made sure our towels were folded perfectly, that EVERYTHING was put away - seriously, if you had your eye glasses sitting next to the mirror then you got marked down!! 

So here is us, cleaning our room..

This is a typical picture actually - Sister Prusse cleans, Sister Hynynen stuffs her face, and I was taking photos (well usually i was just watching, but this was an exception)..

Mission Impossible.. escaping from MTC

Like I said before, you would do anything to get out of the MTC!

My two companions and I tried escaping, but we didn't get very far. We got busted, and because we took photo's of ourselves we even had evidence (yes, we were busted on our own evidence!)

Ok, so what is really funny about this p-day adventure in the MTC is that when we decided to do this 'photo shoot' there was another MTC class (who were NOT on p-day) in the court yard just over from us and saw us sneaking in to the bushes - the missionaried wondered what we were doing, but didn't really care either way. But, we heard along the grapevine (from a friend of one of my compies who was actually IN the MTC class) that the teacher from that MTC class thought we were getting 'secret packages' from over the fence - Yes, thats right, he though we were smuggling in some goods! - Now you should know that everything that comes into the MTC has to be passed by the office, or it has to be posted in (if you want to post something in Provo to the MTC no matter how BIG or small it is, it will only cost you TWO BUCKS) so.. there you go, the teacher from the class thought we were smuggling in 'secret packages'... of what?? Chocolate?? hmm... it was VERY funny when we found out (and we were a little mad that we didn't actually think of smuggling in packages while doing that.. darn it!)