Leaving the MTC

Tyler called home at 9:34 a.m. the morning he left for Chihuahua, Mexico as I was just finishing my Visiting Teaching!!!  I just basically ran out of her house!!!  Then, when receiving his call, I hung up on Tyler 2 times!!!  I was so excited and I was trying to conference Chad onto the call!!!  Then I kept putting each of them on hold, first Tyler then Chad, then Tyler again!!!  Luckily, I finally figured it out!!!

Well, he sounded very happy.  He told us that they never went to sleep that night.  They had to leave the MTC at 2:30 a.m. so they figured they rather not sleep.

Out of the 10 Elders in his District, only 5 went with him to Chihuahua.  He was very sad and was going to miss those Elders a lot.  He said that they really got along great and had become close during their stay at the MTC.  He told us about a tradition they have at the MTC passing down items.  For example, someone had to wear an old t-shirt all day long that had not been washed.  Tyler had to carry around an old ball.  Someone else had to smell and take care of an old fruitcake, etc. (Tyler really lucked out).

Tyler really enjoyed the teachers and will miss learning from them but he said he feels ready.  He felt that he could understand Spanish pretty well, but was still struggling with speaking it.  Chad told him to just wait until he gets to Mexico, and he might not understand anything at all.  He did remind us of his setting apart as a missionary that he was promised the gift of tongues.  He was told that he would hear a word only 1 time and that he will be able to retain that new word.  He told us how he felt that it was really working during class and that he always  knew what a word meant when asked.

He also mentioned how his testimony has grown at the MTC and how they studied the gospel A LOT!!!

Tyler was telling us that he was hoping to get a Mexican native companion to be forced to speak Spanish the whole time.  Part of him says it would be easier to have an American comp, but learning the language would be more important in the long run.  He told us a little bit about some people that he saw at the MTC and said he met a lot of people from his old Bingham High school.  He said that it was fun seeing them all there getting ready to go serve on missions.

They made Tyler the travel leader and he told us he had no idea what that meant.  

We spoke for quite a while and my impression was that he sounded way excited and ready to go!!  He said he was starting to feel very tired. Haha, I wonder why?

It was great to hear him all excited about his Mission…so now for the wait!!!