Week One

Hello everyone! Week one down and it has been so awesome! I really do love it here!

Just some quick mission business for Mom and everyone else too I guess haha! I just got two more immunizations. I finished the Japanese Encephalitis and I got a polio booster as well. Needles are the worst.
​Then I have an appointment Thursday morning and it sounds like they are going to give me and the other Elders Malaria pills to take in India. All of this kinda sounds sketchy to me, I don't know about you guys haha! We just went to the travel agency building and asked if they knew anything about flights or visa's yet and the guy at the front desk said if we haven't heard anything from the MTC  that it is good news and that it should be going well. But we've only been here 6 days so maybe all of that won't happen for a week or so. That all is kinda stressful plus I hate needles so I'm glad the rest of today will make up for it. 

Today we get to go through the temple, and tonight we have a devotional with Elder Bednar! My district decided to be in the choir so that we could sit closer and we are also singing a song to him, that apparently he wrote himself. I'm really excited, some of the other district members are nervous, but there will be hundreds singing probably so it doesn't matter if you sound bad, as long as everybody else sounds good! But this will be my second time seeing him, and I heard that Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the twelve might be coming next week, these things are supposed to be secrets, but I've made some good friends here who know a lot of things haha!

I came in to the MTC with over 500 Elders and Sisters. There are 1400 of us here now I think. This place is pretty packed and I've met so many awesome people. My companion Elder Stephens is so cool and we have so much fun! We know all the same T.V. shows and movies so we have a good time talking about that and playing basketball at Exercise Time. We also are doing really well teaching together and work really well together which just builds the bond we've grown in just 5 or 6 days. I get along well with all my roommates and district members! We all have so many different interests, but we have one thing in common and that's the gospel. Outside of my district I've come to know a few other Elders really well! Elder Thueson from Hillcrest High school left last night to the Atlanta Georgia mission! It was good to have him and talk to him about football nonstop! He was a receiver and could run a 4.4 40 yard dash! And yes he's really that fast I had to guard him in basketball. Then probably the most influential Elders I have met is Elder Bockenstedt! He is the coolest kid, he is from Iowa and is huge into wrestling and we talk a lot. He's only been here a week longer than me but he kinda took me in and helped me out a lot and I really appreciate that. Especially being one of the youngest kids here! I'll get a picture with him later today and I'll try to send it through! We plan on going through the temple together, and he is going to the Scottsdale Arizona mission. You should see us playing basketball, we do alright and aren't terrible for a couple of wrestlers, but we get way to aggressive guarding each other and are basically wrestling on the court! 

Now for my awesome experiences! We have been teaching and doing the role play stuff and it's easily my favorite part! We are teaching three investigators right now and have already taught two others! It felt weird at first because we started out just teaching our teachers, who pretended to be investigators, but the investigators they pretended to be were real people with real needs! You could feel the spirit so strongly as we invited them to come unto Christ. If you truly learn to love the people you teach it helps so much and its such a good start to my mission to learn that love, when my teachers talk about their investigators from their missions they light up like I would when I talk about all my family and friends and I want to have that when I come home from serving!! Right now we are teaching a man named Bubba, who apparently has a Mormon message or bible video about him. He grew up in a gang and is the hardest investigator here by far! Everyone tells me and my companion that! He's literally made two sets of sisters cry while I've been here and he gets offended really easily. So we went into the lesson just trying to get to know him and be his friend, we didn't teach him anything at all for 45 minutes. But we got through to him and built a friendship that by the end he was giving us "bro hugs" He is so cool and I learned that sometimes there are people who it's best not to teach them by the book, but by example. He had had so many bad experiences with the church and thought we were offensive and higher up than him. We all felt the spirit so much when I told him that I was sorry he had been offended and that those members had treated him wrongly, but that just because I'm a missionary and he has had a rough life doesn't mean that Heavenly Father loves me anymore than him and that really got through to him. I'm almost positive he is already a member, but some of the investigators aren't and we always go in thinking that they aren't and treating them as if they truly needed us and it helps so much. I love teaching and I'll be so sad if I don't get to do much in India.

Then after another lesson yesterday we taught about The Restoration and after we didn't feel as strongly about the lesson and my companion told me he didn't know if he truly had a testimony of the restoration. He prayed for help and answers and I didn't know about that, but when I was searching the scriptures and studying I felt I needed to read out of Doctrine Covenants 135 and about the martyrdom of Joseph Smith. I told him he needed to read it and I encourage you all to read it, it truly shows what Joseph Smith did for us! He was a great man who would have never died for something that wasn't as true as this church. I was thankful to be an answer to my companions prayers as he told our district last night in a little devotional.

We also had a mission conference Sunday and heard from the MTC presidency again. Then that night we heard from Sister Sheri Dew, who has written a couple books on Prophets and those who hold church leadership positions. It was really awesome, then we watched an Elder Bednar movie on one of his talks here at the MTC a couple years back. It was on The Character of Christ and it was amazing, I hope tonight is like that! Fast Sunday was cool, I got to bear my testimony and that was a good experience as well, I've grown so close to so many people and I have so much emailing to do when I get out in the field to keep in contact. Look for an Elder Hill or an Elder Turner coming to the Pocatello Mission. I told them to look forward to the McCammon and Arimo stakes and how awesome everyone is there! They should be flying in right about now. There are also two sisters who wanted my email, one is going to Boston and the other to Scottsdale here in a week. I gave them it and they are really cool, but don't worry about me I have no interest in girls right now, I just had to brag and make it so my dad could say its because I got his good looks hahaha! 

Elder Kofford left the other day and that was sad, I didn't get to say goodbye. Sister Belnap and I see each other a lot and always make sure each person is doing well. I have also seen Elders White and Beutler. Everyone from Marsh is doing great! 

Seriously it has been such a good week so far and I love it here! Excited for the future. One week down. Lots to go, it's going by fast already for me. Only complaint is that it takes forever to fall asleep, we go to bed right at 10:30 and I don't think I have been falling asleep until about midnight. Which is hard because in my room if you aren't the first one asleep you get to listen to everyone else snoring! Keep the emails coming, I will have more time later in the day to email back everyone who emailed me! Thanks grandma for the letter it meant everything to me, I miss you and grandpa! Keep the dear elders coming as well it is good to hear from you all! 

Stay Happy. 

Love you guys,

Elder Armstrong 

pic #1 me and my companion Elder Stephens

pic #2 me and Elder Bockenstedt 

I had more but they won't send. I'll make sure you see everyone by next week.