Week 5

Only 10 more days left at the MTC. I am so excited to be heading over to Indonesia. We continue to learn about the culture there. The language is so funny. They love shortening words. For example, "Lowbat" means "Low Battery." I thought that was pretty funny. They also have KEPO, which means Knowing Every Particular Object. Funny how they use English acronyms.

This week in my studies I have really enjoyed reading Nephi's account of his rebuking his older brothers, found in 1 Nephi 7:8-12. which reads:

8 Behold ye are mine elder brethren, and how is it that ye are so hard in your hearts, and so blind in your minds, that ye have need that I, your younger brother, should speak unto you, yea, and set an example for you?
9 How is it that ye have not hearkened unto the word of the Lord?
10 How is it that ye have forgotten that ye have seen an angel of the Lord?
11 Yea, and how is it that ye have forgotten what great things the Lord hath done for us, in delivering us out of the hands of Laban, and also that we should obtain the record?
12 Yea, and how is it that ye have forgotten that the Lord is able to do all things according to his will, for the children of men, if it so be that they exercise faith in him? Wherefore, let us be faithful to him.

Imagine being asked these questions. How different are we at times than the older brothers of Nephi, who had forgotten the Lord? How is it, that we, having a knowledge of the Gospel, fail to live it. Matthew 19:16-22 conveys a similar principle, in which a young ruler was not faithful enough to follow the counsel of Jesus, and sell all the he had and "come and follow [Christ]." As Nephi commands us: "Wherefore, let us be faithful to [Christ]."

These past two weeks have been really fun. We are working really hard. This Tuesday my roommates and I did an English fast. We learned so much only speaking our language for 24 hours. I will learn so much more in Indonesia. The main building is being used for the Mission President Conference right now. Hopefully that means we will be able to hear from an apostle before we leave.

I don't have much more to say. I need to start keeping my emails shorter. Thanks so much for everyone who has been reading and replying. I love hearing back from everyone. If you are going through anything difficult in your life, just know that Jesus Christ wants to help you. All you need to do is go unto him. He is waiting to help us, if only we will ask. Don't forget the blessing that daily prayer and scripture study brings you. I know his gospel is true, and I can't wait to help others in Indonesia learn of it.

Attached is a picture of Elder Earl, myself. Elder Rapp, and Elder Schofield last Sunday on our temple walk. I also have attached a mural of the parting of the Red Sea. It is one of my favorite murals.

Week Dua

John 21: 15-17

15 So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter,Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee.He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.

16 He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.

17 He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas,lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him,Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.

I love this passage of scripture so much. Jesus is asking his apostle Simon not only if he loves the Lord, but if he Loves Jesus more than these. We must have this same conversation with ourselves. Imagine Jesus asking you "Do you love me more than ________?" What is it in our lives that we love more than Jesus. If there is something that you love more than Jesus the Christ, the redeemer of our souls, you need to change something. For anyone who doesn't understand why some people are willing to sacrifice so much for the Savior, it is because they love him more than these. With this love comes action. If we can develop this love for the Savior, he instructs us to "Feed my sheep." Ask yourself, "Am I feeding his [Christ's] sheep?"

Here is how this conversation should go:

Jesus Christ: "Do you love me more than ________ [friends,netflix,etc]?"

Me: "Yes Lord, you know I love you more than than"

Jesus Christ: "Then feed my sheep"

Update in how I am sending my emails out. I used to have my mom send out my emails, but I am now going to send them out myself so that I can receive any replies that you all might have. If you want to write to me, simply respond directly to this email.

I loved all the emails i was sent the first week, but this week I was sent fewer emails. I can check my email every day, but only respond on Friday. I love to hear from you! Even if you think I won't like hearing it, go ahead and send me an email anyways. I don't have a lot of time to respond to emails on Fridays, so don't feel left out if I don't get to write you back.

Here is a quick overview of my past week:

Friday: Preparation day ends at 6:00pm, and immediately afterwards we have class
Saturday: Began having class two times each day, for a total of six hours
Sunday: Was fast Sunday, went to church, ate some ice cream sandwiches, watches Meet the Mormons 2
Monday: We have service in the morning, starting at 6:00am. We clean bathrooms and vacuum floors of classrooms, which are scheduled to be demolished this summer. The two new MTC buildings opened up. My entire district moved out of our old building and into the third floor of an older building. Most people were upgraded when the new MTC buildings opened, but my district was downgraded. We have a good attitude about it. They served us Chic-Fil-A for dinner, and the gym opened back up. I now play volleyball every day for my exercise time
Tuesday: My teachers took us on a tour of part of the new MTC campus. One of the buildings has a nice rooftop where you can go and study, the buildings have very large floors, very modern, and have a lot of art. They have at least one mural per floor, and the murals are a mix between a painting, photoshop, and a landscape picture. The murals depict Old and New Testament events, and well as prophets from the Book of Mormon and latter day prophets
Wednesday: We had class in the morning, then hosted new missionaries right after lunch. For hosting, you help drop off missionaries pick up their bags and get them into their room, then class room
Thursday: Taught TRC, which is where my companion and I got to teach some returned missionaries. We focus on their needs, and don't have to worry about trying to teach them the gospel because they are already members. It is similar to home teaching. We got to ask the returned missionaries plenty of questions about what they are doing, and what is going on

I cannot stress how awesome these new MTC buildings are. They have an awesome atmosphere. People go into them and immediately quiet down and become reverent even though they are just used for teaching. My favorite thing about them is the windows. They are really big, and you can see all around. If you are facing north, you can see the temple, squaw peak, and the rest of the campus. If you are facing south you can see Heritage halls and some of the other BYU campus.


Justin mentioned eating ice cream sandwiches on Sunday but there is more to the story. Here is an excerpt from an email sent by another missionary in Justin's district.

The best part of dinner though was when Elder Allen walked over to the table with a tray full of ice cream sandwiches. We had so many ice cream sandwiches; I think our district had like 40. Elder Allen himself had 15 (2250 calories). On fast Sunday, he only ate ice cream sandwiches and water. Our table is the closest to the food lines so people would walk by and see him with his tray full of ice cream sandwiches and him eating them slowly, one by one. It was really funny. His goal was 20 but it became very difficult.

Here are some pictures of the new MTC, its view, and two of the murals with their respective plaques:

My First Week at the MTC

Halo! Saya bagus! Apa Kabar? Saya tao Yesus Kristus hidup dan jeruselamat-Nya dan Bapa Surgawi membantu kati.

Hello! I am great! How are you? I know that Jesus Christ lives and is our Savior and Heavenly Father helps us.

I have learned so much in my week here at the Missionary Training Center (MTC). The language is so much fun to learn. There are 11 missionaries in my class, which composes our District. There are several Districts in a Zone. My Districts is on track to learn more of the Indonesian language than most other Districts.

All of my days start out the same. I get out of bed at 6:29 so that I can beat everyone else to the bathroom. Then I come back to my room and do ~20 min of stretching while everyone else is getting changed. I take less time to get ready, so I can still finish by the same time as the other missionaries. We eat breakfast at 7:15. I always have a big glass of water before and after each meal. After breakfast we go back to our rooms to get our supplies and brush our teeth, then go to the classrooms. We have a scheduled class in the mornings, but we haven't had a teacher for the past while, so we do personal and companion study. At 11:30 we eat lunch, then we normally have an hour afterwards to workout. My companion and I use half of our workout time to do calisthenics, then go to the fields and play volleyball for the other half. Afterwards we shower, change, and study more. Dinner is at 4:30 (wayyyyyy to early), then we study again. Class is from 6:30-9:00, but soon we will have class twice a day, the other class being from 8:30-11:30. At 9:00 we go back to our rooms and change. Normally we just hang around and talk. I finish up my calisthenics routine during this time, and then get ready for bed. Lights out at 10:30. Rinse and Repeat

On Sunday was our first devotional. I can't remember the name of the couple who spoke, but they used to be in charge of all 14 international MTCs. They were most recently serving as mission president in some mission in Japan. After the devotional we got to watch a film. My companion and I choose to watch The Character of Christ, a talk from Elder Bednar. I loved it. I learned the importance of turning outward, and not inward. If there is one thing that our Savior did, it was turn outward. He taught us to serve others, and not ourselves. Our District has been working on this. Boy is it hard.

On Tuesday was our second devotional. Elder Feo (??) spoke to us. He is from Italy. I learned that we must plan for others, and not for ourselves. We must also always stand as a light of Christ. Do not be afraid to share the gospel.

I love hearing from all of you guys. Keep writing me. I will try and respond to as many emails as possible. If you are sending me more than one email, please reply to your first email. I receive several letters every day, and my inbox is very full. It makes it so much easier to see who I need to write to if I only have one conversation with each person.

I have three different teachers that teach Indonesian. I can understand a lot of what they are saying now. They only speak in Indonesian to us. I ask them a lot of questions about Indonesia. Let me tell you what I have learned. For the next two years my left hand will be my toilet paper (gross), but on the bright side they have squat toilets. Meals there all cost less than a dollar, and you are being wasteful is you spend more than five dollars a day. There isn't much violent crime there, on account of the strict punishments, but there are a lot of thief and pickpockets. If someone catches someone trying to steal something, it is common for a group of people to catch the thief and beat them up. You can really lose an arm out there. The people are all pretty poor. I can't wait until I get to go and start teaching them!

Know who you are and what you believe in. Stand as a witness of Christ in all time and in all places. Strengthen your testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and constantly convert yourself unto him. Our testimony is our witness of Christ, but our conversion is our outward expression of that faith. It is not enough to simply know, but we must do also.

Here is my MTC zone in front of the Provo temple.

My First 2 Days

Wednesday was probably the hardest for me. I took the leap of faith and came out to the MTC, but one thing people don't tell you about leaps of faith is that you are going to have to land on the ground eventually, and when you do, you will stumble some as you try and find your balance. That was me on Wednesday. In the Adjusting to Missionary Life publication, there is a self assessment you can take to see how stressed you are. It has categories for the different types of stress. Almost all of mine was physical. I was just so drained on my first day. Between staying up late the night before, waking up early to catch the plane, and being hungry, I was so drained.

I got some much needed sleep these past two nights, and I am feeling much better. I have a good routine now, rather than being herded around like sheep on the first day.

My companion's name is Elder McWhorter. He is the elder from Arkansas who is really good at pole vaulting. We get along great. He likes to talk to everyone. He is going to be great in Indonesia. We share a room with another companionship, our district leader Elder Pacheco, and his Canadian companion Elder Darby.

I have the coolest zone/district in the entire MTC. Our entire zone consists of 36 missionaries, but by the time I leave we will get that up to 100+. We all sit together for every meal. Our zone is the Indonesia/Malaysian/Tonga/Fiji/etc. zone. We have a lot of diversity. The Tongan elders are some of the coolest people. There are three missionaries going to Indonesia who have already been here at the MTC for their 6 weeks, and now are just waiting on their visas. They find out today if they are going to leave tomorrow or next week. They are already pretty fluent in Indonesian. I can't wait to be at that level, I just hope that I don't have to stay at the MTC waiting for my visa.

Everyone who works at the MTC is so great. I already feel their love for me. My language teacher is great. His name is Elder Rawle, and he only speaks to us in Indonesian. I can already understand some of what he is saying when he talks to other people fluent in the language.

I'm being taken great care of here at the MTC. Please don't send me heavy packages, and especially food (especially sweets). There is plenty of food here. I have just about everything I need, and I don't want my bag weighing too much when I fly out of here. At the MTC they let us check our emails every day, but I can only respond on Fridays. I love hearing from you guys, so write me often!

My first few days here I have learned a lot. My testimony has grown, and I am becoming a more dedicated servant. I really want to leave the MTC prepared to go out and preach in Indonesian. I know that God loves his children, and I want to invite others to feel of God's love by helping them build their faith in Christ. Before I can do this, first I need to build up my own faith in Christ. If Jesus Christ wants us to help others come unto him by believing on his name, then surely he wants the same of us.

Sincerely,

Elder Allen

Feel free to email Justin at MrJustinAllen@myldsmail.net.

Here are photos he sent of his companion and other missionaries that are going with him to Indonesia.

Elder Allen

Justin was set apart tonight as a full time missionary by President Darrell Haskin. He will serve as a full time missionary for our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) www.lds.org for two years.

We take him to the Atlanta airport tomorrow morning where he will fly to Utah. Our friend Jared Tippetts is going to pick him up at the airport and drive him down to the Missionary Training Center in Provo. Justin will be in the Missionary Training Center for six weeks before flying over to Jakarta Indonesia.

We are super excited for him and can't wait to hear about his experiences. He will be sending us weekly email updates which will be posted to this blog.