Week 5, Last Week at the MTC: "There's no way that plane is gonna crash with 29 missionaries on board."

July 16, 2013

"God's gift to you is who you are. Your gift to God is who you become."

This quote was sent to another elder in my district by his brother. It's message is so simple, yet powerful. My purpose as a missionary is to "invite others to come unto Christ." Now, I like to think of my second (lesser, but still important) purpose as starting to become someone new -- paying back my Heavenly Father for all He has given me.

I can't believe another week has come and gone -- I entered the MTC over a month ago, but it seems like I haven't been here for so long. I have learned so much here. My testimony has been strengthened in so many aspects. However, I am ready to get out in the mission field. I don't think I've ever been so excited and so scared for anything else in my entire life (not even for the first date I ever went on. Never thought I'd be more scared than that).

My district got our flight plans this past Thursday! We report to the MTC travel office on Monday, July 22, at 7:30 AM. As I've said before, there are 10 missionaries in my district, but 28 total missionaries in my zone going to the Belgium/Netherlands mission. And, we are all on the same flight to Amsterdam. Apparently there is a mystery missionary no one in my zone has ever met who is going to our mission too (he's an advanced speaker, I think), and he's flying with us too. So there are 29 of us on the same flight. To top it off, it's a non-stop flight. We take off from Salt Lake at 11:10 AM, and we arrive at around 8:30 AM the next morning (with the 8 hour time difference). 13.5 hours of fun with the greatest airline known to man. Delta.

Last Wednesday, my district had the opportunity to help "host" the incoming, new missionaries. It was great! It's weird to think that, just four weeks before, that was me being dropped off at the curb, looking up to my host like he knew everything about the MTC. I mean, he'd been there for five weeks! How can you survive five weeks? Well, now I know. My only question now is... how did he survive five weeks learning Spanish, when Dutch is probably superior in every way? How could you be content with your MTC stay when you see the happiness of the Dutchies, those fortunate missionaries learning the best language known to man, and you still have to learn...Spanish? Some questions are never meant to be answered, I guess. Anyway, I got to host three new missionaries - two going to Mexico, and one going to Idaho. Seeing the surprise/shock/amazement of the new missionaries reminded me how much I'd grown since coming here. I'm so happy that they will have the same opportunity I've had. We get to host again tomorrow, our last Wednesday here at the MTC!

--Disclaimer, for speakers and advocates of Spanish-- Although I openly insulted the Spanish language, I was in no way sincere in what I said. I think Spanish is a beautiful language. Just one I don't understand.

One funny mistake -- we were practicing our Dutch sentence structure and verb conjugations, and the elder I was practicing with tried to share a sentence we came up with. The sentence originally was "I run to the bathroom to use it." In Dutch, there are two words -- gebruiken (to use) and getuigen (to testify). He accidentally said "I run to the bathroom to testify of it." The teacher was pretty confused.

I actually don't have much more to say this week. The days are mostly the same -- no other funny mistakes that are appropriate enough to share, no new discoveries about the MTC. Just ready for my last six days. Although my basketball skills have increased greatly from my productive gym times, I am ready to do what I was called to do. One week from this moment, I will be in Nederland! Probably already with my first companion.

Note -- if you're going to write me, remember that I won't get any DearElders sent past 12:30 PM on Friday and the last day we get snailmail is Saturday. Anything that arrives after that I WON'T GET. I'd LOVE to get letters, especially this week of all weeks, because I'll have 13.5 hours on a plane to write back. So please please please. Even if you send me an email, and include your address at the end -- I should be able to get on email one last time before we leave real quick to print off emails (since we leave on our mission p-day and the day before our MTC p-day). I'll respond!!

That's all for now! Next email you get from me will be sent from Europe! I'm not sure how soon after arriving I'll be able to email, but we'll see.

Remember -- God's already given you who you are. What are you going to give Him back?

Veel liefs,

Elder Bonney

 My awesome district on our Sunday temple walk! From left to right, Elders -- Moomey, Pouwer, Bean, Price, Bonney, Cook; left to right, Zusters -- Greenwell, Thorley, Brophy, Reeder.

Five of us District 37-G Elders, showing some pride for the Belgium/Netherlands Mission. Elder Price and I are holding the Belgian flag, Cook and Moomey have the Netherlands flag, and Pouwer is a little lost.