Week Two at the MTC

 Hey Family!!!

      So everything is going well here. It is  kind of sad though, our zone went from 11 districts to 4 yesterday! It was super sad because all of the Polynesians left and they were already like brothers to me, seriously.  The ones I got really close with cried and broke down when I gave them a hug goodbye and it was really hard to see all my friends leave at one time. Other than that, everything has been great.  I was called as District leader and my companion is a Tongan named Elder Latai and he's awesome.  It's been a super laid back experience and stress free.
      In my district though there are 6 guys, and all going to Tonga. There are 2 girls one of them is going to New Zealand and the other is going to San Jose California. All of us are going Tongan Speaking!

Elder L is the Tongan with out sunglasses in the picture. He is from Melbourne, Australia
Elder P is the The palangi wearing the super dark sunglasses.
Elder S is the blonde and hes from Utah literally we can see his house from the temple ha-ha
Elder L is the Tongan wearing glasses (my Companion)
Elder V is the palangi on the right and he is from New Zealand.
Sister F is the Tongan girl and she is from Springdale Utah.
and last Sister S is from somewhere in Utah.

      All in all it's a great group and has been a lot of fun. Let's see, language....  I'm praying in Tongan and I can write full sentences by myself.  I'm beginning to speak them out loud with no help and I can bear my testimony! It has been super fun and before all the Tongans left yesterday I did the Haka with them and then they left and that was definitely an experience to remember.
      My days usually consist of a 3 hour class in the morning where we learn stress management and fun stuff like that. Then we usually will have personal study for and hour then lunch. (The food here is not so good ha-ha) After lunch I will go back to the classroom and have Personal language study,  then another class for 3 hours then gym for an hour! All in all a good day,  just long. Really, really, really long day but they seem to be flying by and I am not sure why! I know that I have been praying for it to go by faster and for help learning the language so I hope that's why. 
    Just got back from the temple today. We did initiatories and last week I did sealings.  Both times I've gone I have been able to sit in the Celestial room for an hour and its been incredible experience! Things here have definitely calmed down a ton with all of the Tongans gone. I thought I would love it when it went quiet, but I really miss them. They made my first week here a lot easier!
      Also, my companion and I just got our own room and it has been awesome because no one is coming for about 4 weeks so, we will have our own room for the remainder of our stay in the MTC  while everyone else has 4 to 6 people in their room!   Actually, there will be a massive influx of missionaries in the next couple weeks.  I learned that from my district meeting there will be 8000 missionaries coming into the MTC and they are building a whole new center!!! Luckily,  no one comes into our Zone until July and they aren't even Tongan speaking. It's the other island missions! We miss the main influx when we will receive 1000 missionaries in 1 day because we are leaving the week before! Then they all come at once! Also the Swedish toast was phenomenal! 


MOM, GUESS WHAT? AN APOSTLE IS COMING TONIGHT AND I GET TO KNOW EARLY CAUSE I SET UP THE GYM!!!YEAH,  I'M SUPER excited because I am sitting at his feet!
Yeah seriously its gunna be incredible! Got to go,
 I LOVE YOU

Elder Sipi!

First Week at the MTC

Hey Everyone!

     So, I'm doing great here! But, I definitely want to leave already! The food here is terrible! In other words, I have had a great first week! So I'll start with the first day! I got to my room after receiving my name tag and everything I had was taken to my room. My building was the last one, all the way in the back and I quickly found out why. I walked up the stairs because my room is on the the second floor and all of a sudden 8 Tongans come out of there rooms and literally yell "YOU GOING TO TONGA! YOUR GUNNA HAVE DA BEST MISSION" Next thing I know I am surrounded by them and they are all screaming at me! So then they find out my name is Elder Sheppard so they gave me my own Tongan name YAY! So now I am Eleta Sipi which in short means "Elder Little Lamb".

     I  actually have two companions, a palangi named Eleta Price and a Tongan companion named Eleta Latai.  They are awesome and super laid back and friendly, I love them to death already!

     The Tongans have been great here though my entire floor in the residence hall is all Pacific Islanders and a couple palangis (white guys) We have people from everywhere though Fiji, Tahiti, Samoa and Tonga. Our floor is absolutely crazy, they are always singing and yelling and hitting each other!

     Now onto the language! It has been really hard but I am catching onto it. Yesterday was a major triumph though. We have an investigator and the triumph is that I taught the whole lesson with out reading anything! I did it from my memory or from my own knowledge. This made me really excited For two reasons: 1. I could feel the spirit literally pulsing through me! 2. I could see that he was really grasping what I was saying and that was an amazing experience!

Ofa lahi atu
I LOVE YOU VERY MUCH

Eleta Sipi!