To start with, I have learned the celestial language and about the celestial instrument. Mandarin is the celestial language (obviously) but the celestial instrument is the harp! At our Tuesday devotional, we had a special harp music number and it was incredible. So that cemented my suspicions about the harp being the most beautiful instrument. If only I had musical talents besides a half decent singing voice. I think going to the MTC choir is helping me, but who knows. One last thought about music. For some reason, I am really wanting to listen to Frank Sinatra but obviously, I can't. But I'll still sing his songs under my breath. However, on the computers, we can listen to the MoTab from the website and I found the broadway section (Alex Boye does The Circle of Life, go check it out). LOL gotta do what you gotta do I guess.
The next thing probably isn't surprising but I am probably the youngest person at the MTC. I have yet to meet an Elder who is younger than me. So I have that going for me at least! Just that one claim to fame but I'll take what I can get.
Up next. TOMMY BONNER IS IN AN LDS.ORG VIDEO!! He is in a video under the missionary work section under the LDS.org media library! So we know a celebrity now! I saw the video and was freaking out. It was such a cool coincidence!
My district got to host this week! We got to help some of the 450+ new missionaries that came to the MTC this week. It was super hot here and so carrying the luggage kinda sucked but serving was fun! A lot of Spanish speaking missionaries came in and I only had to deal with one emotional family! This whole experience reminded me of when I reported only 3.5 weeks ago. It seems like so long ago but that's the mission life is I guess. The days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days! That saying is so true, I doubted it at first, but it's so true.
And part of the 450+ new missionaries was 8 new Elders for our newest district. So that means I am in the middle district now! No more being a baby! One of the new Elders is from Parker! Small world. They seem cool. They kinda stay in their rooms, but I think this week they will start socializing more. I hope so because hanging out as a zone is so much fun!
One other Elder that reported this week is also famous. His name is Elder Troutner and he is a Nike Cross Nationals champion in cross country! Literally one of the best runners in the nation is here! His best time in the 5K is like 14:14 or something insane like that. It makes me want to run more.
Now that some of the more serious stuff is over with we can transition to the more fun stuff!
We made up a new activity called "residences races" where we race around our floor of the residence hall and see who can do it the fastest. I am in the top 5 with a time of 11.06 seconds. This is the type of stuff we do to keep from going crazy, but it's all within the rules too!
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| Elder Watts doing the Residence Races. |
So the funniest story of the week comes from a few days ago. I am doing personal study and all the sudden I think I'm seeing double because two sisters are wearing the exact same dress. No joke. THE SAME DRESS and they had the same hair color and looked identical. I was laughing so hard because they were companions too! It was so hilarious.
One little thing before my conclusion topic. So I think Y'all know how I used to spin my pen around my thumb a bunch. Well during a Sunday night film I did it 117 times in a row! I felt so accomplished. It's the little things in life.
So my last topic is about the expansiveness of the Church. Here at the MTC, I have met so many people from all over the world! We have Elders in our residence from Samoa (they are so awesome I love the island culture so much!) and some from Tonga (don't get them and Samoa mixed up. It's not good!) and I even met a Sister from South Africa (which is actually one of my top three places I want to travel to when I'm older! So we had an awesome talk about it and she told me about some good places to visit when I eventually go there!) I learned from her that tennis shoes are actually called "tacky's" totally weird but I love it! I love learning those types of things because it reminds me how diverse the church is and there is no one mold for how a member should be! We all have our unique things that make us, us. We shouldn't lose that and we need to remember its okay to be unique! Anyways that's my thought of the week hope you liked it!
I love you all and hope you have a good week!
Elder Ciminski
PS I met a Sister Brown from Eagar! Totally small world because her bothers know Michael and Ben and so we had a good chat about that! She is going to Japan!
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| Our MTC rave celebrating Elder Cribbs' birthday! |