Not a ton new happened this week, just a lot of classes, I'm still learning a lot! We got to teach this guy named Dalton. He is a catholic youth pastor and he had a ton of questions about why he needs the Book of Mormon if he already has the bible. It was fun to talk to him and see his views of the Book of Mormon and Bible. We taught our whole 30 minute lesson on just the Book of Mormon and why it's different and why he needs it. It was cool to see how his views changed a bit after the lesson. It was a pretty sweet experience.

We also got a new person to teach, his name is Daniel. It was pretty funny, as we were getting to know him he kept cussing and it was hilarious. Haha, I haven't heard a cuss word in a long time. I can't wait to get out to the field. We have people to teach here at the mtc but we only get to teach them a few times. We did get really close to a guy named Max and it was cool to see him understand the gospel, and he was finally accepting it and wondering how to get to the Celestial kingdom with his wife. He wanted to know the steps to get there and he is willing to take those steps for that. Hopefully the next missionaries that get to teach him are able to pick up from where we left off.

My companion and I work so well together it's so awesome. We know that as we teach it's not really us anyway, but we can try and plan what to teach, but often we end up teaching something completely different haha.

The lessons take a long time to teach, because of all the questions. On Wednesday there were some new missionaries and they are super cool! 14 new elders, neighbors, friends. I feel like I already know them or had already known them. It's such a cool feeling to see someone you don't know, but they look so familiar. It's been so cool. Elder Page and I, since we are zone leaders get to teach all these new missionaries and get to spend time with them and it has been super sweet!

So, we told the new missionaries to meet us by these statues on Thursday night at 610 because as zone leaders we have to take them to meet the branch presidency, who are some pretty sweet older men with really good testimonies and I love them and their wives, they are the nicest people on the planet. Anyway, we got to the statues at 600 and no one was there yet, so my companion and I sit down and wait, and wait, and wait. Finally 2 missionaries showed up. Where were the other 12? Haha we waited until 620 ish and then we had to go before we were too late. So, we headed out and got there and 2 more missionaries were in the classroom already. Brother Williams and Breckenridge, the 1st and 2nd counselors to the branch president were already there. Brother Williams turned to me and said "go find the lost sheep." haha. So we started running around the MTC grounds trying to find the other 10 elders. We luckily got them to class right before the branch president got there. Haha good thing he was late! He is a super strict president but super fun at the same time, he snaps in and out of moods really fast and sometimes its hard to tell with him. It was a crazy experience that President West doesn't even have to know about. haha.

This upcoming Wednesday we have 23 new missionaries coming into our zone! So Elder Page and I will be pretty busy with them! We had 2 districts leave this morning and that was sad. We all said our goodbyes and good lucks last night. We woke up this morning to a pile of food in front of our door, that was super cool. They wrote stuff to us on the boxes of food. I think they all went to the vending machine and spent the rest of their money on their mtc card because they were leaving haha. Super nice of them and I'm excited to see them in the future!

I know I am exactly where I need to be! It has been so fun here! I love missionary work and can't wait to get out into the field next Monday!! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Keaton Lawrence

Funny stories this week!

1) the new missionaries took their first showers and they forgot to bring the key to their room, they were all locked out and had no clothes haha so Elder Page and I had to run to the information desk and check a key out for them. It was pretty funny. They were super embarrassed because it was their first night here lol.

2) the vending machine almost stole our goodies again. This time we were able to put a bunch of spoons together and eventually got the food out of the machine like 30 min later

3) we made a movie theater for safety zone. haha, I'll send pics of our movie theater. The safety zone is these really dumb cheesy videos we have to watch before we can leave the MTC and there is 12 videos and they are all like 20 minutes long. lol

4) we were super tired and did a teaching practice with Elder Terry and Elder Bell. We ended the lesson all crying because we were laughing so hard lol

5) the spoon game continues, as the other day we got 3 spoons in our teachers pocket without him knowing! Haha and I got him again yesterday with another 1. lol its been a super fun game.

6) Wednesday night when all the missionaries got here there were 2 missionaries that loved the idea of the spoon game and we taught them how to play, that night we heard some crinkling under our door and we woke up with like 15 spoons under our door that the new missionaries had slid under haha. We started writing scriptures on them but quickly ended when I wrote ALMA 44:6-7 on a spoon and slid it under their door lol