WOW! I LOVE being a missionary! It has been a crazy few days and i was truly blessed with a great district and companion! We definitely all knew each other before this life, we all connect sooo well together and it has been an absolute blast!! The first day i got here they were sorting through missionaries so fast, I was able to see lots of friends and it has been a big comfort to me! Every missionary gets a bright orange dot on their name tag and i love / hated it. haha you get lots of attention, but it gets annoying after a while. Everyone says "Welcome to the MTC" to you until you take the dot off. I might put my dot back on when the new missionaries come here tomorrow lol.

Also, when i fist arrived ELDER BACON was here and he gave me a huge hug! I haven't seen him since then though, i have no idea, maybe i just imagined it idk,but that was so cool. Since i have been here, i have felt the Spirit so strong, i already feel like a COMPLETELY different person. It is INSANE. I encourage you all to go on a mission, you will become a completely different person in just a few days. Plus, the chocolate milk is amazing and totally worth it lol - jk.

So the second day we were here, we got to meet our branch presidency. We had a super good spiritual meeting and I really love all of them. At the end of the meeting they said they had made their decision on who was going to be the district leader, they chose Elder Smith. I know he was meant to be our district leader, he is such an amazing guy and has such a strong testimony of the gospel. The next thing that happened shocked me. They said that Elder Page (my companion) and I were to be the new zone leaders. I was also assigned senior companion. Not sure what that means yet, but I'll figure it out. I was not expecting either of those, we had only been here for a day and a half. And the zone leaders before us were soooo good. Idk if we can ever be as good as them, but we can surely try! I've been pretty busy and it has been super fun. The other zone leaders actually left today so luckily they showed us around and what to do before they left.

My Companion is a LOT like me, although he may not catch pigeons, he does hunt and he loves sports so we fit together perfectly haha. Throughout our district there is no doubt that God knows each and every one of us. All our companionships in our district fit together perfectly like it was meant to be, I couldn't see it any other way, it's truly amazing. Although i love the MTC and the chocolate milk and unlimited food/ice cream sandwiches it has to offer, i cannot wait to get out to Ohio!

Apparently there is no temple in my mission boundaries and the Provo temple here at the MTC is closed till like September for cleaning, so that kind of sucks but it will be alright. Here at the MTC you have soo many different classes and you feel the spirit so strong in each and every one of them, it is truly life changing. We were also able to teach our first person yesterday and they said we had 25 minutes to teach. My companion and i decided to teach the Plan of Salvation. But we only got to earth lol. We had a great lesson and we get to teach him again on Wednesday, so I'm super excited for that! My first Sunday here at the MTC was crazy, it was fast Sunday so we didn't get food until 540 haha, but it was fun, we had so many good speakers and devotionals! We also got to sing in the choir! Which is fun, i don't get to do that very often, i think there is about 850 missionaries in the choir. So, you can really be a bad singer like me and fit in just fine haha. They say at the MTC they keep around 2,000 missionaries so that has been a huge shock to me. WAY more kids here than at my school. Other than classes and study we get a little bit of exercise time each day, our district does everything together and so we have been playing sand volleyball as a district the past few days, and yesterday we played soccer and frisbee. Today is our first p day and so far it has just consisted of laundry.

Anyway, I love it here, love my companion, and my district. There is so much positiveness here it's crazy! I love it! I know Heavenly Father knows each and everyone of us and he is always watching us, i know the Book of Mormon is true, as i have seen it bless and change me hugely just here at the MTC and throughout my life. I know me and my district and companion all new each other before this life.

I would like you all to read Mosiah 7:33 i love this scripture and i have seen it change my life. I promise you if you "turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart" He will bless you beyond what you can comprehend, and you will see blessings rain upon you. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ

Amen

Here are a few funny stories if you want to read about them haha

1) Elder Dehaan ate 10 ice cream sandwiches for breakfast.

2) Elder Bell is deaf and one night he took his hearing aids out and it was like 11pm (lights are suppose to be off at 1030 lol) anyways he takes his hearing aids out and starts yelling trying to talk with us haha it took us a while to tell him to talk more quietly, he got really confused as to what happened and it was just hilarious.

3) I was taking a shower and tilted my shower head over into the next stall where Elder Terry was and doused him with very cold water.

4) I was in the bathroom and changed my voice. I was able to talk with Elder Terry and convince him i was a different missionary going to the same mission. (Cincinnati Ohio)

5) At lunch one day there was this shorter missionary that was getting really close to me, i had no idea why this Elder was standing so close. After i got my food and got to my table. I quickly checked to make sure he hadn't pick pocketed me, (i know we are in the MTC but you never know haha) and to my amazement I found a plastic spoon in my right pocket, then another in my left pocket, and 4 more in my butt pockets haha i was shocked, props to him for getting 6 spoons in my pockets with out me even really noticing.

Pictures attached..

Love,

Elder Keaton Lawrence