Eighth Week in the MTC

Hello everyone!
This week has been a wonderful week, and I have been learning so much about the language and the gospel this week. My language is just coming along super! About two weeks ago I couldn't speak the language very fast; I had to pause after each word, and I stuttered a bit. I also still needed to use English words quite a bit. But over the last week, my language skills have gone way up! I can speak with quite a bit more fluency (not a ton, but I don't have to pause after each word) and I don't have to use English quite as often! I am just learning tons of words. The hardest part has been teaching the lessons. We have to focus on the needs of our investigator, and the Spirit while teaching, so we can't really focus on the language at all. When we run into a word that we don't know, we have to try and find our way around it in the lesson! Sometimes you can't find a way around it! Like this past Saturday at the T.R.C., I was teaching the Plan of Salvation with my companion, and I needed to say the next part of the plan, or the next step, or what happens next, or something like that, and I just couldn't find a way around it, so I just had to switch around a little bit, I hope that I didn't confuse my investigator too much.
Can you believe that I have been in the MTC for 55 days?? That is insane! I can't believe that time has gone by so fast. I am so excited for Cambodia! We leave in exactly three weeks from today! Hooray! 
On Wednesday I had the opportunity to host! It was a wonderful experience, but sometimes it was really hard to take the missionaries away from their families, but it was awesome to be the first person they met at the MTC! It was great to see the excitement and joy they have as they enter their first "field of work" in the mission. I hosted 3 elders and 1 sister. The sister I just helped take her things to where the other sisters were waiting to help her with everything. The experience was just super rewarding, and I am glad I had the opportunity to do that! We would greet the missionaries at their cars as they pulled up, and unload their luggage for them, and watch them say their goodbyes (this was the hard part), and then take the missionaries to the door of the main building and drop them off. The missionary would go through the building and get their name tags, and a few other items. I would walk around the building with all of their luggage, and wait for them to come out with their name tag and envelope with their information on it. I would take them to their residence hall, have them grab their scriptures, Preach My Gospel, and note-taking materials, and we would be off within 5 minutes. We would then go to the bookstore to get their bag which has their learning materials in it, and I would take them to their classroom where their teacher would be waiting, and I would leave them there! Quite a quick process, that's for sure. I remember when I went through it, it was all just kind of really fast, and like wow... ha ha! After I dropped them off, I would go to pick up another missionary. It was raining quite a bit that day! The volunteer said that she had been doing this for 2 years, and it had never rained like that in 2 years. Lucky me! Ha ha! No, it wasn't bad at all, and besides, I need to get used to the rain!

Seventh Week in the MTC

Last Tuesday, Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles came and spoke to us in our devotional! It was awesome! I love it when an apostle comes and we get to just feel the wonderful spirit that they have with them! Elder Andersen started his talk out by saying that on Thursday (May 12) when he reported to the Quorum of the 12 and the First Presidency about his speaking at the the MTC, there would be a sigh in the upper room of the temple because they all love to come down and speak to us. Elder Andersen had such a wonderful talk that I am just going to copy my notes from my journal into the email:
The Lord will never, never, never let you down. Mosiah 2:41 if you will learn to trust in your Heavenly Father, and remain faithful, He will bless you both temporally and spiritually. A mission is the best way to learn how to do this. Even the goodness of the Lord does not keep us from trials or from sorrow- even the prophet. Ether 12:6 we receive a stronger witness AFTER our faith has been tried. "As your understanding of the Atonement increases, so will your desire to share the gospel." Why is this? 2 Cornithians 4:18 Don't be surprised if people don't understand what you teach, because they can't see it. they are learned, and built upon line upon line, precept upon precept. Mosiah 3:5, 7-11, 13, 17. The Book of mormon tells over and over again the atonement and importance thereof. The atonement of Jesus Christ comes alive in the scriptures. As we read again, new things will come to our minds with power if we will not reject them. The merits, mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah. What does that mean?
Merits- the power of the resurrection. Meet many people who have had a tragedy in their lives. You will be a great messenger from God. John 11:25-26; So many are unsure about life after death. Luke 24:5-6, 38-39 Resurrected.
Mercy- What is it? Why is it? We can be forgiven from sins- because of the mercy of Christ, we can stand, clean, before our god. mercy of Christ. Teach it. "If a person hasn't suffered, he hasn't repented...He has got to go through a change in his system whereby he suffers and then forgiveness is a possibility." -Spencer W. Kimball. Think of times when you repented, and then youfelt clean again! How wonderful was that?!
Grace- A strengthening or enabling power. A miracle is a grace of Christ. How can I...? the grace of Christ will lift us so we can do it. Ether 12:27- my grace is sufficient for those who humble themselves. Enos 1. We will see the Lord lift us to capacities that we did not know we could reach. and then we think about others only, and truly forget aobut ourseves, and we can be instruments in the Lord's hands. We cannot comprehend the fulness of the atonement in our mortal state. Astonishing for even the Savior. Thy will. Descended below all things, that he may comprehend all things. Suffered the winepress of the wrath of the Almighty god. the merits, mercy and grace will touch every soul on this earth. Let our name tages be plaques of honor.
After the devotional, I had the opportunity to shake his hand! It was a great experience. I said, "Thank you!" and he replied, "Thank you for letting me shake your hand." It is so wonderful that they take so much time for us missionaries.

It was such a wonderful treat to hear from Elder Andersen. He is truly an Apostle of the Lord!

 

Sixth Week In The MTC

I have had a great week here at the MTC! We had a few nice warm days, which was wonderful. I got to go out to the field, and there I played sand volleyball. I got to take my shoes off and play around with everyone in the sand playing volleyball. It was a blast!
I am trying my best to keep track of stuff in my journal! I think I have filled around 70 pages in my journal so far. My companion and I are doing really well! We still get along great, he is like my older brother. I love the MTC because the Holy Ghost is here so strongly.
The language is going really well! I am still learning how to read well. I think I read about the same speed as a kindergartener reads, maybe a first grader. There are just so many letters to remember that it takes a lot of practice to know how to read. but I am definitely getting better! My prayers in Cambodian are getting to be longer, and I am getting better at speaking and understanding, and I am trying to expand my vocabulary as much as possible!
My Mother's Day went really well. It was a little bit hard, especially in sacrament meeting when my branch president (bishop) shared some thoughts on mothers and a scripture. Sniffles all over the room after that, and there were only about 40 of us in the room. And then, of course, to close the meeting we sang Love at Home... ha ha, I didn't shed tears, but my eyes watered up, and it made it kind of rough. But I just have to remember why I am here, and I still get to hear from you guys often :)  My performance went really well in sacrament meeting.  Sister Seamons (the branch president's wife) said that I did an amazingly wonderful job, and she wished that you could have been there to hear it. She said that you must be proud of me. Everybody really loved it :)
I was trying to get a good picture of me in the mirror, but I couldn't get a really good one, but they look more candid, so that's good!
When you do your best, it IS all that really matters. Remember to always rely on the Lord in everything you do, and remember that He will help you with everything. I especially realize this as I am on my mission now. He is working wonders that I had never even really thought of. And prayer. It is a powerful, powerful tool. For anything. The last two mornings, the showers have been ice cold, and I can't take a shower when the water is that cold. So I turned the water off, prayed, had faith, and when I turned the water back on, it warmed up! Amazing! And then always remember to thank the Lord in ALL things.
I hope that all is well with everyone, I hope that things go well this week!

Love,

Elder Alex Kuhn

Fifth Week in the MTC

I am doing super well, and still learning tons and tons!! Mostly this week I have been working on speaking the language as often as I can to expand my vocabulary. A lot of memorizing words. I am working on memorizing the First Vision in Khmer. It's not too bad, it's just hard to try and make it fluent and not pause or stop at the end of each word.
I got your DearElder this afternoon that had the bit about Osama. I was going to ask about that, I heard a little bit of something from one of the Elders in my district about it. We don't hear anything about anything here. We are our own little world. We got excited for one of the elders to go to the optometrist today and all we wanted to know was what the price of gas was! ha ha! 3.79??? Holy cow! Insane. 
Since I have been here, the Lord has done an incredible job at filling the holes in my heart. Absolutely incredible. I can't even begin to explain because my eyes get teary with gratitude towards the Lord for filling those holes with enormous amounts of peace and comfort.
Here at the MTC we found a native Cambodian! We've only been able to talk to him twice, but only for like 30 seconds because we're all so busy. It's super cool though! Ha ha, I am sometimes waking up in the middle of the night and realized I've been dreaming in Khmer because I'm all confused when I wake up wondering what the heck is going on!?? And then I realized I've been working so hard and learning so much of the language that it is sticking with me when I sleep! Ha ha! I think that my spelling is about to start going down the drain too with learning the language.
I am learning so so much about the gospel and as I do I realize more and more the love and care that our Savior and Father in Heaven has for us. It is so great. And the more I realize the love and care that they have for me, the more I want to follow what They want me to do, and the more I follow what They want me to do, the closer I grow to them. It is so amazing and wonderful. The gospel is incredible and a wonderful gift that we have.

Love,

Elder Alex Kuhn

Fourth Week in the MTC

Hello everyone! I hope that you all had a Happy Easter! I did get my package and I love it!!! Mmmm, pumpkin chocolate chip! And oatmeal raisin! Super delicious!!! Thank you so so much!
I got my new schedule on Sunday, and so far I love it! I am super excited to see what comes of it.  We have more time in the morning to get ready, and even though the schedule starts at 6:00, we still wake up at 6:30 in the morning. There are a lot more teaching opportunities for us, and we will have a little bit more one on one time with our teachers.
Tomorrow, the 27th, Sister Rytting and I will be performing "Our Savior's Love" at the new missionary orientation. I am excited because it sounds really good! We'll be performing around 3 or 3:30 in the afternoon.
I am excited for tonight because rumor has it that Dallin H. Oaks will be addressing us tonight!
It sounds like you all had a really great spring break! I'm glad to hear that! Spring break was always a nice get-away from school! Dad- HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!! I hope that you are having a wonderful day, and I am certainly thinking about you today :) Thank you so so much for taking the time to write down your conversion story for me, I absolutely love it. I am so grateful for those two missionaries who sacrificed two years of their live's to the Lord. I don't know if they will ever know the true effect of what they have done. Thinking about what they have done for me just makes me want to work so much harder. I love talking about the Holy Ghost. We are always being taught that we have to be sensitive to the Holy Ghost because that is where the conversion comes in. We can't bring others unto to the Lord without the Holy Ghost.
I can hardly believe that I have been here for 4 weeks now. The time has just flown by so quickly. Every week we have to write a letter to our Branch President, and this will be my 5th out of 11 or 12. I also find myself going, "Holy cow it's due again already?!" I guess I am just staying so busy that time is going by way quickly! I am doing really well, I am learning tons and loving the MTC! 
I love you all very, very much and I hope that you have a wonderful week! I can't wait to hear from you all again!

Third Week in the MTC

I am doing great! Learning tons of new things everyday, as well as feeling the Spirit too!

I love being the District Leader and especially checking the mail. I love delivering and seeing the excitement on people's faces when they get their mail. I also have the responsibility to watch out for everyone, kind of like an Elder's Quorum President. We have a 'Branch Council' meeting on Sundays and it's just like Ward Council where we discuss the needs of those who we are supposed to be looking out for as well as ways that we can improve.

My teachers are absolutely wonderful! I don't think that you know this, but all of the teachers here at the MTC attend BYU. Being an MTC teacher is a student job here at the MTC. So, Brother Olson is graduating and Saturday was his last day that he had with us. You get the boot when you graduate. We are all sad to see him go; he taught us so much and we love him a ton for all that he has done for us! But our new teacher, Brother Stevens, is awesome! Ha ha, he talks like a million miles an hour though! You have to pay really close attention to what he says so you can understand him. It's probably a good thing though because I am sure that all the people in Cambodia talk at least that fast!

On April 25 a lot of changes are going to happen here at the MTC. Our schedules are all going to change; everyone's schedule. They aren't redoing the cirriculum, but they are redoing the way that they do things. We are all curious to see what is going to come in the changes. We know that MDT (Missionary Directed Time) is going to go away. It was a time that we had to use at our own discretion. I'll have to let you know what happens.

I made 12 new friends instantly! More like 11 brothers and a sister. My district is wonderful and we all support and love each other. I have also made tons of new friends that are on the same floor as I am in my residency hall.

Sister Rytting and I did a really good job on our audition, and we were told that yes, they are going to use us as a special musical number, and that we will get a notification with the details in our mailbox as to when and where. It might be a while, it could be Sunday! We don't know!

I have ran into one of my friends here! Alex Hughes; I went to his farewell in February.
At the MTC we have very different lessons from what is taught at church. On Sunday, we spent the entire Priesthood session on the topic of baptism and why it is important for an investigator to be baptized. Our district meeting on Sundays is basically our Sunday school, and I am in charge of teaching that or finding someone to teach it. I taught it this past week and it was on the Book of Mormon. 
I am still working hard on learning the language! It's coming along!  I am still working hard on learning the language! It's coming along! Before we start each classroom instruction we sing a hymn and kneel in a circle to pray. Well, we have always sung the hymn in Khmer, but it was romanized so we could read it. Ha ha, as of this week, all romanized Cambodian/Khmer is out the window. The teachers only write in Khmer, and we sing the hymns in Khmer too. We have to take 10 minutes to go over the hymn so we don't hear a solo from the teacher! Ha ha! It's tough, but we are sure to catch on soon!

In my residency hall it's like a college dorm. There are four of us in my room, and I am on a top bunk. There are two bathrooms in the middle. Two massive public restrooms. Ha ha, I hate them! Not super hate, but it stinks not to have a bit of privacy, lol. At least the showers aren't open locker room showers-anymore. You can tell they were and just put up some dividers and curtains. You are lucky to get a warm shower... it's either cold, freezing cold, or scolding hot! But I think I have the timing down to get a warm one :) I will have to take some pictures so you can see. It's interesting, but past the bathrooms, I love the residency hall!

Meals are typically pretty good. In the morning they get doughnuts or something from a doughnut shop, so there are always a variety of doughnuts. On Friday nights they order a billion papa john's pizzas!

HA HA! Here's the funny part. During gym, my district mostly plays four square. It's the most competitive sport played in the gym! LOL! We get all excited and lots of yelling and OH!!'s slip out! Ha ha! It's hilarious when you think about it! We even make plans. lol!

Love,

Elder Kuhn!

Second Week in the MTC

I am learning the language so fast! It's hard to take it all in sometimes though. Last night we learned how to read script! We have to study out of our Cambodian Book of Mormon for 15 minutes everyday now. We won't understand a lot of it, but the point is to learn how to fluently read. It's crazy! Ha ha, you read it in circles... weird. I will have to show you in my letter. I caught on really fast though! There are weak and strong consonants, sub-consonants, and vowels. A lot to work on! I haven't had a chance to do my study yet today, so we'll see how that goes. We also learned in this past week to bear our testimonies! I knew a bit, but now I know a whole lot more! It's awesome to be able to speak more. I can now say, "We are missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints." It's a mouthful, that's for sure!
Last Tuesday evening, we had an awesome devotional where a former member of the Seventy (He was just released at G.C.) came and spoke to us. Elder Robert C. Oaks talked a lot on missionary work and how the Spirit works with missionaries. Fantastic talk, and then after we have a District Meeting where we review the devotional and what we liked about it. It is really cool to have that review.
On Saturday we went to the T.R.C. (Training Resource Center). There we practiced with investigators; introducing ourselves and we taught our first lesson. We were all pretty nervous! Because at first you had to introduce yourself to two people in Cambodian. People come and volunteer, both R.M.'s and natives, and so we could not use ANY English at all when we introduced ourselves and asked a few questions. My companion and I were both able to introduce ourselves as missionaries and then ask if the investigator believed in God, or a higher being, and then ask if they believed that they could be with their family after death, and bore testimony of both. Then set up a return appointment! That took a lot of work and practice! But it certainly paid off! Then we went back to our second investigator that we introduced ourselves to and taught the first lesson. We were allowed to teach in English though, after asking the investigator if it would be ok. My companion and I did really well! We were able to get through the entire first lesson without being stumped; the Spirit really helped us a ton! It was a great experience, and I learned a lot!

My companion is Elder Anderson and he is from South Jordan.  At the MTC they have a few instruments. A violin, flute, and Cello!  I borrowed it and played around with it for a few minutes on Sunday, for the first time.  Sister Rytting and I found a piano and cello duet in the music library.  'Our Savior's Love', it's beautiful and my companion likes to listen to us play.  I am doing pretty well at adjusting to the missionary life.  I am learning, growing, and strengthening my testimony every day here! The more I do, the greater my desire to serve is and the better I want to be!