First Week In the MTC

Alex's first few days at the MTC were very full.  As he walked away from the van all tears and feelings of sadness disappeared and the excitement kicked in.  The Spirit is truly present and wonderful in there.  He received his name tags, ID badge, and his Cambodian triple combo, and Preach My Gospel, and and also a Romanized one, which is Cambodian in our 'letters' of sorts.  There are 13 missionaries learning Cambodian for the next twelve weeks.  Twelve of them will be going to Cambodia and the other one will be going to Boston, Cambodian speaking.  His companion's name is Elder Ryan Anderson.  He says that they get along really well together.  Their whole district is like one big family, growing stronger and closer everyday.  Alex says, "That's what happens when you are united in one purpose for the Lord!"  He has gone through a lot of orientations and the language is coming quickly.  By Friday, April 1st he was praying only in Khmer.  By the end of the week, April 8th he will be bearing his testimony only in Khmer.  And within 7 weeks he will no longer be able to speak English.  He has two teachers, Bro. Olson and Bro. Godfrey, who are fantastic and they only speak Cambodian in class.  The second day they had a branch presidency meeting with the new missionaries in his zone.  They learned more about obedience and following with EXACTNESS.  It was very cool to hear some of the testimonies about being obedient.  Then they had interviews with the Branch President as well, just a get to know you.  Alex was called to be the District Leader for District A.  - this district consists of the 13 new missionaries learning Cambodian.  He was shocked and was not expecting that at all.  But he is very excited.  As a District Leader he gets to check the mail and deliver it to the missionaries, write a weekly report on the District, and conduct the class.  Those are the duties he has performed so far.  He loved conference, even how they squeezed 2,000 missionaries into a gym and converted it into a meeting house.  His testimony is growing like a weed.  The spirit there is so strong and he is learning a lot  of  both the language and the gospel.  The Gospel is true.  So marvelous, and wonderful and he loves it!