August 17, 2016
Colton's journey to the MTC started out rough! Colton was diagnosed with a dysautonomia disorder called POTS when he was 14 years old. POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome) is a disorder where his body is unable to efficiently pump the blood back to his abdomen and head after rising from a prone (lying down) position. It usually presents with light headedness, passing out or vomiting, which was Colton's most severe symptom.
Exciting events always make the symptoms more pronounced such as birthdays, Christmas, fieldtrips, etc. He has always been able to manage it with salt intake and exercise. It shouldn't have come as a surprise that on the most exciting day of his life, his POTS symptoms went crazy!
Colton woke early and immediately began to vomit. He asked for a blessing around 7:30. No improvement. We tried to get him to rest, but he was excited to go and hoped he could push his way through it. Around 10:30 we really started to worry. His name was put on the prayer roll and a family prayer was held.
Still, no relief. Aunt Nendy and Grandma T came over with brunch, but he couldn't even sit up. Mom was worried sick. Dad had ultimate faith. Colton was starting to worry. By 11:30 the symptoms were still not subsiding. Mom called the MTC and asked about a late check in and told Colton not to worry, just to get better. Carson retreated to his bedroom and prayed and prayed. Colton asked for another blessing.
At 12:30 Colton came out of the room, put on his shirt and tie and said, "It's time to go to the MTC!" What great faith! He was delivered to the MTC with rosy cheeks and a smile on his face, looking like the most handsome missionary in the world!
August 24, 2016
Hello everyone! I made it to the MTC! It's madness here, the first day they threw me in a classroom with a guy yelling at me in Korean and I had to figure out what he was saying. The only thing I picked up the whole lesson was who my companions are. I have two companions, they are Elder Hubble and Elder Meyer. Elder Hubble used to wrestle and teach Taekwondo, he lived in Texas before coming. The other one is Elder Meyer and he is like 5 feet tall and only eats sandwiches.
Since coming to the MTC I have learned two really important lessons. First, the gift of tongues is real, 100%. After two days of learning almost no Korean we were told we were going to give our first lesson. Friday night we ended up teaching Jiyoung chamaenim (Sister Jiyeong) in hangukmar (Korean). Obviously it was a train wreck... The next day though we taught her as well and were able to teach her a simple lesson in Korean, and it actually went very well. The learning comes easily when you focus on the gospel and the spirit. I already can recite the missionary purpose in korean, and tell you what each word in it means. When you put your focus on the gospel you can really see how everything comes easier.
Funny story: We learned how to pray in Korean, so in priesthood on sunday I was asked to say the prayer. I tried to say we thank thee for giving us families and we thank thee for giving us the gospel. But it turns out that I thanked God for families not existing and for the gospel not existing. It was in front of the branch president so afterwards he explained what I said wrong and we all got a kick out of it.
The other lesson is to love people. I have learned so much about loving others. Not just my investigators, but everyone. The only way to have the spirit and to be able to bless other people's lives is if you are loving them. Love everyone around you, and especially those you are teaching.
So yeah, everything is awesome. I love the MTC, there's nowhere I'd rather be except for Korea. I love you all and have a good week!
A word of advice for everyone: Be diligent in all of your studies, both gospel, and not gospel. When you are working hard with limited distractions it allows you to learn quicker and have the spirit as your teacher. And I've really felt that the last week. Korean is tough but the progress I've made on the language while in the MTC is out of this world! I probably speak almost as much Korean as Spanish and I took that for 2 years... It is such a beautiful language too, it flows nice, everything pretty much ends in imnida so it all rhymes, and it sounds smooth. I teach in full Korean pretty much everyday now. I also say all of my prayers in Korean. I feel like because I have to think harder to say what I want it keeps my prayers from being repetitive and makes them more meaningful. I invite all of you to try it this week, it isn't too hard ;)
We also had two really good devotionals this week. We got to hear from Brother Watson, he's is the man in charge of the MTC curriculum. He invited a recent convert to get up and speak to us, and share his testimony, which was way cool, the spirit was so strong in the meeting when the convert was speaking. We also got to hear from President Maynes of the Quorum of the 70. He had a lot of cool experiences about missionary work, which was awesome. One thing I really liked about his talk was he said that we have to have the courage to talk to and invite everyone to come unto Christ, and because of that I made it a goal to talk to random people that I see throughout my day.
