Letter # 2 - which came after Letter #3

"Well, It's Sunday night & I had a bit of time so I figured I'd write you guys. It was so fun getting your letter. The MTC is seriously SOOOO exhausting. It's bad, but every minute of the day I am literally falling asleep. It's a battle but I'm doing my best to stay awake! Well, to answer some questions, there are 4 to a room and the rooms are about twice the size of the BYU dorms. I feel really blessed that one of our walls are painted orange. All the other elders in the building are jealous of our orange wall! My two teachers are Brother Frei and Bro. Jenkins. They are two awesome guys. I feel like we really lucked out in that department. Sundays here are alot different. Breakfast was at 7:00am and it was just cold cereal. It was seriously the most depressing breakfast ever! Nobody talked, everybody just sat, ate, & stared. After that we had an hour and a half of study time with our district. We then had priesthood at 10:00am, then had lunch at 11:30, then off to sacrament. Sacrament meetings are intense here. Everyone has to prepare a short 5 minute talk on a certain topic, and then they randomly pick the speakers once the meeting has started. After sacrament we had 3 more hours of study time. One of the options we can do during that time though, is to walk up to the temple grounds. It was so nice to have an hour or more to just relax. We then had dinner and a fireside. The speaker was the manager of all missionary operations in the church. I feel like his talk was directed at me. I've still been having troubles on why I was called to Toronto. I see some of the other kids here who are learning languages and going to cool places and I can't help but see like how much more capable I am. So that was a struggle, but his talk was good. He spoke alot on how calls are made & the inspiration the quorum of the 12 gets. After that we went and watched an old talk by Elder Holland called "Missions are Forever."
http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=4ba7a1615ac0c010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&hideNav=1
It was one of the best talks I have ever heard, if you can find it I highly recommend reading it. Tomorrow is just as busy but I have another gym period. I'm happy about that! I feel so fat & lazy just eating and sitting all day...oh well. Today me & Elder Norton gave the lesson in District Meeting today. We taught on how to recognize & feel/use the Spirit; it went great. On Tuesday we are doing a fake first lesson with some RM's pretending to be investigators. I'm super nervous. I hope it goes well. We get taped and then we watch it later to see how we can improve. It'll be scary but good. Did my shoe shine kit end up at the house? Well I should go. Love you all!"

Elder Dudley

one email address = one happy mom

I know that Tommy would love to hear from any of you - here are his addresses.  His Preparation Day at the MTC is on Wednesday.  

MTC Mailing address;
ELDER THOMAS ALAN DUDLEY
MTC Mailbox # 132
CAN-TORW 0609
2005 N. 900 E.
Provo, Utah 84604-1793

My regular Missionary address;
Elder Thomas Alan Dudley
Canada Toronto West Mission
197 County Court Blvd Ste 203
Brampton, ON L6W 4P6
Canada

E-mail Address

thomas_dudley@myldsmail.net

And now the letter!

"i finally got my email address. i went with a simple name so people could remember it. i hope you guys are all doing well. i mailed you something yesterday but i dont think you have gotten it yet. you said that you were gonna send a package in the mail?! if so.. please please pleaseeeee send me music..explosions in the sky. i also need a portable cd player to play it, and they shouldnt be too hard to find at target or walgreens. i dont need something fancy, just get a portable cd player that you would normally just use headphones on, and then ill just get speakers that plug into the headphone jack..no clock/cd player junk haha. today is P-day and its a very welcome day of rest. we went to the provo temple which was pretty cool. we still have to wake up at 6:15, but then we have a few hours of personal time so me and elder norton snuck a nap in. it was great! actually to be honest i slept horribly. but im so tired, that whatever little sleep i could get is welcomed with open arms. even though i mailed you a letter yesterday, the days are so long that i have no idea what i wrote. im trying not to over lap letters but its difficult to keep my stories straight. literrally just this second, elder perkins (my distric leader) brought in two more dear elder letters from you. just so you know, when you write long ones they have to break them apart into smaller letters, so on tuesday i got six all at once from the whole weekend. im glad you want to write me everyday but that seems a bit much hahaha...but if you enough information to write everyday then go for it.. i just think itd be hard for me at least to find enough information to send a letter for every day. i have been writing in my journal though! everyday! actually i might have skipped a day, but still, pretty dang good! today has been somewhat relaxing and somewhat busy, its elder nortons birthday (he turned 19) and its also the day all the new elders come in! im doing my laundry right now which is cool i guess. its more fun than sitting in a classroom at least. i dont know why it took so long for my letter to get to you. i mailed it thursday morning, the day after i came in here. your new letter also says that you already mailed my package, which is good still cuz ive been wanting my other nixon watch. if you get a chance though, have camilla or something burn my cds. i want them before i leave for toronto on the 9th cuz itll take like a month for me to get it through customs once im in toronto. if you cant find a cd player, juts send me the cds and ill buy something once im in the field.  ummm im not sure what else there is to talk about. i dont think ill gain 15lbs. i think ive gained a little weight..it sucks cuz it all goes to my face hahahaha..ive been watching what ive been eating though and eating a lotta salad. me and elder norton during gym time just ran around the feild for 45 minutes. we are also trying to figure cardio workouts in the room. they dont give us any time to do workouts in the MTC, but we still try at night. alright well i gotta go! love you..give out my email address to whoever wants it. or give me the emails of people you think i should write because your email address was the only one i remember. ha! have camilla give my email address to Jordan, Ryan, katie, or whoever wants it i suppose. oh! i got nicoles letter too. she called me muffin face? was it on my page or something or in what she wrote to camilla? haha she calls me that from time to time. ok now im really gonna go...haha bye! love you..."

I Love Mail

A letter. Hooray!

I'm pretty sure that I am the only one who is so excited, but excited I am!

Here is our first installment from the MTC - written Wednesday night.

05/20/09
Dear Family,

I don't have a ton of time to write but I figured it would be a good idea to send a quick note out. It's the end of my first day, and things are still weird. I don't feel fully adjusted or even adjusted at all. Everyone is calling each other Elder & Sister, and it's super weird to hear. I'll look at myself in the mirror with my nametag, or someone will say something simple such as "hey, elder" and I suddenly feel like a fake. It's hard to feel like I'm not just playing dress-up, but that I actually am a missionary.

Today wasn't too busy, but I still feel extremely tired. I was looking at my schedual (sic) for the next few weeks, and it's flat out crazy. by far the most minute to minute rigourously full thing I have ever seen. Today we just had another orientation meeting, spent a few hours kinda hangin around unpacking/waiting. My companion's name is Elder Norton & he's from Kaysville, Utah. That's where Nicole is from. There are two other guys in my room as well, one is named Elder Harper and he's from Idaho, and then Elder Wright is also from Kaysville, and we are all going to Toronto West Mission.

Tomorrow is looking like an intese way to start. I have class from 7:00-8:00, Breakfast from 8:00-8:45 and then class from 8:45-1:00. I get lunch and then it's pretty much the same thing after till about 9:00. I have a feeling I will be getting pretty tired.

My zone leaders seem like good guys as well as my Branch Presidency. One of the counselors - Bro. & Sister Goodman served their missions in Russia and have some sort of connection with Gump and Nana.

Well, I have to get going. Our Branch President is really pushing the idea of liveing the rules and being obedient with exactness, especially with the loghts out policy.

I hope you guys all made it home safe! Also Camilla, I hope you have fixed my fb by now. Well I must be going! I love & miss you all!

Love
Elder Dudley
(Still not at all used to that)

P.S. I need Gary's address

Called to Serve

Here he is... all dressed up and somewhere to go. What an experience. I am learning that I don't know anything about anything until I actually do it. I had no idea how hard it would be to leave a boy at the MTC knowing that when I see him next he'll be a man.

HARD.

My heart still hurts. In a good way though. Mostly.

Sunday we had a wonderful Special Stake Conference with Elder Bednar. Can't beat that. He taught us about agency and that the time is now to live the gospel and to press forward. And that we need not fear if we understand the plan of happiness.

The fire alarm went off during conference - right before Elder Bednar's talk. We all groaned as we exited the building, but it was resolved within minutes. And then, after we re-assembled, Br. Bednar taught us using the fire alarm as an object lesson - Clear alarm, we wait for instructions from presiding authorities, and we will be blessed with peace and safety.

Tommy was set apart after church as a full-time missionary. It was a sweet, quiet time. I was so glad we could all be there. Elder Dudley bore his testimony after he was set apart and said that he was excited and ready.

And he is. Excited and Ready.