Arrival - Safe and Sound

We got a fun surprise on Tuesday morning.

Tommy gave us a call from the airport in Salt Lake. His district was one of the lucky ones that were able to get their flights back on track. Only one of the Sisters in his missions wasn't able to go due to swine flu. She was put in quarantine the night before they left. Sad. He said it is pretty crazy. He wished he had bought a face mask just to take pictures out by the MTC sign.

But off to Toronto he went.

We got a phone call from President Middleton Tuesday evening. Jack took the call and the message that Elder Dudley had arrived - safe and sound. I was sad to have missed his call. And anxiously awaited the letter below.

I am posting these like they come - spelling, punctuation, capitalization, or lack there-of!

SO good to hear from him.

"i dont have tons of time..so im just gonna pretty much write you guys, and you can send them to any relatives or woodburys or whoever you want.i arrived in canada. it went well. we were all nervous about the flight, having to sit next to real people and talk about religion. i ended up sitting between two other missionaries hahaha so no talking for me! i tried my hardest to stay awake during the flight..but no luck..i was zonked. um we landed in toronto and had to go through customs and junk, im still not exactly sure what im supposed to do with this citizenship information. the first lady said that if i dont get my canadian passport within 6 months then i have to leave the country, then this other guy i talked to at immigration said no, because i was born in canada i have right to citizenship and can stay and do whatever i want. so i now im confused and not exactly sure. um well anyways, we landed and got to president middletons house at about 5pm local time. there we kinda hung out in the living room and talked to sister middleton while president middleton went through and interviewed each one of us. he is an AWESOME guy. he is gonnna be like a general authority one day hahaha. um we ate dinner there, had a little testimony meeting, and then we met our trainers. my companion is elder beanziger (pronounced ben-z-ger)from west palm beach florida. he is a way good missionary. he has only been out on his mission for 9 months..all the other trainers have been out for about 20 or more. i dont know if that means that the president trusts us to do well, or that my comp is amazing and can whip me into shape haha. we stayed the the night at the "mission mansion" and then went back to the middletons for breakfast. we then had our orientation and all that good stuff. after that the middletons took us all to this chinese buffet for lunch called the Mandarin. it was pretty good. i nice change up from the mtc at least haha. um we then broke off and headed out to our separate areas. me and elder beanziger are in one of the bigger areas. we are in a town called Guelph (pronounce gwelf) its umm interesting. its about an hour West of Toronto and it has a population of like 120,000 i think and we are the only 2 missionaries in the town. so a lot of work to do! there is only one ward here though. we have our own car and cell phone. we drive a chevy cobalt haha. our apartment is big, not very nice but big. i have my own bathroom haha. we also have a treadmill and a workout bench. last night we ate at sister ouletts house with her friend stephanie. stephanie is an investigator who is addicted to pain killers, she asked last night for some time off from meeting with us so im not sure what we are gonna do from here on out. sister oulette is CRAZZYYYY though. we were in this tiny tiny apartment and she seriuosly made SO much food for me and elder beanziger, we also brought a kid named mirco who is from sweden..or something.. today was also really busy. we had an appointment with a girl named megan. she is also addicted to a lot of different drugs, and believes in Christ and Existentialism. its a weird combo and im not sure we were able to break into her. we taught her at the park for about an hour and tried to answer and offer insight to a lot of her questions she was having with the plan of salvation. she pretty much doesnt believe in satan, doesnt like the 3 degrees of glory, doesnt understand why the atonement was a big deal, and believes that none of the stuff around us is real, that we are all dreaming. she is a really nice girl though and we actually got her to give the closing prayer. she also tentatively agreed to come to church on sunday, well...we're supposed to call her again tomorrow so we'll see. what else happened today, umm we met briefly with a man named wilbur, he is RLDS which was interesting. i wouldnt really say that we taught him though, i think he has a little bit of a mental disorder and hes partially deaf. he pretty much just talked straight for 20 minutes, asked us a question, and then cut us off before we could answer. it was weird but nice. we had an appointment with a girl named lisa. she is a wicken, which from what i understand is like witchcraft. we showed up to her house but she got called into work. hopefully we can meet up with her again soon. a wicken though, im not exactly sure how i will be able to handle that. its been pouring rain for most the day. my socks are soaked! we went door to door for about an hour. heard a lot of get off my property and bad words haha. its hard not to be discouraged when i walked around outside for an hour in the pouring rain only to have nobody listen to a single part of our message. tonight we are mainly going around to less active members. i havent even been in this town for a full 24 hours. its crazy. we are goin shopping though after this so i can buy food and other necessities i need. yesterday was pday but because of the training and driving we didnt have time to do anything so the president gave us permission to use part of today. well overall things are going well. its weird, i was so much more afraid to talk to people in the mtc..fake people! here though im doing pretty well, i guess the lord is helping me overcome that fear of preaching to strangers. its not completely gone but im feeling much more confident than i thought i would be. well i gotta go! but i love you all, i enjoyed the pictures as well. have fun.
love elder dudley"

Can you believe this was one day? Wow.

Got a letter from tommy today. Two short ones, actually. Sounds a little stressed. So I sent him a package from the dear elder.com site. I had a coupon for a delivery from MR.MAC - back when we bought his suits. Came in handy today. Sent him a card with the picture above. And cinnamon rolls and a bottle of Sparkling Martinellis - just what a boy who needs to lose a few lbs needs (see below!).

Here's the highly anticipated mail! Not long enough, but enjoyable!

"i apoligize but i dont have tons of time to write right now. i sent you a few pictures today but the swine flu has hit and it sucks. my departure date has been delayed a week.. i will literally lose my mind. can you at some point send me a jump rope and my flip flops? i got to go change my laundry. hopefully i computer will be open in there. talk to you in a bit."

and:

"k, i found a computer but i still dont have tons of time. you can still send me dearelder letters..in fact i probably prefer those more because i get them daily where as email i only get to check on wednesdays. but yeah, my departure date has been postponed. its horrible. we had our flight plans and everything! i got a letter from jordan today which was nice. bishop woodberry?! what?! craziness. ummm you dont even know how excited i am to get some music in the mail.. explosions is safe, dont worry..nana and gump loved it and they were mission presidents. um the mtc is still long. i dont have tons of stuff to tell you, pretty much everyday is the same. you can post whatever you want on blogs, or send out to people.. it doesnt matter to me. i got a dear elder from aunti monique but i have no way of replying to her soooo ya... i sent out some pictures and a letter that im hoping you could deliver to alyssa and nigel harrison who could then in turn deliver to mackenzie. just mail it to them or something.. did i already ask you to send out my flip flops and a jump rope? those arent necessarily important, but a jump rope would be a nice way for me to break a sweat in my bedroom. i need to lose some lbs. ummmmm sorry if this is scattered, ill write a better letter at some point tonight and mail it soon. um well good luck in washington dc! i hear that temple is pretty. i went to the provo temple this morning, its a nice break from classes. i cant believe im stuck here in the mtc for another week. i hate life..hahaha well tell everyone i say hello! andddd yeah, i prefer dearelder when im in the mtc..that way i can tackle each letter as it comes rather than furiously type a single letter trying to cover all the bases.. i love you guys,. things are going great and im really starting to become a better teacher and tool for the spirit. me and elder norton are doing well...

love you all

elder dudley"

Swine Flu Caution

Just to keep things interesting, I have heard that there is Swine Flu at the MTC.

I haven't received a telephone call, so I would suppose that Elder Dudley is NOT among the 20 or so who have been quarantined.

The MTC is changing protocol and allowing only curbside drop-off of incoming Elders and Sisters. So maybe we were lucky to be among the final few who got to say goodbye in a sea of sobbing relatives. (Our goodbye was made all the more interesting because the Tongan lady who was saying goodbye to her missionary elder wailed loud and long -a bit of comic relief for me - "Well, at least I'm not crying that loud!")

According to the news article, Tommy's stay at the MTC might be extended a week or so. I am interested to hear how he feels about that. A friend of mine described the MTC like Spirit Prison - "full of the Spirit... and you can't get out!" Probably accurate.

Read news article here

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=6674890

In other news - I'm off to Washington on Thursday to pick up Hannah. Looking forward to seeing her and lugging her new life home. Hoping the adjustment isn't too hard for her. We are all so glad to have her be coming back.

Here is a picture of Prom - they had a fun Prom on the Potomac. Her date is Sean from North Dakota.

I'm pretty sure she can't wait to be back in good old Carson City - but things are definitely alot slower around here. Alot less interesting. Alot less to do. I hope she can manage.

Welcome home, Hannah.

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.