Week #1 in the MTC

Well I'm finally on a computer for P-Day. I can't believe it's only been one week though. It feels like I've been here at least a month. I'm in the Intermediate/Advanced Spanish class somehow haha but it's good because I learn the language wayyyy faster. I'm already so much better than I ever was during high school. And I took it for five years! It just goes to show how much the Spirit and the Gift of Tongues helps and blesses missionaries.

My companion is great! His name is Elder Keeler and he's from Houston, Texas. It's kinda funny because that's where Elder Rumsey is serving!! Elder Keeler said he went on splits with him too which is sweet. I got lucky with my companion. He plays soccer like me and he ran track in high school. He was a pole vaulter and pretty good from what I hear. We get along great so far and I'm excited to see how we do these next few weeks here in Provo.

Today we got to go to the Temple which was really cool. The Provo Temple is soooo much bigger than the Palmyra one haha and it was a great experience. Our District, which has eight elders and four sisters, is so great. We're all so close which apparently is kinda rare for everyone to be this close. Our District Leader, Elder Payne is awesome. He's from Draper, UT and he's so fun to be around.

We always do the same things during our gym time which has mostly been volleyball. We played soccer last week a bit but the fields are closed right now for some reason. But volleyball has been sick. As most of you know I love any kind of sport and volleyball is one of them. I gotta thank my roommate Trent though for really converting me to it haha.

I've seen a ton of people I know here in the MTC too which was so cool. I saw a few Hermanas from pageant here and got to catch up a bit, saw a bunch of elders from my ward at BYU which is even better. Andddd I saw Alaena while she was at work!! Kinda surprised me haha we only chatted for a few minutes though cuz we had class anyways.

I'm pretty sure everyone in my District thinks I have a bajillion friends cuz I've gotten at least one letter every day and then a few days I've gotten as many as 8 hahaha. But just so everyone knows they're mostly from family which I greatly appreciate :) It feels so good to finally be able to email and write people! I feel like it's text that I got last night but I'm just now responding if that makes sense. But it just makes me appreciate everything I hear from friends and family.

The food in the MTC is so good. But it's so easy to just pig out and gain a ton of weight. I've heard tons of stories about elders or sisters that leave the MTC after three weeks with ten extra pounds. And my goal is to stay the same as I came in. So far so good too haha. The key is just to resist the desire for seconds and not to eat till you're completely full.

There are four of us in our room: me, Elder Keeler, Elder Iverson, and now Elder Questenberg. We originally had Elder Monterrosa but he dropped down to the beginner's spanish class so we got a new elder instead. He seems great so far though so that's good.

Thursday Elder Keeler and I have to teach the first lesson already! I'm really nervous just because we'll be teaching somebody we don't even know instead of each other or other people we know. And then next week we teach the first lesson in allll spanish. That's the one we're really nervous about though. We tried to teach each other in spanish today but that was so hard. We still understood each other and could talk in spanish...but we couldn't go into a lot of depth because we just don't know a ton of vocab yet. But hopefully in nine weeks we'll be better.

And I forgot to mention my comp is also going to Barcelona!! Makes it even better haha. Apparently when we get to the Madrid MTC they speak only spanish all the time. And some teachers don't even know any english. That'll be interesting to see how it goes.

Yesterday was kinda my bad day. I woke up feeling sickly and I ached all over, I didn't feel like I got any sleep whatsoever, and I just felt awful. I took some meds in the morning which helped a lot and I felt fine until around 4:00ish. We went to dinner and I ate the healthiest dinner I have ever eaten in my life: cantaloupe, honey dew, salad, an apple, and juice haha. But I wasn't very hungry to begin with so it didn't really matter. But I can honestly say that prayer works. Both me and Elder Keeler prayed for my health and strengthe and within two hours everything was gone. I still feel a little iffy today but I'm soooo much better than yesterday. Another testimony of prayer :)

Sorry I keep jumping all over the place. I only have 30 minutes and I just write whatever comes to mind haha. Me and Elder Keeler designated the cafeteria as a "spanish zone". Which means we can only speak spanish there. It's been really hard but really good for both of us. We bring our dictionary with us just in case and, if we desperately need to, we speak english. But for the most part we've been really good about it. We pray in spanish which helps, we study the language a tonnnn each day, and we talk throughout the day in spanish...mixed with english haha.

I can't believe that just a week ago I said goodbye to everyone at BYU and to Grandma and Grandpa. I think about everyone often and miss you all a lot. I find myself sometimes reaching for my phone to check the time or to see if I have a text hahaha buttttt I remember that I don't have my phone anymore! Makes P-Days all the better :)

Tomorrow we get to see the new Elders and Sisters! Even though I've been here a week I know I'll feel older than them haha just because of the time that I've been here and the experience of being here. I met an elder the other day that's been here 11 weeks!! I feel way bad for him because he doesn't go to class because he can't. He just helps as an "investigator" and just studies on his own. He's just waiting for his visa apparently. And I really hope that doesn't happen to me haha. But if it does I'll just wait I guess. Means more time in the mountains haha.

Thanks for all the letters and prayers and everything! They mean a ton to me. The work is going great and I love you all!

Love,
Elder Mathews

ps letters are appreciated :)

My Farewell Talk

For those who said they wanted to read it here it is! And yeah it's a bit long haha sorry about that. This is pretty much word for word what I spoke minus a few other things I added in here and there:

Good afternoon brothers and sisters. I hope most of you know me by now but if you don’t my name is Justin Mathews and it will very soon be Elder Mathews. Three days from now I enter the MTC in Provo, Utah to begin the best two years of my life and I cannot wait for it to come. I will be spending those two years serving the Lord’s children and our brothers and sisters in Barcelona, Spain. I just hope that I can serve in a way that is pleasing to our Heavenly Father and in a way that I can share the happiness that I get from this gospel.

My topic that I have been given is faith and hope. I heard that and I thought to myself, “that is such a broad topic.” But the more I thought about it and the more I studied it, I thought that I should talk about how faith and hope can apply to me as I serve and how we can grow and learn through faith and hope. So I want to steer this in the direction of how faith and hope can be used as a tool in the mission field and at home.

I want to begin with hope. Hope has always been a very vague and somewhat confusing gospel area for me. I had to do a lot of studying and research on this topic. But thankfully I did because this is what I’ll be teaching in Spain. Hope is an abiding trust that the Lord will fulfill His promises to us. It is confidence that if we live according to God’s laws and the words of His prophets now, we will receive desired blessings in the future. It is believing and expecting that our prayers will be answered. But what’s the use of knowing what hope is if we don’t know what to hope for? Moroni has an excellent section that talks about faith and hope in the Book of Mormon. In Moroni 7:40-44 we learn why hope and faith are so important to our salvation. It reads, “And again, my beloved brethren, I would speak unto you concerning hope. How is it that ye can attain unto faith, save ye shall have hope? And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise. Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope. And again, behold I say unto you that he cannot have faith and hope, save he shall be meek, and lowly of heart. If so, his faith and hope is vain, for none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart...” We learn from these verses that only the meek and lowly of heart can have faith and hope. So this is what we should aim to be. We should aim to be meek and lowly of heart, humble, submissive, and use the knowledge that we are sons and daughters of God and that Jesus Christ is our Savior and saved us from death as our source of hope. We also learn what we should hope for in this scripture. It states right in verse 41 that we should hope, “…through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection…” that we might someday live with our Father in Heaven again. We hope in Jesus Christ, in the goodness of God, in the manifestations of the Holy Spirit, in the knowledge that prayers are heard and answered. Because God has been faithful and kept His promises in the past, we can hope with confidence that God will keep His promises to us now and in the future.

Remember that in Moroni 7 he stated that, “…without faith there cannot be any hope.” So reading this we learn that if a person has hope, then they must have faith as well. I have been taught ever since I entered primary that faith is like a little seed and that if planted it will grow. As I grew older and learned more about this topic I realized that faith doesn’t just grow if planted. It has to be planted and nourished or it will falter and die. Faith, as stated in Alma, is, “…not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.” I want to specifically talk about faith in Christ. When you have faith in Christ, you believe in Him as the Son of God. You accept Him as your Savior and follow His teachings. You believe that your sins can be forgiven through the Atonement. Faith in Christ means that you trust Him and know that He loves you. Faith leads to action. Faith is what motivates people to repent, to be baptized, and to serve our Heavenly Father. Despite trials and sufferings, it is faith that motivates us to continue to trust that God has a plan for us and knows what we should do. Knowing what faith is, we can find out how we can obtain it. We obtain faith by increasing our knowledge and love of our Savior Jesus Christ. As we continue to study the scriptures, pray daily, and be obedient to His commandments we can come closer to our Redeemer and in the process allow our faith to grow. The Savior promised, "If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me." It is through faith that miracles are performed. It is through faith that Joseph Smith went into the Sacred Grove to receive an answer from God. It is through faith that the Brother of Jared saw the finger of Christ. It is through faith that Nephi was able to obtain the plates from Laban. But we must remember that only after the trial of our faith come the miracles. We can’t expect a miracle to make us believe. We have to already have the unwavering faith that the miracle will happen.

Now how can we apply these attributes to our lives? As a missionary I know I’ll be exercising them daily. I’ll need the faith to know that what I’m teaching people is true. I’ll need the faith to know that through the Spirit I will learn the Spanish language and be able to communicate the message that He would have me say. I will be teaching people that they can have faith that God loves them and wants them to return again to Him someday. And through faith we can hope for a better life in the world to come. I can put my hope in God, knowing that He will protect and guide me through this life until I have accomplished what He has in store for me. I may have many years ahead of me; I might not. But it does not matter as long as I do His will. And I know that through faith and hope, no matter what my course in life is, that Heavenly Father is guiding me in all things. I know without a doubt that this is the true church. I know that our Savior Jesus Christ atoned for our sins and that through Him we can all repent and return to live with our Heavenly Father someday. But we must exercise our faith in Him and know that He loves us and knows what is best for each of us. I know that I have been called to serve as a missionary to this specific part of the world at this specific time. I have no idea why but I trust that the Lord knows why. After waiting for what seemed like an eternity this summer it is finally here. I am becoming part of the mission of the church. I am helping to fulfill the prophecy stated by Joseph Smith. Most of us know it as the Standard of Truth and I think it is one of the most powerful things I have ever read. It states, “Our missionaries are going forth to different nations…The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.” I am helping to accomplish this task and I will do so to the best of my ability. Every soul is precious to God. So if it is so precious to Him, should it not also be just as precious to us? People all around us are just waiting to hear the gospel. So open your mouths. You never know who might be ready and eager to accept the message of Jesus Christ. I know this church is true and I love it with all my heart. And I leave this with you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

The Big Apple

Most of you know that I'm from New York...but I think some of you think that I live closer to New York City than I actually do haha. So to clarify I actually live upstate near Rochester which is around a six hour drive from NYC. Which means I don't get to head down a whole lot. But this past week I got to go down with my dad when he went for a business trip. It was pretty sweet getting to go down there and wander around the hugeeee city by myself. There was no one to slow me down, I could go see what I wanted, walk where I wanted, and go at my own pace which was great! I got to see pretty much everything I wanted. I don't really have a favorite place though which is kinda strange. I did really like Central Park and the Empire State building though. And I just gotta say that Time's Square at night is the bomb!! All of you who haven't had the opportunity to go really need to put that on your to-do list before you die haha. I had a lot of first too. Rode the subway for the first time, rode a taxi for the first time, and a few others I can't think of right now. I ran into a few fellow BYU fans in Time's Square of all places too! And they were from Alpine, Utah. Go figure haha. I just gotta say that even though NYC is soooo cool...I never want to live there. Too busy, too loud, too dirty and messy, and just not enough green. I think I'm set where I am.

Almost There!!!

It has been a very long five months. I got my mission call the week before Finals out at BYU in April and I saw the report date: September 29th. But after the long wait and the times of insanity I only have three precious weeks left. It's almost to unreal right now though. I have dreamed and waited for this moment ever since I was a young man growing up through Deacon's Quorum and now that it's actually here I can't even begin to realize that it's actually happening. When I went home from BYU at the end of April I thought I was in for the longest five months of my life. I could have used that time to go to a Spring and Summer Term out at BYU and gotten some more schooling out of the way. I felt that I was just wasting my time sitting at home with nothing to do when I could be doing something useful. I got a job working at a local wholesale club but I didn't really get many hours which was very frustrating. There was no way I was going to be making nearly enough money with only eight hours of work a week. I decided to find more work to keep me busy and to make some more dinero. So I ended up being a soccer referee for the Recreational League here in my hometown and made some decent money. I've house sat for a few families in my ward, and I've even helped a man in my ward with some renovation in his backyard. But with all the college kids going back to school I've finally gotten more hours. Now I'm almost wishing I didn't have so many! Other than work early on in the summer I didn't have much to keep me from missing everything about BYU. I didn't feel like doing much at all. I missed everyone and I even missed my classes!!! Crazy I know. I thought about taking some online courses to keep me busy but I never got around to that. I tried to hang out with some old friends from high school but sometimes I just didn't feel like getting out for some reason. So basically I was a bum for the first half of the summer. But everything changed once the Hill Cumorah Pageant came around. I absolutely loveeee Pageant. It is the best thing about summer for me that I have ever experienced and I'm so glad that I could do it for three straight years. I think I just needed a wake up call. I realized that I was just dwelling on the things I could have been doing back then and not doing what I should or could be doing now. I also needed a Spiritual booster. I knew that I was going on a mission and that I knew it was the right thing to do. But they say that the time before your mission is when Satan and his angels try their hardest to bring you down and I was definitely feeling that. The friends I made at Pageant, the experiences I had, and the lessons I learned were exactly what I needed. I can never thank my Heavenly Father enough for this last chance to participate before my mission. I originally put my availability date for my mission as July 1st which means I would have missed Pageant. But I know that He has a plan for each of us. And I was supposed to be at Pageant one more time. Ever since Pageant ended the weeks have flown by. I've been happier, more awake, more in tune with myself and the Spirit. I started studying Preach My Gospel and the scriptures more intently and on a more regular basis. I've literally felt myself being picked up from the ground and being set in the right direction. I know that Heavenly Father knew what I needed to become the best missionary I could possibly be. And now with just about three weeks to go I still have a lot to finish. But I feel that I have been set on the right path and that I am getting set for what the Lord has in store for me. Thanks to everyone for the support you've shown me. Even if I haven't specifically thanked you or told you, all of you who I call my friends have had more influence on me than you know.

Another pageant has come and gone...For the past three years my family and I have participated in the Hill Cumorah Pageant which takes place just 25 minutes away from my house at the Hill Cumorah. It's been one of the best experiences of my life! And now a week after it all happened I wish we could just rewind the past month and do it alllll again. This year was probably the hottest year weather wise. The first week was sunny, hot, and really humid. So that meant very few games of ultimate frisbee, volleyball, and whatever else and a lot more time just sitting in the shade or sneaking into the costume shop where the AC was.

I thought one year as Nephi was enough but once again I got to wear the wig and costume. I guess it was a good thing I was the same character again because it took me a lot less time to "learn" how to put the costume on since I did it all last year. The only difference this year was the scene I was in. I was in the vision of the tree of life. And if any of you don't know what I'm talking about then I'll assume that you aren't mormon and encourage you to read the Book of Mormon to find out :). But in the scene there were water jets that shot up during the scene so every night without fail I got soaking wet. Most of the time it felt really really good because it was so hot. But other nights it wasn't as great because the mosquitos just loved my wet costume and I ended up with new bug bites after every show. But it was all definitely worth it.

During pageant we have our cast team which is like our family during pageant. I must say that I'm pretty sure I had the best cast team ever this year. Even though there were only four guys, including me, and sixteen girls. But I guess I shouldn't be complaining. And my cast team leaders were the bomb! The Watsons and the Tomas were great! We got to go on a service project, which was scraping gum off chairs and tables at the high school and then moving boxes of paper around the school, tour the church sites which is always an awesome thing to do, and then we had our free day where we went to the lake. I've seen the church sites so many times since I only live twenty to twenty five minutes away, but they never get old. The lake was awesome! It was sunny and gorgeous out. 

Whenever something begins you know that there's always an end and it's the same way with pageant. The last sunday was so sad. Probably more so for me because I won't see most of my friends for over two years. There were plenty of last minute pictures with friends and good bye hugs and some tears from various people. But thank goodness for the church and BYU because there's a very good chance I will see most of them again. Even if it is after two years.