Jake's South African Adventure

Hello everyone!  Man, it is a wonderful time to be serving the Lord. The online MTC experience has been so much better than what I had imagined. I am learning so much in my classes and I am really feeling the spirit more in my life than I think I ever have. It is amazing what changes you can notice in your life as you immerse yourself in things that are righteous. Before entering the MTC, I had only heard one person say that they actually enjoyed their experience in the MTC. I honestly thought that it was just this thing at the beginning of every mission that you just had to suffer through until you could get out into the mission field and enjoy yourself. Although I have had some rough days, and some days that I have really struggled, I am loving this experience. I am so grateful to be a missionary. Having the opportunity to be surrounded by the Gospel of Jesus Christ has made all the difference in my life in just a short 10 DAYS! Since my last email wher...

1st P-Day at Home MTC Hello everyone! It's safe to say that I am much closer to home than I had anticipated being 3 days into my mission. The online MTC experience has been an interesting one thus far! I wake up at 6:30, get ready, do my personal studies, then my companionship studies, then the rest of the day so far has been fair game. I will have at least one class with my district of 12 missionaries, including myself, that usually takes about 3 hours. Then I will usually have a workshop which is kind of an online seminar with other missionaries. On Wednesday, there were 270 missionaries present in the workshop. They had all either arrived at the MTC that day or had begun their online training. Yesterday the workshop had about 70 missionaries and should have about that number until I complete my training.  My companion is Elder Eckhart, he is from a small town about an hour east of Sacramento California. He's a good kid and we get along well. We are excited t...

MTC at Home - Day #1 March 17th was the day that Jake was scheduled to leave for the South African MTC in Johannesburg. That didn't happen. COVID-19 happened instead. On March 13th we were informed that he would be doing "remote" MTC training and not going to South Africa, just yet. He was supposed to have his "farewell" talk on March 15th, but church was canceled and so he didn't have to speak. We had a get together anyway with a sanitation station and hopes of not spreading disease. So far, so good. On Monday, March 16th, South Africa revoked all Visa's for travelers from the United States, so we aren't sure what that means or how he will be issued a new one. To get that Visa he had to travel to LA and interview with the SA consulate, will he have to do that again? On March 17th he was set apart as a full-time missionary. On March 18th, 2020, he entered the MTC........at home, basically, he came downstairs.  He had a free morning but t...