Life in the MTC

Adam has settled in nicely at the MTC.  He is getting used to the routine (up at 6:30 am and in bed by 10:30 pm, exercise, personal study, and attending classes).  He spends 6 hours a day in class learning how to teach the gospel and speak Mandarin.  His goal is to learn 45 Chinese characters a day (which means that he'll have a vocabulary of >2,500 words after 9 weeks).  As the District Leader of his group (7 missionaries all heading to Taichung), he leads district council meetings where they set goals and work towards them as a group.
Adam joined the MTC choir (which has "more than a thousand voices", according to him) and he got to sing with the Nashville Tribute Band (https://www.nashvilletributeband.org/nashville-tribute-band/) last Sunday when they visited the MTC as part of the Pioneer Day celebration (a Utah holiday celebrating the arrival of the Mormon Pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847).  He loves it.
Adam also auditioned and was selected to play "Consider the Lilies" on the cello, accompanied by a talented sister missionary who is going to Cambodia.  They happened to be signing up at the same time and decided to collaborate.  After just practicing together twice, they impressed the judges during the audition and were asked to perform at one of the upcoming devotionals.
Adam shared the following spiritual thought based on a talk by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, one of the Apostles:
"Paul describes the whole armor of God in Ephesians 6, in which everything is for defense except for the "sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God".  Most people stop there but Paul did not finish his discourse.  He continued to say, "And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel". As missionaries, one must open his/her mouth boldly because faith works by words spoken (e.g., God said, let there be light; Jesus said, rise, take up thy bed, and walk; etc.)."
As part of his Sundays, he got to teach some Mandarin speaking volunteers as though they were in real teaching situations.  He practices "opening his mouth" and is making really good progress.

In room on Pday

With companions at the Provo Temple