First Week in the MTC

Here is Elder Buhler's first email in the MTC! You can write to him on DearElder.com or send a letter to:

 Elder Cody William Buhler 
SEP16 BRA-PAS
2007 N 900 E Unit 96
Provo, UT 84602

Elder Buhler's first set of companions

His Room

His District

Oi Familia,

Let me first start off by saying thank-you so much for the dearelders, packages, letters, support, and prayers. They keep me going daily. Well, I have a lot to say and limited time to say it. The MTC has been a wonderful experience! The first two days were unbelievably hard. Lots of meetings, talks, etc. It really made me toughen up and get down to business. My daily schedule consists of rising at 5:45 am (we got 6:30 breakfast, lucky us), showering, getting ready, going to breakfast, then studying the majority of the day, as well as 45 minutes of gym, lunch, dinner, and teaching an investigator. I have had the opportunity to teach an investigator three times now. Man, it is tough. At first a lot of it was memorizing scripts and just saying "Sim" to his questions ha (Sim means yes). It is now understanding what his answers are and replying to them in broken sentences ha. Needless to say, I have learned a lot here.

I am in a trio (meaning two companions instead of one). It is really nice. Elder Stokes is from New Jersey and went to SVU for a year. He knows who Kimy Chatland is. I guess SVU is a small school ha. Elder Wiscombe is right out of high school in Colorado. He was a state basketball player in Colorado or something like that. Both are awesome guys and I am lucky they love to do the work. I was made the Senior Companion (meaning I conduct our daily schedule) which is an awesome responsibility.

The food here is great. I get to eat unlimited, so I will probably but on some pounds ha. It is all good though. I greatly appreciate all the support you have given me this week. My district laughs at all the letters I get! Thank-you! It has helped me through my trial as I have adjusted to the MTC. Steph, if you could put this and the pictures on the blog that would be awesome! Also, if someone can forward this to Jacob and Katie, I forgot my e-mail address list back at the place. I hope I have most of the e-mails attached to this one. Please ignore typos as well, I am typing really fast ha. And thank-you Brynn Clarke for the cupcakes! Those were awesome! I really appreciated it!

Each week in Church we have to prepare a talk in Portuguese and then on Sunday, 2-4 people are selected randomly to give a talk in Portuguese. Pretty intense stuff. Knowing my luck, I will be picked ha. It will be a fun experience though. I get to see a lot of people that I know here at the MTC. Elder Mansfield (reassigned to the Salt Lake City South Mission for six weeks because of his VISA. Leaves tomorrow), Sister Spencer (awesome, that is all I will say about that ha :)), and others from my ward and BYU. Not sure when my VISA will come, although a girl in my district got hers this week! I hear they are working on them. I'd prefer to stay here for all 6 weeks, change would be tough to go through again. Anyways, I appreciate all your love. I feel it daily. My P-Day is Tuesday, so expect replys then. I will mail everyone a personal letter this week. I will send them to Steph's since Mom and Caitlin are in Utah still. I think about you all often. I miss you so much. The work is true. I challenge you to read D&C 1-10. Great stuff and I have been comforted by it. Also, mom nice Portuguese. I see you are learning quick ha. Eu sei que o Livro de Mormon e verdaderio. Eu sou grato por meu chamando. (Excuse the typos with the Portuguese, I have no accents on keyboard ha.) I love you guys more than anything in the world! Talk to you soon!

Elder Buhler