LDS Missionary: France Paris Mission

Day 2 of 730

I woke up early the next morning to a terrible noise coming from someone's alarm clock in our four-man dorm room. I didn't have a phone to check the time or a clock nearby, but I knew I didn't get enough sleep to go thorugh that day. It must have been around 6 in the morning.

I sat up and watched as the four people below my top bunk slowly made their way to the showers. Elder Pieper seemed spry and ready to start the new day. Elder Coleman also knew it was the right thing to do, so had quickly jumped up and made his way to the showers. That left Elder Garland and me in the dark room probably feeling the same way. He must have felt it wasn't worth trying to sleep now, because he finally got up and walked out of the room.

'It's only the second day.' I thought. 'I need to be there on time.'

I figured that is why most of the other people were also up and getting on with the day. I climbed down in the darkness from the top bunk and started to walk towards the slightly open door where light was funneling into the otherwise pitch black room. I grabbed a change of clothes and made my way into what seemed like the impossibly bright lights of the hallway and bathroom.

After we were all ready for the day, we headed over to the classroom. As we stepped outside in the brisk Provo air, I knew for a fact this was going to be a long day. The sun hadn't come up over the mountains yet and it was still dark. 

The four of us were joined by Elder Barker, Elder Bell, Elder Shumway, and Elder Livingston as we left the building en route to our classroom. There wasn't much noise outside of the shuffling of feet in the darkness as the eight of us trudged towards the classroom.

The sisters were already there and all four of them seemed jovial and excited to start the next journey in their mission.

'This is way too early.' I thought. 'It's the MTC, I don't have any reason to be up this early.'

Once we all greeted the sisters in our groggy voices, we went to studying our scriptures. We were to start each day by doing personal study, which meant we could pretty much read anything within the limits of the directed books we wanted. I chose to begin with the Book of Mormon. 

The Book of Mormon is a book that was found by inspiration to the first prophet in the hills of New York. Joseph Smith was the prophet's name and he was able to translate the ancient writings through the power of the Lord. The book began with a prophet and his family around 600 years before Christ was born. The book ends some 400 years after Christ was crucified. The pinnacle of the book is when Christ appears to the ancient people after they had travelled from Jerusalem to what we now know as the Americas. He ministered unto these people for some time after his death and resurrection. 

I struggled through the hour as I kept feeling my eyelidss get heavy and start to close. I read certain passages over and over and they still weren't making sense to me. I kept readjusting the way I sat every few minutes thinking that would help, but it didn't as I sat there trying my hardest not to fall asleep.

Finally, the hour passed and we were able to go to breakfast. Just standing up made me rejuvenated and I was ready to move on with the day. Breakfast always included an option of eggs and sausage or bacon. The eggs were the type of eggs you would find in a cafeteria or buffet. They didn't have much taste, but it was something to put in your mouth while you were so tired. There was always the option of cold cereal among other things also. I usually stuck with either the eggs or cereal though.

One nice thing about the MTC was the many different options of drinks the missionaries were able to choose from. I usually stuck with water, but they always had milk, Sprite, Root Beer, apple juice, orange juice, and a few other choices I never really tried.