Getting ready to leave the MTC... (12/23/08)

Elder Booth is getting ready to leave the MTC and head out to the Philippines. Below is his last letter, dated 12/22/08 and then there is a video with some last words he had before leaving.

Date: December 22, 2008 10:25:44 AM PST

"Hey, how is everybody doing? I am great right now because I just got done packing and it is snowing unbelievably hard. I love the snow. I'm glad I got to see one more good snow storm before I left, even if it wasn't in Vegas.

Things have been really good here in the MTC. I am having a lot of fun getting all of the Christmas cards and packages. Michele is very right: I am very very spoiled and I love it. I had fun reading dad's Christmas letter. My district got a pretty big kick out of the first part. Just so you know it is not a requirement to send all of the letters I do. I just want to send as many as I can before I go, because I probably won't once I am there. So I hope you enjoyed them while they lasted. Once I am there I will not have as much time as I do here.

I sent mom all of my flight plans so I hope she told everybody. I predict I will either be calling from LAX or Taiwan. I don't really know yet. I am the travel leader so I will be pretty stressed out making sure everything is going right. I know I probably won't need to be stressed, but that is just how I am and I might as well get used to it. It turns out that being OCD actually really helps in keeping most of the missionary rules. It's too bad all of us aren't OCD.

This last week has been kind of crazy. Everybody has been getting ready to leave, so it has been hard to study with all of the excitement. Actually, all of my district accept for three of us have already left. Most of them were really close friends. Well, all of them, but some more than others. I don't want to sound like I didn't like them all. Anyway, it was pretty hard for me to watch them leave us behind. It's alright though because these last couple of days have been really quiet.

I think the high light of my week though is when I talked to a young man in the RC (referral center). It was a live chat and I actually talked to him for about two hours. He was investigating the church because of his girl friend and did not want to jump into something unless he knew for a certainty that is was true. He was very smart and had a lot of deep doctrinal questions about the pearl of great price being false. I was only able to give him some sources to go to because I don't really know much about the topic myself. I did, however, tell him the story of how I came to know of the truth and gave him a commitment to try the same thing. We have each other's email, so I hope it goes well. (Well, he doesn't have this email because that would be against the rules, but they give us another one for such situations).

Nothing else that was too exciting really happened. It was hard to say goodbye to my teachers because I have grown to really respect and love them. One actually committed me to look him up after I got home so I could give him a report of my mission. They taught me a lot in a very short amount of time. I'm glad they were worthy so the spirit could work through them and teach us.

I hope the holidays are going very good for everybody. This has always been my favorite part of the year. It's going to be quite an experience to spend Christmas in the Philippines. We actually lose a day so I won't even have a Christmas Eve. That is a little weird to think about. Oh. and I will try to make a small video today. I don't have much time so it will probably be short and won't be very personal. You will, however, get over it I'm sure.

I really hope that me not writing back as much will not discourage you from writing me. I absolutely love every letter that I get. It brightens my day.

The devotional last night was great. We received a good message about the importance of a change of heart. I really hope that I have the power to change somebody over in the Philippines. I am truly excited to go and do the Lord's work.

Well, I better get going. The next one of these you will be getting will be coming from the field. Oh, and I will send the pouch address to mom and dad if they don't have it and all the rules that apply in case you wanted to write instead of email. Well, Mahal ko Kayo and have a great Christmas. Don't worry about me. There is no place I would rather be than here serving the Lord."

Elder Booth