Hey Y’all! This is Elder Baldwin. My first week here at the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo, Utah has been a blast. I am so grateful to be participating in this great tradition of missionary service. Not long ago, my sister Elizabeth trained right here at the MTC for her mission to Poland. Now she studies at BYU and was able to pick me up from the Salt Lake airport and take me to the MTC. Along the way, we shared a traditional lunch with Uncle Ken & Aunt Jana.

My Dad also trained at the Provo MTC way back in 1991 for his mission to Hungary. And my Mom was an MTC teacher here in the mid 90’s sometime after her mission in Mexico. My sister trained in Polish, my dad trained in Hungarian, and I was originally scheduled to train in the Spanish language at the Mexico City MTC. Mexico City is where my Mom served her mission, but the rise of the Covid-19 delta variant changed the ability of Mexico to host foreign missionaries. This change to the Provo MTC was bittersweet. On one hand, I would have trained in the Spanish language in the land of my Mexican ancestors, but on the other hand, I really wanted to have the Provo MTC experience. So I’m very glad to be here!

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The goal of a Missionary is to ‘Teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, The Son and the Holy Ghost.’ My goal as a missionary is to find those in need and teach them that God is looking out for them.

Yesterday 10/19/21 we had a devotional by Elder Jeremy R. Jaggie here at the MTC. He told us to picture thousands of people outside the Gates of Heaven waiting for us Missionaries to allow them to enter by the authority of God. I am glad I saw that devotional because it gave me a greater sense of my purpose here at the MTC. I am learning a lot and am very excited to serve for 2 yrs in the Arizona Scottsdale Mission, which covers eastern Arizona from Scottsdale (Phoenix area) and parts of western, central New Mexico.

Today on my preparation day, I attended the nearby Provo Temple and felt the spirit Strongly. As I walked in, I felt that I was in God’s arms and that the world could not touch me. The Temple is the perfect refuge from the world.

In my dorm, we have a pull up bar for workouts. One of my dorm members decided to do pull ups and accidentally hit his head against the ceiling tile. As he went up to reset the tile, he found a bag just above his head inside the ceiling. The bag was filled with past Missionary stories. In one of the stories, I read of an Elder who was ‘Simping’ on a sister. In one of the stories, an Elder created a commandment that says “Thou Shall Not Simp” which means don’t go chasing after Sister Missionaries. Reading that made me laugh. 😂And another reminder of the Ghosts of the Past still making their presence felt at the MTC! 👻👻

I really like the murals in the MTC, which share stories from the Gospel. This Picture portrays the Sons of Mosiah who were sent to preach the gospel to the Lamanites in the land of Ishmael. The verse I really like is found in Alma Chapter 18:41, which reads: “And he began to cry unto the Lord, saying: O Lord, Have mercy; according to thy abundant mercy which thou hast had upon the people of Nephi, have upon me, and my people.” I really like this scripture because it talks about asking for mercy through the power and blessings of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I am grateful for His Support!!!

This last pic is with Elder & Sister Rasmussen who have been called to serve in Italy. They are the parents of Jennifer Smith of the Smith family from our Plano congregation. I was happy to see that the MTC is a training place for missionaries going to far away places and, at the same time, a small enough community that occasionally I find familiar faces.

Tune in to Next week’s Email full of pictures and more of my experiences here at the Provo MTC. Good Luck to y’all and HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!!!!