Letter # 3

Tyler's letter starts with a request I made for him to share about his life in the MTC.
Every Sunday we have breakfast at 6:30 and Sacrament meeting at 8! Everybody has to prepare a talk for every Sacrament and you find out who talks 2 minutes before you talk. It’s a pretty nerve racking experience. Then we have a lot of personal study time and we just found out we can go to Music and the Spoken Word with the cectra so me and my new companion will be doing that next week. My companion from Canada never showed up and they moved him into the next group of Bulgarians. So I got moved rooms and I am now companions with Elder Sanft who is our District Leader. He is a really cool guy. Anyway after music and the word we have Priesthood for an hour and then lunch! Then more study time and then we have a District meeting and then study time and dinner. Then every Sunday we have a devotional with the whole MTC and we get a cool speaker, this week it was the MTC Service President. And I got a seat on the floor! Oh also before the devotional I go on splits with another Elder so I can be in the MTC choir, but more about that later. Then we go to watch videos from past Tuesday devotionals. Sometimes we watch the Legacy. Then we go to bed. Every Monday we get up at 6:20 and get breakfast then go to the Temple. They open this Temple on Monday just for missionaries! Super cool. Then we have until dinner to do laundry and write letters and nap and... do other crazy things that we do! I will send you pictures very soon! Tuesdays is a regular day with two 3 hour long class sessions and 1 hour of language study. But every Tuesday night we have a Tuesday devotional where we ALWAYS get one of the 70 or an apostle to come and talk! Last week we have Russell M. Nelson! I joined the choir because they perform every Tuesday for this devotional and it guarantees that I get a very good seat in the middle of the room because I am a tenor. Also I learned that the week after I leave (June 19) that all the apostles and the first presidency will be wandering campus because it is the new mission president training! Crazy right? I might break my ankle just to be here and extra week :) JK. Wednesday Thursday Friday and Saturday are the same as Tuesday just without the devotional! So about the whole language thing... yes I can read and write it and speak it with a GREAT accent but I can read a whole lot of words that I don't know the meaning to yet. But I am learning a lot of rules to the language and it is a lot to stuff into my brain! Get dad to write me emails! And send me Dear elder letters because those are super awesome. Also you can send those to me in Bulgaria because the mail system there is so unreliable. I can write you a letter in all Bulgarian tonight though! It probably will not be that long but I can do my best! I see Devin just about every meal and I guess he is a zone leader! I only saw Elder Finn twice though and I might be able to see him when all the Elders go into the room of the leaving Elders and sing God be with you till we meet again really, really loud. It’s great fun. I am running low on time because they switched to an honor system for the half hour of email every p-day and I think I am about there! Oh the worst thing happened last night! We are not allowed to trade ties anymore! Sad! But we have been asked to obey with exactness so I won’t anymore but I did get some cool ones last week! I plan on bringing an extra suitcase home completely filled with ties and a couple sweet suits I pick up in Bulgaria because they are cheap and AWESOME!!! Also I get to call you from the Salt Lake airport when I leave for my 30 hour travel to Bulgaria! So be expecting that about the 19th of JUNE!
Thanks a ton and I love you!
ctapeweha Petersen
(Elder)

April 23, 2012

Mum this is your favorite son Tyler!
Turns out we got a new schedule so my p-day is now on Monday! Cool eh? This is about the time I will write you too, 11:30. I learned that I will only be here for two months so there is no way I will be able to see Scott before I go to the field. I did get a letter from him though on my first day here! I was told by my teacher who served in Bulgaria that the mail system is so unreliable that he only got 1 of the 5 letters sent to him through his mission so he said we will just have to email everybody. So I will probably email you then have you send the little messages to everybody else but you will still get the most Mum so don’t worry! I hope that you have put that money on my card because they have ANYTHING we need here at the MTC and we can get it all for pretty cheap. They only give us 6 dollars a week here to buy things but some more money would be nice! I have only got one other letter besides the one I got from Scott. It was from Jensen and they sent it to Tyler Peterson who just left today to go to India. Hopefully it gets back to me today so I can finally read it because I got it on last Thursday! I need her address because I never was smart enough to bring all of their addresses with me :( One of my companions has a usb adapter that you can plug SD cards into the back of it! You should send me one of those so I can send you pictures through email! I hope the letter I wrote to you and Dad and sent on Thursday found its way to you. The laundry mat fills up so fast that I couldn’t find a washing machine forever! Bulgarian is easier than I thought it would be to learn! I can already read anything you put in front of me and I can write too! It’s amazing how much you can learn with the spirit to help you! I just got my mail from my district leader and I only got one from Kaitlin so I think maybe Jensen’s letter got sent back to her :( oh well I need to do laundry so I’ve got to go! I love you mom!

April 18, 2012

Elder Watt & Elder Petersen

                                                                                                             
Dear Mom and Dad,
     That was the craziest first day of my life. Also, I don't think I have seen Devin (a young man from our ward) so much in my life. He has come and found me multiple times. I also have seen Jordan Finn and he gave me a hug. I am  roommates with Canden Watt and Elder Saunders! My Companion did not show up, so we are a trifecta. I don't get e-mail until next week so I am writing this letter! Elder Saunders is from Boise and he wrestled for Capitol. He was one under Charlie McMartin! Crazy I know. So on this first day I am wearing my Highland wrestling shirt.
     I had one language class and they did not speak a word of English to us at all. This is what my name tag looks like.
                             
                                      СТАРЕЙШИНА Petersen
                                              Църквата на
                                            Исус Христос
                                      от последните светии

Crazy Eh?
     There is a Sister from England in my Bulgarian class! She seems very cool.
I have unpacked all my things and looked over my schedule and my P-day is Tuesday. I hope this letter gets to you before I can email you.
                                     
Love Elder Tyler Petersen

P.S. Get my friends to write me because I don't have their addresses until they do.

Elder Tyler J. Petersen
MTC Mailbox #130
2005 N. 900 E.
Provo, Utah 84604-1793

MTC

We took Tyler to the Missionary Training Center today, April 18, 2012. What a bittersweet day.  We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day, even the weather was perfect. The only thing that would have made it better is if Mark and Karl could have came with us. (Mark is in Colorado on a job, and Karl had to take the SAT's). Scott of course has 84 days left on his Mission in Raleigh North Carolina. 

   

We left Pocatello early so that we could eat lunch and then have time to take some pictures and say our last goodbyes before dropping him off. I have to say that I like the way the whole drop off thing works.We got to the parking lot across from the MTC about an hour early and walked over to the Provo Temple. Stephanie took a bunch of pictures, two of my favorites are the ones above. We visited and discussed last minute details, laughed, hugged and said our goodbyes. It was now time to drive across the street and drop Tyler off to start his journey as a Missionary. Tyler's host Missionary was also Elder Petersen. He helped Tyler get his luggage out of the Suburban, we hugged him one last time and waved goodbye as they headed up the sidewalk. Tyler was so ready that he didn't even look back. As promised, I didn't even cry.... that came later.  

We are so very proud of Tyler for making this decision to serve the Lord as a Missionary. He will be a great servant of the Lord and to the people of Bulgaria.