Elder Frisch Studied at the Missionary Training Center From Wednesday, June 22, 2016 - Monday, August 22, 2016

The following are a select compilation of e-mails we received from Eli while he was at the MTC.

 June 22, 2016

Hey Mom and Family!!!

I made it safely to the MTC and we started right away. It was funny, on the flight I sat next to a football player from Mesa High. Our Japanese language class teacher only speaks Japanese, so, I don't know what in the world he is saying. It's o.k. though. Dinner was yummy Hawaiian food. My companion is Elder Ribeiro from Brazil. He speaks Portugese and English and now he's learning Japanese. Japanese will be tough but I know I'll have Heavenly Father's help. Thanks for the fast e-mail. All of the new mission presidents are here this week so the church presidency is also. The cafeteria situation is all mixed up and the temple is closed for 2 weeks. I have to go because we only had 5 minutes to do this. I love you guys!

Love,

Elder Frisch

June 29, 2016

Hey Mom and Family,

I'm doing great here. The first day was super long but the rest of the week went by all right. Our first meal was Hawaiian Plate lunch. Maybe I already told you that. How are all of you? How's football Andrew and Ryon? I got to walk around the Provo Temple today and it was really nice. I'm the district leader, so I lead meetings and get to be the mailman. It's pretty fun. Our zone is cool, too, and one kid is a quadruplet. I do push-ups every morning and pull-ups whenever I walk by the bar. Elder Ribeiro is cool. For fun he told me he studies and he was a "vagabond" and studied other things like Japanese. I took a bunch of pictures that I hope I can send you along with voice recordings. I got a big box of brownies from President Richter and I was able to share them with the whole branch. It was pretty fun. I sang in a 904 missionary choir and it was powerful. Our Sunday devotional was from Brother I forget his name, but he gave a cool talk about how on his mission him and his companion would watch the one flight out of the little town in Guatemala and say that when they were on that flight they wanted to be able to look back and say how grateful they were for the experience. It was awesome. I've only played basketball once but people tell me I'm good (haha). 

We also played volleyball which is fun because my Doryo doesn't like sports but I think he liked it. I hope you all stay safe and have tons of fun.

Love,

Elder Frisch

July 6, 2016

Hey everybody!
Thanks for all the emails! I hope you are all doing great! This week
was better than last week. I can say a Japanese prayer, I know the
first alphabet (hiragana) and I'm learning more than ever. Devotionals
are awesome here and you always feel the spirit. There are some kids
here that are straight out of Japan who don't speak English and it's
fun to talk to them, even though my Japanese is no Bueno. I think they
think it's fun. I know how to ask someone how to get baptized in
Japanese, so in the middle of one lesson we were talking about eternal
life but I didn't know what was going on so I asked her to be
baptized. But then she ended the role play right then. I'm pretty sure
she would've been baptized right there:) I get to be district leader
so it's fun to get to know everyone. The missionaries are all nice but
the exercise time/ PE staff aren't. A new batch of missionaries going
to Japan will come in next week, so we will get to be their senpai. On
fast Sunday I was the first to bear my testimony which was cool. I
hope everyone is having a great summer and having tons of fun. Thanks
for all of the prayers.
-Elder Eli Frisch

July 6, 2016

Konbawa Family!

How has life been treating you all? I bet you are all doing awesome things and conquering the world. How are all your separate activities? Football? Running? Architect? Work? Garden? Everything Else? I'm getting in the groove here. Sometimes I can even tell what our teacher is saying! How hot is it down there? It is super nice up here. Thanks so much for the care package mom and for all of the goodies and treats! Thanks for all of the Letters! Everything is going on at the MTC while I'm here. There is construction on campus, the temple is closed, they are refinishing the basketball gym and the general authorities were here last week. Tanner got here today but I haven't seen him, yet. My companion is the smartest kid ever. I was in class yesterday trying to memorize the purpose in Japanese and he was studying and then in 10 minutes he memorized it in Japanese, Portuguese and English. I'm glad he is my companion because I learn a lot from him. He did two years of college before he came out. When Ryon gets all healed up he is going to have super powers. 4th of July was cool because we got to go to bed and be kept up by all of the humans shooting off fireworks:)

In my room me and Elder Arnett are out of bed the second the alarm goes up but Howard and Ribeiro stay a little while. It's a good room group. Sand volleyball is super fun and it's funny because guys told me I had real hang time when I jumped, which is funny because I can barely touch the rim. The biggest kid in the Zone is a 6'4" 270 lb. Polynesian kid, he's super cool. I already miss your cooking, mom, and all of you guys and yes, mowing the lawn. I love you all.

Love,

Elder Frisch

July 13, 2016

Hey dad,

Thanks for the email. That's a bummer with the car. I left my sandals at the exercise field and that's my biggest bummer. I'm doing good and I keep improving. For our lesson yesterday I was able to do almost all the teaching for the baptism part. It was cool! I was also able to understand more than half of what the investigator was saying. The gift of tongues is real. I can read out of the Japanese Book of Mormon, I just don't know what it says and I read it super slow. It'll be fun to see Pearce here today. It's my p-day so I don't get to be a host but I found a sticker for one on the ground last week and wore it around and it works so I might try it today. I hope work is awesome for you. My days are pretty much exactly the same except for Sunday and Wednesday.
I'm getting good at leading discussions and winging lessons because I get to do a billion of them as district leader. Your skills came in handy. I'm learning to listen and recognize the voice of the spirit better. I love you, Dad. And remember " Don't Blink".

Love,

-Elder Frisch

Hey Mom, Dad, Nathaniel, Zachary, Andrew and Ryon!!!

What's up? I bet dinner is super quiet now adays. I got to do an endowment session at the Provo Temple for the first time. It was super cool. You'll have to ask Zach about the cool trick I play on the security guards. Today new missionaries came in so I put the dot back on my name tag that says you're a new missionary and then everyone tells you "Welcome to the MTC". But an old guy got mad at me when I was walking out to the Temple. Ribeiro Choro forgot his Temple Recommend so I ended up doing a lot of suit running today. The temple name I went through was a cool Indian from India guy. The city he was from was a mile long. We have TRC tonight which is teaching members in Japanese which is nice because you can just talk to them. I haven't seen Pearce, yet, but I'll find him at dinner. I don't have much new to say but thanks for all of the letters and prayers. I love you all.

-Love,

Elder Frisch

July 20, 2016

Ohayo gozaimasu minasan,
(That means good morning everyone)
First off it feels like I've been here for my whole life but I'm
surprised at how fast it went, my halfway MTC mark is Friday. At the
Sunday devotional instead of a speaker, the MTC presidency decided to
show "Character of Christ", an awesome missionary talk by Elder
Bednar. It helps the missionaries wrap their heads around the whole
missionary deal. Ok, after it ended the lights come on and the intro
to the closing song starts playing. Everyone all of a sudden stands up
and guess who takes the microphone? Elder Bednar himself. It was super
awesome. He opened up a question and answer for about an hour and
talked about tons of stuff. The biggest thing I got out of it was
"charity isn't something you do, it's what you become". He taught us
that charity is a gift that you pray to receive, you can't fake it.
The MTC is packed right now. My Branch President said that we will
reach 2,700 missionaries before we leave. It's crazy how fast the work
is progressing. One more quote "Don't just go through the mission, let
the mission go through you."
Thanks for all of the support.
Ja mata wani.
-Elder Frisch

July 27, 2016

Hey mom,

I haven't taken any pictures but Pearce and Tate took some with us. I've been able to sit with Tanner and Pearce for the last couple of choir meetings. It's pretty funny. I've already been here for 5 weeks! New missionaries for Japan will get here next week and they'll be my zones younger generation. I'm still district leader and the other one got released so I'm the lone survivor from the first week. How's North Dakota? Thanks for sending all of the letters and pictures. It looks like a blast. I'll send a recording and an email later. I'm standing in line for breakfast right now.

I love you.

Love,

Eli

こんにちわ皆さん。
げんきですか。
That just says hello everyone, how are you?
I'm on the downhill at the MTC! Friday was my halfway mark. I'm super
excited for Japan! This week for devotional we got to listen to a
concert by Nashville Tribute Band. They were pretty cool and it was
nice to change things up. My Japanese gets better every day and I'm
able to understand more and more. My companion and I had one of our
investigators say yes to baptism which was super cool, except I really
didn't know that she had until we went back to the classroom and my
companion started freaking out yelling "we got our first baptism!" It
was fun. The oldest district in my zone leaves on Monday so my group
of missionaries will be the bosses. A new group will come in next week
and by then I'll only have three more weeks! I hope everyone's doing
awesome.
Here a picture of some of my zone.

Hey Dad,
How's it going? How work been? What's the labor force like? I've
already been here for five weeks which is crazy. Pearce leaves on
Tuesday and he got here three weeks after me. My companion and I got
our first MTC investigator to want to be baptized. It was really cool.
I have the worst Japanese in the class but I'm trying. My favorite
part of the lessons are bearing my testimony because even if what I
say doesn't come out clear, I can feel the spirit and I know our
investigator can, too. Right now I'm working on the first vision in
Japanese, which is pretty tough but I've got about half of it down. On
Sunday I sang in the choir and Nashville Tribute Band came and put on
a show. I'm excited to go to Japan. I've been in the MTC forever. I
have been making a bunch of friends and I'm learning a ton. I
restarted the Book of Mormon when I got here and now I'm in Alma 58.
All of the missionary scriptures stick out like crazy now. I hope that
you're doing awesome. Did you go to North Dakota with the family? I
love you.
Love,
Eli

August 3, 2016

I haven't gotten my visa yet.
I went to temple square last week, I'll send pictures later.
Love,
Frisch 長老
私わ私の家族おあいしってます。

Hey everybody,
How's summer been? I am less than three weeks away from Japan! You can
learn so much in the short time you are here. Bishop Waddell of the
presiding bishopric spoke last night and he had some cool points. I
really liked how he said that we need to learn not just to be on a
mission but to SERVE a mission. You may not be able to speak the
language very well, or people may not want to listen to you but you
can always serve. I've learned to better understand the language of
the spirit here as I focus on others and turn outward. The mission is
all about other people. It's nice to not have to worry about anything
here except the gospel and learning how to best share it with others.
I hope you are all having fun on all of your new adventures. ごんばりましょう!
さよなら皆さん!
-Elder Frisch

August 10, 2016

Hey everybody,
Another week closer to Japan. Elder Neil L. Andersen of the quorum of
the 12 Apostles came and spoke at the devotional last night. It was
super awesome. His main point was that missions aren't complicated and
they aren't easy. He said to never let you fire of hope go out and to
believe in miracles. They can and will happen. We will get our flight
plans at the end of this week.私はじゅんびができました。いきましょう!
-Elder Frisch

Happy anniversary Mom and Dad!! Thanks for getting married and having
all of us kids. Make all the boys do tons of chores for you and be
waiters. They'll be glad to. Do something fun and 愛してます! I love you!
Love,
Elder Eli Frisch

Hey everybody!!!
Guess who spoke at the devotional last night!?!?! Elder Neil L.
Andersen of the quorum of the 12 apostles! It was super cool. He
talked about how missions aren't complicated but they aren't easy. He
also talked about how we will be hunters on our missions. We have to
know that the people are out there and that we will find them. I'll be
in Japan in 12 days!!! Right now it feels like I've been assigned to
the Provo MTC mission. A kid in our zone broke his hand so he has to
stay an extra 6 weeks....bummer. My zone leader duties are pretty fun.
I just organize zone prayer at night and am like a counselor. I just
answer questions and be an example, oh and lead the way. Is today the
first day of school? Everyone have fun at school and stuff. I love you
all!!
Love,
Elder Frischフリシュ長老
(That's how my name will look on my tag)
愛してます!

Aug 17, 2016

I will have been here for 60 days! I'm ready to go to Japan. People
will be talking the speed of light and I won't understand 95% of it
but I'll get there. It's going to be awesome. I don't have anything
new this week. But next p-day will be in JAPAN! I'll take a bunch of
pictures and say こんにちわ to everyone. Thanks for the package. I love you
dad.
Love,
Frisch 長老

And that was Eli's last e-mail from the MTC, he's now in Japan.