Poster Missionaries

Some may remember this cute photo of Caleb, when he first entered the MTC.  Recently a cute friend of ours saw this photo at BYU- and sent it to me attached with this message:

Hi Tracy! I've been meaning to tell you...I had some spare time before one of my classes a few weeks ago and I saw a picture of Caleb on a bulletin board advertising a need for volunteers at the MTC! I was so shocked when I saw it. I was just walking past and then I turned around, looked at it and immediately got a grin on my face. Just thought you should know that your son is definitely one of the poster missionaries at Brigham Young University! :)

Flight Plans are a Go!



Anziano Madsen (from Idaho, going to Milano), Anziano Bradshaw (from Florida, going to Roma), Anziano Cardinet (Caleb's mission companion from Sacramento, California, going to Roma),  Anziano Bunker (from American Fork, Utah,  going to Roma), Me Anziano Larsen and Anziano Proctor (Park City Utah, going to Roma)



Me, Anziano Larsen

My room mates Anziano Shipton (from Idaho, going to Roma) and Anziano Hansen (from Cache Valley, Utah, going to Roma)

Hey! So much has happened this week! It has been kind of crazy! I'm only 6 days away from leaving!! Crazy! We got our travel plans! We are leaving on the 8:10 AM flight from Salt Lake to Dallas/Ft Worth, TX and then we will land there at 11:50 and our next flight doesn't leave till 5:50 PM!!! Longest wait! But at least it will be a lot of time to place some Book of Mormons! From Dallas we are flying to London Heathrow, England and will land there at 8:50AM Which is going to be VERY LONG flight. We will stay there from 8:50 AM till 12:45 PM and we will be landing in Rome, Italy at 4:15 PM! So it is going to be a long trip! We have 20 Missionaries in our group flying to Rome! I cant wait! We had another Apostle this week talk to us! That makes 3! Elder Neil L. Andersen talked to us about the Atonement and it was a really powerful talk! I'm going to send pictures home probably tomorrow. This time I will send it in one of those padded envelops so it should be good. That would be awesome if you sent me Tyler Roberts information! I would really like to write him! And Thanks for telling me where Cortez and Kash are going! That's so cool for them to be going to the same place! I'm sure they will love it! Oh yeah another thing, I have another P-day on Monday (the day before we go) so I can write you then also. I'm not sure if those times are all Utah times so I'm not really sure when I will be calling home... I will call when I land in Texas as soon as I can. So I hope you will be near the phone! Oh I ran into Laura Hudson at the TRC on Monday and it was really good to see her! Ha I kinda feel bad cause I was mad about some stupid thing before that and I was mad and then I saw her and I was surprised so my mind was kind of in another world and I felt bad I didn't talk to her more! So I hope you tell her sorry! But it was really nice to talk to her! I was hoping that we could have taught her but I think she had to go, so its alright. I haven't talked to this Christian yet. I was hoping he would have stopped by but he hasn't. I hope that he does before I leave Tuesday morning!  Oh and about contacts if you haven't picked  them up that's fine cause I wont use them all. So you can get like a year or less supply cause I still have like half a box here and I hardly change them so you don't have to worry about that. I will also be sending another letter later today! But I have to go!  Love you tons! And thanks for writing!

Getting Ready for Italy

Elder Mongelli and me.  He is from Italy so we always talk to him in Italian.  He is such a nice Elder.  His Dad is a Stake President in Southern Italy.  He will be serving a mission in Washington.

Elder Dehlin and I have known each other since we were 5.  He will be serving in the California San Diego Mission

Our District with the Italian missionaries: Elder Mongelli and Sister Lui ( bottom left) she will be serving in the Temple Square Mission.

Me with both of the Italian missionaries

Hey! This week has been different from any other week. A lot of things have happened and I will share some things in the letter I send home later today. This new schedule makes days go by a lot slower but at least we have a lot more time to study. I just saw Connor Dehlin before I came to email and gave him a hug. It was really nice to see someone that I know. I only have one more Wednesday here our travel plans are supposed to come in tomorrow! We are all excited for that!  I started buying English copies of the Book of Mormon to see how many I can place in the the Airport we will be in. I hope someone else in my district will do this with me. I will get to call home on the 17th! Since we can't call on mothers day at the MTC we will get to call then so I will let you know next P-day what time I will most likely call home! So that's good news! This week in the TRC we taught a lady and everything was going really good and then she got sick or something and just ran out of the class, so we only taught like a 15 minute lesson. I feel pretty prepared to teach in Italian now and I'm not to worried about teaching In Italy but I'm sure when I get out there everything will change! We only have to learn the past remote tense and then we will know how to do it all! Our teachers keep saying how far our class is ahead right now and how even though we get stressed about the language we have nothing to worry about because we are already understanding things he didn't understand until he was in Italy for 3 months. I hope that he isn't just making that up and we are doing good. This week we heard news about how the youth in Italy are really going through a hard time right now. I cannot wait to get out there and meet them and try to lift there spirits! We have three Missionaries that are from Italy that have classes downstairs from us and they are the nicest, happiest Missionaries in the whole MTC! It is pretty cool that we can talk to them and they understand us! Umm.. that's about all that has happened that is worth talking about haha. I have more to share in my letter that I will get off today! Oh yeah I was wondering if you got the American Express activated?. Thanks for writing! I love to hear from you! Love you tons! Hope you have an Amazing Mothers day and that I will be thinking about you, and how Incredibly Great you are! LOVE YOU TONS MOM! TI AMO!!

Visiting Apostles

Elder Madsen

Hey! Sorry I didn’t email yesterday! On Monday we got new schedules and we have started this Pilot program that the Church is going to do from now on. We have to teach in Italian a lot more now. Anyways that is why I didn’t email yesterday because my P-day is now on Wednesdays. So I hope you get this before next week. A lot is going on! We got the new Italian missionaries today, and that means we have only 3 weeks till we will be in Italy! Crazy! Our travel plans are supposed to come in soon so we will know what other cities we will be stopping in, and we are all excited for that! Last Tuesday after I emailed you we had our Tuesday night devotional and we had Elder Richard G. Scott come talk to us and then last night we had Elder Dallin H. Oaks come speak to us! We got to listen to 2 Apostles in 8 days! That was really cool! Both of their talks were powerful and I’ll share more in the letters!. It was really cool to see how quiet the room got after an Apostle entered the room. The Spirit was strong in the room. Elder Scott asked how many people in the room were learning a new language and he blessed us with his Apostolic keys with the gift of tongues! He then talked about how a broken heart and a contrite spirit are defining adjectives that allow the spirit to teach. My favorite thing he said was,"Don’t judge your own potential by the past. You must trust the Lord that he can make a powerful servant of you." Ever since that talk I have felt a lot better about the language and everything. Elder Oaks gave a talk on how to effectively use the preach my gospel. It was great too! There was so many good things that were said in both of them that you could barely look up from writing everything down. So as you can see Easter was really good here! I hope Easter was good back at home! Thank you so much for all of the treats! They were great! I have to leave early cause I guess some of the new Anziani need to use the computers but I will try to get my letter off to you soon! Love you tons! Bye! And Thanks!

"The Fellowship of the Unshamed"

Our District in the MTC

MTC District Presidency



Clowning around with the Sisters in my district

 Hey! This week has been really interesting, we all made a pack to stop speaking English completely unless it is needed to communicate with someone that isn't in our district. It has been pretty hard because you pretty much have to give up your personality for awhile until we learn the language. I bought this book at  the book store called 501 Italian verbs and my goal is to memorize them as soon as possible, by the end of the MTC for sure hopefully sooner. I asked my companion if he wanted to and he was willing but didn't seem very excited about it. Hopefully its not a bad thing to do. I just figured that if we are going to have to learn them eventually why not now?! So thats what I'm starting today! Hope it all works out. Oh yeah I forgot to tell you about our MTC President over our District. I was talking to him and he was telling me how he was from Spanish Fork and I told him that is where my Mom is from and how my grandparents live there and we were talking for awhile about that and I told him how I love Glades and asked him if he had ever been there and he laughed and told me his brother owns it! Crazy! He is such a nice guy! Oh yeah and I wanted to share this quote with you that Fratello Bulloch shared with us. Its by Henry B. Eyring and it is such a good one! " I am part of the fellowship of the unshamed. The dye has been cast, I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won't look back, let up, slow down or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure. I am finished and done with low living, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, worldly talking, cheap living, and dwarfed goals. I no longer need pre-eminence, positions, or popularity. I dont have to be right, first, recognized, praised, or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on his presence, walk with patience, am uplifted by prayer, and labor with power. My pace is set, my gate is fast, and my goal is Heaven. My road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions are few, my guide is reliable, my mission is clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, divided, or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrafice, hesitate in the presence of the adversary, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder in the pool of popularity or meander in the maze of mediocrity. I won't give up, shut up, or let up until I have stayed up, stored up, and paid up for the cause of Christ. I must go until he comes, give until I drop, preach all I know and work until He stops me. And when he returns for His own, He will have no problem recognizing me. My Banner is clear!" - Henry B. Eyring. That quote is awesome and I love it! Well I am out of time Love you tons!!!  TI AMO!!

He's Got the Look!

Anziano Anderson




Anziano Bradshaw

 


Anziano Cleveland




Anziano Gibson

 Hey! This week has been great! I got these little flash cards on a key chain to help me memorize words and it has helped me a ton! In our TRC this week we had this girl that is going to BYU that has lived in Italy her whole life! She was talking so fast and she was the nicest lady! We struggled at first and then we caught on and we both understood each other all right.  Fratello Bulloch told us a cool story this week about how his teacher at BYU, studies Old religious things and he got a tour through the  library in the Vatican and got to see the first King James version of the Bible that has always been held by the Catholic church. The guy that was showing it to him started showing him some pages in it and the guy accidentally flipped to a page that he wasn't supposed to and the Bible had ink marks all over it where things had been changed and rewritten! Thats pretty Crazy! So yeah... I guess that goes to show you another truth Joseph Smith preached about. Oh yeah speaking of Joseph Smith we watched that movie on him, on Sunday, which was great! The scene where he was in jail reminded me of Caleb Baldwin, so I went through my stuff and found the story about Caleb Baldwin. It was so cool to read! I forgot all of the things about him. Like how he was in Jail with Joseph Smith, how he was in the 70, and how he got his Patriarchal blessing from Joseph Smith Sr.! It was really fun to read and tell everyone in my district about. Thats about all that happened really, everything else was just learning stuff. Oh yeah we were talking about how bad we were going to stick out in Italy to Fratello Bulloch and he said that we would stick out pretty bad as Americans, except for me! He said I look extremely Italian. Haha I hope he wasn't just saying that to make me feel better about my horrible "Best Two Years" accent Haha. The new Italian group comes into the MTC 2 weeks from tomorrow! That will be alot of fun! I hope you all have a great Easter! Sorry I didn't send you the pictures and letter last week! It just took a long time to write down what each picture is, so I will send those off later today. I mailed Taylers letter earlier today so you will get hers first, I promise I'll get the other ones off today! If you could just send me the DS card back as fast as you can that would be great! Oh yeah, could you send me alot more pictures because I am going to have all of that space in those photo albums and I know that I'm not going to put any pictures in there. So if you could send some of Family and Friends I would love it! and maybe one of coco too! :) haha Well I have to go! Ti Amo, Love you!
                                                               Caleb

                                                           

Moving Beyond Caveman Italian

Sunday Temple Walk- Me and Elder Lloyd
Jordan Lloyd played football with me at Alta. He will be serving in Finland.

Our District

Missionaries who will be serving in Italy

Hey! Today and this week has gone by way too fast! I just got back from the temple with my district which was great! This week has been pretty much the same as all the others except for General Conference. My whole district almost started screaming when President Monson was talking about the Rome Temple! Everyone in the MTC knew where the Italian missionaries were sitting because we were all throwing our hands in the air (as reverantly as posible) haha i dont know if I spelled that right. I have had to apologize to a bunch of people that I have written to because my spelling and grammar have been so bad. The first day we got here our teacher told us that our spelling and grammar will be pretty bad after a few weeks here, and it has truely happened! We got to here some cool stories this week from Vai Sikahema at a fireside on sunday which was really good! He told some cool stories about how he is a news anchor at some station and how he got his job there. When he got the job he was just called to be a bishop and was stressed about being able to perform both jobs, and he felt prompted to invite his boss to the sacrament meeting and his setting a part. After his boss said that if in anyway he could tie his church to any news story he would let him air it on tv. So he has put tons of stories on about the LDS Chruch and trys to tie it to the news in crazy ways. He said that he throws Mormon Day at one of the proffesional baseball teams and that he tries to get the missionaries in the area to sing the national anthem at the begining of the game. His second time throwing this the missionaries were singing and usually the players go back into the locker room and get ready for the game but he said that one of the baseball players stayed and it was Sammie Sosa (I'm almost positive I spelled that wrong, not the biggest baseball fan). After the national anthem was done he ran on the field to shake every missionaries hand. Via ran on the field and talked to him and asked him why he did that and Sammie Sosa said that when he was little he remembers the missionaries would always come play baseball with him in Dominican Republic and he loved it. So I thought that was pretty cool and baseball has gained a few points in my book. Our Italian is getting alot better! It just takes some time to construct the sentence in your head. We used to be able to just speak Caveman or Ape Italian where the sentences are pretty much like," We eat" and "I go to Bathroom" Haha now we can actually say things that don't sound so stupid, so that's good news! Oh yeah the older Anziani and Sorelli left for Italy this morning! They were alot of fun and I can't wait to see some of them again. The new Italian missionaries are coming in 3 weeks I think, and I believe that there are 12 of them. So that will be good too! I have to go! I couldnt download the pictures on my usb drive from this computer, Im pretty sure it is just the computers problem. So I will just try to send my SD card! Love you bye!

Pledging a Heroic Effort

Me with my MTC teachers

Fratello Tate and Fratello Bulloch





Everyone has been so good to me here at the MTC.  I call this the candy stash.

Busy, Busy, Busy, all I can say.  We are continuing to learn so much, it feels that my brain might POP!  It is so good though.  The days are very long and the weeks (only 2) have gone by so fast it's crazy! 
When do you want me to send pics?  I don't have many because it is so hard to find time to take them.  But I can send some.
The spirit here is so strong!  My teachers are so great! They are so spiritual!  Fratello (brother) Bulloch showed us a talk by Jeffery R. Holland, my new favorite apostle, that was given at the MTC.  You should watch it if you can!  But he said that he thinks it's only available in the MTC.  It was called "The Miracle of a Mission"!  Show Colton it if you can, best talk ever!  If you can't find it it's about his mission and how it has impacted his life.  He was the first member in his family to serve a mission.  He said don't miss anything and, "Don't live with the regret of what could have been!"  "Every good thing, blessing and his family has came from a mission."  He said probably 5 times, "It has meant everything to me."  and that he can't recall a day of his life that he hasn't thought about his mission.  "Magnifiy and embrace every minute of it."  He called agency, the battle of eternity!  And my 2 favorite quotes in the talk. This referring to serving a mission>"This is the most important thing in the world, participating in the saving of a human soul"  And, "You can't pledge Heroic results but you can pledge a Heroic effort!!! WOW!!!  Those hit me!  I can't waste time!  I have to give my all!  He then talked about how the most sad people are the ones who came home from a mission and ended with how every time you complain, every time you mess around on your mission remember what the Savior did for you and how little has been asked of you!  It's so true!  2 years is nothing and just make the best of it.  The longer I have been here the more my problems melt away.  I don't need to worry about becoming a District leader, a zone leader or an AP.  It's about the people.  Nothing else, no matter where you go, nothing else is more important than the participation in saving a human soul.  That's what it's all about.  I can't promise Heroic results but I can pledge a Heroic effort.  Once I came to that conclusion,  that all that I am asked is to try my best, everything has been easier.  The language, Gospel study and relationships have grown stronger.   Fratello Bulloch is big into math and he drew this on the board for us to see.

     8 months-sleep/ 3 months-study/ 1 month-fitness/ 1 month p-days/ 3 months- meals & prep/ 1 month church & planning/ 1 month getting ready & other.

1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10.11.12.13.14.15.16.17.18.19.20.21.22.23.24
That is 7 months of work.  That is all that has been asked.  I wish I could have prepared better now.  Love you tons!  Hope all is well and hope to hear all about what's going on at home!  Hope to hear from you soon!  Love you!

                                                              Love,
                                                                 Caleb

P.S.  I did get the packages from Dede, Grandma and Grandpa and the Allens they are all so great! Thanks! Love you!

"Focus on the Investigator"

First Mission Companion Anziano Cardinet

Anziano Embree

Andersen and Niccoli



Our District-Top row: Anziano Anderson, Anziano Madsen, Sorella Bowman, Sorella Jones, Anziono Cardinet, Anziano Proctor.  Bottom row: Anziano Madsen, Anziano Bradshaw, Anziano Larsen, Anziano Shipton and Anziano Hansen

 Hey!

 I have been so busy this week! Everything kind of just blends together! Days are long weeks are extremely fast. I dont really know what to talk about, I still love it here. Everyone is so great! The older missionaries in our zone are leaving on Monday! Then it will just be the group that has been here for 2 weeks. I think there are like 34 going to Milano and Roma in our younger group! I guess they need alot of people there. The food is really good and basketball is the best! Everyone in the Family has been so great with writing me and sending stuff! they are Awesome and continue to keep me going! I have had alot of time to study the language and right when you start to feel somewhat comfortable with any of it we learn like twice as much stuff! The older group has said that we already know more than they did when they were here for 2 weeks and they are pretty good at Italian, so thats real good! I feel like i have told you alot in my last letter and last email so i don't want to repeat anything twice cause i don't want you to think I am going Crazy! Im just so busy its hard to keep in mind what you have already said. I got your package with all the letters in it and stuff, thanks a ton! I saw the Ghiz's the other day. They are so nice and told me they would talk to everyone for me. They are going to be amazing missionaries! I think the hardest thing in the MTC are the chairs (no padding at all) haha! The Firesides are really nice and spiritutal but its hard to compete with the pain the chair dishs out on you haha. Guess i am going to have to work on those buns this week! Hmm what else. I kinda gave up on journal writing everynight cause I am so busy studying. Oh yeah, Yesterday we had to do TRC where you have to go talk to an Investigator or someone who pretends to be an investigator and share a discussion for like 35 minutes. We start out with basic chit chat in Italian and then we teach the whole lesson in English, until week four. Im pretty sure all of them are acting but its always in the back of your head that they could be a real investigator. We started out the lesson pretty rough and scattered to find scriptures and thoughts. She said that her husband died and was kind of interested in seeing why the church has so many missionaries and what they are sharing. About half way into the lesson I remembered what Fratello Bullouch shared," Focus on the investigator and what they are saying, not your companion, not your lesson plan or what your going to say, just focus on the investigator." Right when I did that you could feel a change in the room and it was like we knew where everything was and exactly what to say. The lesson ended strong and we shared Moronis promise with her and invited her to pray and even if she could ask if what we shared with her was true. When she was praying she started to cry! I was thinking either we did really good or she is just an amazing actor. I like to think that we did really good but you never know! Haha well i have to go Love you all bye!

A Leap of Faith

Some of my district I've loved serving with.  Anziano's Shipton and Hansen.

The classroom where I spend most of my time.  Some of the Elders from my district.

Anziano Embree making a weird face.

Anziano Bradshaw, this isn't something out  of the ordinary for him to do.

Hey its Caleb, I just set up my email and so it took up alot of time so i only have 14 minutes left! But Tuesdays are my P Days so I can write you back then but Thanks a ton for writing! It really means alot. Anyways I have so much to say but not alot of time. I really miss everyone but everything here is so great! I love it so much! I was really scared about the MTC and how hard i thought it was going to be but it is completely opposite. I guess you just have to take that leap of faith and throw yourself into the work and the Lord will catch you and he did. I have a great companion, Anziano Cardinet. He is from Sacramento California and is alot of fun to be around. I am roomed with him and another companionship, Anziano Shipton from Idaho and Anziano Hansen from Northern Utah. They are awesome too! Our district has only been together for a few days but we are already so close it seems. We have six companionships going to Italia. Three are going to Milano and three to Roma. All of us have already been dreading the day that we are going to leave each other. We wish we could all go to the same mission but I know the Lord needs their great testimonies in Milano. I have two great teachers as well Fratello Bulloch and Fratello Tate. They are such amazing teachers and really know how to be lead by the spirit. They do all of their lessons in Italiano but it seems to be helping alot. We can already make out alot of what they are saying. We also learned to pray and bear our testiomonies. Im running out of time but I mailed Dad a letter earlier. I love you all so much and miss you alot.
Love Caleb!

Caleb's MTC Date

 

 

 

Caleb's date to enter the missionary training center arrived yesterday.  We were all a bit sad because we knew how much we'll miss him.  But we are very excited about this adventure he is about to endeavor on.  Caleb told us it was alot like waiting for Christmas because it seemed like this day wouldn't come soon enough.  His enthusiasm and positive attitude helped us to stay in good spirits.  We will keep everyone posted through Caleb's letters and pictures on this blog, so check back often.  I also know how much it means to him to get to hear from friends and family who are so supportive of his decision to serve a mission.  I will keep his address updated in the right hand column of this blog and any other info. you may need to know.