August 21st 2009

Hey Family, I hope that you are doing well. I am doing great here. I got a dear elder from grandma and Marcie this week that was great. Today we didn't go to the temple because one of my companions, Elder Elg, is sick. He is doing alright but he does not want to get anyone at the temple sick. On Wednesday I hosted again, this time I only hosted one Elder, but it was still fun. We got a new district in our zone this week which is great! They have seven Elders and three Sisters. They seem like a great group, and because I am one of the Zone Leaders I had the opportunity to take them on a tour of the campus and explain some of the stuff at the MTC to them. I found that to be quite fun. I hope we didn't confuse them too much. We should be getting another new district on this coming Wednesday, so that is exciting. We also got a new councilor in the branch presidency this Sunday. We had a member of the MTC Presidency in our branch. It was a very strange feeling to be sitting on the stand with him. Our new councilor is really great. His name is Brother Robinson. We had a few more strange experiences happen this week. In my last email I told you about an Elder that passed out and hit his head on the floor last Tuesday. Well this Monday he almost passed out again. We gave him a blessing and he didn't quite pass out. We believe that he is mentally exhausting himself. He is a very spiritual person and he feels that everything must be perfect or he is not working hard enough. On Tuesday we had a different Elder that took some medication that he had just been prescribed, and within 40 minutes he was out cold. He came out of it within about a minute. We had medical people come down and they took him into the ER. He was there until about 5:00 in the morning. He is totally fine now, and he told the doctor he was not taking those pills anymore. Hopefully things will calm down a bit soon here. I only have about 10 days left. I can't believe it. This time in the MTC has gone so fast! It seems like I have just gotten here. One of the Elders in our district figured out that about halfway through September we will be done with about 10% of our missions! That is very strange to me. I am really excited to go to Georgia, but on the other hand I am a little bit freaked out. I am glad that by the time I get there summer will be almost over so maybe it won't be so hot. I have found a couple of random connections here in the MTC. There is a whole new group this week going to Boise on their missions. One of them is from Queen Creek, Arizona, pretty close to Marcie. I also met an Elder that knows Mike Banner, he lives right by them. I don't have my planner with me right now, or else I would give you their names. Anyway it is amazing how many connections you have once you look around. The will be broadcasting the Oquirrh Mountain Temple dedication here on Sunday so we will all get to attend. I am pretty excited to get to participate in the dedication ceremony. Anyway I am almost out of time, I love you and I hope that you are all doing well. I will keep you in my prayers and I am grateful for all of the prayers that have been offered up in my behalf. I love you all, Keith (Elder Banner)