Branch President: President Dickerson
Elder Tialavea was Matt’s first mission companion. He was from San Diego.
Several weeks into the MTC he was later split from Elder T. and partnered with Elder Howard. He had a very tough district, with several missionaries who were struggling. He is a strong missionary and really enjoyed his district.
Matt did pretty well learning Spanish. He was able to help many of the other elders and sisters try and grasp the language.
He was exercising a lot. He would run 3-4 miles a day, play basketball frequently, and still he was able to gain at least 3 pounds. That is pretty typical of all missionaries though. The food down there is just too good, and so I think all missionaries gain weight in the MTC.
Matt had to spend Christmas in the MTC. We didn’t get to talk to him, which was hard. They don’t let MTC missionaries call because that would be a lot of phones and a lot of minutes, and there just aren’t the resources available. We did get a letter from him on Christmas Eve and again on New Years Eve.
Here is his Christmas Eve Letter:
“Very few people get to experience Christmas in the MTC. I'm really excited about being here. i will be celebrating it the way that Jesus Christ would want me to spend it. I heard that Elder Scott is going to come and talk to us this year. that is pretty exciting.
President Dickerson (my mission president) said that he has come the last 4 years, and that he shakes a bunch of elders hands, so we are going to go really early.
On Tuesday Elder Anderson can and talked to us. We were late so we had to sit in the overflow. It wasn’t too bad to be in the overflow. He talked about the condescension of Christ. It was a really good talk. He had his grandchildren sing a song for us. it was really neat.
Earlier that day we watched a talk that elder Holland gave back in 2000. it was about not going home. It was neat because almost the entire talk was from an inspiration on the spot about someone in the audience wanting to go home. he is such a powerful speaker. He said that there is no calling that has been harder for him for the amount of exp. he had as the mission. I’m so excited to go out and serve. He said that every good thing that has happened to him was because of the mission and that was really powerful for me. Then for like 10 min he went to a part that he wanted to talk about.
He talked a little about the atonement and how important it was. One thing that really stuck out to was when he talked about our trials. He said that in order to be Disciples of Christ we have to go through hardships. This way we can better appreciate what he did for us. I had never in my life thought about it that way. Salvation isn’t cheap. It cost the life of the best person to ever live on the earth. I liked how he put it because it was really nice. It makes me think about trials differently.
Out on the mission i have looked at all my trials differently. I see them as ways that God shows his love for us and for that i am so grateful.
It may be hard but they are but a small moment. My testimony of the gospel has grown so much here. I wish that everyone could just experience this. The mission is amazing. I am growing so much spiritually, and I’ve learned so much about Christ and his life.
I think that one reason I’m loving this so much is because of my district. I have a way fun district. We have fun, but still get a ton done. Tonight (Christmas Eve) we are all going to sleep in one room around our mock Christmas tree then get up early tomorrow and open up our presents. I'm way stoked”
And his New Years Eve Letter:
“Christmas here was great. My district and I put our presents around a fake tree that we made and opened them up on Christmas morning. It was killer. That day L. Tom Perry of the 12 came and talked to us. He shared some really good insights about what happened on the day that Christ was born. It was a pretty good talk. Then later in the day we had the first and maybe last annual MTC talent show. They had a lot of weird talents like human bagpipes. Overall it was pretty good. Then that night Greg Olson came and talked to us about his paintings. I really enjoyed his talk because he talked about what inspired a ton of his paintings of the Savior.
Christmas was good because I was doing something I could see the Savior wanting me to do. He gave his life for us and i was just returning the favor. I really felt the Spirit here on Christmas day.”
“Very few people get to experience Christmas in the MTC. I'm really excited about being here. i will be celebrating it the way that Jesus Christ would want me to spend it. I heard that Elder Scott is going to come and talk to us this year. that is pretty exciting.
President Dickerson (my mission president) said that he has come the last 4 years, and that he shakes a bunch of elders hands, so we are going to go really early.
On Tuesday Elder Anderson can and talked to us. We were late so we had to sit in the overflow. It wasn’t too bad to be in the overflow. He talked about the condescension of Christ. It was a really good talk. He had his grandchildren sing a song for us. it was really neat.
Earlier that day we watched a talk that elder Holland gave back in 2000. it was about not going home. It was neat because almost the entire talk was from an inspiration on the spot about someone in the audience wanting to go home. he is such a powerful speaker. He said that there is no calling that has been harder for him for the amount of exp. he had as the mission. I’m so excited to go out and serve. He said that every good thing that has happened to him was because of the mission and that was really powerful for me. Then for like 10 min he went to a part that he wanted to talk about.
He talked a little about the atonement and how important it was. One thing that really stuck out to was when he talked about our trials. He said that in order to be Disciples of Christ we have to go through hardships. This way we can better appreciate what he did for us. I had never in my life thought about it that way. Salvation isn’t cheap. It cost the life of the best person to ever live on the earth. I liked how he put it because it was really nice. It makes me think about trials differently.
Out on the mission i have looked at all my trials differently. I see them as ways that God shows his love for us and for that i am so grateful.
It may be hard but they are but a small moment. My testimony of the gospel has grown so much here. I wish that everyone could just experience this. The mission is amazing. I am growing so much spiritually, and I’ve learned so much about Christ and his life.
I think that one reason I’m loving this so much is because of my district. I have a way fun district. We have fun, but still get a ton done. Tonight (Christmas Eve) we are all going to sleep in one room around our mock Christmas tree then get up early tomorrow and open up our presents. I'm way stoked”
And his New Years Eve Letter:
“Christmas here was great. My district and I put our presents around a fake tree that we made and opened them up on Christmas morning. It was killer. That day L. Tom Perry of the 12 came and talked to us. He shared some really good insights about what happened on the day that Christ was born. It was a pretty good talk. Then later in the day we had the first and maybe last annual MTC talent show. They had a lot of weird talents like human bagpipes. Overall it was pretty good. Then that night Greg Olson came and talked to us about his paintings. I really enjoyed his talk because he talked about what inspired a ton of his paintings of the Savior.
Christmas was good because I was doing something I could see the Savior wanting me to do. He gave his life for us and i was just returning the favor. I really felt the Spirit here on Christmas day.”
Matt had the opportunity to be a host missionary several times. One time he worked helping the international missionaries. He met a Korean elder who spoke Korean, Japanese and a little English.
Matt spent time at the TRC teaching lessons and completing other odd tasks. The temple closed for a few weeks while Matt was in the MTC so he had to go a 3 week break without the Temple. That was hard for him.
There is probably so much more that happened at the MTC, but much of the stuff was written in handwritten letters to mom or dad, so I don’t have the info here. Guess he will have to tell us all about it when he gets home.
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