Starsi Vivona's Testimony

Letter from the MTC

Hey everybody! The MTC is awesome!! Sorry if this is in txting format but I only have 30 min to write so I have to do it as fast as possible. This past week has been amazing, the spirit is really strong here, although I am kinda getting sick of church music.... haha jk. The czech is so cool, I can read the BoM (Book of Mormon) (I may not understand everything, but I can still read it) and I can pray and bear my testimony. Both my companions and I get along pretty well and all the elders in my district are really cool. Today is p-day so we got to visit the temple today. The Provo Temple is really pretty and probably the better part about going was that we got to leave the MTC grounds haha. All of our learning is done all in one class room so looking at the same boring walls for 12 hours straight gets boring fast. We are learning a lot from PMG (Preach my Gospel) and teaching ppl (people) is starting to get really fun. They have this place called the RC (the Referral Center) and we go there once a week for about two hours. And all we do is answer the phones of the ppl that see the church's comercial and want to get a free BoM or have the missionaries come talk to them. My first time going there I didnt like it at all because I dont like talking on the phone, as all of you know, but this last time we went it was a lot better. There is also this other thing called the TRC which is when your companionship go to teach one of the instructors the first lesson, or whatever you need to work on the most. Last week we practiced door contacting and street contacting in czech! It was a lot of fun and we didnt do too badly:) speaking czech is getting easier too. All of my teachers are way cool too. Almost every day we have "culture time" unintentionally of course;) its when one of our teachers gets into one of their mission stories. Its a ton of fun to learn about the czech republic. I may have already told you this, but we have three teachers, Bratr (czech for Brother) Brown, Bratr Johnson, and Bratr Cardon. And every once in a while Brother Ruda comes in and teaches us, he's a native czech, so he has some cool stories about his childhood and finding the church. So hows everything been? Has Megan had her baby yet? Is everything going alright? Oh and I love getting all those letters from dearelder.com, its so cool to see how everyones doing:) Well my times just about up so I have to start wrapping this up unfortunately:( I was sitting in the celetial room today and for some reason got really home sick, more than I had been for my entire time being here. But I know this is where I need to be and that its the right thing to do. I love you all sooo much and I just want to leave you with my testimony that I know that God is our eternal heavenly father and that he loves us. And that this church has the fullness of the gospel and that we will all be blessed if we follow the council of the prophet. I love you all and I will write again soon bye:)

We got our first letter from Matt last week. He had just gotten to the MTC, actually, he got there 2 hours early. He was given his name tags. Strasi Vivona, which is Elder Vivona. He has 2 companions, Elder Anderson from Katy, Texas and Elder Osborn from American Fork, Utah. He got settled into his dorm room and immediately began his classes. He said dinner was "crazy early". He eats at 4:45, we're barely taking food out of the freezer at that hour! I'm sure by now that he has gotten used to his daily schedule. He sends his love to all.

This is the MTC (Missionary Training Center)where Matt is learning to speak Czech, and all he needs to know to go out and be a missionary. He can receive your email letters everyday while he is there. Here's what you need to do.


Go to the following website:

http://www.dearelder.com/index/inc_name/home

Register for a free account. Go to the tab labled "Write a Letter". Under letter sselection choose "Provo MTC". Fill in the information asked for. Elder Matthew Vivona, mailbox number 152, Czech Prague (mission), 10/12/09 (departure date). You will then be able to compose an email to Matt. If you do this before 12:00 (noon) mountain time, Matt will get your letter the same day. Anything posted after noon he will get the next day. Care packages can be sent to him as well. Just remember to not send anything that he would need to pack into his suitcase to take to Prague. His bags were extrememly full when he left home today. So full we had to pay for overweight charges on one of them.

He will love to hear from you. He is going to be very busy for the next 8 weeks. He has one day a week to send us an email, but he can write everyday, if he has the motivation. Hopefully, we will all hear from him often.

Bookmark the dearelder.com website for use and be sure to bookmark this blog page and check back often. I will try to keep it updated weekly. You will also be able to register on the blog page and post comments. We are not sure if Matt will be able to check the blog page while he is away, but he may. And it will be fun for him to read our posts and your comments. Once he gets to Prague, I will update everyone on where and how to send mail and packages.

Elder Vivona & Family

This was taken last night, right after Matt was set apart as a Missionary by Stake President Paul Sinclair. (Matt - front, Cynthia, Ashley & Ashlynn - middle, me, Megan, Jared - back).

Proud parents.

Headed for the MTC

This morning at 6:45 we said farewell to Matt. We are so proud of him. The past few days have been tough, but family bonds have been strengthened. We had some of the best family time together as he prepared himself for his mission. Lots of laughs, lots of tears, lots of hugs. The whole family will miss him tremendously, but we know that what he is about to begin will be the greatest thing he will ever do. He will make an AWESOME missionary. Once he arrives in Salt Lake City will we post his mailing address. He will be at the MTC for about 8 weeks.

We just got a call from Matt from the Salt Lake airport. He had a good flight, but was not able to sleep. He will be tired tonight. It was good to hear his voice. He had tried to leave a voice mail (a prompting of his mother's) but the answering machine wasn't working. Unfortunately, this will be the last time we will hear his voice until he calls home at Christmas. We will all be looking forward to then. He has about a 45 minute ride to Provo and then the work begins. Almost immediately upon arrival, he will be assigned to a companion, shown around a little, find his dorm room and then off to the business at hand. Quickly diving into work will keep his mind occupied on things other than home. We wished him well, encouraged him to work hard and left him with our love. Our son--Elder Vivona.