Semanas tres (week three)

 Buenos Dias,

So let's see what kind of spiritual knowledge I can less your lives
with today! So this week has been pretty great! Just focusing on
learning the language, focusing on the doctrine, it's been frustrating
but it's also been rewarding! We just changed from basic core to
extended core II on Monday and it's pretty difficult! Now instead of
learning 20 words and 3 phrases a day, now we're learning 45 words and
7 phrases! Plus now we memorize a scripture in Spanish every week day,
so by the end of the week we have about 5 scriptures memorized in
Spanish! It's stressful but I feel like right when you start to feel
comfortable in the MTC they just change it up! It's good because you
grow a lot when your in uncomfortable situations and circumstances but
being constantly stressed and frustrated isn't to much fun but I've
been trying hard to stay focused but to have fun and try not to take
it to serious!

Everyone has been sick this week! Our whole district has had like a
cold all week! It's pretty great! I didn't get it to bad, I've just
have had a stuffy nose but everyone else has been like half dead in
class! Not feeling to great has made me pretty sleepy so I
accidentally nod off during class but I really try not to but it's so
frustrating to try to learn Spanish when everyone's not feeling well!
So I just kinda zone out sometimes but yea, that's how Spanish class
is going!

Discussions and lessons being taught between me and my companion have
been getting better and better though! We have made 3 investigators
cry so far and my companion has tiered up a few times (I wrote this
part on Thursday night but on Friday I had the opportunity to role
play with my companion and I bore my testimony and taught him the plan
of salvation and he cried) (so that brings our total up to 4 persons)
but I've gotten to a point while teaching discussions where I'm not
stressed to much about the language but I've been able to truly feel
the spirit! I love being able to feel the spirit while teaching a
discussion but it makes the experience even sweeter when your speaking
another language! The testimonies shared between me, my companion, and
the investigators we teach are so beautiful and the spirit felt while
sharing the truths being told about the gospel is truly unique and
something I've never felt before! The spirit is different, not in a
good way or in a bad way but it's just unique! I don't know if it's
because of the language or because of the environment and the constant
spirit on the MTC campus but during our discussions and during our
opportunities to bare our testimonies we feel a truly unique and
special spirit! Those experiences are the blessed moments when we see
the spirit really play into our message and those moments you pray for
while studying for small miracles in our discussions!

You guys need to send me some more questions because I have no idea
what to write about sometimes! I have been enjoying exercise time! The
gym has two volleyball nets and that's pretty fun to mess around with
some guys who have played and some guys who haven't touched a
volleyball but it would kind of be what I expect intramural's to be
like! I love taking temple trips on Saturdays as well! We're blessed
to be able to spend majority of our Saturday afternoons in the temple
and love being able to serve for a few hours!

On Sunday's devotional we had the Nashville Tribute band come in and
we had a little singing fireside with more of an upbeat feel! Kinda
like Christian Rock but not really at the same time! I don't know, I
really liked them and you could feel the unique spirit they brought to
the meeting but if you have some free time I'd listen to a few songs!
Great to listen to for Sunday scripture study! We had one of the first
quorum of the 70 come in for Tuesday devotional, he spoke with a lot
of love for missionary work!

I really miss some of the free time I had while at home to go through
some scriptures on my own time! At the MTC your day is planned out for
every minute of every day so technically you only get about an hour
for personal study but sometimes if your lucky you'll get an
additional hour but even with two hours it seems like there's not
enough time to go through most of the scripture study you would have
liked to but it really helps you to appreciate the insights you are
able to look through and the notes your able to reference during
class!

During class it's pretty interesting how the language is taught! Class
for language is taught at the same time as class for doctrine! So you
could be sitting in your seat for a 4 1/2 hour block (from breakfast
until lunch) and be going through some of the lessons or discussing
gospel principles but there won't be a word of English spoken through
the whole class! Then when we're not in class were teaching
investigators! And on the rare occasion we're not in class or not
teaching investigators we're either in personal study, companionship
study, or language study! We spend about 14 hours in class and about 6
hours sleeping but sometimes that time may overlap by me sleeping a
bit in class unintentionally!

Sunday's are a bit different, we wake up and have time to study for a
bit but then we have sacrament meeting (all in Spanish) even the
sacrament prayer is in Spanish which kinda threw me off the first time
I heard it but it's pretty crazy to be sitting through Sunday meetings
in Spanish like with priesthood meeting and with Sunday school!

Something I've learned while studying Spanish and learning principles
in Spanish is how truly simple and beautiful the gospel is! Learning
the gospel in Spanish is almost like learning about the church all
over again! I have scriptures and passages/principles of doctrine
memorized that I don't even have memorized in English! It truly is
such a beautiful gospel and I'm fortunate to have been lucky enough to
have the opportunity to learn in such a beautiful language!

Please e-mail me any questions or anything you'd like me to clarify
but really that's about all I can think of as far as what kinda goes
on here at the MTC, at least for this week!

Mucho amor,
Elder Tutton

I don't think my Mom would ever believe it herself unless
I sent this to her but we got an amazing review of how clean
our room was this week!

When we try to take a zone picture but ya, it doesn't really go as planned
but most of the guys I hang out with day to day are in this picture and was
taken right before MTC choir.  Half these guys are off to Nicaragua on
Monday and Nicaragua is about to get some freaking studs!

A couple pictures of me and my companion

Took this picture during study time and
thought it looked pretty cool

Semana dos (week two)

Good morning,

Hope you all have had an amazing week!! Glad to be able to talk with
you guys and share some experiences with you this week! So I started a
journal last week and I kinda just wrote most of my experiences in my
e-mail instead so I think I might just be using my e-mail to keep
record of most of my experiences and just write a few things in my
journal more on the personal side but most of everything that is worth
reporting on will be through my e-mail!

The language has been going pretty well, it's difficult but rewarding!
I have memorized the missionary purpose in Spanish, the thing is that
I don't even know it in English but I guess I won't need to understand
it in English as long as I've got it in Spanish! So Zuri (the
investigator me and my companion have been teaching) committed to
baptism! Except just yesterday she comes into the class to tell us
she's already a member and it was just practice and she said she's
gonna be our teacher for the next week or so! But the last discussion
we taught her was about the plan of salvation and we bore our
testimony after and she was crying and she said that the spirit was so
strong and how the lesson was great but it was the testimony that was
key to her conversion during our discussions and she said to use our
testimonies and the spirit as our most crucial tools and to exercise
those blessings we have in the field as much as possible!

It's been a tough few days with a few of the guys in my district
getting sick but thankfully I've been blessed with health so far! The
guys have grown closer and closer! Honestly it's gotten to a point
that we stay up for another hour talking even though we're dead
exhausted but just to laugh and talk to each other about experiences
throughout the day but they've become like my brothers in the way that
were able to just talk to each other about everything and go to each
other for advice and there stellar guys to be able to hangout with!

Btw I just wanted to say that I hate doing laundry, like more then
anything I hate laundry so very much! Just kinda wanted to throw that
out there! But P-days are mostly taken up by just doing laundry and I
feel like I'm wasting my time but yea just wanted you all to know my
frustration!

Thursday night (July 21)-
It's been a hard day for our district! They say that the days feel
like weeks and the weeks feel like days here in the MTC and today was
especially true to that statement! There have been lots of tears of
heart ache with family and tears of frustration and tears of
disappointment from ourselves! I haven't cried yet which is good, just
kinda making sure that's clear! But I think almost everyone else has,
elder Brady was bearing such a powerful testimony to the guys in our
room tonight and he had told us a lot of what he knew to be true and
personal experiences in his past and earlier in the evening after our
fifth discussion we had an elder who was upset with himself about the
language! This elder is easily the most talent in the district when it
comes to the language but he was so upset that he didn't perform to
his expectations and it was very difficult to have to bear with him
and to have to watch him beat himself up over it but also trying
whatever to show support and show our love! It's a mentally and
physically exhausting time here at the MTC! Don't get me wrong, it's
amazing but oh my gosh is it one of the toughest experiences both
spirituality and mentally but at the same time we can see ourselves
and each other building our testimonies and and building each other up
morally and mentally and spiritually gaining an unbelievable amount of
strength through our experiences! It's a whole new experience and I'm
so blessed and fortunate to have the opportunity to go through it and
to serve and prepare to be a tool in the lords hand but it is not easy
in any way! I try to write only positive things and I'm sorry if
sharing this experience isn't totally positive but I think it's
important to write about experiences that have also strengthened us as
missionaries! I love the lord and I love this work and am blessed to
be where I am and with the people I'm with!

Sunday night (July 17)-
Elder David A. Bednar came by the MTC today for part of a fireside.
The fireside was planned to have been a presentation of a previous
talk given by elder Bednar but then unexpectedly he stops by after the
presentation of the video. It was an experience that was beyond
belief, and a spirit felt that was beyond words to emphasize. The
visit was unexpected by both the missionaries and the MTC staff. Elder
Bednar was saying how he had just finished talking and discussing with
training mission presidents and that while he was on his way back to
visit with family that he had decided to pick up his family and to
bring them to be introduced to the missionaries here at the MTC. Elder
Bednar conducted the fireside and was more of a formal question/answer
type of discussion. Some questions applied to part of the talk
presented earlier that evening and other questions were in relation to
the spirit and Christlike attributes along with the development of
becoming effective missionaries. An unbelievable opportunity to
personally strengthen my testimony of the general authorities and to
strengthen my testimony on the special witness that the quorum of the
12 apostles and the first presidency share and the power of the spirit
and testimony shared. Being an elder almost invites a new perspective
of the thoughts shared during the discussion. Having the thought of
the opportunity to go out and preach and serve in the name of the lord
and represent the church brought a spirit that no words could portray.
There was one moment during the devotional that I was left speechless
along with the rest of the congregation. The entrance and announcement
of the arrival of elder Bednar was spectacular in itself but the
moment that elder Bednar had gotten up to leave, the congregation all
stood up and no words were spoken. Not a single sound in the
congregation, right before exiting the room and walking across the
stage elder Bednar had waved to the congregation and still with not a
single word being said all of the missionaries waved in return. One of
the most profound experiences in that moment was that the second that
the door had shut after elder Bednar had left you would think that a
room full of preparing 18 & 19 year old missionaries would erupt into
conversation about the experience of a 2 hour long fireside with an
apostle of the lord. But it was complete silence, not for a quick
second but silence until the MTC president dismissed us after about a
solid minute of silence. A minute of pure spirit, pure silence, pure
bliss. Over 2,000 missionaries who had been sitting through a full day
of meetings, and a 2 hour fireside and they all stay standing in
silence to dwell in the spirit. Profound in every way.

Quotes from Sunday's fireside:
"It's what you are not what you say, investigators are truly converted
by the spirit"
-Elder Bednar

"You teach people not lessons"
-Elder Bednar

"Charity is not something you do, it's something you become."
-Elder Bednar

"Putting off the natural man a portion at a time"
Compares to
"Line upon line, precept upon precept"
-Elder Bednar

The MTC is amazing! I love it, it's incredible the spirit that is on
campus! When teaching discussions to investigators the language
barrier is pretty difficult, but during my second lesson my companion
had said that the spirit had whispered translation to him and my
companion shared those translations with me and then the spirit had
blessed me to know of what words (en espenol) to say to the
investigator and how to answer a few of her questions, I had the
opportunity to bare my testimony to her as well (en espenol) but it
was an unbelievable lesson to have been apart of! (Look at the
scriptures D&C 46:24-25) The investigator had voiced some opinions of
the spirit and how she had not felt the spirit during personal prayer
(because we had challenged her to have a personal prayer that last
night) but she said that she did feel the spirit during our
discussions and so we were able to show her a few scriptures of how
the spirit speaks differently to everyone and how it was more of a
warm feeling and a feeling of comfort and a feeling of blessing and
she then understood and we asked her to say the closing prayer and it
was a very powerful prayer and we asked her to be specific in saying
that she is seeking to understand the feeling of the spirit and asked
for the blessing of being able to partake in that blessing but after
that prayer she had looked up at me and my companion and said that she
had felt the spirit for the first time during prayer and how amazing
it was to share that experience with her! But some amazing
opportunities to be apart of some great lessons!

Con amor (with love),
Elder Tutton

Elder Barfuss, myself, and Elder Trendler (This picture was taken before
the Elder Bednar fireside)

Not the greatest picture but one of the only ones I have of everyone
in my district

Some lunchtime fun with my district

We had the opportunity to go to the Provo Temple and we were fortunate
enough to have taken a full afternoon on our P-day to have served
in the Temple.

No mind the photo bombers, but from left to right is Elder Call,
Elder Oldham (my companion), Elder Goimarac, and myself!  4 of us from
our district who will serve in Santa Fe, Argentina.

Semana uno (week one)

Hola mi hermanos y hermanas,

So this is my 4th day at the MTC! It's been going pretty well, my
companion is Elder Oldham. He's a cool guy, I have a lot of really
great guys in my district. There all right out of high school except
for one brother who is going to Costa Rica. The brother who is going
to Costa Rica has a companion who is going to New York, New York. That
companionship are the only two elders who aren't going to Argentina
from our district. There is also a sister companionship in our
district, both sisters are 19 so I feel kinda bad for them that there
not only a year older then us but also a bit more mature then us as
well. It's awesome that they will be serving in Argentina as well with
majority of the elders in our district. There are 4 elders (myself
included) in my district who are preparing to serve in Santa Fe,
Argentina. Me and my companion will both be serving in Santa Fe so
it's pretty cool to bond over our area.

The MTC has impressed me a lot, the language instruction especially!
Although very strict with classroom instruction and with daily
scheduling it seems that I have almost no time to myself. I'm sorry if
I don't write enough but it seems that even on P-day I still have so
many things to be doing and so many responsibilities to be keeping up
on. Also since I had failed to mention earlier that today is my P-day
so I will only be able to send e-mails on Saturdays although I will be
able to check my e-mail as frequently as I'd like throughout the week!
I am able to check so frequently because I have the access to my
personal I-pad for the 6 weeks that I will be at the MTC. But please
send me e-mails throughout the week because I would to keep updated on
how you all are doing as well, but I apologize if I am not able to
respond right away although I will be a able to write out a draft
through the week, I will be able to send you that e-mail that I had
worked on earlier in the week to you on the next following Saturday.
Sorry if that was a bit confusing.


But again back to the language, on my first day I walk into class with
other guys from my district and out teacher (miestra peacock) is only
speaking in Spanish. She's an amazing teacher but she expects us to
only be able to communicate with her in Spanish. Which sucks because I
know very little Spanish. But it's alright because I have been able to
learn helpful phrases to help me survive class such as, "¿comó se
dice?" Which means "how do you say?" And also "¿que significa?" Which
means "what does ____ mean along with "repita por favor" which means
"repeat please". But all of these phrases help me out with the
transition into my Spanish class. Also yesterday I was able to teach
my first discussion fully in Spanish with me and my companion, we
taught a young woman named Zuri and she spoke no English so it was
very interesting trying to find words we didn't know how to say in
Spanish. Let's just say me and my companion prayed multiple times for
the gift of tongues and the translation of tongues to be able to
understand Zuri which I think really helped because I thought the
discussion went very well and the moments where we weren't to stressed
about the language were the moments that you could really feel the
spirit. But we had to teach Zuri for a minimum of 20 minutes which
actually didn't seem to long when you add opening and closing prayer
along with the hymn so all in all I think it went very well. But the
after our discussion miestra peacock told us that we will have an
additional opportunity to have a discussion with Zuri that following
day (today) and to prepare an additional discussion to follow up with
our one from that day. So I will be teaching Zuri again with my
companion for another 20 min all in Spanish at 6pm today! We were also
challenged but miestra peacock to focus on our testimony in Spanish so
me and my companion will both have the opportunity to bare a very
powerful testimony that we have both been working on in Spanish.


So now let's talk about the MTC, the campus is beautiful! The food is
pretty great as long as you know what your hungry for and you know
where the good food is hidden. Friday's are pizza night (papa johns)
so I'm going to be looking forward to Friday nights. They have lots of
chocolate milk so a nice glass with every meal is pretty great. There
are lots of different places to get lots of fruit which really helps
with energy and with just with the way you feel over all. So I always
try to eat a bowl or two of fruit for every meal. We have an hour
every morning for exercise so we go running a lot and we are able to
go to the gym with has treadmill's and elliptical which is pretty
great. Sometimes we have a class before we have exercise time so we
change a lot between church clothes and exercise clothes. While in the
MTC you really have to be very focused on time management so you
aren't falling behind and you get all of your responsibilities taken
care of whether it's memorizing a scripture or reading through
required passages before the next class there is usually always
something you can be doing at any given time of the day. It makes me
think back to a general conference talk I heard that talked about how
you can be anxiously engaged in good things but there could also be
thing you could be doing that would be better for that use of time and
there are also the best things you could be using your time for you
you have to constantly pray to know what is the best thing to be using
your time for. So it's hard not to feel guilty when you take time to
e-mail or to take time to exercise because event though they may be
good things it always feels like I could be doing more with my time.
But anyway, that's more of just a missionary thought for you. You
really do constantly feel the spirit here on campus though, it is
almost overwhelming sometimes during class which is pretty unique
because you spend close to 12 hours in the class room. It's crazy that
even with about the 7 hours we get to sleep that we are in class
almost double the time we are in our rooms. And the only reason we are
really in our rooms is when we are sleeping and that's about it.


Well I'm going to try to include any questions you guys send me in my
e-mails and I'll send you any answers to questions you may ask me in
an individual e-mail. Sorry if there any tying errors, I didn't have
much time to review my e-mail for how much time it took to write it.
But I'd love to read your e-mails throughout the week! Thank you for
all of the love and support, I hope you all have an amazing week and
your in my prayers! You'll hear from me again in a week! Adios!


From,
Elder Tutton

These are the 6 guys that are in my room, so you get
to see half of my district in this picture

Background to my I-Pad, they said to put something as
your background that reminds you of your missionary
purpose so I put my nametag.

Ran into Elder Trendler on the way to class

Me and my companion Elder Oldham

Me and Elder Oldham writing our emails

Provo, UT MTC (Missionary Training Center) July 13th, 2016

This was a day that I always thought would be a lot harder than it was.  Avery's excitement for his mission and being anxious to get out into the mission field  rubbed off on all of us.  There weren't a lot of tears.  I relate it to his first day of kindergarten, he was off and running and didn't look back except to wave goodbye! He was the first of about 12 missionaries going through security that morning.  His flight to SLC was at 7:30 am so these pictures were taken at about 6:15am, very early!  He had a big group of friends over until about 2 am so we got about a 2 hour nap the night before, oh well lol.  

Sophie, Mitch, Bayley, and Krista

6+ years of friendship

He was so happy to see his cousin Jamison
show up at the airport, glad he moved to AZ this past
year so they could do more together.

Aunt Jacque from Arkansas was coming through town on business
so she was able to see Avery off too!

Jaxx 

Right before Avery was going to give hugs goodbye
he pulled Austin aside and had a {man to man}
talk with him about being the man of the house now,
 taking on more responsibilities, being nice to his
sister, and taking care of Mom.  

their last hug

handshakes for the girls :)

First missionary through security

Round 2 of heading off to the MTC was to land in SLC and Mike and Tricia Tutton (and Tuckir, Brinley, and Crue) were there waiting on the other side of security.  They would pick him up, take him to lunch, take him to the new Provo City Temple to see it, and then off to the MTC.  He had to check in at 2pm.  Brinley was awesome enough to Facetime us when he landed in SLC and when they dropped him off the MTC.  It was nice to just be a fly on the wall watching him.  And Tricia was awesome to send so many pictures!  She gets me <3

There was a huge group of missionaries coming in from Argentina finishing their missions and coming home to SLC at the same time.  So when Avery came down the escalator there was a "welcoming commitee" with signs and Argentina flags! He said later that a few of them had some good advice for the outgoing missionaries as they were all walking toward security.  But, so neat for him to see a glimpse of what the day will be like when he returns.  But, we aren't going there yet, he has 2 years to enjoy his mission first!

 The MTC in Provo welcomed 750 missionaries that day! Summers are busy around there with everyone graduating high school and wanting to go straight out to their missions.  This is the line to get in to drop off your missionary and say goodbye!

Brinley face-timing us when he landed!