Around the MTC in 50 Days (Plus 13ish More, But Who's Counting?)

Watching the eclipse - Elder Ridd, Elder Todd, and Elder Ference

My new name tag

Hey Everybody!

Week 7 is done, and yesterday was our 50th day in the MTC. I only have two more weeks left here, and I'm very excited to go to Thailand. On Friday, we get our flight plans for when we leave. We should be leaving early September 4th. 

This week has been about the same as most. We got our name tags in Thai yesterday, which is pretty cool! Sadly, we're not allowed to wear them around the MTC, because apparently it would confuse people. They spell my name pretty similarly in Thai. The first big chunk says “Elder,” and after the space, the squiggly question mark-looking thing makes an “R” sound, the turtle shell thing above it is a vowel that makes the ee sound. Then the last two letters are a “d” sound, but the second one has a kill symbol over it, which kills the sound of it. If it didn't, it would sound more like Reedod. With the kill symbol, it sounds like Reed (for "Ridd").

We got to see the eclipse yesterday, thanks to Elder Todd's mom, who sent us special glasses. It wasn't too crazy or anything, but you could tell that it got darker and cooler, which was nice.

Elder Neil L. Andersen came to speak with us on Tuesday, which was awesome. It's cool to be able to hear from apostles, especially after the first few weeks, where none seemed to be coming - haha. I don't know who is coming tonight, but hopefully they'll be a good speaker.

Today we were able to go to the temple and do some sealings with our teacher, Brother Sugihara, and his wife. Afterwards, we ate breakfast in the temple cafeteria, which was nice because it was the first food in a month and a half that actually tastes like it was made by humans. Then we did laundry, exercise, and all that other fun stuff to get ready for the week.

I hope you all are doing great!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Ridd

More eclipse pics