1st Letter

Hey Mom!

This is my first p-day at the MTC. I only get p-days on Tuesday so thats why its been so long. The MTC is so much fun here. We wake up at 6am, get dressed and go to breakfast to be at class by 7:00.  We're already teaching our first "investigator" named Joam in portuguese, but we are by no means fluent.  Turns out most people here took some Spanish and are getting the language much faster, but it is coming along. Most of our day is spending studying either portuguese or preparing our next lesson in portuguese, its crazy.  We taught our first lesson in our language on Friday, and that was really difficult. My companion, Elder Landro, took AP Spanish so he has a pretty good grasp on the language already for how much time we've been learning it, so he is the one who mostly talks, but our lessons are still mostly scripts, though we are trying to get away from those. Here at the MTC we don't get to back to residence until 9:30pm after a full day of teaching so by then we are exaushted. Sundays and p-days are the best, b/c we don't have to work as hard and have some time to relax.   My district had 13 people in it on Wednesday, but we're already down to 11, and two are walking injured. Two people left early today for the Brazil MTC b/c their visas cleared and everybody can't wait to get one. One person has a concussion and the other dislocated his shoulder on Friday in gym. Makes for an exciting day.

There is a lot of food here, though not all of it good. I've learned to beware the waffles b/c they are like cardboard, no joke. But on the whole, it is pretty good and you can eat as much as you want. I've been trying to watch how much I've eaten so I don't gain a lot of weight here b/c we  only get to exercise for 50 minutes a day. Tell Tom when he gets to the MTC, he NEEDS to exercise b/c most of the day is spent in a chair. 

I've seen a few ward members around the MTC which is a little weird at times. I've seen Austin Gorge, Brenna Donnelly, Seth and Katie Percival from first ward. I've only seen them really in passing when we're hurrying from one place to the other. Thanks for all the mail and packages.  Its so cool to get something in the mail.  I did get your package and a package from Uncle Michael so if you could tell him thank you for me. I've been sharing all the goodies with the people from my district b/c I'm really the only one getting food and I've have quite a bit of it. Could you send me address both email and house address for people in the ward and friends that I have on facebook, b/c most of the time I can only get a physical letter sent during the regular week and can only email on Tuesdays for max 1 hr.  Its been a lot of fun here though! I hopefully will be able to see Joshua when he gets here tomorrow! Obrigado!

Love Ben

P.S. I can't email pictures right now b/c the MTC computers won't let me, so I 'll try to find a way, but it may have to wait. Sorry.

D-Day

The day has finally come when Ben left for his mission. Departure Day. I know he is thrilled to be gone and out serving, but I miss him a lot already. It was hard for me this morning so I was really glad when he called after making it to Provo. I knew he would be fine, but it was good to hear him tell me he was fine. You know, moms worry. Pictures of Ben at the airport:

If you want to write to Ben at the MTC, here is his address:
Elder Benjamin Charles Battraw
SEP10  BRA-MAN
2011 N 900 E Unit 287
Provo UT 84602

I'm sure he would love to hear from everyone!

Setting Apart

Ben was set apart tonight, along with Austen Gorge, another young man from our ward who is leaving with Ben for a mission to Argentina. The blessings were beautiful and President Sinclair then asked the two to bear their testimonies. It was a great meeting. We are really going to miss Ben.

Trip to the Temple

So today I went to the temple for the first time to get my endowments so that I would be able to go on my mission.  I got up at 6am with mom and got ready to go. The Fordhams and Lopezs picked us up for the 2.5 hour trip to the temple in Louisville, Kentucky. I was sandwiched in the back between Bro Lopez and Stirling on the way there and back. I was wearing a suit jacket, which I soon found was a mistake because it got quite hot very quickly.  The trip there was pretty uneventful with just one stop on the way there.  When we got there we were just a bit late, so when we got there we were ushered in and immediately started moving. Austin Gorge and I were both there with our escorts, his being his dad and mine being Brother Fordham and Lopez.  We got our intiatories done and then met with the Temple President, President Lunt. After a short talk, we went through the Endowment session, which was really cool.  After that, we headed back and changed into our normal clothes out of the temple clothes. Since it was about 1:15 when we left, we stopped at Sonic on the way back since there are none near Fishers.  I got a #7 which is a huge burger with tots and peanut butter cookie shake.  The Fordhams all got hot dogs with pretzels buns with bacon and nacho cheese on them.  They looked pretty good but I wasn't that interested. Bro Fordham also ordered a shake that was a peanut butter bacon shake which I got to try and it was surprisingly good.  After that it was a 2.5 hour trip back to Fishers. When we got back we were all tired but it had been a really good day.

Travel Plans

Today I got an email from the Missionary Travel Center telling me that my mission travel plans have been changed. Instead of reporting to the Brazil MTC, I will be reporting to the Provo MTC on the same day instead. My flight leaves Indianapolis International at 8:45 and will probably touch down in Salt Lake at about 10:30, and then its a hour and a half drive up to Provo via the Shuttle. That is my new travel plans.  I'm getting all of my stuff I need gathered up and ready to go.  Started packing up my stuff today as well, that was a bit of a shock, thinking that some of my stuff I will not see for maybe 7 years because I will be gone for 2 years on a mission, then 4 years in college, and then maybe a year more if I get deployed straight out of college.  Who knows? I now also have new glasses for my mission so all my vision items are finished and ready to go. Going to Louisville Temple the 27th to get my Living Ordinances and that will be super exciting! I can't wait! This was a brief update by Ben Battraw, Missao Brasil Manaus!

License and Vaccine

So yesterday was an exciting day for me.  A quarter after 8am, Brother McDonald drove up to our house, picked me up and drove me to the BMV to be able to take my driving test.  The BMV wasn't open when we got there, but we didn't have to wait long to get inside. I signed in and waited for my driving instructor to call me up.  He did so, checked my permit, had my eyesight quickly tested, checked registration, and then we were off to the car.  A quick test of the brake lights and turn signals and we were off! I had to drive around various parts of Fishers (sometimes twice), through a construction site, parallel park and manage not to break any laws and get back to the BMV.  It wasn't too hard, though parallel parking was the hardest part for me.  I managed to pass though! After going through some paperwork, I was then a licensed driver in the state of Indiana!  I quickly went home, got my vaccine chart filled out and Austin Gorge and Sister Gorge picked me up to take me to a travel clinic to get the necessary mission vaccines that Austin and I both needed.  We had to drive downtown, but it only took about 20 minutes.  The clinic was on the fourth floor of the building so we hopped into the elevator for our 10am appointment. We got there on time, and started to fill out the nessecary paperwork to get the vaccines.  I needed to get yellow fever and typhoid. Yellow fever was just a quick shot to my arm, but typhoid was a different story.  I have pills that I have to take over the course of a week to get the vaccine.  I can't eat anything for two hours beforehand and can only drink them with cold water. Nothing else to eat or drink for at least an hour afterward so I just take them before bed. Fun  stuff. After getting the shots, Austin and I both got huge packets concerning the medical and physical 

dangers in both of our missions and lets just says Brazils list is extensive. Every risk is either moderate or high. I was real thrilled to hear that. After all of that, we went and looked at mission shoes, but everything was out of my price range so I didn't get anything. It was a really good and productive day. I enjoyed it. 

My Visa

So as part of your mission papers you have to fill out visa forms.  My Visa I was informed, was one of the hardest to get out of all the countries in the world.  The list of forms that I had to present was 12-15 items long.  So I got it about April10, and we started to work on it. Most of it was pretty easy, fill out this form, notarize this, sign here.  Not that hard. So I was about 2/3 of the way done and the first challenge that popped up was a background check. I went to Fishers police to request a background check for international travel purposes and they immediately shut me down.  We don't do anything international they said, you have to go down to the State Police for that.  So I called the State Police, emailed them to try to figure out how to get one.  They gave the number of this company to call who was trying to charge me for the service. As we were trying to figure this all out, I emailed Bishop Hanson of the Zionsville Branch to see how they completed it b/c his son is going to Brazil as well. They apparently went down to the sheriffs office to get it done and they did it right there. So we took a trip up to the sheriffs office, said nothing about international travel, and we got it done.  All of my notarized documents then had to be sent to the Secretary of State for Indiana for notary authentication.  We sent all of my notarized documents, which was quite a lot, and got most of them back 4 days later authenticated.  My drivers permit and Passport were not being authenticated and it would take us 3 tries to get them finally authenticated over a period of a month. That was a struggle. When we went to gather up all the papers to send to Salt Lake, we couldn't find my birth certificate.  My Opa was planning to come from my graduation that weekend so he got them in Arizona and sent them certified mail to us to try to get it there as fast as possible. Well the post office left it on the counter for a few days, and then when it did arrive, nobody was at the house b/c we were all at graduation that Saturday, we had to go pick it up on Monday.  When we went to pick up we brought all of the other papers, picked up my birth certificates, stuck one in the envelope and mailed my visa papers to Salt Lake on June 10th! It took 2 months, but they were finally done!