I've figured out how to display the category that an entry belongs to, but I would like to add a count next to the category display (like the comment count for the entry) example:
Of course this can be done quite easily from a complete category listing with $MTCategoryCount$ but I am trying to show it for just one category that the entry is related to? I don't quite understand if MT can be told to only loop for one specific category by using something like this?

can this filter categories plugin help me?

(on a side question, is it possible to maybe show up to two categories than an entry belongs to?)

Check out the MTEntryCategories tag from the manual - it should answer both of your questions, but definitely your side question (and you could also use FilterCategories in there as well, as an alternative).

Thank you for such a gentle (and FAST!) reply...

I feel so silly as I figured out the answer about 5 minutes after I posted it. First modification attempt for my template, so that wasn't too bad

Here's what I used for the next person that stumbles across this:

CODE

<MTEntryCategories glue=" - ">
<a href="<$MTCategoryArchiveLink$>"><$MTCategoryLabel$>(<$MTCategoryCount$>)
</a>
</MTEntryCategories>

What a wonderful program and community, thank you!