July 22, 2013

Mom!

Thank you so much for the email! I was hoping that I would get an email from you! Thanks for doing those things for me. I'll include more things I want you to send later in this email.

Things have been good here in the MTC. It's kind of overwhelming, but it's good. They kind of throw you right into the deep end (for our benefit, of course), but I taught my first investigator (en español!) on Friday! Holy mackerel, was I nervous, but after my entire district had freaked out for a day about how nervous they were about teaching, we all did pretty well. They had like 10-15 minute lessons, but my companion and I had more like a 35 minute lesson.... I guess I talk a lot.

I'm learning Spanish really well. My district thinks I'm the best in the district and they keep asking me questions. I guess practicing with T paid off, and I'm definitely getting help from the Lord. Puedo hablar español un poco, pero neccesito practica. (I can speak Spanish a little, but I need practice.)

My companion is Elder Latu. He´s originally from Tonga, but has been living in San Fran for the last two years. So he has two years of English practice, and now he´s learning Spanish. He´ll be trilingual when he gets off his mission! He´s a good guy, and we´re getting along just fine.

There are 3 compañerismos (companionships) in my room, and 2 in another. So there are 3 bunkbeds in this room. I think it was designed for two companionships per room, but it's fine.

Hmm... What to say. The elders in my district (there are no sisters, sadly) comprise of:

Elder Andersen (Alpine, UT) & Elder Merrell (Snowflake, AZ)

Elder Fisher (Sandy, UT) & Elder Welch (Amarillo, TX)

Elder Bowles (South Jordan, UT) & Elder Bylund (Logan, UT)

Elder Child (Logan, UT) & Elder Curtis (Salem, UT)

They are all mostly good kids, but one or two of them (I wont say who) can be lazy somtimes.

We have a teacher and her name is Hermana Larsen. She is most excellent. She's always happy and is a good teacher. The first day, we all were brought to this small classroom and put in these desk-chairs (whose desks seemed to be tilted back at the exact angle in order to let your infinite amounts of books fall off with the slightest touch) and our teacher spoke almost exclusive spanish to us for like two hours. Haha, it was so funny to see some of the other Elder's faces as they just stared at her. They had no idea what she was saying. I caught some of it; enough to get along. She would translate of the of the words she said in spanish to english every once in a while to ensure nosotros entendemos (we understand), and would use hand actions to try and help us along, too. Like I said, I'm doing just fine in Spanish, but some of the other Elders are not doing so great...

Another thing about our first day was how often people said "Hi," to us! And somehow they knew we were new! Everywhere we walked it was"Bienvendio, Elderes!", "Welcome to the MTC, Elders!". I quickly figured out that the little orange sticker on our name tags was the perpetrator. After the first day we were allowed to take them off and then no one said "Hi," to us anymore... maybe I'll put mine back on, on Wednesday, just for fun...

The food! The food is good. It's pretty awesome. There are a lot of choices, too. There's a main line, and then two other main lines; there is a make-your-own-wrap glass alcove/bar thing (more like have-someone-else-make-you-a-delicious-wrap-with-anything-you-want-in-it alcove/bar--like subway); there are fruit and vegetables at almost every line; there is all kinds of fruit juice (from concentrate, but I can't expect them to have freshly squeezed juiced prepared for ~3,000 missionaries), milk, chocolate milk, sodas, powerade, you all the good stuff. There is salads, and parfaits, there is cereal towers out at every meal in the back if you feel like eating cereal for the rest of your days (I'm not one of those--actually, I haven't even had any cereal yet), there is bread and sandwich stuff: basically everything and anything you can think of. I've been doing pretty good (better than the rest of my district, for sure) in eating healthily because boy is there opportunity to not do so!

On Friday, my companion, Elder Latu, was acting funny during classroom time. He just wasn't paying attention, and looked... not good. Afterwards he asked if we could go to the Missionary Health Clinic, (it's kind of different here: they encourage you to use all the facilities here. "If you are feeling sick, please come to the Clinic, we want to help you." "Please let us know if you are feeling stressed out or just need to talk. WE WANT TO HELP YOU." Also, I'm sure they'd rather not have an infectious plague go ripping through the MTC, as we are all in close quarters.) and so we did. He said his gums behind his teeth hurt (bad; later he told me the worst pain he had felt in a long time--normally he if he's hurting he just lets it go, but apparently this was so bad that he asked for help). So they gave us a pink shuttle pass, made a dentist appt, and sent us off to the dentist. Turns out, he had a wisdom tooth that the last dentist didn't pull that was coming in. Surprisingly, they pulled it right there and then. It had absecced a little bit, I learned from the dentist, but they just numbed him up and yanked it out. I just sat in the waiting room, which had an unusually squeaky floor, and read my missionary handbook. I've read the whole thing now.

Things I need:

• SSN card. I don't think carrying my card around in my wallet is a good idea, but I'll keep it in a safe place and write it down somewhere, disguised as a contact, so no oone can steal it.
• Dental Insurance Card. I don't have an insurance card, and Missionary Medical doesn't cover dental, as I found out with Elder Latu, so I need that.
• My patriarchal blessing. I'm pretty sure I left it right in the back-of-the-seat pocket where I was sitting.
• Another pair of long shorts. I have one, and I used to exercise and now it stinks! Another pair for pajamas would be great.
• Addresses/my student directory! I can't write anyone because I don't know who to send it to!

Thanks for everything! You can post this to my FB if you want and my blog and email to others. The passwords are in the safe. I love you! The Church is true! The book is blue!