Hola
familía!!
I figured
out how to beat the email system! This morning we came and printed off all of
our emails- only using seven minutes of my time on my email- so we were able to
read them, and now I am typing this up in a word document so I can just copy
and paste it into my email!! It feels so good to be able to just write without
having to worry about how much time I am using!
Hopefully I
figure out how to email my pictures to you, I only have like four because I am
still not very good at remembering I have a camera, but it’s better than nothing!!
So I figured out that it takes two and a half weeks for a letter to get here
from Utah. I was kinda depressed when I heard that but now that I have all the
time I want to email it makes it much better! You can still mail me letters, I
enjoy hand written sentiments, and I will definitely write back, but it just
might take a while.
Okay, so
many of you have asked me the same questions, so I am just going to answer all
of them in this email to save my fingers from falling off with a typing
disease. First, and most important: The food!! The food is actually really
good! We have a lot of meats, especially chicken. We get tortillas with every
meal and refried beans as well. They really like their bread here. I have eaten
so much bread since I got here! All of their bread is amazing because it’s all
dessert bread. We eat a lot of croissants and turnover-type stuff. However, the
food isn’t always good. It’s definitely hit and miss. I hate it when they try
and make hotdogs because they don’t cook them at all and it tastes like you are
eating raw meat. I have also had my fair share of the food going straight
through me in less than three hours. Every time you swallow something it’s a
gamble!
Second
topic of business: Spanish! I feel like I have learned so much already! It’s
amazing to see how far I have come in only two weeks. I get kinda frustrated
because I am in a beginner Spanish class and no one else in the class really
knows anything so the teachers teach really slowly, but it’s good to review
sometimes. Most of the time I just figure out how to say things that are of use
to me. The first phrase I learned here, and the most used one is “mas despacio
por favor” which translates to “hey listen, I don’t actually speak this
language so if you don’t slow down your mouth I will kick you in the shins.” I
say it to natives a lot. I feel very comfortable speaking the language now, to
anyone- as long as we are talking about the gospel.. That’s about as far as my
vocabulary goes at the moment. But I’m working on it!
My district
is pretty cool. I am not the district leader but sometimes I feel like I am
because everyone just messes around all the time and I am always the one to
bring them back in. There are a few kids in our district who don’t really want
to be here, which is frustrating because the rest of us are trying to prepare
for our missions while they just mess around. We are becoming close as a
district though, which is cool. Most of the elders and sisters are still really
homesick; Heavenly Father has completely taken away my homesickness since last
Tuesday, which is really nice.
I had an
interesting experience this week. I really have been doubting my testimony
lately. I know that a lot of things are true, but there are a few things that I
can’t testify about because I haven’t figured it out for myself. We had a
lesson this Sunday about making our prayers specific, so I put it to the
test. It was a cool experience. I prayed
and asked Heavenly Father to answer my prayer at precisely 4:30 that day. From
4-5 we watched a devotional on the screen from elder Scott, and guess what, at
exactly 4:30, not 4:31, not 4:29, Elder Scott spoke about exactly what I was
praying for and said exactly what I needed to hear. I challenge you to put this
to the test. Just don’t do some ridiculous thing like; I want a cat to bring me
a two dollar bill in his mouth while I am eating breakfast.
Sorry this
email is so long, but I just have so much to say!! This is the one moment of
the week that I look forward to most, so I want to make it last! It’s weird to
think I have only been here for two weeks. It feels like I have been away from
home for a year. I am just glad I have pictures to look at; I didn’t think I
would want them but they are the most valuable thing to me. Thank you so much
for taking the time to write me throughout the week. It means the world to get
emails from home. I have had a few people ask what a typical day is like at the
MTC, so I will outline one real quick. 6:30- arise, prepare for the day, study.
7:30- breakfast. 8:00- personal study. 9:00- language class. 10:00- teaching
class. 11:00- book of Mormon class. 12:30- lunch. 1:30- Gym!! 3:00- language
class. 4:00- teaching progressive investigators. 6:00- dinner. 6:30- Language
learning on the computer, which is horrible. 8:00- language, personal, and
companion study. 9:30- go home, write in journal, and prepare for bed and the
next day. Then we get up and do it again! A lot of elders are having a hard
time because it’s such a busy day, but I feel like I have been prepared so well
with my whole senior year being insane that it’s not much of a change.. My
favorite part of the day is definitely gym. We all play soccer because everyone
wants to get better so they can play on their mission. It is so much fun!
Especially cause they act like I am a soccer god or something. The other day an
elder asked me “are you a professional player or something?” To which I
promptly responded “No elder, I’m a missionary.” And I walked away. I thought
it was funny.
Well that’s
all for this week! Thanks for all the love and support. I love you all so much
and I am praying for each of you specifically more than you could ever know.
Until next Tuesday!!
