PDAY 3

Today is Pday number 3. And time is flying by like there is no tomorrow, and by that I mean it drags,,, and drags,,, and drags,,,, and then for a moment,, zips bye extremely fast. We are starting to quiz each other on what we had for dinner the day before, And we get it wrong. It is a very weird set of circumstances and not to sure how to explain it.

SPANISH! Spanish is coming alright and it is already moved into my vocab rather quickly, while at the same time it has replaced some things all together. I can no longer testify in English based on the fact that I was attempting to reverse translate a testimony in my head for my Zone President who does not speak Spanish. In Spanish when you testify, they taught us to use the word Creer, which translates to "To believe" and in Spanish the testimony makes sense, but the second I was trying to translate it back saying in English "I believe the church is true" is odd sounding, so I would constantly stop myself and have to substitute testify and other words in and out. It was miserable and I looked really really dumb..But i stumbled through it..

So when you are at the MTC this is what is supposed to happen, you show up day one and are introduced to your 2 teachers and then two weeks later introduced to a third teacher and then have those three teachers alternate respectively throughout the week. That is not the case for us though. After our teachers learned of our terribly poor Spanish and lack of some English skills they both magically happened to have a 10 day vacation on the same set of days...And the thing is they said we would have subs and we were alright with that, until the sub came in and told us that he/she would now be our new permanent teacher...But this hasn't just happened once...We have had a total of 10 teachers so far..Coincidence,,,, Or are we just to much to handle?? I think it is the later of the two. It has been rough not having a consistent teacher, Because one thing you will learn (whether you like it or not) every teacher wants their first lesson, to be the lesson that you wont forget and tell us/ask us why we are here on missions and what our duty is..We are slowly getting tired of having that lesson for the 10th time yesterday afternoon...We have had one too many 'life changing' lessons and I cant remember which one changed my life more... :)

Minus the ridiculous amount of teachers simply going on vacation and never seeing again the Spanish is coming on rather well. Also we are feeling rather confident in our teaching abilities, But we are all suppressing the fact that we know as soon as we hit Argentina we will be blown away by speed and also understanding of the words that will be spoken to us. I am slightly feeling the need to fake a nervous break down.  I heard through the grape vine that if you do, they give you the option to send you into the field as soon as possible.  That is one way to get out of the MTC, but I'm not that desperate yet.

Oh so we had the awesome opportunity to hear from the General Young Women's President

Bonnie L. Oscarson

 on last Tuesday, ( I think it was last Tuesday)and were also able to hear from Sister Jenny Oaks Baker, Elder Oaks Daughter, Both were amazing talks and both were interesting and also their high notes (literally). Sister Oscarson was able to talk to us about her family and the numerous amount of missions she and her family have served in the Netherlands and those respected countries. Then Sister Oaks Baker, who if you don't know is a world renowned violinist and has been performing since she was 8 and playing since she was 3, was able to play some amazingly conducted musical pieces for us along with her 4 kids and family friend. Both were wonderful talks.

There were ALMOST riots this morning...So close..like i could here the quiet whispers of uncertainty..It was crazy..But thank goodness the return of the strawberry and mixed berry cream cheese has returned for breakfast. We were honestly seconds away from doing something crazy like turning over a salt shaker or something, or maybe even a napkin holder, but that would only happen if we knew there was no hope. But we had faith and the past two breakfasts were miserable but the wait was well worth it..I take it the MTC staff heard our silent thoughts of rebellion and quickly restocked before it got out of hand. I'm not sure how they would handle the wrath of a two person riot.

Also to all those classy missionaries, don't wear a three piece suit..cause if you do another missionary, (me) who enjoys his Ráspbérry Lémóñádé, very fancy stuff here at the MTC, will, with the help of another Elder. Perfectly rehearse and execute a maneuver in where my Elder will, while taking his jacket off, Drop a solid elbow onto my tray..And my wonderful Raspberry Lemonade will just so happen to soak the back side of your jacket..And while I'm sitting there apologizing in Spanish, I will be manically laughing in English in my head..

(If I think of more to add i'll send it to you but other then that, that will be all :) unless you ask me some questions and such)

PDay 2. The start of week three

So far being here at the MTC has been a wonderful experience and I have had an amazing time talking and associating with my company and also my companion. Umm, I'm not to sure how to do this at all so Ill give it my best shot haha.

​My last week has been wonderful. Twice as good as the time before. Sundays are a true blessing based on the fact that we don't have any sort of classes or learning, unless the learning was of the spirit and the scriptures. A bit cliche sounding but that is how it is. If you are not learning of the scriptures, you are learning of the language. Or eating.

The food here is wonderful, there are some days where we would rather grab a sack lunch. Let's just say that the shrimp seem a bit to shiny...But we are getting fed well. It is really weird to have breakfast at the time you are suppose to, And then lunch and then also dinner all at the correct times. Or just being feed three meals in general is odd. The Spanish is coming back, the little that i already learned. But in general I believe my self to be on track with the norm of Spanish learning.

They have us teaching investigators here and so far the worst problem with it is the fact that I can not construct sentences in Spanish to save my life. I don't know all the little words, and half of the time they don't even need to be translated, so it is weird adjusting to a new language.

Last Thursday me and my fellow Elders were able to go to the Temple and go through an endowment session for names that my Grandma Carol has given to me. And this week we were able to go through a sealing session for some of those same names. It was a very wonderful experience to hear the promises given in those prayers.

I'm sorry for being all over the place but I'm pretty sure many people would be proud to hear that I, while being here, have sewn three different things so far. A tear in my Pink Camp Rocks shirt, a tear in my pillow case and a small hole i burned in my hoodie while playing with fireworks, not at the MTC, And ironing and washing my own things are a fun experience. And to sum things up, the one thing you don't want to get asked to help with is folding socks at the temple....

Umm...I'm not sure what else to say. We have been going to choir on tuesday nights so that we have a seat for the speaker. We had a quorm of the 70 last tuesday and the tuesday before we had the MTC director. They were both very good talks and the notes I took are fun to reflect on.

You are pretty much forced to study here. Which is nice, I can't sit at the dinning room table and listen to music and twiddle a pencil for an hour and say that i have any more. We have Personal study, companionship study and then language study. So it basicaly gets us so tired of stalling we end up studying haha. This is longer then last weeks so i think it will sufice the curious. 

MTC 2.0

So week one, attempt number two. This has been a very interesting experience semi-knowing what is already going on. But the tiempo is starting to go by much quicker and spanish is coming back at the same speed. I already have down the Nuestro Propositio and am working on many other things.


On Sunday i was able to go watch the talk, character of Christ again and that is for sure one of the best talks I have ever heard. And was super happy to be able to hear it again and take notes and some of Elder Bednar's council into my studies.

We have been teaching an 'investigator' who is really a teacher here, but it was a very interesting experience and struggling through spanish is already crazy enough. Also a big thing for me is I've begun to have crazy dreams here at the MTC and most revolving around people i know and really funny situations that i would have never thought of consciously.
The past couple of days have been rather interesting when it comes to weather and also rather interesting when it comes to temperature, I learned that my bed here at the MTC does not have enough covers to keep me warm and i struggle to stay warm at nights here.

My Companion is Elder Herzog and i would be sending pictures had i not left my camera in the back of my grandmas car on the Wednesday that i arrived here. Elder Herzog is a awesome person and I really enjoy talking and sharing experiences with him. He is an amazing first companion and a very trustworthy and nice person to be associated with. To add. I have learned so much already, And so much is going on with me and

around me. I had an oportunidad to talk and laugh with Hermana Graham and see here around West campus here. I also had an oportunidad to talk with Elder Black from back home in Utah, We ran into each other by complete chance and was a wonderful experience to see a old friends face.

I'm not sure what else to write, I am sorry that my first email is going to be so short this time but there is a lot that I must do today and get back to other things.

​Con mui amor, ​