Here is Brok's first letter from the Missionary Training Center (MTC). We dropped him off last Wednesday, 11/3, around 1 PM. He starts his narrative from the point that we dropped him off. Pictures are forthcoming.
Typing up his handwritten letter is a labor of love. :)
11/3/10
So, I arrived safely. I didn’t lose my luggage, and I’m not suffering from anxiety attacks or homesickness, yet. But, I am already tired. After dropping me off, I went through a bunch of checkpoints, getting my ???, other general missionary supplies, and getting to my room. I dropped my luggage off in my room and headed to my classroom, where I sat and kind of talked with the teacher. I say “kind of” because she spoke nothing but Spanish to me at first, and it’s safe to say I don’t remember anything. But, I did meet my companions. I’m in a trio, or tri-fecta, as we call it. There’s Elder Porter, from Utah, and Elder Roberts from San Diego. Porter is going to Chihuahua and Roberts is going to Hermosillo, along with 2 other elders in my district. They seem pretty cool, although seems a little un-excited. But, that’s fine, he’ll get over it eventually, I’m sure.
But, wow, things are hectic here. Everything is scheduled down to the shower time in-between gym and class. It is awesome. I’ve missed having a schedule and this time I just have to worry about my honest effort instead of my writing ability or my memorization of phylams (?) or Gaelz (?) cities. It’s great, although I’m already tired. Probably because of the amount of “teaching” we did. What I mean by that is, after dinner, we all went to an activity with the other missionary newbies in a room set up like a living room in someone’s house. Then, we all watched an acting investigator talk to a couple acting missionaries and then opened the conversation to everyone. It was cool. The “investigators” were like real people, and acted out their role perfectly. I spoke with them a couple times, and I’d like to think I did well. Afterward, we went to meet our zone leaders, Elders Smith & Petersen. They went over our general schedule and other info. Wow, the days are packed. But that’s fine. Everyone else has managed to do it, so I can too.
But anyway, I should probably write in my journal now. Don’t worry, more info is forth coming.
11/4/10
This is just a continuation of yesterday. I was pretty tired then, and I have a little more energy right now so I’ll try to be more organized right now. Our schedule is very, very organized. I woke up at 6:15, shower, and go to class from around 7:00-7:45. Oh, and I forgot to mention something: I live in a 4-person room, but only with 2 other elders who are my companions. They’re Elder Roberts, from San Diego (if I didn’t mention earlier, but I think I already did), and Elder Porter, from Centerville, Utah. The room is like a dorm; there are bunkbeds, a couple shared desks, 4 closets, with a shower and bathroom down the hall. The classrooms are kind of small, with 4 elders in each room, which make up a district. Wow, for the rest of my schedule, I have breakfasts, go to some more class, have 50 minutes of gym time (I ran with my district leader, Elder Stanfill; he’s a good person), followed by lunch, a lot more class, followed by dinner, more class, and an hour of free time at the end of the day, until bedtime at 10:30.
Crazy, huh? Yeah, but it’s fine. Time is kind of funky here, so the days seem really long, since you’re always doing something, but also very short, because work is so distracting. It’s kind of hard to think about the time. But, it’s all good either way.
I’ve seen a couple elders from my time at BYU, and they all seem as though they’re doing well. One elder, who’s from Granite Bay and going to Budapest, responded to me in Hungarian after I recognized him. Wow, Spanish seems easy compared to that. Another elder, who’s going to Paris, saw me all the way across the cafeteria, and came and talked with me for a little while. Another good man.
And, you know what? I’m already loving this. I have something to do now. Not that work at home wasn’t “doing” anything, but this is one thing after another, just bam-bam-bam. No time to think about how tired or lost you are. It’s a great feeling. In other words, you’re content. And in other words, I have the Spirit. Great feeling.
Adios, para ahora, y . . . wow, I’ve forgotten a lot of Spanish. But, anyway, I’m done for now. I’ll write another letter next week, don’t worry. But, as a word of warning, there’s a good chance that it will be even messier and more unorganized.
Elder Humbert
P.S. The food is good. There’s more variety and more healthy food than the Cannon, actually.
No comments:
Post a Comment