Monday, August 8, 2016

MTC WEEK 1

This week has been an interesting week for sure. I arrived at the MTC at 1:15 on Wednesday afternoon to be very very quickly rushed from one room to another grabbing books, name tags and such. Within 10 minutes I have a massive bag of new materials, dropped it off in my room and was deposited into my new classroom. Getting there was shock 1. I entered the class to see 11, glazed eyed, confused, slightly scared looking people. Then the Portuguese started, and it was very very fast. I was quizzed down about my life (family, age, school, where I was from, mission etc.) all asked in Portuguese. That was a very overwhelming way to start off class. But thanks to tips written on the board and some help from the other missionaries in the class I figured it out. That class room is now where I spend up to 11/12 hours a day. It's a really really small room, with 13 of us including the teacher. My teachers name is Irmao (Brother) Read. I have 2 sisters-Sister Kinikini and Sister Frandsen, and a total of 10 Elders including myself. All awesome people, some of them are different, but as a group we get along quite nicely.  2 are going to Brazil (visa waiting). 8 to Cape Verde and Elder Brown and I to Mozambique. My companion, Elder Brown, is from South Weber and is awesome. We mesh very well and work even better together. I'm also rooming with Elder Peterson and Elder Mangeris (both of whom are 6'3+ so I don't feel tall when I'm in my room).

So, Portuguese. From now on I'll just call it Port because its long and I'll be talking about it a ton. We all wake up at 6:25 in order to try and get a shower in the morning without waiting in line. Brother Peterson wakes up, turns off the alarm, turns on the light and is out the door within in literally 10 seconds each morning when the alarm rings. I was told "enjoy the showers", this was a lie, or I got unlucky with my building because the showers are the worst :D The temperature control does nothing but turn the water on, and the temperature varies from either ice shower to too hot to touch in waves. Not fun to start the day off with, but we manage (and many scream). Then we are off to class for the first little 30 minute planning time. Breakfast at 8:00.

The food: its okay. Some of the meals are better than others. Overall you can find something that is worth eating each meal. There's always cereal which makes Elder Brown quite happy. There is also Fanta AND apple juice on tap, so I'm satisfied with the food situation. Also on Wednesdays when all the new people (me this week) show up there is BYU creamery ice cream and tons of toppings, so everyone is happy about that. Something to look forward to each week.

Back to Port. We then go back to our grueling schedule after we eat breakfast. 3, 3 hour sections of class. This consists mainly of us blankly staring at Irmao Read for the first 3 hours. Then we get an hour to study, AKA flash card of more Port. Then lunch, then another 3 hours of Port. Hour study "break" for flash cards then an hour to work out.

Workout time is probably my favorite hour of the day (besides going to sleep). The first 3 days we didn't get to workout and we sat for 11 hours a day, not a fun combo. But since then we have had an hour for exercise each day. My district (group of 12) and I went to play sand volleyball the first day. It was a blast. Since then we have been going to the gym and I've been getting into the competitive side of 4-square. I will conquer it by the time I leave.


Then we have another 3 hours of Port.... (hours 8-11...) this tends to consist of teaching a lesson to a fake investigator. Did I mention its only in Port??? The person we are teaching only speaks in Port so at this point its mostly Elder Brown and I writing down our lesson in English, translating it to Port and then reading it to "Nelson". Its actually really cool because we are starting to understand his responses. We taught our first lesson to him the 3rd day here... Crazy.


Finally its bed time, or as I call it "Drink a can of Fanta, write letters/journal and crash time".

P-Day for me is Monday, so I get to walk around in basketball shorts and a t-shirt until 6:30 pm. We got to walk over and go to the temple this morning too, which was sweet. Then its back into the tie and teaching Nelson another lesson.

That's pretty much it, no great stories to share yet, but I'm sure I'll have some very soon.

Elder Howell

PS: I did set up and sleep in my hammock last night, which was sweet.
PPS: Some of my district calls me "Elder Crockpot" after finding out I brought a crockpot, yay.

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