Okay I don't have that much time to email so I'll just spit a bunch
of stuff out. The MTC is really small. We are the only zone here right
now, but we have one district who has been here for 4 weeks already
learning German. The rest of us are all going to the Leeds or the Manchester missions. I got placed with two companions so we are a
tripanionship. Elder #1 is from New Zealand and Elder #2 is
from Idaho. These two elders are the most immature 18 year olds I've ever
met and it's been a real struggle to do anything with them. The days
are really slow because they're hard to deal with and don't really want
to do anything. Elder #2
doesn't participate and knows very little
about the gospel and has terrible people skills. Elder #1 is really
loud and obnoxious and refuses to take criticism from anybody, even if
it's like 'Elder we're in the temple can you be quiet?'. It's
frustrating. The teachers and classes and devotionals here are amazing
though and I'm learning a lot even with my difficult companions. I pray
every day for patience and humility and the ability to be more like
Christ when I deal with my companions.
Also
there's a total of around 40 missionaries here in the MTC so the meals
are all prepared at certain times, not like buffet style like in Provo.
The food is sometimes amazing and sometimes bland and gross. There is no
chocolate milk :(
I really miss playing my
guitar. I can't really sing very much either because Elder #1 is super
loud and obnoxious and he is always yelling or singing really loud
completely off key. Also there are some sister missionaries here who sing so loud and they're so off that
every time we sing hymns I can barely hear the piano and the pitch is just
lost. My musical ear is frustrated and I'm itching and itching and
wishing I could play a guitar, just for like 5 minutes. Or listen to
some music that's not Elder #1. Also just another point, he sings all
kinds of pop song, but as soon as the hymns start he doesn't even sing.
There
are missionaries here that I really do like though. There's elder Cain
who's in my room and he's from England. There's elder Carpentier from
France who's awesome. There's some other guys from Utah and England and
one guy from Alberta and some New Zealanders and some guys from other
states who I've become friends with. There's a map in one hallway with
everyone's picture posted where they're from and it's so cool. Finland,
Sweden, South Africa, New Zealand, China, it's cool. Elder Metza-Tokila
is from Finland I think and he's another guy who I've become friends
with. All our classes are held in our district room though so none of
the other elders are there, just my companions, but the sisters
are great, there's sister Nelson and Sister Thalen from Utah, and sister
Nagy from Hungary and sister Lunden from Sweden and they make the class
so much better. And the teacher is Brother Boysen from England who
recently returned from his mission in The Czech Republic, and there's
brother Ibba who lived in and served his mission in Italy.
We
do a lot of role plays and practice investigator lessons here, and
they're helpful. They have like rooms decorated like realy house living
rooms and stuff and teachers go in there and pretend to be
an investigator and you like teach them progressively every couple of
days and it's pretty hard. It's mostly hard because I know what to say
but both of my companions don't and it's frustrating. Yesterday we
taught ''Giovanni'' who is actually brother Ibba for the third time and
brother Ibba told me to just not talk/barely talk for the lesson and it
was a train wreck. Any real investigator would have been so confused.
There were super long pauses and it was so awkward and the lesson wasn't
taught properly, and after I was like ''So elders how did it go?'' and
they were like ''It was fine''. When it wasn't it was terrible. They don't
take anything seriously.
Anyways. I'm with them
all the time. We have next to no free time. They stay up too late and
then sleep in. It's okay though. The MTC President is awesome. There is a
stake center up the street with a half a basketball court but the hoop
is 8 feet and there's no net its terrible. I played once but there were
like 30 people so it didn't really work.
I was able to send him an email explaining that once he gets out of the MTC hopefully his first companion (trainer) will be eager to work and then the time will move faster because they'll be working so hard -- and then he won't miss basketball and his guitar so much. He got that email the same day and replied with this:
It's just before dinner time now actually and today we got to go to the
stake center with less elders and played some good basketball and that
was really good. And yeah I think so but I think I'm still gonna itch
for guitar. Also we went to the church bookstore today and I got a
Preston MTC hoodie. The roads here are really small and
being in a car is disorienting because they drive on the other side.
Anyway I'll try to send you some pictures soon from my camera or some
other guys cameras. Also we went to the temple this morning. Tell everyone I miss them!
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