MTC January 14, 2012

I'm fairly certain that this is your email address.  I remember it from Netflix.  Either way, throughout all my emails, especiall in the MTC, I'll probably repeat myself.  I'm already getting confused timewise, and it's way too much to think about what I wrote a week ago, let alone two days.  I've been busy, naturally.  Just yesterday my companion, Elder Nilsen, and I taught an investigator, Thomas, all in Spanish.  Holy cow.  Yeah.  Vaca santa.  That's a bit weird.  Either way, it was an experience, no doubt.  We were able to get our point across, and even did fairly well.  We aren't entirely sure if he's an investigator or not.  Actually we are, but we very much believe he isn't.  His actions don't really point towards him not being an investigator.  It's kinda cool.  We have a main teacher for Spanish, Hermano Litzenberger.  He is cool.  After the nerve wracking experiences of teaching in Spanish when we aren't completely certain whether to use preterit or imperfect, what the proper conjugations are, let alone what the imperfect subjunctive or who knows what is, we are able to chill a little and learn at a bit more basic pace.  I am really grateful that I have my three years of Spanish experience.  I am sad I didn't speak more, because it would have helped.  My companion is a bit better than me, which is good.  Also, we are both going to Buenos Aires West.  There've been something like 5 of us, probably more, that I've heard of leaving to my exact mission.  To Argentina, in other missions, there's a bunch two.  Also, I've met two other Elders named Nicholas Hansen.  One is going to the same mission as me.  He's in the advanced class, however.  Our district is big.  So far we have 11 elders.  Elder Nilsen is district leader, which is cool.  I realize that reading this in a block form is probably fairly difficult.  I also realize that some of my sentences are probably weird.  Hopefully this continues.  It entertains me.  But I'm striving to avoid misspelling words.  Hopefully misspelling is spelled like that instead of "mispelling."  I think I'm right.  We taught Tomas again today, and will continue to teach him on Monday.  I will continue to learn more Spanish, among other things.  I'm a word or two away from having the missionary purpose memorized in Spanish, but I'm really close.  I thought it would be more weird (weirder?) to memorize something in Spanish, but as long as I understand the words it isn't terribly hard.  Similar to English.  Saying prayers is still a bit tough.  I'm getting down the form, however.  The district I'm in is good.  There aren't any elders that only want to party or do dumb things.  It makes life better when that happens.  I'm loving skipping around topics like this.  I can only imagine it would make it harder to read, but it's great.  One thing I've noticed is that the MTC seems like a completely separate place from the rest of the world.  Minus the weather and basic use of English, we could be anywhere.  The elders that attended BYU say that everything is pretty similar.  The way the buildings are constructed, the food, the washing machines.  But even though it's like a half mile away, it doesn't seem like it.  It does feel a bit restrictive, but I know that the purpose for the restrictions well outweigh the wants I have.  By the way, the food isn't wondrous, magical.  It's better than a cafeteria, but less good than a restaurant.  The good thing is I can get as much as I want.  I never really need much more than an entree and maybe a bit more.  Gym time is fun.  We played basketball yesterday, and it was good.  You can tell who has played ball in high school because they are generally good.  Good exercise.  Security here, so I've heard, has gotten a bit more intense than in the past.  We have key cards to use to open residence hall doors, get to the cafeteria, and, well, basically everywhere.  Because I never had it otherwise it doesn't really bother me.  My companion came from a family with four girls, he being the only boy.  Despite this, he is not girly, thankfully.  He is pretty good at ball.  I know that it was the right thing for me to go here, for sure.  It might be hard to teach in Spanish now, but by the end of these nine weeks, I will be a pro.  I just have to avoid getting distracted and keep focused.  How's that for redundance.  I'm doing pretty good so far.  Goal setting is definitely important.  It's a bit weird to have goals to accomplish each and every day, as well as each and every week.  Plus the ones for being at the MTC.  There are plenty of goals.  But as I hinted, or quite plainly said, I will be here for 9 weeks, about.  I think I heard that March 12th or 13th was the date they were going to ship us off.  You can count the weeks for sure because I know that it's 9 weeks, but it should be around there.  I've seen a few people from home, like Elder Fleming and Lesuer, and Gray.  Mom and Dad will only know Elder Fleming.