Hola!!
So it's finally P-day!! Best day of the week for
sure haha Basically we have NOTHING to do today, which feels nice, but I still
only get 30 minutes on the computerJ Before I
start going into my week, I thought it would be fun to share some statistics
with you for the past week and a few days that I've been in the MTC.
Number of days in the MTC: 9. Hours of Spanish in
class: 36. Hours of teaching people in Spanish: 5. Number of sand volleyball
games won: too many to even count. Number of packages: 13!! My favorite one is
the last one haha I've gotten a package EVERY day since I've been here. And one
of the days I even got 5! So I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who's been
thinking of me and sending me packages. Not only am I making friends really
fast because of all the food I've been getting, but it's just really nice to
know that everyone is taking the time to think about me and send me something
:) Also, thanks for all of the letters. dearelder.com is literally the BEST website in the world for
everyone who wants to write something. It comes the day of and it's always the
greatest feeling when I get to pull out a stack of letters in my mailbox. So
keep that in mind. hahahah
Since the last time I wrote you, not much has really
has changed. We often do the same thing each day, so I'll start off with what has happened in
between classes. I have 3 other elders
who are in my room. They're all pretty sweet expect there are definitely times
when they can get on your nerves. Especially when one of them sits on my bed
and sticks his dirty socks on my pillow... that's when I start to kinda lose
it.:)
We received our travel plans yesterday!! We are
scheduled to leave on Monday, July 30 at 2:30 in the afternoon and then we get
to Santiago on July 31 at 8 in the morning. Talk about a LONG flight! But after
getting those travel plans yesterday, everything is becoming so real! It's
weird. It's still hard to believe that I'm even on a mission in the first place
and now the fact that I'm leaving in 10 days to actually start the real thing
is crazy! I need time to get used to everything but they have us moving so
fast!! So if anyone wants to send me anything, next week is the last time to do
it ;)
Since last week, class has been getting a lot better.
It's crazy how much you can learn even when it's in a different language. The
weird part is after speaking Spanish for so long during the day, you come out
of class and you still keep speaking Spanish. It's like our brain has been
reset to speak that rather than English, which is weird. In fact my companion and I were
writing letters last night and we both forgot how to say something in English
for a second. I swore that this would never happen to me while I'm gone so the
fact that it's already happened after 9 days is a scary thing to think about...
But it's pretty cool knowing that so much has changed since last week. I was
pretty uncomfortable speaking all the time in Spanish and teaching lessons last
week but this week it's completely different! I'm totally fine speaking Spanish
and i can actually say what I'm trying to without really focusing on it. The
Spanish is starting just to flow out like it's not even a problem at all. It's
pretty cool in my opinion.
So everyday we have time for gym. This is definitely
the best part of the day because we get to leave the MTC!! It's like we're
escaping prison almost.... we go past the security guards out front and run up
to the fields by the temple. The reason I like gym so much is not only do we
get a break from class and everything, but we get to play just a bunch of
different games like soccer, frisbee, and baseball. But my favorite is sand
volleyball. I like it the best just because it's the closest thing I'll get to
a beach for a longggg time. It's soooo nice taking off your shoes and playing.
Now that's one of the reasons I like it but another is because my team is
freaking good. We've been winning all the time and it's SO fun!! There's a ton
of Elders and Sisters who play so it's a great time to get to know everyone out
of their "missionary" mode.
Let me tell you about Sundays. It's a little different
than at home because church is all split up during the day. It's kinda weird...
all 3 of the hours are like at random times. So it doesn't even really feel
like church. Our church is in Spanish though so that's very cool but the most
stressful part about it is the fact that everyone in our ward has to prepare a
3-5 minute talk in Spanish because the President calls on 2 random people
every week to speak. I walked in to church on Sunday feeling sick because of
the fact that I didn't want to have to give a talk. Luckily for me, I didn't
have to :) Also on Sundays, we get an opportunity to walk up to the temple.
It's really nice because once again it gives us a break to leave the MTC and
just some down time to relieve some stress. We walk up as a district and it was
pretty fun. We memorized some primary songs in Spanish so that was definitely
the highlight of the walk. After the walk, that night we always have a
fireside. This week the speaker was Jenny Oaks Baker (Elder Oaks' daughter) who
is apparently an AMAZING violinist. She was absolutely incredible! The cool
part was that she spoke a little and then tied in her message to a song and
played it for us. She did this probably about 5 times so we got to hear her
play, which is really cool. The best was when she had her kids come up and play
for us too. They were 12,10,8, and 5 and they were all music prodigies. They're
going to be ridiculously good when they are older. They played the piano,
violin, guitar, and cello. It reminded me of the family from Sound of Music or
something haha it was a pretty amazing experience for sure.
Now let me tell you about one of the harder things at
the MTC. It's called TRC and basically this is when we really get to start
teaching people who are acting as investigators. And boy, they are NOT easy.
Yesterday we met our second person and his name is Jose Mesas. And jeesh, he
asked so many hard questions and doubted everything we were saying I don't even
know how to get to him haha The cool part about this was after we left, my
companion and I both noticed that the problem wasn't our Spanish at all! In
fact, it was pretty good. It was just
the questions that he had for us. So we get to go back and teach him again
tomorrow so hopefully we'll have better luck haha
My favorite package of the week would have to be the
one from Kelli..... IT'S A BOY!!! I was SOOO excited to get that. I honestly
probably started crying or something because I was so excited for them! I'm so happy we can add another little boy to
our family :) I'm super happy for you guys!
But I'd have to say the best day of the week was the
18th. when I received 5 packages in one day. I looked SO CRAZY
carrying all of them back to the room. It was the best. So I just wanted to say
a quick thank you to everyone who has sent me something while I've been here.
It's really a good feeling when you get to go pick up something from the post
office and know you are being thought of.
Yesterday was a sad day though... one of our teachers
had to leave because she's going on vacation with her husband and won't get
back before our entire district heads off to the mission field. We were sad to
say good-bye. So we took some pictures,
however, I'm pretty sure there isn't a
way to send pictures while I'm at the MTC but as soon as I get to Chile, I'll
send you all the pictures that I've taken while I’ve been here.
Sorry I don't have much time to write a lot but I'll
send another letter on my P-day! I love and miss all of you and thanks so much
for all of your support :)
Love, Elder Riches
No comments:
Post a Comment