Week 3

Hey everyone! I can't believe I've only been in the MTC for 16 days... it feels more like 16 months. Haha I don't mean that in a bad way, we've just learned so much in such a short time. Anyway, I don't have a ton of time (30 minutes always goes by fast), so I'll just share some quick stories from the week.

1. I'll get the bad news out of the way first- there are some really strange rules here. Our district thought we could plan our own P-day since the older districts told us that's what they do. So we had a plan all laid out where we could get laundry and letters done quick, so we would have time for a nap. But our Branch President, President Shumway, came to our dorm Thursday night to tell us we have to follow the schedule. It's super inconvenient, and I probably won't get a nap today as a result. And that's pretty lame because I'm still trying to get used to the no-sleep thing. But that's what ShumDaddy (that's what I call him but not to his face) wanted, so that's what we did. Ok, there's my mini-rant of the day.

2. We've had some awesome teaching experiences this week! We taught our teacher, Hermano Davis, when he was role playing an investigator. I just had a moment like halfway through the lesson where I was speaking really good Spanish and remembering words that I hadn't seen in forever. It was a neat experience, and the Spirit was really strong. Next, we taught our other teacher, who was also role playing. The lesson was a little sketchy, so I just decided to go off the script and start bearing testimony. Good choice by me (or technically by the Spirit). The lesson took a turn, and by the end we committed her to be baptized... in only the second lesson! I know it's role-playing, but it still made me happy haha. That same day we had our first TRC (Teaching Resource Center), where we teach actual members of the church acting as themselves. It was actually weird at first because I'm so used to role-playing but it was a great lesson! At the end of the lesson, she asked how long Elder Hebert and I had been at the MTC. When we said two weeks, she said it was "un milagro" that we spoke such good Spanish. So that made me feel pretty good!

3. So this whole week, I've been feeling pretty confident about my Spanish abilities. I'm nowhere close to fluent, but I feel like I'm at a good spot for right now. But yesterday, we watched a movie about the dedication of the San Salvador Temple. It was obviously really good, but everyone spoke Spanish (with English subtitles). When I just listened to the Spanish, I had no idea what they were saying cuz they spoke SO FAST! I literally understood like 20% of what they were saying, so that was kind of a blow to my self-esteem haha.

4. Some guys in my district have been trying to get me to play Foursquare in gym for the last week. I was like "No, foursquare is for kindergartners, why would I ever play that!" But they kept bugging me about it and telling me it was fun, so I decided to try it out. It's actually a hilarious game where you can do really cheap things to win! So I was pleasantly surprised. But don't worry, I'm still sticking with the true man's game of basketball most of the time :)

5. I finally found out where they had a scale here, so I could weigh myself. I hadn't checked since like May, where I was 165. So imagine my surprise when I stepped on to the scale to see... 180! I'm still convinced the scale is wrong, so don't worry about it too much. And it's not just because of me, it's because another guy in my district said he's gained ten pounds just during his time in the MTC. So the scale is definitely wrong... or that's what I'm gonna tell myself anyway.

Ok I'm out of time. Hope everyone is doing great, and had an awesome Thanksgiving. Put up your Christmas lights if you haven't yet- the ones at the MTC are ballin! I'll try to send a picture at some point, but I might be too technologically challenged to do that. Nos vemos en la semana que viene!