I am sitting in the laundry room of the MTC, hurriedly typing this email, before I run out of time (a countdown clock is on the corner of my screen).
Brief update:
I love my companion. Her name is Karina Hernandez and she is from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. I knew we would be instant friends after a couple of instances; one, when I confessed that I loved cottage cheese, two, that I often get Backstreet Boys and N*SYNC songs stuck in my head, and three, after I wrote my own Gospel song based off of Alma 26 (just to clarify, when I say Gospel, I mean that Gladys Knight's choir could sing my song). I even made up a brief song to her to the tune of Copacabana (The chorus goes like this: "Es mi compa, mi companera, tambien se llama hermana, es mi compa, mi companera, es muy bonita y yo la Susita, es mi compa.........nera.) Please forgive my lack of correct accent marks in this email.
I'm not going to lie. This first week was hard. It was hard to get used to so many rules and to so much structure. For example, no music in the dorms (it's distracting to the neighbors), no flip flops outside of the dorms,etc. I felt like I was Maria, from The Sound of Music, who would rather run around and sing in the mountains (the line, "She's always late for everything, except for every meal" comes to mind) than sit in meetings all day. But, I'm adjusting. And, I know that while in Peru I will probably long for the days when I was at the MTC.......
My companion and I were super optimistic about getting up at 5:30 every day to go exercise and read our scriptures. That lasted one day, before we came to our senses and realized that we needed to get as much sleep as we could while we can!
I was surprised at how quickly I am learning Spanish！It is coming along pretty quickly, now, and my mind feels like a sponge, quickly picking up different words and phrases. Mi companera and I help keep each other in line with different goals that we've set, including on arriving early to class, exercise, language learning, lesson preparation, etc. I honestly couldn't ask for a better companion. She and I have helped our district (a class of 8 elders and she and I) to make district goals. We even made a chart to keep track of the progress we are making of things we need to memorize and we declared a "Spanish only" policy in the classroom, which everyone agreed to. We recognize that the MTC isn't just about helping ourselves to become more prepared missionaries, but about helping the young men become better prepared, as well.
General Conference was amazing and we have a devotional every Sunday and Tuesday. I am planning on joining the MTC choir. We'll see if that lasts longer than the 5:30 am exercise plan. :) I am studying the Book of Mormon and the New Testament and rejoicing in them (escudrinandoles), as they help me increase my faith in Jesus Christ and teach me how to become more like Him.
