Subject: Re: I'm in the MTC!
Hi all!
I have been doing fairly well at the MTC. The first three days were really hard getting used to the schedule and everything. They also were really slow. The fourth and fifth days were better, but they were filled with conference. Yesterday was the first normal day where I felt pretty good. I am still not very good at Vietnamese, but now I feel like I can actually make it through the next eight weeks. Apparently all Asian languages are in the MTC for nine weeks, so I don't know why we were told it would be four to six weeks. Apparently I will be here through Thanksgiving. Anyways, we have had many interesting things going on here. In particular, one difficult thing was teaching a pretend investigator on our third day who only spoke Vietnamese! My companion, Elder Morris and I were trying to teach him about the Book of Mormon but had no idea what he was saying. We had to teach a fifteen minute lesson, and it went short. First off, we had planned on an introductory sequence at the door. Instead, the investigator, Anh Thien, said hello, come in. We didn't know what else to say, so we went in and got quickly into the lesson. The lesson also went short, since apparently Vietnamese people read REALLY fast. We gave a really simple testimony, and then had him say a prayer. In the lesson, Anh Thien is supposed to be Catholic, and I noticed his prayer seemed very robotic, and when he finished he did the Catholic cross thing. Let's just say it was a very humbling experience. We got to teach another lesson yesterday, and it went much better. We still couldn't really understand him, but we taught him about how to pray. At the end, he said a prayer that seemed more thought out and didn't do the cross thing. Progress! It certainly has been interesting.
Also, the food has been very good, although I kind of wish I could eat more. I always feel like I shouldn't since pretty much everyone else in my district doesn't get seconds, and only one other person ever eats the ice cream. Maybe that is a good thing though. I have only had ice cream a few times, and I tend to fill up my initial tray pretty well. The meals all tend to have a good variety of things, with sandwiches, or tacos, or chicken, etc along with fruit a lot of the time, and salads. Every Friday dinner is pizza night, which is catered, and Monday is cater night, yesterday being Chick-fil-A.
General conference was really neat, being with a bunch of other missionaries. It really helped to have a good spirit in the room as we all paid attention. We even all stood when the first presidency arrived or left each session. We all laughed when President Eyring would bump his chest and point at people to look cool. My one complaint with conference, however, was that my legs were so cramped! They have to fit over two thousand missionaries into a gym, so I sat on the bleachers which have no leg room. The song the congregation joined in was much anticipated by all as it allowed us to momentarily stand.
My district is pretty good, we have eight elders and two sisters. We have one elder going to Melbourne Australia, and two elders going to Cambodia Vietnamese speaking, while everyone else is going to Vietnam. Our district leader, Elder Hodson, is pretty cool. It always helps too that his mom sent him a million GIANT cinnamon rolls, and that he shared them with his district. I got four of them before my room decided to give our share away yesterday. Our room had four elders and we were given twelve cinnamon rolls. One elder isn't supposed to eat them since he can't have dairy, and the other two didn't want to get fat off them. More for me! We gave the rest out yesterday to some Mung Elders who were leaving this morning.
I have been enjoying the routine as well. Each day we get two approximately three hour class times, three meals, and exercise time. There is also either three or four hours allotted to study, including at least an hour used for personal study, companion study, and language study. There is also planning earlier in the morning. We get up every morning at 6:30 (but earlier if you want to get to the showers first, or laundry first on P Day) and go to bed somewhere between 9:30 and 10:30, depending on what your room decides for the day. My room usually chooses the latter. I have found out that one elder happens to have a chess board. His name is Elder Israelson and he is from Chicago. Apparently he competitively played chess in his junior and senior year. I have challenged him to a match that will assumable happen later tonight. He leaves the MTC on the 11th. On another note, I had heard some video game music playing in the residence hall. The first two times, I was the only one who heard it, and no one else heard it before it soon stopped, but the third time Elder Hansen also heard it and we found the source of the music. Apparently one of the Mung elders who left yesterday had been playing it. The first song I had heard was from Super Mario Galaxy, which he confirmed he played two days ago. The second was the main theme Zelda song, and the third was the Roost Island Song from The Legend of Zelda Wind Waker, which is the one Elder Hansen also recognized. I thought it was kind of funny to hear it playing in the MTC, but the elder defended it saying as long as it didn't have words and helped soothe you or calm you down that it was fine, and that he only had quieter songs from video games.
Anyways, getting back to a spiritual note, after conference on Sunday we had a really cool devotional. In it, we got to hear from a guy who helped work on "The Life of Jesus Christ" Bible videos, many of which I saw in seminary. I believe he was the executive producer. He told us about how all the sets were made, how the cast was picked by the first presidency with the directors advice taken into account, and many cool stories about making the videos, such as how his nephew was an extra, and one day was sitting out in the hot sun when suddenly he felt a shadow over him. He looked up and saw Christ holding an umbrella for him! Yes, it was just the actor, but still a cool story. After that, he showed us some of his next project for the Book of Mormon videos. We got a sneak peak at the Liahona, Nephi's ship, the brass plates, and the sword of Laban. It was a really neat experience. After that, we got to go watch a movie. My district initially wanted to see one of the more fun movies like Meet the Mormons or the one about Joseph Smith, but the rooms were full. We ended up in one that was a talk by Elder Bednar. While we all thought it would be a good talk, I don't think we realized how good it would be, and I am actually glad we watched it instead. It is a video exclusive to the MTC that records a talk Elder Bednar gave some years ago for Christmas at the MTC. It talked about the character of Christ and really inspired us to continue in missionary work. It was also fun to see Elder Bednar impersonate the Cookie Monster as the natural man.
Well, I will try to keep you guys updated on what I am doing. I will hopefully get to send out some other emails, but this is my big one for everyone.
Thank you so much for your support!
Elder Watson
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