My First Week in the MTC

Well, I'm here. This first week has been pretty crazy. I got a letter from Steven through the DearElder.com thing and it was really great to receive one. I want you all to know that DearElder.com is really an awesome tool and helps us missionaries here out a lot. But of course nothing beats a hand written letter, jsut remember that the DearElder one is instant and we get it in the mail within hours. I also invite anyone who is curious to ask any questions they have and I will post them on this blog here.

First I'll talk about how it is in the MTC. I only get 30 minutes every week to email, so I'll try to get in as much as I can. My "P" days are on Wednesdays. The first four or five days are insane. I felt dead tired all day long and wanted to sleep any chance I can, but here... you can't do that. We follow schedules the whole time and are beat tired. I finally got used to it to where I don't want to sleep all the time. The first day we were learning spanish within a couple hours of entering. There was a brief orientation and we were guided around with a host. On their first day, every missionary wears an orange dot on their tag to show all they're new. Most missionaries have a companionship of two but I'm in one with three (don't knoiw why). The three of us will leave for Argentina Buenos Aires west in around 7 weeks. I ran into Elder Russell and Elder Wright really fast. They just left last Monday. I ran into several other friends from school here too. It's funny because you can't leave your companion so when you want to catch up with someone you have two missionaries standing to the side waiting. Most missionaries here speak spanish, or learn to speak spanish. The food is probably a 6 out of 10 but the problem is.... it's unlimited. Sometimes it's awesome and sometimes it's mediocre. I just did my first practice contact and teaching the first lesson yesterday. We did well and we had to knock on their door and set up an appointment with them in spanish. My class (or district) has 7 elders and 3 sisters in it. We are already praying and giving testimonies in spanish.

I'll go ahead and answer the questions Steven sent me in his letter:

First reactions: Tired, always tired.

Things you should have brought: Bring more white socks, we have gym every day and I wish I brought more. Bring at least 3-4 shirts and a pair of jeans. Other than that everything else you could need is in the store. You can always go to the store and it has anything a missionary needs, EVEN AIRHEADS FOR 9 cents EACH!!! I highly recommend a spanish vocab book. They first teach you how to pray and give testimony in spanish. Then the grammar. They don't really teach you vocabulary.

Things you didn't need: Well you don't bring your temple clothes to the temple here. They give all of it to you here, but I don't know if you will use them in the mission, most likely you won't.

Visa status: I got called to the office and they told me that I didn't need a visa to get to Argentina! That was a huge relief. I will still need it to live there thought, they said they will send it to me while I'm there. They are on top of travel requirements.

The lessons seemed to have been going through some changes. They tell us now to try to commit investigators to baptism in the first lesson. It's pretty cool. It's only been a week and I already feel like I'm a senior here at the MTC. Try to stay obedient but you also need to have fun. "Find the middle ground", as Tanner Crandell told me. I'm getting kicked off in two minutes from the computer so I'll make another post next week.

Thanks for all who read this and support me while I'm here! Send questions! Send letters via DearElder.com!

From your Medford 2nd ward missionary, Elder Trevor Jones