Hello everyone!
I know this email might seem a bit early, but my P days are actually Saturday so I get to do my emails now! Alright let me go over all the things that happened here at the MTC so far. I arrived on Wednesday and was immediately sent off to a Spanish language class and that is where I received my companion, Elder Mower. We had to speak Spanish the whole time. That whole day they were just blasting us with information the whole day and it was super overwhelming, and it seemed like the first day lasted forever. But me and Elder Mower get along great, he is a super cool guy. He played football for Carbon High School and is going to SUU after his mission to be a long snapper. Having a companion is weird, you are literally with them every single minute of the day, and the only break we get is the last hour of the day from 9:30 to 10:30 in our residence hall. During that time we just have to be on the same floor as each other, but we always have to know where each other are. I'm glad I got Elder Mower as my companion though. The first couple days were kinda weird, but we're used to it now and we get along great.
The 2nd day seemed way faster than the first day, even though it was actually twice as long. We had a ton of Spanish instruction time and they give us a ton of tasks to do in our study time so we are constantly working on something the entire day. Our classroom is set up with 11 Elders,which is called my district. I spend most of my time with these Elders, and they're all super cool guys. In my district is me, Elders Mower, Wright, Ward, Bassett, Lund, Harrop, Olson, Jones, Dean (district leader), and Slade. I've gotten to know all these guys pretty well already, and I already know I'm going to be super sad when I leave them. 6 of us are going to Nicaragua, 4 are going to Argentina, and Elder Jones is the only Elder going to Bolivia. Our teacher Brother Myers is an awesome guy, but he never speaks in English. He is a great teacher though. We are all learning so much every day, both about Spanish and the Gospel. You can really feel the spirit so strong here all the time, it is amazing. We've had so many spiritual experiences already. One great example is every morning we have to wake up at 6:30, and every morning I get right up and I'm not even tired. This may not seem like a lot, but that's kind of huge for me because I am the worst with sleeping in and I've never been a morning person. I know that's our heavenly father helping all of us have enough energy for the day to get our work done. Sorry I'm getting off on these huge tangents, but the 3rd day was Awesome.
On the 3rd day (Friday) me and Elder Mower had to teach our first lesson completely in Spanish to an investigator names Santiago Gomez. He didn't know how to speak any English at all, and it was very hard for us. But we really felt the spirit the entire lesson, and that helped a ton. That was the very start of our day. After that a new teacher came in and gave us a ton of tasks, like learning 250 new words and 60 new phrases and memorizing a bunch of scriptures in Spanish and stuff like that. We have a ton of things we have to read too. Me and Elder Mower are constantly praying as a companionship to help us get through the lessons. We got exercise time that day too, so it really helped the day go by fast.
The food here is great. Every meal this week is catered though, because the cafeteria is being occupied by 175 new mission presidents being trained this week. All of the apostles have been here at some point this week too, just the other day we saw Elder Oaks walk past our classroom. Needless to say this week has been super hectic, but I have loved it so much. The Elders who have been here for a couple weeks seem so experienced, they are like veterans. We district always talks about how we can't wait until we are like them and we aren't the new kids anymore. And so today is P day and we get to do our laundry and now we are emailing. I have some pictures but I'll send those in another email. That's all for now! I just want to leave you all with a brief testimony that I know the church is true and I promise it can make you all experience true happiness! I'll be on my email until about 11 am today so if you get a chance, try to email me before then and I'll be able to read them. :)
Oh one more thing! Dear Elder.com (or something like that, I cant remember) is this super cool thing where you can send in a letter and they will print it off at the MTC and give it to me that day! I got one from Lacie on Friday and it made my whole day, it was super cool. I guess that's all for real this time. Adios!
- Elder Rush
MTC Week 2 (July 2, 2016)
