So, just to answer a few of the questions you had: P-days are Tuesdays; I get mail twice a day (lunch-12pm and dinner-5pm), and Dad, I got your message Monday after dinner.
Alright, well, the MTC has been great so far, and I’m not gonna spell check, so excuse any mistakes. My companion's name is Anziano Webb, he's from Provo, and he's our district leader. I have 6 Anziani in my district, and our district, as well as the new district that arrived last Wednesday, are all going to the Milan mission. Both districts are pretty sweet. I share a room with my companion and Anziano Terry and Anziano Parrish. Anziano Terry is pretty quiet most of the time, but he's warming up to us, and is super excited about learning the language. Anziano Parrish has studied Spanish enough to think he's fluent in it, and so he brings up any and every opportunity he gets to talk about Spanish, and that's why we made out first “commandamento del distretto”, and it was "Thou shalt not speak pagan languages." We now have 8 commandamenti, and several other inside jokes including hilarious quotes from each other. Anziano Jeter (Hater) is probably the most quotable. He was a dancer back home and therefore is very healthy and I guess "dainty" would be a good way to describe him. I'll give you quotes later when I have time, but Anziano Hater (that's how you would pronounce Jeter in Italian) is pretty awesome. His companion is Anziano Ellsworth, who was home-schooled and is probably the most shy of us, but I think he's starting to like us as well.
My companion has been having some rough night's sleep, and has been waking up with a sore throat each morning that lasts the entire day (just like when I would sleep with my window open) and has therefore been VERY grumpy the past two days, and kind of hard to deal with.... and I know that's just one of the many trials I need to get through, but it's rough... It's hard though because the first few days we got along so well, so I really think its just cause he's worn out, but I know that I can still do more.
As far as curriculum goes, we have memorized our purpose in Italian, and we're trying to have section 4 memorized by Sunday. We learned how to pray in Italian on Thursday, and have been saying all our prayers in Italian ever since, and learned our testimonies in Italian Friday and have been sharing them as well ever since. Both have also been growing exponentially since we learned them. The gift of tongues is a huge blessing here, and I am having no problem at all with the language, and my time's up....sorry.
I'm going to try and send letters back as well that will be more personal, but I can only write those whose addresses I have. Mom, you have the authority to edit, or do whatever you want with this email. I love you guys!
¡Arrivederci!
Anziano Bushman
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| Waiting for the Devotional |
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| District Commandments |
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| Christmas has come to the MTC |
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| Me and Anziano Webb |
:) That brings back great memories, I loved the MTC! I remember a lot of sniffling from the bunks at night too, but not because the window was open, weeks later we discussed it and laughed about how we'd all be trying to hide tears the first few days (a little homesick, a little overwhelmed with learning a new language) but it sounds like Jon's doing great...poor guy had to wait so long to get to the MTC that I think he's thrilled to be there :).
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