Week 2, Day 11

So I stayed up until 3:00 a.m. waiting for Preston's letter.   I finally fell asleep and the email came in at 4:00 a.m.  I woke up and checked my email at 6:00 and there it was, and I couldn't go back to sleep afterward.  I've got to get better at this.  He is definitely in the swing of things now.  He sounds like he is a little frustrated with the lack of time he has to email everyone that he wants to.  I know it's a pain, but he says he'd rather have actual mail because he can take all the time he wants to read them.  So if anyone needs international stamps, I have lots of them!!!  I'd be happy to mail any letter anyone wants to bring by the house.  :) 

 

 

Wow. So much has happened and I only have twenty minutes left of emailing. I barely had time to skim everyone´s emails and then read the ones from you and my grandparents. I don´t know why the flip the Provo MTC gets two hours, because we get a half hour and that is all. Well. I don´t know where to start. My companion is Elder Webb. The first missionary I really talked to. He was there with me in line. I totally had him pegged wrong at first. The biggest challenge for me right now is bonding with my companion. I have never met someone that I have had such a hard time connecting with. He is the opposite of me in every way. But he is a great missionary. He is here for the right reasons and he does have a desire to learn. His Spanish isn´t very good, and it is a burden sometimes but he is trying and I appreciate him. I have such an incredibly difficult time not being alone. I miss that terribly. I never realized how much I valued the time I spent by myself. I hate not being allowed to spend time by myself. And it doesn´t help that my comp and I aren´t exactly close. But I´m trying. I know that I was assigned to him for a reason.

My spanish is the best in my zone. Which is sad. But I´m way better than I thought I was. I am a zone leader. Elder Webb and I are. We were called the day after we got here. There are two zones in this MTC. Each of about 30 missionaries. This MTC is really...laid back. It´s not structured or orderly like I hear the Provo one is. There is a lot of down time. In the MTC, the teachers act as fake investigators and you and your companion teach them. There are districts, and each district has 6-8 missionaries in them. Our districts are our classes. The teachers will leave the classroom and one companionship will teach them while the others are supposed to be in class studying but everyone just messes around. And it is hard to focus when everyone else including your companion is just hanging out. I need to have much more discipline. I wasn´t planning on having to worry about that in the MTC, but the CCM is totally different. It´s a little bit all over the place. I am learning Spanish quickly. Much faster than I thought. I am literally teaching discussions without notes or anything. They´re aren´t correct by any means, but we´re doing it. Elder Webb isn´t quite at that point yet. But he is defintely improving!! I do love it here though. Elder W and I had a companionship inventory a few days ago and we discussed our differences. He says I´m too intense of a person, which made me laugh. We are just the opposite in every way. He is super laid back and doesn´t really worry about anything, and he loves making weird noises randomly and it is impossible for him to sit in silence. He has to be making some kind of noise. And I´m sure you realize how much I love random noises ;) Haha. It´s ok though. It´s a challenge for me but I am trying. The hard thing is that I can´t just put up with him and get through the MTC. I have to love him. ANd I am trying really hard. I pray every night. IT´s getting better. I was SOOOOOOO excited to email you. I cannot express to you how wonderful it is to get mail. Thank the proctors for me for their letter. I miss you soo much. All of you. I miss Spencer´s voice. I miss singing with him. I miss Quincey and Lincoln. A lot. I miss Clayton getting mad at me for putting old shirts of mine in his hamper. I miss Brigham and his slang. I miss you and Dad so much. I keep telling myself that I´m really not homesick, but I think I am. My first clue was the fact that I fall asleep every night listening to Pride and Prejudice, balling my eyes out. It´s only difficult at night. I´m pretty muc hfine during the day. I love being here, but I seriously miss my family. Much more than I thought I would.

I am in a room with five other Elders. Elder Ellsworth and Elder Frederick who are in the other zone, but they´re alright. Elder F is really odd. And Elder Ellsworth is a nice kid. Also Elder Easton and Elder Smith, who are absolutely hilarious. I laugh so hard that I cry sometimes. But we waste a lot of time with them. They are both football players and Easton was an SBO president. Everyone is from Utah. Easton did choir so we sing a ton. But it´s not the same as Spencer. They are comps and we hang out with them a lot. Elder Webb doesn´t like to though because he thinks we´re in a clique. Which I don´t agree with. I talk to everyone. Really. We´re pretty close here. Everyone knows everyone. Some missionaries came in yesterday from the Provo MTC, including Hermana King. I haven´t seen much of her because she´s in the other zone. They were waiting for their visas. The food is weird here. They try to be American but they don´t do well. It´s alright. I took some pictures but it takes way too long to load so you g uys wont get those until I´m in the field. I leave the MTC on April 30^th. So we went proselyting in a park on Saturday. And that was crazy. Really scary. I was with Elder smith because we had assigned temp comps and we only placed two pamphlets. The only word that Smith said was Hola, so I talked 99 percent of the time. We talked to a lot of people but none of them really cared. Some people were atheists and they kept arguing with me about God and how did I know that he was there and all this stuff. I talked to one lady for about twenty minutes. I´m learning quickly. I don´t know how but it´s fast. Elder Easton and this other elder placed nine books of mormon which really discouraged me. But I have to remember that it´s not about numbers and I just need to have more faith. I think speaking better Spanish is almost a discourtesy to me in that regard, because everyone else just handed people books and acted out stuff because they had no Spanish. People actually understand what I say so they talk back and interrogate me. It was nerve racking but I LOVED it. So excited for Saturday. I am being really lazy and not studying like I should. So I am trying to realign my focus. I´m super busy usually and when I´m not I just waste time. It´s so laid back here. Elder E,S,W and I all walked to Burger King during dinner yesterday. We had permission of course but it´s like 10 minutes away. That would never happen in provo. I just want more structure. I really just need to have more discipline.

Sorry about the bad punctuation and spelling, I am way over time and I have only written this one email. Let everyone know that I appreciate their emails. But I would much rather get letters. I know it´s hard but missionaries love mail and we only have a half hour here in the MTC. I would never have enough time to respond to everyone. I love wearing the badge that I wear. I know that I am a representative of Jesus Christ and I am striving to honor his name in every way possible. Going to bed at 10:30 is hard, and getting up at 6:30 is easy. The jet lag was not too bad, I got over it in five or so days. Umm I will write a more detailed letter. I have stamps and stuff.

Well. Please don´t think I´m not enjoying my experience here. Although I wish some things were different, I absolutely love this and I am SOO excited to get into the field. I am making the most of what I have and that´s what matters. My main goal is to be like Christ. That is all that matters to me right now. The language isn´t a big deal. I should be fluent by September according to my maestro.

Mom I would love the lyrics to all the le mis songs and to some Disney ones too. Elder Easton and I sing a lot. I would also love a new wall adapter maybe? Mine doesn´t work. I have SOO much more to tell you but I really can´t. I´m almost double my time. I would love snacks. If you could. And letters. I don´t have time but I will give more info in a letter. I love you all so much. I love this. I really really do.

Elder Sharp