I made it! I'm here, and it's wonderful. I was expecting the worst since I've heard horror stories about everything from angsty companions to gross food. I probably shouldn't advocate having low expectations, but in this case I have been happily surprised since I did. The first day here was incredible in a lot of ways. After being led around and collecting things until I thought I couldn't possible carry anything else, I was taken to my room and dropped it all off and then went to the classroom to meet our district and teacher. I didn't get one of the colored dots to tell people you're new. Everyone else had them, but for some reason I was left out of that tradition. :( although since I was surrounded by people wearing them I still got told "welcome to the MTC" many times.
We met our teacher, Hermana White, and she only speaks to us in Spanish. THANK YOU, madre, for speaking to us in Spanish so often! One other elder and I have enough comprehension that we can understand what's going on most of the time, but the others are often clueless. Most have taken little or no Spanish, and I can't imagine how hard that would be! Hermana White will talk to us and then be like "si?" and the other missionaries just smile and nod, and then one of us who understands will translate and then they'll go "OH! okay." She's great and repeating and helping us learn, it just takes time to get used to it.
We have four sisters and five elders in our district and it rocks socks. We all get along really well and we made district goals (of our own accord) and, when we're not crazy drained and exhausted, everything works well with the dynamics between us. We didn't get a district leader until Thursday night (he's the one who gets the mail), and so we didn't get mail until last night and it was SO great to have letters to read. I always heard missionaries say that letters were there salvation, but I didn't understand until now, and I'm sure I'll appreciate them even more when I've been in longer than four days. Ha. So Dear Elder away! Yesterday was our first day of the full 9 hours of study, and we were so drained and overwhelmed and exhausted by the end, and when we finally got our mail at 9:30 it was the best feeling to have letters to read. It was almost better than Christmas. Jk, not even close. But it was needed. Thank you to all who sent something. Those of you who didn't, "repent, therefore, of this thy wickedness."
The first night here had a big group teaching experience, and I was about ready to strangle something. All of the new missionaries split into a few groups, and then in a group of 50 brand spanking new missionaries sat down and taught "investigators." They would have to experienced missionaries start the discussion, and then turn the time over to the rest of us to ask and answer questions. It was more than frustrating. 50 18/19 year olds who are so excited to teach the gospel trying to explain gospel principles was hilariously pathetic. They tried to cover every topic from the plan of salvation to the book of mormon to resurrection, and everything in between . Topics kept switching and left unfinished, and I'm sure if it had been a real investigator they would have thought we were idiotic. They probably did anyway, but were more understanding about it ;) It's hard because it's like simultaneously learning two languages; Spanish and the mission language. I didn't realize how difficult it is to actually teach the gospel; I have so much knowledge, but translating that simply for people unfamiliar with the church AND into Spanish is a joke.
We have one other district in our Branch right now and it's all Elders, so there are like 15 elders and 4 sisters. I got asked to be STL and then the call was extended to my companion as well. :) Anyway, the other district is great - they teach us all the ropes, like coming to the laundry room early and eating and emailing there, and we all sit together at meals. I think they're all a little hermana-deprived, a couple in particular. They're great, though, and will always save seats for us by them at meals and they'll come in during their breaks and then the district leader will have to tell them to get out. It's funny. But they're super nice and chill and I love them all.
We taught our first lesson to an investigator on Friday. In Spanish. Ha. If you'd like to know what it was like, imagine two gorillas trying to teach a giraffe how to climb a tree. Except Hermana Taukafa and I are probably less agile than gorillas, so it would be more like teaching a giraffe to struggle to climb a tree and still end up on the ground. Okay, it probably wasn't that bad, but it was pretty pathetic. We teach him again today, so we'll see how that goes! We also finally got gym time yesterday and it's so great! We went to the weight room, and nobody else was there, so I finally got to rejuvenate kind of. It was the closest to being alone that I've been since Tuesday. ;)
The food here is actually good, there are gross things every once in a while, but they have lots of options and lots of fruit, so I always and happy. No complaints :)
Our schedule is pretty simple. Wake up early, get ready, Breakfast, and then class time from 8:00-12 ish. Then we eat lunch, and then have instruction with our teacher from 2 ish to 5:30, and then dinner, and then class time from 6-9:30. We're supposed to follow the general schedule of an hour of personal study, and hour of companionship study, and then an hour of language study, with little breaks in between. We also will have regular gym time, but haven't so far since it's been the first week. Tow of the things that have been the most surprising is that we don't have as much personal study time as I expected. In the classroom we are pretty much studying things to teach our investigator and language, etc, and mornings/ evenings are pretty full with just getting ready for the day, etc. Oh speaking of which, these girls STRUGGLE! I love them so much, but they can not get up nor go to bed on time to save their lives. I'm sure it will get better, but that's been rough. I like to be punctual about those things, so I'm learning patience, while also trying to encourage obedience. We've started to have group prayer every night, prefaced by talking about what we've been grateful for that day and that's really built unity. We all get along really well and it's been cool to see those relationships develop.
My favorite part of the day is probably gym time, as it's the one time that we get a real mental break. It's getting to the point where I'm thinking about Spanish all the time. Last night I was struggling to sleep, and the whole time I just had Spanish words running through my head while I tried to remember what they meant and how to conjugate them, while being half asleep. Yikes. SO anyway, exercising is really great and gets my attention elsewhere. I also love our instruction time, because our teacher is great and we're learning a lot.
My companion is hilarious. She says things like "do you reckon" and swears every once in a while (since certain swear words aren't swear words in Australia). Like, we'll be in the bookstore and realize we don't have our wallets and she'll swear and not realize it. Maybe I shouldn't think that's funny, but it makes me laugh since of all the places to swear, the MTC is probably the last place to do so.
Wow, this has turned into a novel! We learned how to work the system to get the most of our email time, and our Branch President doesn't really care how much time we spend on email as long as it doesn't cut into our day (hence the waking up early for laundry). I'm sure there's lots more I could tell you, but you probably are overwhelmed by this already so I'll wrap up.
I'm so happy here! It's really hard, but I've always liked a good challenge. It's like being in college, but better in a lot of ways. There aren't any RA"s in the dorms, so the girls just all have to behave and monitor themselves - and they do! It's weird because we're so completely responsible for ourselves, and we're just expected and trusted to make good use of our time. And we get to learn and study all the time, and we work hard, and that's when I'm happiest so it's just perfect.
I love you all!
Love,
Hermana Reynolds
No comments:
Post a Comment