At West, we get to stay in BYU Wyview Residence Halls! They are awesome! They are big and half a kitchen and we get our own bathroom!! So awesome. I met up with my new District, which is a group of seven other Elders who also just got to Utah. My companion for the next six weeks is Elder Kim. He is pretty cool. He is from South Korea and so he doesn't know that much English. I can communicate fine with him though. The problem is that he has to learn Spanish now! Before he is even fluent in English. I feel for the guy. It's pretty rough for him sometimes. I'm trying to help out as much as I can. My district is awesome though! We have so much fun! Here at the MTC, you spend 12 hours a day studying. It is INSANE. I have never studied so much in my life. Most of it is probably language study, but some of it is scripture study and stuff too. With all of this studying, it is super important to figure out how to have fun too, and my district is super good at that.
On our first day, all of us hardly knew any Spanish. Our teacher told us that we would be teaching our first fake investigator that Friday... IN ALL SPANISH! It was crazy! When Friday came and we had to teach, Elder Kim and I knew it was going to be awful. We went into the teaching room and did our best though... It was way awkward because I had no clue what he was saying.. We did our best to form logical sentences and try to get to know him and teach him, but it just didn't work out. We came back to the classroom super bummed and discouraged. Then, after all of the companionships in our district were done teaching, we joked about how awful at Spanish we all were and had a blast! We probably laughed at how bad it was for a good half hour. Since I arrived at the MTC, we have taught our fake investigator Miguel THREE times in complete Spanish. It is getting a lot easier, but it is still hard to understand him. We are teaching him again tonight! Pray for us!
I really love the MTC though. I thought I would super homesick and not have fun, but that's not the case at all! It is so great here! I have made so many friends that I know I will have for a long time. The food here is actually pretty good. Sometimes, we head over to Main Campus for meals though becuase their food is way better! My companion wanted to join choir because he sang a lot in choir in Korea so I went along because I am trying to be a good companion...hahaha We were singing in the choir in front of all two thousand some missionaries from both MTC campuses and I saw my face go up on the big screen and immediately started cracking up! It was the most awkward thing ever. My district thought it was hilarious though está bien...
Two times a day (after lunch and dinner) we head over to the mail room and check for mail. That is probably the highlight of my day every single day. I love getting mail!! Dear Elder is one of the best things to ever happen to the MTC. You can go online and type out a quick message and they print it off and give it to you every day! It is the best! Even if it is only a sentence or two, it makes me so excited! My district gets so pumped whenever somebody gets mail. Even if I don't get anything, it is cool to see guys from my district get mail. Emails are pretty solid too, but I feel bad because we don't get much time on the computer so I can't write a long reply back. I can send letters though! So if you send me your address, I can just write a letter whenever I have free time.
I visited Main Campus today and saw a bunch new guys and girls being dropped off.. It was the saddest thing ever. I'm so glad I didn't have to do the curbside drop off. It looked awful... I can't believe a week has already gone by. I miss everyone so much, but I'm doing great here. I'm learning a lot and I'm have some of the best times of my life. It is going to be sad when I have to leave and say goodbye to all of my new buds, but I am excited... Bakersfield is going to be awesome, I know it! I can't wait to get out there and start meeting people! This has definitely been one of the harder weeks of my life, but I am absolutely loving it! There is nowhere I would rather be. The Spanish is really coming along too. I know that I am being blessed, because there is no way I could learn this much in a week by myself. I miss you all so much! I can't believe it will be two years (minus one week) until I see you again, but I know that, just like this week, it is going to go by so fast. I'm just going to try to enjoy every minute of it and work hard. Love you all! Can't wait to hear from you!
Love,
Chad Thompson