This place is like Camp Greenlake (Holes), EFY and Spirit prison all in one. But who said spirit prison was bad??
TBH ive been here almost a week and we still havent had a normal day. Normally about 300 people come in to the MTC at a time but we broke a record with like 700 new missionaries coming in on one day. Also this past week we had all 12 apostles on campus (we never saw a single one) and they were helping to train 171 new Mission Presidents, including ours! We did, in fact, get to meet him and we were stoked! I'll tell you about it now real quick. We met him June 25th im not sure what day that was. There are four in our district going to Comodoro Rivadavia but in the meeting there were like 18. So a TON of people. We are all sitting and talking to each other and he walks in and is all "STOP LAUGING!" in a spanish accent. We immediately sit up and shut up but two seconds later hes all like "no just kidding hahah please take off your suits" And in that moment I was in love. Wearing suits all day in the hot heat is tough so we appreciate any time to take off our jackets. He spoke English super well and is the most laid back chill funny guy. He's also focused in the gospel and not crazy and stuff. His wife is also funny but her english is very little. Sorry family but I've got new parents now and they are so great. They gave us argentine treats called Alfajores. It made me so excited to go to Argentina. Hes from Buenos Aires but came to BYU to learn business and worked for Kodak for some time. Then he worked for the church travel services so his past employees did our visas and then he was in the presidency of the Buenos Aires west(?) mission.
Ok now on to the other stuff we've been doing. The food here is a lie. the only reason it was good is because our schedules were messed up with the mission presidents. we werent even eating in the cafeteria but the gym instead. We were getting Taco Bell, Subway, Aloha Plate, and the blessing of a life time we got CHICK FIL A one night. we went to town on all of those meals but just yesterday we went to the normal cafeteria and the food was dissapointing. They set us up to be sad. It's alright we only get three meals a day so we eat what we can. I feel like an old person eating dinner at like 5. just last week i was eating basically breakfast at 5 and dinner at 11. Now i wake up at 6:30 and its killer. By 10 pm all i want to do is go to bed. actually thats all day. We all miss sleeping.
I thought block scheduling was hard but these classes are 4 HOURS LONG and we have 3 of them every day. I really shouldnt be alive right now but i am. Somehow us 18 y/os make it through. Actually with a district of 10 elders we mess around A LOT. its the only thing keeping us sane. we are truly blessed to have such a great district. we can have a load of fun but then sit down and go to work when we need to. We are blessed. We see other districts and we ache for them because they probably have no fun.
The MTC is a crazy cool place. Right when we feel like spanish is getting tough i look over the people next to us trying to speak a language that is impossible to read. Everyday we hear new languages from people whiter that me and its so cool to see. after two days here we had to teach our "investigator" Cristian and he is so great but the lesson was a wake up call. We stood at the doorway trying to get in but we knew no spanish. I ended up saying "we have a massage for you" and he looked concerned. lolol language problems "tenemos una mensaje" not ''Tenemos una massaje". I wont make that mistake again. Although Im blessed because i could actually understand most of what he was saying. IT was SO frustrating trying to tell him what we wanted to say though. Its a whole other world of frustration. The lesson flew by but we left feeling pretty good for our first lesson even though it was a failure on almost every level. Yesterday we taught him the second time and it was night and day better. I had a harder time understanding him but by now we know how to pray, testfiy, and invite others to do stuff so we left feeling SO good about ourselves. it made all the boring tough spanish classes worth it.
Our district is SOOO MUCH FUN and is great. 10 guys basically fresh out of high school and it shows but we get stuff DONE. like it may seem like we goof around a lot but its not goofing around, its having fun while we work. a true blessing for all of us. Elder MacDonald is our DL and hes going to my mission too. Every elder is so funny on every level and i swear ive never laughed so hard in my life. its also so different to be able to make jokes only mormons would understand. its also super refreshing to see kids our age know and care so much about the gospel. For example this morning at breakfast we had a huge discussion about the apostles and that kinda stuff would never happen back home so its great.
We do most everything as a district. We play district beach volleyball, district basketball, we eat as a district, the only things we dont do as a district are sleep and shower together and who knows that might change. jk jk but for real we see and hear stories of other districts that hate each other and we all realize how blessed we are.
even our zone is chill. every saturday we have a "tie draft" where we put in our ugliest tie in a box and then we reach in when our names are called randomly and pull out a tie. we only have 10 seconds and we cant look in. the rule is we have to wear the ugly tie to church the next day. Thanks Mr Koenig for the ugly tie because mine was the hit of the night. all the elders go INSANE and we shout and count down from 10 while we pick a tie. Its so much fun and this week i was blessed with a nice tie from Elder Kimberling. It wasnt even ugly. Elder McCausland got my ugly tie and the whole zone went barking mad and i laughed so hard i almost cried it was so funny. The tie was so ugly our branch president made him change ties halfway through the day ahahaha. We are in the same zone that David Archuleta was in so theres a tie that everyone who gets it signs their name on it, including David Archuleta. The person who gets the tie gets it until he leaves and puts it back in the back. Our ZL has it so we wont be able to have a chance to get it for another 3 weeks.
Honestly the spanish here is rough. I wish i hadnt taken high school spanish for granted. like i thought memorizing a small convo was hard but now we have to memorize the first vision, like 5 scriptures, our missionary purpose, how to pray, bear our testimony, and like a billion other phrases. I now know why they give out stress relief help seminar things. we are getting WORKED out here and our brains are fried. its unreal to see how far we've come from day 1 until like day 6 now. El don de lenguas es real. Every night in my journal spanish words come into my head instead of english. The spanish is tough and i still can barely say what i want to but its coming along quick.
The days are so long here. from 6:30 to 10:30 feels like a lifetime. our class has a small window and so we'll be inside the small prison cell all day and ill think it will be dark and we get outside and its like 12 pm and we all cry a little inside. then we sit in class for like 4 hours and we think it will be dark and it will be like 4 pm and still blazing hot and bright af. then we'll eat and go back to class until 9:30 pm and we know it will be dark but when we get outside its STILL bright out. Its a sad time. The sun goes down at like 10 here its weird.
Sunday was wayyyy nice. such a nice break from class. we got to walk around the temple and went to church for like 3 hours but its not even long because our classes are 4 hours. then we went to choir as a district and it was so cool to be there. i dont know if we'll go again but we did it once. we had a devotional from Brother Allen who oversees the WHOLE mission department. Its unreal all the organization just into the MTC i cant imagine all the missions in the world. It was excellent and after we watched a talk from Elder Bednar they only show at the MTC. It was so good that Elder Ekblad and I didnt talk for the REST of the night. a whole 40-50 minutes after. and he is the most talkative person in our district. We BOTH were speechless.
Thats all i have to say really. This is going to be a LONG 5 more weeks and we are already mission ready. I know we arent really and we appreciate what the MTC is but we just want to go. I think we leave August 1.
Love you all
Elder Ross
My comp Elder Carson Robert Ekblad and I. the more i look at him the more i really do see Stephen and the joker. He is SO SO SO funny. Hes from south Jordan. He took 3 years of spanish but i know more than him. he plays lacrosse and he and I are always on the same page with everything. honestly blessed with a good comp and a good district. He is super focused on the work, and he knows the rules but he's always the one tryna have fun so we get along so well. hes the class clown out of all of us i would say. He knows whats up and has tons of common sense and he says some profound stuff too. He was in a cool leadership program called DECA where he would do business and marketing stuff and he also was the head manager of his school store so hes a real leader and is smart. He will ALWAYS talk kindly about someone especially behind their backs or upfront. hes the best guy really. He's left handed
Our District leader Elder Justin MacDonald from near Logan Utah. He reminds me a ton of Jacob hyer mixed with Jake Gyllenhaal or something. in looks only though. hes always laughing and having fun with the boys but hes also focused (especially as DL). Sometimes he tries too hard, which i appreciate, but those types of people are unappreciated by a lot of other people. He graduated early and went to snow college for a year.
Elder Logan Kochevar. He graduated a semester early and went to BYU Provo for a semester. He is so funny and super real. Hes also spiritual and we get along super well. He and MacDonald are not so compatable which i dont understand because they both are so great but i guess if it doesnt work it doesnt work.
Elder Wagner. We call him Elder Swagner. Hes a farmer boy from Monroe Utah. He played football and hes super quiet but he'll laugh at the jokes. He kinda reminds me of a brother merril type guy. He is going to Mendoza, Argentina. His sister is in the Rancho Cucomonga mission.
Elder Colin McCausland. This shrimpy kid is from Mapleton Utah. He was pretty quiet and reserved on the first day but let me tell you. this guy is a certified savage. if you havent been roasted by this kid you havent been around him. we thought he was some quiet kid from a small town but we found some deets on him quick. He got suspended for making a 420 wiz khalifa joke. he kissed twins on the same night, before he came on his mission, and the words "I love Drake" came out of his mouth at least once. He got pulled over for doing donuts in his truck and he had a shotgun in his truck at the time. He used to "FSU" with his friends and throw hammers at mail boxes with his friends. Of course im not telling you this to judge him because this guy is SOOOO funny and super great. He is going to Mendoza Argentina. He is like the most hick person here and his laugh is so funny to hear. i want to record it and listen to it every night. We call him Cuzco. like from the emperors new groove because of how he sounds and acts. I jokingly said he'd be the first one sent home before i knew who he really was and now we all have a district joke that he'll be sent home this week. It really was a joke and we all have super good feelings for each other. The whole district that is. we can all joke around. if anyone gets sent home we all get sent home. we are all family now. Elder Ekblad my comp is said to go home thursday. All jokes but we would feel so bad if someone actually went home.
Elder (David) Alex Kimberling from some city near Salt Lake City Utah. He went to BYU for a year and is the oldest. He plays basketball and tennis and is super funny. Hes going to Cordoba, Argentina. He is a lot like me i think but he is so great all around. left handed
Elder Andrew Indiana Jones. I'm not joking. He's going to Cordoba Argentina. He is probably the best at spanish but he is super homesick because he misses his serious girlfriend who is waiting for him. #weird but its aight. He is from Highlands ranch Colorado. He is a wrestler but he like never eats food. im actually concerned for him but he says he's stuffed after eating like a roll. he tells these ridiculous stories and honestly im not sure which ones to believe. so far they all add up but each one gets more ridiculous and they come at the most random times. He said he was at the colorado movie shooting and a bunch of other crazy stories. who knows... also left handed.
The LEGEND elder Joel Parke from Carrie Idaho. he is a small town farmer and everything he says is insanely funny but hes so quiet. he plays basketball and football. He graduated in a class of like 30 kids or something. We all kinda worship him. Hes going to Cordoba Argentina. left handed.
Elder Kyle Gwilliam. We call him elder Terremoto. its a long story. he is from Draper Utah and He is so funny. We also call him kronk because of his voice and the stuff he says. So now we ACTUALLY have Kronk and Cuzco from the Emperors new groove. He plays basketball and football and is a stud and volleyball. hes going to Cordoba Argentina.
whats elder Ross without a mirror selfie??! The Elder Jimmer thing died like the next day. I was once called Elder Telestial and i dont know why and im not sure if i should be offended. im honestly probably the goody goody of the group. Im the only one who went to an outdoor high school and they were so shocked. They all seem to like me so estoy pumped. I think thats more or less everything. Ill let you know what changes or adds. remember these names because ill mention them the next 6 weeks.
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