#2 MTC

Hey family!

Today is my first time doing this email thing, and the computers are really slow, so please forgive me if my email is short or something. Anyways here at the MTC is pretty fun. We have been studying Spanish like crazy. Its amazing how fast all of us missionaries learn. I can already pray, bear my testimony, teach a lesson, and give small talk. Anyways, here we get ´´investigators´´. They are really just employees here at the MTC, but they act as an investigator. It's really difficult because they will not break their character at all. Our investigator is Timoeto. He is a guy from Peru who we are teaching. We taught our first lesson on the first Friday. It was pretty difficult, because we had only been here for 2 days, and we had to teach a full 30 minute lesson. Anyways, it was like a train wreck. Both me and my comp Elder Preston didn't know how to say anything other than hola and yo se que Jesucristo es la verdad. At least 20 minutes of our lesson were spent in an awkward silence. We couldn't even understand what he was saying. Anyways we just finished our 4th lesson yesterday, and today we have our 5th lesson. Its amazing how fast we have learned. We have taught Timoteo about prayer, the Holy Ghost, the restoration, el Libro de Mormon, and baptism. We were able to commit him to be baptized yesterday. Elder Preston and I were pretty excited about that.

Anyways so my Comp is Elder Preston. He is from Fruitland Idaho. He is probably 6 foot 1 and he is pretty cool. Oh and he likes to play soccer, and read books. The other guys in our district are Elder Daugherty, Sharp, Taylor, Brackett, Smith, Pettit, Lancaster, Mijangos, and Simon. We had another elder in our district, but he decided to go home on the 2nd day. Pretty sad stuff. They guys in our district are really cool. Elder Mijangos is a Latino looking guy from LA, but he is really a gringo. His parents are from Guatemala, but he doesn't speak any Spanish. Oh and Elder Sharp is the missionary from the Boise airport who was going to Costa Rica San Jose. Its funny that he ended up in my district. We talked a lot at the airport and at the SLC airport, and somehow he ended up in my district. So within our district are missionaries going to Nicaragua Managua Norte who are Elder Preston, me, Elder Daugherty, and Elder Taylor. The guys going to Costa Rica are Elder Sharp, Elder Brackett, Elder Smith, and Elder Pettit. The guys going to Guatemala are Elder Lancaster, Smith, and Mijangos. They are only going to be here for 2 more weeks and then they head to Guatemala.  Anyways the other 2 guys who share the room with us are Elder Taylor and Elder Daugherty. They are pretty cool. We got the 4 person room instead of the 6 person room. All the elders in our hall are pretty jealous.

So, all is going pretty well. The food is the exact same food from the Cannon Center. It causes all kinds of problems with people´s bodies. Its pretty bad. There is a lot of gas here, and it stinks everywhere. Our room is extra stinky. 

I don't really know what more to say. The CCM aka MTC is really fun. I really enjoy it, and it wasn´t as bad as I thought it would be. All of the guys in our district are really cool, and we all get along really well. On our gym time each week we either play basketball, soccer, or 4 square. 4 square sounds like a sissy gamy, but its actually pretty fun when the guys you´re playing with are really good. Soccer is really fun, but we always get spanked by the other district.

To answer your questions, the schedule here is really set in stone. We do the exact same things every day. We either have 1 or 2 three hour blocks of class. We have 3 meals, and we get back to our room at 9:30. Its weird having such a structured schedule. My ear is doing fine, and everything is going well. I don't really need anything. My teachers and classes are fantastic. Our teacher is Hermano Larson and he served in Colombia. He is a great teacher. And last of all, I am very happy. I love it here and I am learning a lot.

Thanks familia!

Elder Stark