MTC Week #3

Well, I don't really know where to start this week. I really don't even remember what happened. It's all become such a blur and it's flying by! I'm definitely maturing a ton spiritually. I'm already such a different person than I was when I got here and it's only been three weeks! I'm loving every minute of it though.

The Spanish is starting to come a slowly but surely. We have spent a lot more class time this week studying it. We have learned about half of the verb tenses so far, but it's hard to use them in actual speech. I think I understand a good portion of the other concepts, so now it's just a matter of applying what I've learned. Tomorrow our distirict has a goal to not speak any English at all. It's going to be difficult but I think it will definitely help. This will be a permanant goal starting in week 5, so if I want to communicate with anyone I guess I'll have to learn!

For the devotional last night, Merril J. Bateman (Emertius Seventy and former president of BYU) came and spoke to us. He talked about the things we can do to have the Spirit with us at all times. He also said: "If you have the Spirit with you, you will always know what to do." I took great comfort in these simple words. I just need to do my part to have the Spirit with me.

We decided that yesterday was General Authority day, so we all parted our hair and wore ugly/plain/old-fashioned ties! It was really funny to have the entire zone (probably about 40 of us) do this. We also decided that every Saturday would be "Christmas Song Saturday," and we sing A LOT! It was awesome to sing Christmas hymns all day, but kind of weird because it's August.

I don't really have much else to say. I guess I can give a summary of what the typical schedule is in the MTC. Here's tomorrow's schedule:

6:30-7:00: Arise and prepare
7:00-8:15: Personal study
8:15-8:45: Breakfast
8:45-1:00: Class
1:00-1:45: Lunch
1:45-4:30: Class
4:30-4:40: Prepare for gym
4:40-5:30: Gym
5:30-6:00: Shower/get ready
6:00-6:45: Dinner
6:45-7:45: Companion study
7:45-9:00: Language study
9:00-9:30: Plan for the next day
9:30-10:30: Prepare for the next day
10:30: Lights out

Anyway, that's a little bit of what I do every day.

Random tidbit from this week: I have eaten a banana at every meal here except two so far (because they were out). That's a total of 57 bananas to this point, and I've only be here three weeks! Call me a monkey if you want, but I'm going to keep eating bananas.

Well that's all I've got for this week. Thanks for all of your letters and support!

Elder Olsen