Brandon's First Email! August 6th, 2015

Hey Guys!!!!! This is my first email and it's on a Spanish keyboard so I'm not going to worry about spelling or punctuation or anything like that okay? hahaha (I went through and corrected as much as possible so hopefully I understood what he was trying to say.)

So we have 1 hour to email in the MTC which isn't really enough time I don't think so my emails will be condensed and to the point, also the time we email switches every week maybe!

We met up with other missionaries when we got to Atlanta and there were 13 others; Two girls going to my mission and one boy going to my mission, the rest, boys going to Paraguay. We got here and got to work immediately. The MTC is right next to the temple, like 50 yards, and it was such a long first day, in the classroom for hours right away!!! The MTC is tiny, there are like 80 people here and only like 20 or so speak English but there are two time schedules and my district with 6 people is the only English speaking district out of our time slot of 40 people so all we hear is Spanish andddddd, Portuguese. There are like 80 people here, 20 Americans, 30 natives of Paraguay and Argentina and Peru and then 30 from Brazil and they are the most crazy ones hahah. 

We got to go to the temple today and it was sweet! It was definitely interesting in Spanish but super cool! The temple here is really small.

Everything is going well, the language is going great, I am one of the best American Spanish speakers, besides this one kid, but the teaching is hard to express my feelings exactly how I'm thinking them in Spanish. We study in the same room, smaller than my bedroom at home, for like 8 hours a day haha and the MTC in general is just small. It's fun though, it kinda feels like we're already started and in our room there are six people. My companion from Idaho named Elder Yardley, Elder Cañete from Paraguay, Elder Neto from Brazil, Elder Catalan from Argentina, and Elder Olihuela from Peru... All we hear is Spanish hahaha. I have definitely been some homesick. Nothing like I've ever had before so that's been hard for me but I've really felt the blessings of being able to pray for strength and comfort. Sorry no pictures this week because at this MTC we can only take pictures every other Sunday and that wasn't this Sunday!

I am happy, I have already gained like a real legit appreciation for the words in the scriptures. I was bearing my testimony in Spanish about them in a lesson and when we went back to our room I was reading them and thinking, following these words can truly change someones life.

I have been working out hard for the 1 hr a day we can and I might be losing weight becaue we only are given one portion of food and there are no seconds and I don't eat all the meat in our meals because it is huge pieces of red meat and then potatoes or something white. My indestructible watch broke!!! The second hand fell off. The movement still works but the second hand gets stuck between the minute hand and hour hand, so should I send it back when I get out of the MTC so you can send it back for warranty? 

Well that's all for this week, I'm kinda stressed and wanna send this before these janky computers explode.

Top Ten

10. Me getting here alive

9. Only thrown up once so far

8. I can kinda talk with all my roomates 

7. Only 5 more weeks in the MTC

6. I can pray and testify in Spanish

5. I can learn a lot in a week about the doctrine

4. We get an hour for working out

3. I think I brought everything I need

2. Going to the temple this morning

1. I am on my mission!!!