October 14, 2011

(FYI, I don't know why it highlights it in white sometimes, it is really frustrating me because I can't seem to get rid of it.  Bear with me until I figure it out.)


Got this one at 5:55am:

But, just so you know my PDay is Friday and I'll either be writing you between 6 and 7 or between 3 and 4. Those are the times we can do laundry. And, about the sweaters, I have two that I wear to gym and stuff but I can't wear them with my shirt and tie. So yeah. But I am looking forward to the package with some church sweaters. And any word on missionshoe.org? Anyways, on to the email.

Ok, so I thought I had this great Idea to write my whole email in a journal entry on LDS.org and then copy and paste it into the email to save email time. These computers are so restricted, copying and pasting doesn't even work. So gay. So heres the thing, i wrote a super long email and can't send it to you. But you can go online and read my study journal. the username is vancejohnson and the password is wrestler0. Sorry about that, but just copy and paste that schedule onto my blog or whatever. its pretty accurate and in depth.

Have a good weeek!

Then got this one at 6:24:

JK I figured it out! :) Have a good day.

Hello family. Thank you for all the letters that you've sent, i appreciate the dear elders and the hand written ones. Either one is cool with me! :) In one of mom's letters she said that everyone wanted to know what I do everyday. Like from when I get up to when I go to sleep. Its a pretty monotonous schedule but If you really want to know, I will tell you. Although I'm like the fastest typist ever, I didn't think I could type all of this out in the 30 minutes I have on the computer and still get to my other emails so I found a "online study journal" on LDS.org and i'm typing it all out in there right now so that when I open up my email I can just copy and paste it in there and then still have like 29 minutes left of email! I'm so smart. Ok anyways, on to the schedule.

6:20: Wake up, run to the showers because if you aren't one of the first ones to shower you don't have any hot water. Sometimes we don't shower right now because we have gym but i'll give you my wednesday schedule because its my favorite.

7:00: Personal study in shirt and tie in our classroom. We aren't allowed to do anything in our dorm rooms except sleep. All our time

is spent in our classroom which is about the size of my bedroom at home with 11 people in it. I have a tiny desk in which I'm supposed to be studying my spanish preach my gospel along side my english one while looking up scriptures in my english book of mormon then reading it in spanish. Its hard to have 4 books open on a tiny desk.

8:00: Breakfast. The breakfast is usually eggs and some kind of meat. Just cafeteria eggs, not good ones.

8:30: Companionship study. Same thing as personal, but with your companion. During comp study we usually plan our lesson for our progessing investigator. 

9:45: Class time. This is when we have our teacher come in. Its either Bro. Talataina or Bro. Thomas. They both are returned missionaries who came back to the MTC to teach because they love missionary work. They are both super cool guys. I really like Bro. Thomas because he ran at BYU Hawaii before his mission and is trying to get on the BYU provo team right now. Him and I talk about running a lot. It makes me miss running, but I love it. 

12:45: Lunch time. Meh. We check the mail after lunch and that is when we get our hand written letters. I look forward to lunch mostly for this reason only. 

1:40: Language study. This is where the district sits in our classroom and we study spanish. No teacher, just the spirit and a textbook. Its really tough to stay on task during this time because the guidelines of what you are supposed to be studying is super loose. Lately I just practice my verb conjugations.

2:45: TALL. Tall stands for technology assisted language learning and its just spanish practice on the computer. its pretty cool. I like it, but as i'm progressing in my spanish its getting harder and harder. The cool thing about it is, we have to wear headphones because the person on the program will say words and you have to repeat them back through the microphone attached to the headphones. But when i'm doing a part of the program that doesn't involve listening to the person talk, i listen to music on lds.org. If you go to lds.org, click menu, then click youth you can listen to a bunch of seminary and efy type music. My favorite song right now is called "Seeking Whats Good" I highly recommend you look it up.

4:05: Gym time! Gym in the afternoon is the bomb diggity! I love it so much because in the afternoon the excercise field is open and we get to play soccer! I never thought I would look forward to running around in the outdoors so much. But after being in a class for 14 hours a day, its awesome to get an hour outside. I met an elder who likes to run so we go on companionship exchanges and I run with him around the field. 2 laps make a mile and the other day we did a fartlek! Too bad he is going to Argentina in like 4 days. 

5:45: Dinner. Dinner is usually the best meal of the day. They are really good here at the mtc with not having the same meal twice. I think since i've been here i've only had the same meal more than once, twice. And it was a turkey bacon avocado sandwich, which i love. Not as good as quiznos, but acceptable. 

6:30: Class time again. 3 more hours of class time whith the teacher that didn't teach this morning. Same stuff. Guided language study, doctrine of christ, progressing investigator and coaching missionary study. All good stuff.

9:30: Go back to our dorms and unwind. We usally write in our journal, do some abs, talk to other missionaries in our zone and just chill. At 10:15 everyone goes back to their own rooms.

10:30: lights out. Tough day. Tomorrow, we do it all again.

That is my daily schedule, its rough at times but it seems to fly by. Here in the mtc they say that the days feel like weeks but the weeks feel like days and its so true. They also say the MTC is like prison except for in prison you get visitors. So yeah.