Week 1

Hello!

First off- Thanks mom for the blanket! It's so warm and snuggley and amazing. I actually just woke up from a nap under it. Naps are rare things... Enjoy them while you can.

The MTC is not as bad as everyone made it out to be. It's really nice to be going 24/7, I feel like I'm back in a more intense We the People group. I like it.
Our days are packed, really, really packed. Our schedules look a little like this:
Soeur Bradshaw and I wake up at 5:45 every morning and go to the sister missionary work out classes. THEY ARE THE BEST. It's so much nicer than waking up from dead slumber and heading to class. On Mondays there is step, Tuesdays don't have classes, Wednesdays is Cardio, Thursday is yoga, Friday is kickboxing and Saturday is whatever we decide to do on Friday (last week we chose pilates). Then we have breakfast at 6:30. And class at 7. The tricky part of the mornings is our class doesn't end until 6:30. That means we run and grab a sack breakfast and then shower super fast and then head to class.
We have classroom study at 7am until 10am. Our teacher is Fere Coulston, he's really chill. We use this time to cram french into our heads so we can prepare lessons for our "investigator." I have taught 2 lessons in french and we have our third tonight. Our "investigator"is named Manuarii Noho. He's actually our new teacher, he just hasn't revealed himself as a teacher yet.
After class we have personal study from 10-11. I'm studying the Book of Mormon, mainly the Character of Christ from Elder Bednar's talk.
Then we have lunch. Holy cow. I can see how people gain 30 plus pounds in the MTC is a bit ridiculous actually. Soeur Bradshaw and I usually have a salad or wrap.The food isn't very good....
Then we have gym! There's lots of places we can go for gym. The field, the big gym, small gym, or just around outside.
Then we have language study. Our class gets together and trys to figure out french together.
Then more study time.
Then time in the lab.
Then dinner at 4. 4! It's so early.
Then missionary portal-we haven't done that yet.... we'll see what it is soon.
Then more study time.
Then more class time.
Then planning.
Then we get 45 minutes to get ready for bed, write in journals, write letters, etc.
Lights out at 10:30. The days are very very long. But they're going by quickly.

My companion is amazing! Really. People have asked us if we were relate, apparently we look the same... She's from New Jersey and we were Facebook friends before we left.

The first few days were filled with classes on how to teach. We actually had an "investigator" and a giant group of new missionaries teach together. I wish I could teach in English everyday... but my English days are long over! One day, as we were skipping class to double check on immunizations, a MTC coordinator pulled us aside and asked us to teach a lesson. Apparently a sister had to go home so her companion was transfer and couldn't make it to the appointment. So we taught! It was so amazing to feel the Spirit, most of the time when we're teaching Manuarii I'm just trying to remember the French words for what I want to say. It's frustrating at times. Sister Bradshaw is fluent in French, that has been really nice, she's like my own walking dictionary. :)

Our district has 8 people in it. Elder Lovelock is from Australia, he's pretty seriously, but can also say some hilarious things. We were talking about what we could bring with us if we could have brought anything and Elder Hansen said, "A waffle iron" and Elder Lovelock got the weirdest look on his face and asked "Why would you iron waffles?" Then we had a huge discussion about waffles in the US, instead of learning French.

Elder Hansen is Travis Hansen, he was in my 4th grade class. It's actually very nice to have someone I know close by. :)

Elder Ball and Elder White are nice, I don't know them too well, yet.

Soeur Chytraus is from California.

Soeur Van Wagenen is super cute and nice.

Elder Lovelock, Sister Chytraus and I are the only people who can't really carry on a conversation in French. It's super frustrating, I feel like I need more time to study, but there's no more time in the day. Ah.

There is so much to tell you, but not enough time. There's never enough time. Devotionals here are incredible. We had Chad Lewis speak to us last night, and it was the best devotional I have ever been to. (Watch his video on Mormon Messages) 11 weeks here seems like a very, very long time, but it'll come soon enough. Tahitian scares me. It scares me a lot. I'll let you know how it goes in 5 weeks. ;)

Getting mail is absolutely the best thing ever. Ah. We get it twice a day. Once after lunch, for people who get handwritten letters (Elder Lovelock, our DL, always looks at me and is like, Not yet. I haven't gotten a single letter yet!) And after dinner we get Dear Elders. Those are great. Sometimes they mess up the formats of the letters so they can be a bit tricky to read, but oh well. :) I need addresses! I don't have any and I'd like to write some more letters, an email once a week isn't going to cut it. :) SEND ME LETTERRRRRRRS!

We're learning a lot about Tahiti. They don't have poisonous snakes, but they do have super deadly centipedes. Cool huh? Soeur Bradshaw's mom copied a letter from a sister over there who got bit by one. It was intense. We can go in the water up to our knees because to get to people's houses we have to cross rivers. It's super super hot.

Soeur Bradshaw and I have the worst case of the MTC cold ever. Ugh. I need sudefed, I feel like my head is going to explode. We just feel gross and have really bad sore throats. But hey, the stuffy-ness makes my french sound better. ;)

Until next week!!
Love,
Morgan
*cough*
Soeur Taylor




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