October 29, 2009 Pictures

Bienvinitos Todos!

Thank you so much for your emails! We just got back from the temple, it was great! The language must be coming, because after the session, in the Celestial room, my prayer in which I wanted to say some intense things, I was able to pray completely in Spanish. That was kind of nuts. The past two days I've been feeling that the language, however slowly it may be, is indeed coming. I'm understanding more and more, and being able to say one or two things more. I sure know that I will understand it before I can speak it.

Tuesday we went to the university again, which was a mix of good and super bad. Good because We got Book of Mormons to give out this time and i just casually walked up to a group of people and my comp and I ended up talking and dropping a book to a girl. It was cool how much I was able to say. It was a little life changing to realize that its a completely similar person, who likes to do the exact things I do, has emotions that I do, and the only difference is she spoke a different language than me. Its fun  how nice they are and willing to correct you when you conjugate stuff wrong, which I do constantly. I can actually say prayers decently now and my testimony has moved on from stupid scripted stuff to things I really want to say. Class still sucks because its so long and so much of it goes over my head, but I'm able to throw things together enough to get through the day. We have a 'simulation' every Friday, similar to the TRC and my comp pretty much did the entire thing last week, but was cool cuz our maestro said after to us, we did TOO well. I'm confident this week teaching lesson two I can do a bit more. So the bad part of the university...so pretty much my body has HATED the food here and things have not been normal in any small way since I got here. Needless to say I was sick and NEEDED to find the facilities. Don't worry, they don't have baño paper, and you bring your own, so I guess I'm out of that option. Good thing my comp had a notebook. Oh, and there aren't any toilet seats here. Mix everything you can imagine with the fact that my body was the complete opposite of happy. Though being the worst public restroom experience I've had yet, I feel it is only the beginning of many stories. Yikes. All ended up being well.

So let me take you through a quick day here. Alarm goes off at 630, we finally figure out a way through prayers and much anger how to get out of bed by 650. Breakfast for 30 min. an hour of personal study and then an hour of comp study (where you are fighting with life to stay awake) then class for 3.5 hours. 45 min lunch, which is the SAME CRAP everyday, where you bust through it to run up 4 flights of stairs to lay down for even 15 minutes. Then 3 more hours of class, an hour of gym/shower time (which is the best part of my day, VOLLEYBALL!), dinner (same routine as lunch), 4 more hours of class, bed. repeat. Days and weeks are mixed up and we are robots who somehow continue to keep running. Like Eleisha and Rachel said, a whole different kind of tired that you cannot experience anywhere else on this earth. I promise.

3 elders in my awesome district of 10, know the same random no-ones-ever-heard-of music that I listen to, and they listen to it also! So after now everyday of singing them and listening to them in my head, this is 100% torture. my music is my LIFE and i am starting to be affected by it PHYSICALLY. Is that possible? Yes, I testify to that. I testify to a lot of things that blow here. It may be colder there in boise, but its still hotter than ever here. You literally cannot go outside for 3 minutes without having sweat running down your back. Gym time is a whole different story, where you peel your clothes off of you when you get in the shower.

We do live in a Hostile, just north of the temple. Its rough because meetings, dorms, classes, the office, teaching....EVERYTHING is on the 4th floor. dad, you saw how not big that building is. Then we get to go downstairs to eat. Yikes its rough.

Pictures. That last group one is with Elder Hinkley! Pres.'s son! He came here this week and talked to us, i shook his hand on 3 separate occasions, it was sweet! We also have my comp and I elder Castro with the temple behind us in a similar fashion to the New Era cover for October. Dont even worry that 70% of vehicles here are diesel. I am in heaven. As you can see, the MTC owns 2 TDI vans. I die every time they start. There are Skoda's here, VW's ive never seen, wow every Euro car company I can think of is here, even Citrion! Everything! It's so amazing and I die every time one drives by. Even Diesel Hilux's (Toyota trucks) so cool. So there's a pic of that silver van. you can see the condensation on my camera lense.We got the awesome guys in my district from provo by the map, they are going to argentine.Cassie Erikson at the map, Shalyn Blackham (Rachel's friend),  The 3 girls are the Hermanas from provo district and elder combs and me. They are great pictures, I'm glad I got my camera working today.

I miss doing Initiatories. I couldn't stop thinking to day in the Ordinance room how awesome it will be when you and mom are here and are the only 2 with headphones. We will hit a Spanish session our last week in the MTC here, crap, 4 to go! "Elder, you know how long weeks are here, its an eternity!" That is my comps quote from the other day. So true. I really hope this plateau spikes again. I'm going crazy with all this practice junk and want to be in the field so bad, working with REAL people! P day and Tuesday for university is what we live for here. Because its real. Plus freedom when we get out to do what we want. Its really a joke here with a lot of things cuz It just cant be really applied yet. but i understand, its to get us in routine. But it is true what you said, doing whatever needed to get to the next hour, the next break, the next meal, the next sleep time...just to get through it again the next day. I honestly believe you and have hope that it will pay off i just am struggling to survive through it now. I'd never give up. I have a friend back home who left early and he said that its a burden on his shoulders everyday. I could never do that. Even though i want to be done, or i stop caring about stuff all the time, I know that the lord knows my hearts desire and my devotion to him and the work. I never REALLY give up but I'm learning its really okay to just turn your brain off and make it to the next break to try again. It sure is work. I'm wondering if once i get out of here....it actually gets easier. Its possible. I know there will be different challenges, but at this point, anything that resembles different is totally welcome.
Any way, c-ya!

-McLean