Hello! okay so first off while I´m in the MTC my P-days will
be every Tuesday so you can expect emails from me then. I have a ton to tell you
and I hope I can get everything in! Okay so to start, my first real day in the
MTC was the longest day of my life. You have constant meetings and everything is
new and confusing. In the MTC you are put into districts, and branches. Your
district has about ten people and branches have about 50. On the first day I was
asked to be District Leader so I'm in-charge of my district, which is a nice
tribute to me that they picked me on the first day. However, its an intimidating
task. I have to "lead" my district and its tough because we're expected to be
100 percent obedient and I'm supposed to make everyone else be obedient also
which is difficult because half the time I wont want to do some things either.
But, I've just been sucking it up and trying to do my best.
We literally have dove into Spanish! The second you walk
into the MTC you are expected to always use spanish, or at least try your best.
For instance, all the prayers are in Spanish, the meetings are mostly in
spanish and our teacher hardly knows English so he obviously uses quite a bit of
Spanish. I go to bed at night with different Spanish words just floating around
cause its about all we think about throughout the day. We teach a fake
investagator most days also and it's tough because we can only speak Spanish to
him because he doesnt know any English. However, just yesterday me and mi
copenero, Elder Watts, taught him the first lesson in Teach My Gospel in all
Spanish. Which was way cool. I thought it went way good!!!
I like my companion he's very nice however he has never taken
any spanish before this so I do most of the talking when we teach. So it's hard
but it forces me to learn a lot very fast. He is from Layton, Utah I think and he
just graduated like me and he is also going to Guayaquil Ecuador South, as well
as three other goes in my district. He is a great kid and I'm lucky to have a companion as good as him.
I'm glad Jacob has started taking my clothes already, When I
was reading your email at first I thought you were gonna say something like he
was crying in your room cause he missed me... But I'm glad that he's taking
advantage of me being gone. (haha).
The food is well interesting. They try to make American food
and they can't do it so it turns out terrible. (haha)
Mexico city is pretty crazy there are so many houses it's
unbelievable. We are completely surrounded by people and something I didn't know
is that Mexico City never sleeps! The noise at night is unbelievable!! Something
funny about it is that different neighborhoods celebrate different saints on
different days so since there are so many neighborhoods around us, at least one
neighborhood is always having a party! So they light fireworks off until like 2
or 3 a.m. most nights. But it's okay cause I can sleep through anything now!
Other than that the MTC is very hard and stressful and super
tiring (I always want to sleep) it's also very cool I'm amazed at how much
Spanish I've already learned in like 5 days and the spirt is so strong! Also I
find so much joy in simple things like listening to conference music or like corn
dogs for dinner! (It's a lot better than hot dogs and peaches for breakfast!) I'm
slowly enjoying it more and more each day. However, I cant wait to get to
Ecuador. I feel like I will never leave this place... haha
We went to the temple today and it was way cool. I
did it in English but next time we go it'll be in Spanish, so hopefully I
survive. I love you all so much and I appreciated all you would do for me. Tell
dad I'm sorry we never got our last game of ping pong! I miss Mom making my bed! My companion makes his
perfect everyday and I have yet to make mine......we'll see if I ever get around to
it :)
Love, Elder Lignell
