A funny thing

(Michael's email from the Provo MTC on August 23)

Hey everybody! Sorry if this email seems kinda silly with grammar, but I only have 30 minutes to type to everybody, so you can deal with it.

I was gonna tell you all about my MTC experience, about how my district is awesome, about how my companion and I didn't get along at first but then we did and now it's a touching moment, how I'm getting the language strangely well, and how the food is okay but the vegetables are frozen and terrible. That was my plan until Thursday. Then a funny thing happened on Thursday morning...

I got my visa.

That's right! There are 70 missionaries in the MTC waiting to get their visas, and I was one of the 5 this week that got them. I fly out on Tuesdaymorning. My flight leaves at 8:45ish, and so I'm leaving the MTC at 3:35 AM. It'll be a LOONNG day.

So there are a couple things I need you (family, not friends) to do. Mom, I need you to get me those shirts that you said you'd get me because you didn't like the ones from Kohls. If at all possible, get them today and send them in one-day shipping. I hope you didn't forget about them, because as I'm here doing laundry for many pungent shirts that I've had to rewear, I'm sure that I didn't. (Sorry it's early, and I'm grumpy in the mornings.) Also, when you post this on the blog/Facebook/whatever, I need you to get my call packet and put in my Brazilian MTC address. I never put it up because I didn't expect to be going to the Brazil MTC, much less in two weeks after I arrived here, especially since there are elders and sisters that have been in the field for 6 months and haven't received their visa. So I'll call it a blessing from the Lord, but just to myself, because there are so many people that probably deserve to be there more than me right now. I read some of the emails (Thanks for sending them!) Also, if any of you want to write me, try dearelder.com. I don't know how it works for Brazilian MTCs, but it works here. I'm not going to waste time and try to explain it to all of you, so just look it up and read about it. Most of you are adults, you can figure it out.

So now that I can give more details about the MTC, here we go. It's absolutely amazing. My companion is Elder Ashford, from Austin TX. He's a pretty smart kid, and the type of person you can see going at 18, as opposed to some other elders I've seen here that should not be here. At first, he and I didn't get along at all, but after companionship inventory, we figured stuff out and now we're working like a well-oiled machine of spirituality! Also in my room are Elder Jacobs from NJ and Elder Marchant from Washington. Elder Jacobs has a speech impediment (can't pronounce his Rs), but we didn't figure that out until day 3, we all just thought he had a super strong New Jersey accent. He loves to talk. A lot. All the time. But we love him though. Elder Marchant is a more quiet elder, but he does super well, and his laugh is super awkward. It's hard to explain, so I won't.

Our district is 12 people, all going to either Sao Paulo west or north, split in half, 4 brothers and 2 sisters each. There are some other Sao Paulo districts. Btw if any of you talk to Uncle Russell tell him that one of the kids from his ward is in my zone, going to Sao Paulo North as well.

I'm actually catching onto the language super well. They say that the first week of the MTC is like drinking water out of a fire hydrant, which worried me because I'm already at a disadvantage by having a smaller-than-average mouth, so I couldn't retain much. But luckily I learned that this was just a metaphor, and that I could handle this better.

I've seen a ton of missionaries that I know here, including Elder Judkins, Elder Reber, Elder Blanchard, Sister Francis, Sister Tolley, Elder Peterson, Elder Carbine, and Elder Blaylock. It's been super cool, and I am slightly sad that I won't get to see them, but a lot of them are gone already, so it's alright. All of them seemed to be doing super well.

The food here is alright, but the veggies are terrible. Also, I've found a connection to sprinkled donuts.

Alright, I don't know when my next Pday will be, but I can assure you that I'll be writing from South America! On to individual emails!!! Bom dia! A igreja e verdideiro!

Elder Youd