Well, as I said, I only have 30 minutes on Tuesday to email home. However, I have all day to write letters. And thank you so much for Dear Eldering me! When you send your email through Dear Elder, they print them off and deliver them like regular mail the day you send them. So I'll have time to read your emails, think of what to say, and then go type. I'm just a slow typer, hence the need for this letter! As I said, Elder Prawitt and I start our Zone Leader duties on Saturday, or Sunday...I should probably go find out sometimes. Aye. Anyway, life is good! Food is still tasting good and there are large quantities of it. We just ate lunch after going through the temple and I had a good fistful of bacon on my burger. It was delicious. I'm definitely going to miss it in the Congo. From what I'm told, the food we'll cook ourselves there won't be too strange. It'll be when members feed us we'll have fufu and stuff. Cameroon has been stable for so long the people there don't really like change. The RM said he spent most of his mission there and only baptized a few. However he spent his last three transfers in the Congo and baptized 45 people! Apparently people are ready for the gospel in the Congo!
Anyhow, this is how it went the first day at the MTC. Megan (who was sobbing hysterically of course) and Brian dropped me off on the curb to the side of a host missionary, Elder Beals (yeah, I thought so too, but no relation it turns out). He took me to a building to pick up my little packet with name tags and keys and things. They showed me how to put it on (it's suprisingly simple?) We then went to Room 203 of 16 M where I put my luggage. 203 is where I live. I was then taken to my classroom where I picked up some bags full of French material. Elder Beals left at this time. My teacher, Seour Carson, immediately started to explain what to do....in French. She got a lot of blank stares from me.....Je ne comprend pas?
Finally I realized she wanted me to go someplace else (hand motions helped). So I had to go to a computer lab where I watched an orientation video by the MTC President, President Brown and his wife. Nice people, they really are. Anyway, when I finished that I went back to class. Soeur Carson started yelling "Collegue Missionaire," "Collegue Missionaire" Je n'ai pas su what she was saying.....so I just stood there till someone translated. Collegue Missionaire means companion. Which no one told how to find him, at least in English. So I went back to the lab till everyone left. Then I went back to class where I found Elder Prawitt. She didn't make him go back to the lab......Oh well, I found him eventually I suppose.
So then we went through orientations, and firesides, and workshops and dinner till we got back around 9:30 exhausted. That was only day 1. I'm still exhausted. Lot's of work to do!
I most definitely have never used my time so effectively.....Oh! Some Congo stuff. I've learned a Congo handshake. Also, I'll probably mostly have white companions. Sad day....And no one wears sunscreen and bug spray for more than one week. After the layer of constant sweat, two greasy layers of sunscreen and bugspray is not needed. I must avoid all standing pools of water: 1) crocs 2) parasites. Fun, eh?
Well, I must go, choir is starting soon. Hopefully I can make it to the General Conference Choir. I'll still be here when it goes on! Y'all might be able to see me! Well farewell!! Dear Elder me soon!!! Tell me how life is, I love it!
J t'aime,
Elder McGrath
P.S. This is Elder Prawitt. He is from Bountiful, Utah. He is 6'6". He is tall.
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