one week down!!!

July 7, 2015

Hello everyone!

 It's finally Tuesday, which is my P-day, so I can send out my weekly e-mail! I'm so excited to be on e-mail and my thoughts are just bejumbled, so I'll try my best to make this a cohesive e-mail. The MTC has been GREAT! It's a lot of fun but also a lot of work, it keeps you busy and challenges you a lot, and I know it's going to help me learn and grow so much. Everything was so organized coming in, I got everything I needed and was told exactly what to do and where to go. So my host, the person that showed me around and helped me out for the first little bit? It was Elder Aiken from my ward at BYU!! So cool. I have seen sooooo many people i know from BYU, some from my ward, some not, but let me list them all off: Elder Aiken, Sister Larsen, Sister Woolley, Elder Perry, Sister Annett, Elder Smith, Elder Christensen, Sister Nicholls, Elder Cook, Sister Turley, Sister Rowberry, Sister Kerr, Elder Broburg, Elder Pryce, Elder Cox, Elder Simmons, and Elder Penrod. I feel like I've seen even more than that, but that's all I could remember.

Okay, back to business. After getting all my stuff situated and dropping stuff off in my room, I was told to go to my classroom, where all have all my Portuguese instruction and get most of my studying done. My teacher's name is Sister Sandholtz and she is so nice. Fun fact: For those of you who know them, she is Scott and Jenny Hepler's cousin! Coolest thing. I walked into the classroom and it was Portuguese right from the start. In about the four hours I was in the classroom with her that day, there was barely a word of English coming out of her mouth. I was terrified at first, but that's the best way to learn, having your teacher only speak in your mission language, and you get used to it really quickly. Not that you understand it all really quickly, but you get used to it. My companion's name is Elder Schmidt and he is THE MAN! He's from Rocklin, Cali and he is a really cool and chill dude. He's a hard worker, but he knows how to have fun. We get along really well. Happily but also sadly, his visa came the second day so he leaves on the 14th. I'm gonna miss him but we'll have a great first 2 weeks before he leaves. i have five other Elders in my room, Elder Bourgeous from California, Elder Summers from Oregon, Elder St. Gelais from Arizona, and Elder Kunz from Pennsylvania. My district consists of the people living in my room and I feel really blessed with the district that I got. Elder Smith and Elder Christensen who I know from BYU are in my zone, so it's been good having them around. Learning a new language, woah, it's crazy. I have sooooo much to learn, but I feel like I've made progress. I've prayed a few times in Portuguese and I actually bore my testimony in Portuguese on Sunday at church cause it was Fast and Testimony meeting! It was super basic and short, but I feel good to have done it nonetheless. I have a long way to go with my language, it is gonna require a ton of work, more than I think I've ever put in in my entire life, but I know if I work hard, the Lord will bless me. It's all about making progress and staying positive. Easier said than done, but I'm doing my best.

For gym so far, we've played Spikeball (look it up) and soccer, and that's been great. Yesterday we played 8 on 8 and we won 4-2. Our district scored all the goals for our team and i was in net and made a couple of good saves, so we will feeling pretty great afterwards. It was so much fun getting back out onto the field. We got to see fireworks for July 4th! Yay! We've had a couple of cool devotionals, we met with our branch presidency and they're all great, we had Jenny Oaks Baker, daughter of Elder Dallin H. Oaks come and perform hymns on her violin for one of the devotionals, along with her 4 kids who are all extremely talented, and Oh ya! The third day we taught our first investigator, Abraao! We've taught two lessons so far, it's been pretty hard but good experience nonetheless. There have been some good days and bad days since being here, but I want you all to know that I'm doing fine. I know this is where I’m supposed to be and I know I’m doing the Lord's work. Even though I can only check e-mail once a week, I appreciate any e-mails at any time. It may take a few days, but I'll get back to you when I can. Also, I'd love to get Dear Elders! If you don't know what that is, just e-mail my mom at tannercarrollcmc@gmail.com. I would also love to get letters, I forgot to bring my address down to the computer but because my e-mailing doesn't have to be all at once, I'll grab it and send it later, as well as some pictures we took if I can figure out how. I love you all! The gospel if true! Until next week! - Elder Carroll