Elder Tutton: Semana uno (week one)

Hola mi hermanos y hermanas,

So this is my 4th day at the MTC! It's been going pretty well, my
companion is Elder Oldham. He's a cool guy, I have a lot of really
great guys in my district. There all right out of high school except
for one brother who is going to Costa Rica. The brother who is going
to Costa Rica has a companion who is going to New York, New York. That
companionship are the only two elders who aren't going to Argentina
from our district. There is also a sister companionship in our
district, both sisters are 19 so I feel kinda bad for them that there
not only a year older then us but also a bit more mature then us as
well. It's awesome that they will be serving in Argentina as well with
majority of the elders in our district. There are 4 elders (myself
included) in my district who are preparing to serve in Santa Fe,
Argentina. Me and my companion will both be serving in Santa Fe so
it's pretty cool to bond over our area.

The MTC has impressed me a lot, the language instruction especially!
Although very strict with classroom instruction and with daily
scheduling it seems that I have almost no time to myself. I'm sorry if
I don't write enough but it seems that even on P-day I still have so
many things to be doing and so many responsibilities to be keeping up
on. Also since I had failed to mention earlier that today is my P-day
so I will only be able to send e-mails on Saturdays although I will be
able to check my e-mail as frequently as I'd like throughout the week!
I am able to check so frequently because I have the access to my
personal I-pad for the 6 weeks that I will be at the MTC. But please
send me e-mails throughout the week because I would to keep updated on
how you all are doing as well, but I apologize if I am not able to
respond right away although I will be a able to write out a draft
through the week, I will be able to send you that e-mail that I had
worked on earlier in the week to you on the next following Saturday.
Sorry if that was a bit confusing.

But again back to the language, on my first day I walk into class with
other guys from my district and out teacher (miestra peacock) is only
speaking in Spanish. She's an amazing teacher but she expects us to
only be able to communicate with her in Spanish. Which sucks because I
know very little Spanish. But it's alright because I have been able to
learn helpful phrases to help me survive class such as, "¿comó se
dice?" Which means "how do you say?" And also "¿que significa?" Which
means "what does ____ mean along with "repita por favor" which means
"repeat please". But all of these phrases help me out with the
transition into my Spanish class. Also yesterday I was able to teach
my first discussion fully in Spanish with me and my companion, we
taught a young woman named Zuri and she spoke no English so it was
very interesting trying to find words we didn't know how to say in
Spanish. Let's just say me and my companion prayed multiple times for
the gift of tongues and the translation of tongues to be able to
understand Zuri which I think really helped because I thought the
discussion went very well and the moments where we weren't to stressed
about the language were the moments that you could really feel the
spirit. But we had to teach Zuri for a minimum of 20 minutes which
actually didn't seem to long when you add opening and closing prayer
along with the hymn so all in all I think it went very well. But the
after our discussion miestra peacock told us that we will have an
additional opportunity to have a discussion with Zuri that following
day (today) and to prepare an additional discussion to follow up with
our one from that day. So I will be teaching Zuri again with my
companion for another 20 min all in Spanish at 6pm today! We were also
challenged but miestra peacock to focus on our testimony in Spanish so
me and my companion will both have the opportunity to bare a very
powerful testimony that we have both been working on in Spanish.

So now let's talk about the MTC, the campus is beautiful! The food is
pretty great as long as you know what your hungry for and you know
where the good food is hidden. Friday's are pizza night (papa johns)
so I'm going to be looking forward to Friday nights. They have lots of
chocolate milk so a nice glass with every meal is pretty great. There
are lots of different places to get lots of fruit which really helps
with energy and with just with the way you feel over all. So I always
try to eat a bowl or two of fruit for every meal. We have an hour
every morning for exercise so we go running a lot and we are able to
go to the gym with has treadmill's and elliptical which is pretty
great. Sometimes we have a class before we have exercise time so we
change a lot between church clothes and exercise clothes. While in the
MTC you really have to be very focused on time management so you
aren't falling behind and you get all of your responsibilities taken
care of whether it's memorizing a scripture or reading through
required passages before the next class there is usually always
something you can be doing at any given time of the day. It makes me
think back to a general conference talk I heard that talked about how
you can be anxiously engaged in good things but there could also be
thing you could be doing that would be better for that use of time and
there are also the best things you could be using your time for you
you have to constantly pray to know what is the best thing to be using
your time for. So it's hard not to feel guilty when you take time to
e-mail or to take time to exercise because event though they may be
good things it always feels like I could be doing more with my time.
But anyway, that's more of just a missionary thought for you. You
really do constantly feel the spirit here on campus though, it is
almost overwhelming sometimes during class which is pretty unique
because you spend close to 12 hours in the class room. It's crazy that
even with about the 7 hours we get to sleep that we are in class
almost double the time we are in our rooms. And the only reason we are
really in our rooms is when we are sleeping and that's about it.

Well I'm going to try to include any questions you guys send me in my
e-mails and I'll send you any answers to questions you may ask me in
an individual e-mail. Sorry if there any tying errors, I didn't have
much time to review my e-mail for how much time it took to write it.
But I'd love to read your e-mails throughout the week! Thank you for
all of the love and support, I hope you all have an amazing week and
your in my prayers! You'll hear from me again in a week! Adios!

From,
Elder Tutton