Well, here we are. Another P-Day.
Not a ton has happened this week. Honestly, in the MTC every day is basically the same. We have class for 3-6 hours, depending on the day, and then the rest of our time is devoted to personal study or language study. Whitney, you had asked me before how language study works in the MTC...we have 3 language study books: a small red book of vocab and phrases, a bigger red book of grammar, and a big green book of grammar and vocab which is like a school textbook. We never really use the green one though. The two red ones are made by the church and are super helpful. We also use a program called TALL (technology assisted language learning) that was created by BYU for the MTC. It can be a little annoying but it is helpful. We use that for about an hour a day.
We got some new Elders in our zone this week. That's exciting. I don't know any of them yet, but the fact that I get excited when new Elders come into our hallway is a testament to how exciting any kind of variation is around here, haha.
Mom, of course you don't need to address your emails to Elder Mockler. I get called that here all the time, so reading my real name is kind of nice every once in a while! That paisley tie we got at men's warehouse always gets good offers, but I don't think I'll ever trade it. Nothing is worth it. Thanks for sending the bread, it was in great condition and my zone enjoyed it immensley! It was a great surprise to open a box and find a loaf of bread. I got a good laugh after the shock subsided, haha. As far as a photobucket go, I definitely can't do it here at the MTC. We can only go to a few websites. And there is no way to get pictures off my camera while I'm here. I might go print some this week and I'll mail them to you. And yes, they use Euros in Spain. That seems to be a common point of confusion, though; a few people have asked me that...Also, could you send me a list of everyone you forward this to? Just curious! Oh! And I saw Sister Weight here. I forgot to tell you that. She left a week or two ago already but it was great to see her while she was still here! She is headed to California.
Dad, thank you for the package! I got it. The pictures were great! I put them up at my desk in my room. Sounds like you guys are staying busy there, which is good. And its also good that you aren't traveling for a bit...you'll finally be able to really get lots of stuff done with the house! My companion is going to Iowa and whenever we talk about it I miss the midwest. That doesn't happen often! Haha. As for email, I only get a chance to read it once I week. thursday mornings I print out all my emails and then I write these emails in the afternoon. Also, I had to get part 2 of my Hep A vaccination today and I payed with the Amex. hope that's ok.
I checked on my visa today and it hasn't come in. The guy in the travel office told me to plan on being here for the full 9 weeks, but if it comes in soon they'll send me there right away. I'm not getting my hopes up though. Kind of a bummer that I won't get to go to Madrid at all while I'm there, but in the end it isn't a big deal to me at all. What really matters to me is that my visa comes in before my departure date. I am excited, though, to get away from the food here. It just does weird, weird things to you.
Great news about the Brocks. If they finish before I leave I might need you to send me a CD player and an aux cord so I can listen to it....
Spanish is going really well. I still have a hard time speaking it in the mornings especially, but sometimes I feel really good about it. Hopefully by 6 weeks from now I'll be feeling really good about it all the time. I know most of the grammar I need, so now it's all about vocab. They reccommend that you learn 20-25 words a day, which turns into like 1500 words by the time you leave the MTC. I haven't quite been keeping up with that so hopefully I can make up for it by next week. As a district, we are trying to speak Spanish from breakfast until dinner everyday, and then in the classroom after dinner as well. So far we still have to use quite a bit of Spanglish to clarify, but it is definitely helping us improve. And its a lot of fun to hear the crazy things we all say, haha.
On Tuesday, Neil L. Anderson came and spoke to us. It was an incredible opportunity. If you can find it online I would recommend reading it. I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have to be here and to hear such incredible men speak to us. Afterward we went out and he came and shook our hands! Haha, it was great. Yet another thing that I probably get way too excited about now that I'm a missionary.
Well, I think that is about it. If you have any questions make sure you email them to me...that helps me know what to put in here. Thanks to everyone for your support, letters, and emails! I love you!!
-Elder Mockler
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