Week 2: Not a Minute Wasted

If I didn't have much to talk about in my Week 0 email, I now have way too much to talk about. Everyone in my district is always recalling events that happened that morning as though they happened a week ago, we're just so busy! 

If you're curious about the rough schedule, we have two 4 hour classes in the day, one in the morning and one in the evening. Between those classes, we spend just about every spare moment eating, reading scriptures, or attending language tutoring and workshops. However, we still find some time to have fun, including some volleyball and chess as a district. Many people are dreading keeping this schedule for the six weeks we're here, but I figure I'm going to miss it once I leave. 

And, this schedule started right away. My parents dropped my off at the MTC at 2pm on Wednesday, and within 15 minutes, with me still a little teary eyed from the drop-off, we started our schedule of classes and devotionals.

My district is wonderful: everyone is incredibly dedicated to their mission and are willing to share and discuss their testimonies of the gospel often. No one is here just because. And, we've been the only district in our dorm to fully observe the bed time, which I greatly appreciate. My companionship is even better. I'm in a trio, which is uncommon, and both of my companions are sharp as tacks and are definitely going to leave me behind if I don't lock in on my studying. It's been a blast with them.

Also, for anyone at BYU, the cafeteria here is literally the cannon center with longer lines and fewer options.

For my favorite hymn of the week, it has to be our district singing the children's song, A Child's Prayer, in Portuguese, which is Oração de uma Criança. If you haven't heard the song before, I absolutely recommend it. The third verse with the two parts combined hit so hard in Portuguese. A close runner up for this week was singing Called to Serve with all of the around 600 missionaries coming in on the first day. I was taken right back to tunnel singing at BYU. So good! And for next week, we're performing We'll Bring the World His Truth in MTC Choir on Tuesday, the same arrangement that was performed at General Conference last October, so that should be pretty awesome.

Well, that's it for this week. 'Till next time, tchau!

Elder Haroldsen

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