WEEK 1: First Experiences at the MTC

Hey everyone! Welcome to my weekly emails from Brazil. I hope I added everyone's emails correctly. If you know of anyone who isn't getting my emails that wants to, let me know.

I'll just give ya'll a day-by-day rundown of my experiences so far.

WEDNESDAY

Flying to Brazil went pretty well. We had a mid-flight medical emergency though! Some guy in the back of the plane fell unconscious and started foaming at the mouth at like 3am so a bunch of doctors ran from first class to come evaluate him. Needless to say I hardly got any sleep on the flight. I've been pretty sleep deprived but that's aight. It's nothing new; high school has prepared me for it. When we got to the MTC it was POURING. Like a full-on tropical storm. Loved it. My suitcase got soaked and some of my clothes smell a lil funky. Today was pretty much just a bunch of introductory stuff, showing how the MTC works, introducing Preach My Gospel and the likes. It's super exciting. I've already made some pretty great friends and the locals here are sooo welcoming. They greet me like I'm an old friend. The food is okay. Could be better could be worse. I'm not here for that though.

We ended the day with a recorded devotional by Elder Holland that was suuuper good. About how to be a successful missionary. We also had choir practice and I couldn't stay awake so I literally fell asleep while singing like twice each song. (Don't worry mom I'll be getting more rest as I get into the swing of things.)

THURSDAY

I love my roommates. My companion and I are in a room with another companionship. They're super nice and together know probably like 20 english words. We figured out that we both know a tiny bit of spanish, so we've been communicating solely through that. My spanish has been getting a lot better, which is nice, but that's not the language I have to be learning haha. As we teach them english, they teach us Portuguese. Since we do it via spanish I'm starting to get worried that my portuguese will be half spanish and half portuguese. It's a challenge but it's fun. We all get along well. Today was pretty good. Our district is sooo great. So many funny guys; we have the best time. I'm picking up the language super fast. I'm adjusting way better than I thought I would. I'm not homesick at all and I find missionary life to be pretty simple. I may be speaking too soon though. It's beautiful here too. The scenery is incredible.

FRIDAY

We got to work out today. It was so nice. It feels great outside. The track is hilarious though. Narrowest tack I've ever seen. Its literally in an alley-way and you have to turn on a dime. Maybe yall can find a picture of it online or something. We made it work though and I got a decent work-out. Today's been nice because we haven't had any classes yet, just personal study. The language is coming along super well. I do a lot of translating for my group when we hang out with natives. Idk why but Portuguese just clicks for me.

SATURDAY

I LOVE BRAZIL. I love my Brazilian friends here so much. We have so few words to use to communicate with each other but I honestly haven't laughed as hard as I did today in a long time. They have so much love it's incredible. They help us so much with our Portuguese and have so much patience. They are so Christ-like. I can't believe the pace at which we are learning portuguese. I swear I'll be almost completely fluent by the time I'm out of the MTC. Today we taught our first lesson entirely in Portuguese! My companion and I. We have only been studying the language for about three days and we can already pray, bear testimony, and teach a simple lesson. It's incredible. We are pretty much in class for 14 hours a day though. We are definitely putting in the work to make this happen. I love the people here so much I'm going to miss the Brazilian Elders. Most of them leave in just two weeks. It's crazy because I am such a minority here. There are hardly any American elders here. Most are missionaries from Brazil. It makes us learn the language real fast. I am so tired though haha we are constantly working super hard and don't really have any free time. I couldn't feel happier though. I've never felt so productive.

SUNDAY

Today we finally had a more laid-back day. We spent a lot of the day doing personal study. My roommates and I are able to hold conversations now and Elder Batista asked me to cut his hair haha. I did. Looked great but I got shut down by an Elder that cleans the floors. Apparently the mission president has a rule against cutting each others' hair in the MTC. It's a shame because everyone else wanted their hair cut next.

Speaking of hair, my hair has gotten soooo curly due to all the humidity. It's pretty long now too, but it doesn't look like it because it's just curls. So I won't have to get it cut for a while.

Portuguese is great still but it's getting so hard because I prefer spanish sooo much more. I keep accidentally speaking in spanish to Brazilians but it's aight. They understand most of it.

MONDAY

More classes today. I don't have too much to write, except we figured out our missionary name tags make perfect kazoos. We kazoo-jammed to some oldies and even threw down some harmonies. I get to write home tomorrow and I couldn't be more excited. I've been looking forward to writing home since I got here haha.

So far my experience here has been so great and uplifting. I can't wait to get out to Brasilia and do work there.

Best regards to everyone and I hope you all have a great week!

(Also I have my schedule now and I'll be online every Tuesday 10:30-11:20am while I'm in the MTC)

With love,

Elder Young