Hola todos!
I’ve been in the MTC for basically 16 days now I think? I’m not really sure to be honest. Porque there is literally no difference between days here. It’s always the same. I wake up, pray, eat breakfast, class, class, another class, lunch is somewhere in there, and then more classes. It’s crazy to think that I thought I was done with high school, pero here I am literally sitting in a computer room like the one in Herriman High practically doing a typing test as I try to write everything I want into a single timed email.
So let’s start out with an introduction. You can either call me Hna. Thelin, Hna. Mads, o Hna. Mamí.
I’m in a trio with two other hermanas who I usually end up mom-ing all day. I have to get them to wake up at 6:30, I feed them snacks (thanks mom) and I force them to come play basketball with me when we get outside time instead of napping. I feel like I’m constantly babysitting. But esta bien.
Mi compañeras son named Hna. Franco y Hna. Neil. Hna. Neil has been going to BYU Hawaii for the last few years. She’s a little older than everyone else. Pues, she and I have been talking about me possibly going to school down there after. She thinks it would be perfect for me, what with how in love I am with island culture now, pero that’s for another conversation.
I’m the resident hipster here, they’re constantly calling me ‘trendy’ and telling me how hipster I am. Esta bien. The Elders are constantly making fun of me, they kinda remind me of children. I hope they learn to grow up while they’re here. Their main mode of teasing me is yelling the word picado. For those who don’t know un pecado es a sin. Entonces, tengo a bad problem con leaving mi compañeras and going off on my own. It’s not a good habit here I guess and they’re literally always catching me alone by myself, which in turn causes them to yell out PECADO a me. Por que apparently I’m just a huge sinner.
My teachers think I’m a little too loud and I’m always talking in class, pero it’s not a bad thing though. Because at least I’m speaking in Spanish. Which by the way I’m only getting better and better at my Spanish. I’ve gotten to a weird point with my vocabulary where I’m struggling to find words I usually use in English, pero I can remember how to say them in Spanish. So lo siento por the awkward Spanish thrown around in my emails, I’m trying really hard to not write you guys in Spanish.
We get to go out to the store sometimes during our physical actividad hour. Pero it’s only like once or twice a week. We usually walk like half a mile to get there and we cut through the cutest park ever. I’ll attach pictures. They have lights still strung up in trees that remind me of the temple square lights back home, pero they’re not as extravagant. They also have extremely dangerous teeter-totters that make you go parallel to the ground. I’m always scared I’ll break by neck when I play on them, lol.
Entonces, wanna hear something funny? When we packed my bags I was so convinced I had more than enough of everything. Pues, I was wrong. I totally forgot to pack shampoo and conditioner!!!! So I’ve been surviving on the dollar store shampoo and conditioner I had in my carry on, and using a bar of soap to clean my hair. RIP hair, amiright? Well, yesterday I finally got some money changed into pesos and got some weird cheap shampoo that literally makes my hair smell like papayas. I LOVE it. and it was only like 95 pesos. What. a. steal.
I’ve gotten pretty good at basketball and volleyball while I’ve been here. Hna. Franco taught me how to do a layup and I’ve been playing some games called poison literally every day since I’ve gotten here. (sometimes I beat the elders even, and they’re all like way taller than me). So thank heavens por that gift. There’s not a lot to do when you only have a basketball hoop and a parking lot to work out in. Sometimes I do yoga in la mañana pero, the floor kinda sucks so I think I’ll have to buy a mat when I get to PR.
You would not believe the poverty here though, we have tons and tons of people that just walk around the streets and beg. I feel really bad for them, thank heavens I don’t have a lot of money or else I’d be Santa Maria-ing all over this city. The culture is poor, but there are a lot of hard working people tambien. At basically every street corner there are guys selling bananas and nuts and little candies just so they can make money. The weird part about that is how much people actually buy from them. When traffic stops people will get out of their cars and go buy cosas from these guys. It’s very un-Utah like.
We walked past this big security facility the other day on the way to a service activity and there were these guys outside carrying these huge guns, definitely not something you’d see in America. They’re really nice guys though, I say hi to them every time we walk by.
Mi compañeras y me get to go out contacting tomorrow at the previously aforementioned park. I’m excited, I think my Spanish esta bien y mi compañeras are totally ready too. They’re just not good at starting conversations, they’re introverts. So they made me promise to start all the conversations with the strangers. Which is fine by me. I got a little early practice with contacting the other day while I was at the store waiting for los elderes to be done. I met this guy named Fernandez who said he was an Atheist y we talked about God for a minute until his Spanish was too fast for me, then my teacher came up and finished the conversation for me. It was super great, we got him to give us his email address so that we can send him some materials to read about our church, por que he said he wanted to know a bit more.
Dear Meagan, I’m singling you out because I haven’t received an update on The Bachelor yet. Please send details, it’s like all the gossip we get to hear around here. I need names, and stories and mucho, mucho details.
As of Tuesday it will only be my distrito aquí por que all the other people are leaving to go for their missions, so we’re going to go from a CCM of 32 to 5 personas. Esta bien. Then on Wednesday we get about 21 new kids who will be with us for my last three weeks here. Presidente says that they’re mostly going on English speaking missions to Barbados, so only my district will be continuing learning Spanish. Which will be weird because there are so many Latinos here I’m so used to not talking in English. I’m going to miss my Haitian soeurs y my gringo hermanas y elderes y my latinos. Wish me luck as I go from many friends to only a few.
Entonces, I need to use up my last few minutes to attach pictures to the email so gracias por reading my email (even though it was all over the place) I promise to be less frantic next week.
P.S. sorry if you’ve seen some of these pictures before, I’m still trying to figure out how to upload only new ones.
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Hermana Thelin
