Hey Everyone!
Ive been waiting to email all week and its finally time! Ill start by answering all the questions Ive been asked and then I will talk about my week.
First, I have been getting all the letters you have been sending. They come to my mailbox. If you would like to send me [physical] letters you can use dearelder.com for free while Im at the MTC. [If you would like to email me please email me at dbailey@myldsmail.net]. Id love to hear from any of you! You can send pictures over email. I would love some pictures! I can check my email throughout the week, but I am only able to answer on my P-Day [Preparation Day] which is Friday. I really only have an hour to email but since I have my Ipad Im able to finish later if I didn't get to finish. Also the food is okay, sometimes its gross but it can be good. I have 3 roommates. My Collega [Italian for colleague or companion) Anziano Kane, and then Anziano Work and Anziano Harris. They are great guys and I love them so much. Easy to get along with and are so funny. We have a great time. We do everything together. We are like a Quad companionship. Its great!
So here is my daily schedule:
6:30am- wake up, and get ready for the day
8:15am- Breakfast
8:45am-9:15am- personal study
9:30am-10:30am- exercise time
10:30am-11:15am- get ready for the rest of the day
11:15am- 12:00pm- lunch
1:30pm-4:30pm-language class
5:00pm-6:00pm- dinner
6:15pm-9:00pm- language/gospel class
9:15pm-9:45pm- get ready for bed
10:30pm- Lights out
Its a pretty strict schedule and can be really tiring because we dont have a lot of down time, but its good because Im learning a lot.
This past week has been crazy, but good. Ive learned so much and my head hurts like all the time because of all the learning we do. But Im actually retaining it. The gift of tongues is real and I have a firm testimony of that! I have prayed so much this past week. So Sundays in the MTC are really different than regular church. You go to church at 8:30am and have priesthood meeting with your zone. Then 9:15am is a district meeting. Then 10:00am to 11:00am is sacrament. And sacrament is kinda scary because when you get there they randomly select 2 speakers to speak during sacrament. So you have a talk prepared every week just in case you get called on. Also! Dad you should be proud of me because Im doing the MTC choir. And its actually really fun. Something really special happened. So every Sunday and Tuesday we have a devotional. So Tuesday night came and we were having choir practice and our director comes out and says "so I have some news". We all perked up and got excited. He said "the speaker for the devotional tonight is going to be Elder Neil Andersen from the Quorum of the 12 apostles and that its going to be broadcast worldwide and we are gonna be singing in it!!". I got so excited not only do I get to sing on live TV, but an Apostle is coming to speak to me in person! That night was so cool and full of the spirit. So we have exercise time everyday and so far every time we have played Sand Volleyball with the sisters in our district and it is so much fun. We arent allowed to keep score or be really competitive but it is still so much fun and we laugh a lot. Because our report date got changed all the other Italian missionaries were still here so we got overlapped with them which has never happened before, and because it has never happened before we formed the largest zone in any MTC in the world. It was awesome! But all the older Italians left on Tuesday so they all came into our room and said goodbye and gave us hugs and just kinda passed the torch onto us. I love those guys! Our language/gospel teachers are literally the best people in the world. Fratello Harbin, Sorella Blandford, and our tutor Sorella Rincon. I love them so much. They are so funny and spiritual and just really great teachers. We call Fratello Harbin "teddy bear" because he is such a softy and just loves to give us elders hugs and is just a really sweet guy. A really cool experience that happened at the devotional on Tuesday was while we were standing waiting for Elder Andersen to walk around and say hi and leave, the organist was playing background music. The song was The Spirit of God. And the most spiritual and crazy thing happened. Literally every single missionary in the room started to sing the song at the exact same time. I felt the spirit so strongly. I got teary eyed and got chills every where, It was amazing. The organist played Called to Serve next and we sang that to and that was really cool. We get to go to the temple every Pday in the morning so we went this morning and did an endowment session. It was really nice to get to go to the temple and be able to do a session. It was a much needed booster. This week was full of prayers, laughs, learning, and then some more prayers haha. I cant believe its already been over a week. I miss you guys so much. But something that I learned this week from President Hinckley is to "Forget yourself and go to work". That really hit me hard and told myself that I am not here for me, I am here or those who I am going to teach. And I am so excited to do so. Another quote that kinda goes along with that and that helps me with the language is " Its not about learning the language, its about the journey of loving the people". Learning Italian is a little rough, and I know that once I get to Italy Im not going to know anything. But I know that as long as I love and care for the people and just open my mouth, the Lord will fill it and the people will feel my love for them. "As long as I am trying my best Heavenly Father will do the rest".
I love you all! Please right me I wanna hear from you! Until next Friday!
Nel nome di Gesu Cristo, amen.
