Hey guys!
I'm so happy that another P-day is here. I can't believe how
quickly my stay here at the MTC is going. Already a little more than 2
weeks, it's crazy. What to start off with? I'll answer some of your
guys' questions and comments first. I love hearing all of your words of
encouragement. All I need when I'm having a hard day is your guys'
letters. I'm glad to hear about your lives. It makes it feel like you
guys are still around. From this letter on, I'll try to personalize
these emails and try to talk to you guys individually :)
I'll be sure to share
some awesome scriptures I come across with you as well! :) As for you,
Maddy, I am craving some serious Mattas. hahaha. The food here is
alright, but it lacks flavor. I keep telling myself I have to eat just
to be fed. But it's not terrible though, so don't worry :) The Sao Paulo
temple is a lot smaller in person than those pictures. It's kind of a
cozy looking temple. I'll do my best to go to Mr. Cheney's so you guys
can see some of my pictures. Tommy! How are you doing, my best friend? I
miss you so much, man. A lot of my thoughts are occupied with quotes me
and you used to do. Seriously, like when you guys sent me in your
emails some quotes, I was cracking up hahaha. Keep sending them! "We got
the cheapest cheep-cheeps in the world!" As far as panini's go, I get a
lot of sandwich meat and swiss. Turkey, ham, even salami-type stuff.
They're not too bad. I always fear that somebody will take my sandwich
while im busy getting my drink. Hahah! Hey, Karli! As far as the MTC
goes, it's not too bad. I feel kind of frustrated sometimes because the
instructors all have their different rules and so they often clash. Like
around conference week, we had to wear our suits but none of ours were
matching. One of them told us it was fine, so we walk in and some guy
tells us to change. We run all the way to the top (6th floor), change,
and run back down and then we got some dirty looks for being late. Like
what the heck? haha. I like to think I'm more eager to get to Salvador
already. Less missionaries to put up with, more personal time and more
time on P-days, more motivation to learn the language, and your own
apartment. But it has its down sides too. Less comforts like AC and that
sort of thing. I'll just have to do my 6 weeks like everyone else and
pray for the Lord for guidance. It's not very humid that I could notice,
but I'm sure once I get to Salvador, I will notice. All the instructors
tell me that it's "Muito quente em Salvador". (very hot). As far as
temples, I like Mesa way more. I'm more used to it, it's bigger,
prettier, and it feels like home. Hey, Dad! I miss you so much. Thanks
for still emailing me. That other guy, I still haven't met him. DJ
Arneson? I'll continue to keep an eye out for him! I actually was
reading in Mosiah the other night concering King Benjamin's address. I
thought of you when I was reading it because it mentioned some really
awesome stuff and I remember you said you liked it. I'll be sure to give
Elder Mochaki a warm embrace. Him and I are becoming some pretty sweet
friends. I remember you said something like that last time. I'm
constantly just reminding him how I feel about him as a companion and
telling him he's awesome and stuff like that.
Okay, so last P-day after I wrote, we got to go walk around the
city a little. I felt like I was in a different world or something. Like
most stores you walk by won't really have signs, so you kind of had to
discern what's inside based on the first couple of things you see. Plus,
traffic is kind of scary. Cars and motorcyles don't yield to traffic as
far as I'm aware, except for stoplights. For our shopping, I had to buy
some hangers and triple A batteries for my alarm clock as a backup. I
also bought this peanut butter candy that tastes like Reese's Peanut
butter. It's called Pacoquita. I would send you guys some, but as far as
I'm aware, we can't send packages out from the MTC yet. Once I get out
in the field, I'll be sure to send back some awesome little things for
you guys when I can. :) The watch I borrowed I decided to buy from the
guy, Elder Hesselgesser. He didn't expect any money but I gave him 22
reais for it, which is pretty good for a nice watch. He's a really nice
guy. I'm going to do my best to treat the money I'm given from you guys
with respect and not spend it frivolously. I hope there doesn't come a
time where you feel like I'm just wasting it. Last P-day, I also stopped
by Mr. Cheney's and got my free cookie because of my sticker. They're
some pretty good cookies actually. Their M and M ones are pretty
chocolatey. So now, I offically don't have the little newbie sticker on
my nametag anymore! I put it on the back of my tag as a little memory of
my stay at the MTC. So Wednesday,
the non-English speaking elders in our room left. One of them, Elder
Dehnike, gave each of us a tie as a parting gift. Which is funny because
he would always come up to you half joking and point at something of
yours, usually a tie, and say, "Presente para mim?" which is him saying
"present for me?" in Portuguese. So I sort of started up a running joke
now whenever we see a guy from our district, we'd go up to each other
and say that. It's pretty hilarious. I've got a group picture together
before they left. I found out that Elder Mochaki's favorite movie is
"Rocky". So now whenever we climb the 6 flights of stairs to get to our
rooms, we throw our hands in the air, and do a slow circle saying,
"Roooooockeeeeeey!" really slowly to which he usually responds, "I feel
like Rocky from the first time" when he got beat up, hahaha. Sunday
was cool. We have sacrament meetings depending on who's in our branch.
There's about 34 missionaries in ours and our talks are completely
random, meaning you better have one ready to give at a moments notice.
Luckily, you only have to talk between 1-5 minutes. I haven't been
called yet, but Elder Mochaki was called. And he was lucky, because the
first week, you can speak in English if you wanted. So a typical
schedule usually runs like this, total: 10 and a half hours of class
study, 30 minutes of breakfast, 45 minutes of lunch and dinner, and
usually physical activity for 45 minutes. Then we get a small snack
before we hit the hay. The time is distributed throughout the day, so we
don't sit for 10 hours straight, hahaha. That'd be nuts. It sounds like
a lot, but it really flies by.
Kind of some random stuff, but the other day, we were eating lunch
or dinner, and I had a few slices of Guava on my plate. They have lots
of mini seeds in them. But anyway, I took a bite into a semi-mutilated
one and thought it was kind of gross. Then like 5 minutes later, I look
back at my plate and I see a maggot or weevil-looking thing about the
size of a fingernail crawling around my plate! Yeah, I haven't touched a
guava since. I've helped the Elders here and there with random tasks.
Some of them didn't know to do laundry or iron a shirt so I showed them
to the best of my ability. I even sewed up a belt loop for a guy and a
tear in the pants of Elder Mochaki. In exchange, he helped show me how
to handwash clothes, so it was cool. I've been using these essential
oils here and there. Some kind of bug's been going around and giving
everyone sore throats. I shared some melaluchia or however its spelled
with a guy because it helped my throat.
I feel like I'm learning more and more each day. Usually, I can
decipher what someone is trying to say if I tell them to repeat
themselves because they talk a little fast. I can almost understand our
instructors entirely when they lecture, and my stack of flashcards are
ever increasing. Mochaki's and my lessons are evolving to the point
where we teach by explaining pictures on pamphlets without a script
relatively well. We got an "investigator" to commit to baptism after he
told us he already was baptized as a baby. I've gotten to the point
where I just want to get out of here and into Salvador already. Which is
kind of eager and maybe foolish, but I just want to serve, teach, love,
grow, and learn more about the gospel, learn portuguese faster, and
receive personal revelation like you mentioned, Dad. But I know I need
to be here and I'm really not ready to go out yet. The MTC feeds us so
dang much, so I'll stay here for my last few weeks. Hahaha.
I'm feeling a closer bond with some of the missionaries here. Like,
my district is seriously like we're all best friends. We're just there
to pick each other up when we fall. Like this elder in our district,
Elder Madsen. Good guy. He sat behind me on the plane here. Lately, he's
been struggling with the language badly. He finds comfort in reading
the scriptures and constantly prays but feels like he hasn't received an
answer and knew that the Book of Mormon was without a doubt true. So
he, I, and our district leader Hesselgesser kind of pulled him aside and
helped him through it one night. I can tell he felt better because he
gave me a bro-hug after nad was happy. Elder Mochaki is such a funny
guy, like whenever we walk to the bathroom, I'll start beatboxing down
the hallway and he'll chime in with his own beats and after like 10-15
seconds of semi-dancing to our jams in the bathroom, we just start
cracking up!
Oh yeah, over the course of these 2 years, you guys should keep a
list of the good music you all individually like so that I won't miss
any of it. I seriously miss listening to music here! And movies. I'm
going to make a big checklist that I'll compile from now until October
2016. I can't wait to come home but I also can't wait to be a
missionary.
P.S
Thanks for the Pizza party! I checked in and I have to return in a
few hours. We barely timed it right after the temple. We went to the
Campinas Temple today. Look it up, its gorgeous and way bigger! Anyway,
thanks for the surprise. I was so, so, SOOO happy! I love all of you guys
so much!
Until next week
Elder Skinner
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