¡Hola Amigos!
Pshh yeah no big deal it's week 4 and I'm basicallymente fluento en español.
And NOW a little bit about my experience with the online Missionary Training Center! (Which I will call the MTC from now on cuz that's too hard to spell over and over again.)
In missions we missionaries get paired up into companionships, and those companionships get grouped into districts which stay together throughout the entire MTC. My district is the best.
No, seriously. I don't know why God decided to land me in the best group in the MTC but here I am, shocked after every lesson thinking "Where did these people COME from?!" They all have so much enthusiasm for their work, you can see it just in the way they speak and smile and holy cow you just have to see it for yourself because I bet this group of missionaries is unlike any group of 18-20 yr olds you've met ever. They're all super smart, super motivated, and I'm convinced they're all going to be world leaders or something because with the kind of character this crew possesses there's nothing they can't do.
My companion is freakin awesome. His last name is Garcia, and no he's not a native Latino although everyone we teach makes sure to ask him that right away with a raised eyebrow and confused hand gestures as if to say "Which one of your ancestors betrayed their culture and didn't teach you Español??"
But naw for real, he's the best. I'm very grateful to have a diligent companion like him who gets up every morning to study the scriptures with me in spanish, shares profound insight into whatever topic we come across, and reminds me what we're supposed to be doing in breakout rooms because it's the 11th time Hermana Murua split us up and I still have no idea what what's going on.
Oh he's a professional artist too. And a songwriter. Super talented guy.
I'm not going to get too deep into any spiritual thoughts or anything like that with you this week because I don't want to accidentally turn this into a book like my last email (*cough), but I WILL leave you with a four minute video which is super sweet and, I dunno, might make you want to hug everyone you see and say "I LOVE YOU MAN, I PROMISE I'LL NEVER EVER STEAL YOUR SHOES" after watching it.
You watched it right? Good. I promise you couldn't have spent the last four minutes of your life doing anything better than watching that video.
Our district has about a million inside jokes and memes already, which I would totally share with you but — yanno — they wouldn't be funny out of context. But there are a couple of funny stories and pictures I CAN share with you just in case I've managed to keep the attention of any straggling readers.
- There's a word in Spanish that we use a lot when we pray. That word is "pido" which means "I ask". There is another word which sounds a lot like it, "pedo", but it means something totally different.
One of our elders just found out a couple days ago that he's been saying "fart" every time he gives the opening or closing prayer.
- There was one class where everyone got split up into breakout rooms in Zoom for a while. My companion and I finished our tasks quickly, so we started drawing these immaculate pictures of people on the whiteboard and pasting quotes by them. I'll only share the one we made of me because I think it would be rude to share anyone else's portrait without their permission. Seriously they're THAT good.
- Aight so this story isn’t really funny it’s kinda cool actually but the SECOND DAY EVER in the MTC we were talking about destroying our comfort zones as missionaries and I told one of our instructors that the scariest thing I could probably ever do is sing a solo in front of people. I’d never done it, and never would. Then she dropped something super wise-sounding in her Mexican accent like “if you get that out of the way in the MTC then you won’t fear anything on your mission”. Then my brain exploded and I was like holy cow you’re right. Well I always wanted to learn how to play the guitar so I told her yanno I think I’ll give that a try too. Two weeks later I dropped a video on Facebook of me singing in Spanish and playing the guitar and it wasn’t amazing, my pronunciation was probably trash but ya know what? It felt SO GOOD to do something that scary that I didn’t even care.
There’s something empowering about doing stuff that’s difficult and stretches you. I think that’s because ultimately the whole reasonwe’re here is to grow,and we can only do that if we’re always looking for ways to get outside of ourselves and break that shell of mediocrity which threatens to keep us where we’re at.
That's it for this week! I love you and wish you all the best,
Elder Johnson
1. Masterpiece
2. Comrade Johnson
3. Our boi Paul
4. Snooze
5. Doppelgänger
6. Halloween
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