Elder Watson's First E-Mail Home (P-Day is Thursday)

HI! :D

The MTC is absolutely amazing! I love it so much! I am learning so much about the gospel and am picking up on Spanish well. Let me go through and answer your questions and letters before I go further.

I just received my DL and the goody package. Am I supposed to share the cookies/good stuff with David? Oh, and can you send up my ankle braces? Running shoes do not provide much ankle support... I hurt my ankle yesterday, Wednesday, playing Volleyball. It's not too bad. I can walk on it and such, it just looks like I have a second ankle... I am going to be going to the trainers every day to ice and for physical therapy so it should clear up quickly.

I was just called into travel services and they let me know that I do not need a visa, so the FBI clearance is not as important. But a visa would still be nice.

I did spend money at the Health Center, but not for my cough. I needed an updated tetanus (sp?) shot and I will have to get my Hep A shot in a couple weeks. My cough is almost gone so I am really glad! I just need to get rid of this runny nose! Also, I may spend more money at the MTC bookstore for a t-shirt and other such stuff I may need. (I actually don't need the T-shirt)

I get to read letters everyday. The only restriction is that I have to be in my room to read them. Dear Elder prints in the mail room I think every night and we get them pretty quickly. I can only respond to letters on P-Day, electronically and paper, so please don't think I am ignoring all of you. I really wish I could do sooner, but in all reality, I really don't have enough time. I hope today I will have enough time to write. I may not even have enough to answer all the letters I got.

Oh, and by the way. I LOVE letters!! :D Thank you for sending me them! They make my day!

I talked to Elder Raymond last night about getting a group shot of the three of us. The hard part is that we are all 45 minutes apart in our schedule.... We will try but it will take a bit of coordination. I have no idea what Elder Day's schedule is like, but I will try to make it happen.

My district is made up of ten elders, who are the Best! We get along so well and everybody is spiritually strong as well. My district leader happens to be my companion, Elder Gillette. He is from Gilbert, Arizona and is really good at soccer and volleyball. He is cousins will Connor Gillette who is a friend of Alexis and Christine up in Santa Barbara. Small world! Elder Gillette is really awesome and I am so grateful that I have him as a companion.. He is going to Resestencia, Argentina though, so I won't see him out in the field. Oh yeah... He is a twin and his twin is in David's district! Pretty Crazy!They are fraternal so it's pretty easy to tell them apart. ;)

My classes are great! I love my teachers! They are Hermano Williams and Hermana Mejia. Hermano Williams served his mission in Mexico and has spoken Spanish for the entire class since the day after we came in and surprisingly, I understand most of it. It's the talking part that's hard. Hermana Mejia is from Peru and served her mission in Pocatello, Idaho. She is really nice and sweet, but the other Elders are a little louder when she is teaching. Perhaps it's because she teaches us at night and we are wiped out, but we all agree we like Hermano Williams better. I mean she is an awesome teacher, but we get more done with Hermano Williams. I think it's because its her first teaching, but she does great.

I was able to talk to Reuben a bit before he left on Tuesday. He was so excited to see us. I guess everything worked out with his clearance and such. I have been able to talk to Elder Day and Elder Raymond a lot. We see each other all over. It's really neat! I have also seen a couple Elders from my Missionary Prep class, and that was way awesome!

This week has gone by so fast. It seems like yesterday was Sunday... It's hard to keep track of what day it is here. Everything is just a blur as we are all working really hard to become the best missionaries we can be.

Elder Gillette and I taught the first discussion in English on Tuesday in the Teaching Resource Center. We spent the first 15 minutes practicing contacts in Spanish which wasn't too bad... I thought I did pretty well. We still need a lot of work. The lesson went really well and we felt the spirit a lot. I went way too in-depth on some stuff, but that's alright. We know what we need to practice and work on.

We have all of our MDT (missionary directed time) in the mornings so this is when we do our personal/companion study and practice the language.

Well, time is running out... Literally. I am grateful for all of your support!

Love
Mike