Today is my 9th day in the MTC and if I'm honest with myself, the first couple days were really hard but it has gotten a lot better. We get up at 6:30 am every day and our last class ends at about 9:30 at night. Sometimes it's exhausting to sit through 3 hours of french speaking, but since I've gotten here I've come to enjoy learning french, and it gets easier every day. As we learn more about the language it becomes less frustrating and more enjoyable to speak, and I've probably learned more in a week than I did in a year of school. The Gift of Tongues is real.
I am missing the music and friends at home, but we can feel the spirit all the time at the MTC. One interesting thing I’ve noticed is there seems to be no system of social hierarchy or cliques. There is no such thing as social status except for a church calling or assignment. I think everyone just realizes we are all valuable children of God.
My companion is pretty quiet and probably not someone I would normally hang out with but as I've gotten to know him I have come to realize I lucked out. He's very easygoing and smart, and most surprisingly is actually a professional hunting guide from Alaska. He gets paid big bucks to navigate people through the mountains and aid them in hunting dall sheep. He's even been on TV for it before.
The food here is decent, depending on the day, and with sitting in classes all day long I think I've gained a few pounds. The classes were pretty boring, but I eventually got used to it, and now look forward to them sometimes.
On every P-day we go to the temple in the morning and it's very refreshing and sets a positive tone for the rest of the week. Most free time is meant to be spent studying, and if we don't we'll fall behind, but when we can we go play basketball and my companion and I are beasts. He's 6'4 so we can pretty much dominate everyone else on the court.
On another note, the MTC has been pretty humbling. There are a lot of people here that know the scriptures front and back, and plenty of people that already have been speaking french for years. It takes quite a bit of effort to keep up with them, and helps to remind me that we all have different strengths and all of them are valuable.
Love you all!
Elder Martin
-PS feel free to email me at jace.martin@myldsmail.net
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