1st Letter from the MTC!

Hey!

I only get 30 minutes on the computer a week, so I'll try to write fast!  The MTC is really not that hard of an adjustment for me.  I know that BYU for sure helped me a lot with that and yeah, it is really weird that I'm in Provo.  Every time that I go up the stairs to go to my room, I look out and see that big "Y" on the side of the mountain.  It really didn't hit me where I was until I saw the Y for the first time. 

So the first day that I got here, they walked me up to the main building where I got my tag and everything, and then Elder Enriquez, my host, took me to get my books and room and then we went into the classroom to drop everything off, other than my suitcases of course...  So in the classroom, we waited around for a little while until everyone got there and we met our companions.  Mine's name is Elder Jenkins, and we were a little shy around each other at first but now we're really becoming great friends.  Well how couldn't you be friends with the person that you always have to be in sight and sound of!  He is from Mesa, Arizona, and I asked him if he knew Chuck Linton and he said no, but that he worked for a music store owned by his family or something like that. 

So after meeting our companions, we all went into this assembly hall in the main building and we had a "welcome to the MTC" type of fireside thing where we got to sing a lot of songs and hear from the MTC Presidency.  We didn't sing called to serve, which was kinda sad, but whatever.  We sang "Armies of Helaman" or whatever that primary song is called, and they took out some of the words and replaced them with "we are now the Lord's missionaries" and that's where it really hit me that this was for real.  It was a wonderful welcome fireside and all of the MTC presidency is pretty amazing.

I slept really well the first night, most likely all thanks to my pillow I brought, and have been fine every night until last night, when I got a bunch of letters from Jordyn Prestwich, Chelsey, Caitlin, and Cally.  It really is the best feeling ever getting mail, and I can get letters and packages any day of the week, so don't hestitate to write me whenever you want. :)  How weird...  I just got to make a smiley... :) :) :) :) :)

So you're probably wondering how my Spanish is coming along...  Well let me tell you:

I've got the purpose of being a missionary memorized and I'm trying to get the first vision down too, but they're hard to memorize!  We're learning about first semester spanish stuff right now like conjugating present verbs and gender / number of words, etc.  It's pretty basic, but I feel like in 3 or 4 weeks I will have reviewed everything I've learned in 4 years of Spanish.  It's not like a Spanish class at all really.  We learn Spanish with the gospel at the same time, so we really are just learning to give the discussions and meet people and other basic principles you need to know before going out in the field.  Classes here are long and a lot of the time boring, but there is a certain spirit that I never have felt anywhere else that is just amazing. 

The thought of heading out to Mexico is both incredible and terrifying.  I love that I will be able to be a free person once again and that I will be attempting to bring others unto Christ, but the thought of just going out there and having a trainer that speaks no English or something keeps me on my toes in the MTC.  I don't know what I would do if I was like some of the missionaries in my district and had to go to an all-Spanish MTC 
three weeks after getting here...  Those two Elders, Hokanson and Reeves might not get their Visas soon enough to go down in two weeks though is what I hear, but oh well...  AHH  only 7 minutes left :( 

So I am doing really really well.  I thought that I would just try to impress you by reciting, from memory, the purpose of a missionary en español.

Invitar a las personas a venir a Cristo al ayudarlas a que reciban el Evangelio restaurado mediante la fe en Jesucristo y Su expiacion, el arrepentimiento, el bautismo, la recepcion del Don del Espiritu Santo, y el perseverar hasta el fin. 

Pretty good, eh?  

You can send letters through DearElder.com just in case you didn't know..  And thank you so much for the cookies :) They are delicious!  No time left gotta go...  Love you :)

Love,

Elder Eric Moore