I think I've finally gotten use to the whole schedule for the MTC. I use to think i would never get over the energy crisis but i finally decided that it will always exist, so i just stopped caring about that. Most everything is getting into a basic routine though. Meals are always the same-ish. Breakfasts usually aren't that great so i grab a bowl of either blueberry muffin tops or fruit loops, 2 glasses of cran-apple, and then snitch a couple bites of whatever the main course might be. Lunch is either a hit or a miss. Sometimes they have chicken cordon blues or burgers, which are fantastic, but the other times its like egg rolls with bleeding chicken or cardboard steak. At least they have A1 sauce, so i can down the steak pretty easily. Dinner is usually a glass of either red powerade or a blue powerade/sprite combination which is sort of like Baja Blast? Hey don't judge, you get bored here. Main meals for dinner are always random, and i still don't know what to say about that, besides the fact that everything tastes like it was mass produced.
The other three guys in our apartment have started to find some interesting ways to keep us entertained. The following are some of the ridiculous things we've done over the past week:
1-We've started to pull pranks on the new elders every week. Good times. Last Wednesday night we were walking home from class and we saw some new elders that had their dork dots on their tag still. Since the four of us still had the dork dots on the back of our tags, we decided to flip ours around so it was just a blank, black square and we asked them where to get our name tags engraved. They had no idea and we started freaking out because we didn't know what to do. Elder Kirk started having a panic attack on the side of the curb, and then eventually some other Hermanas from our district walked by and blew the whole operation. Good times while it lasted though, figure we gotta have some sorta stories while we are here
2-We were on our way to the Tuesday devotional and the other 2 guys from our companionship knocked on our door so we could go with them, but we wanted to sneak around back somehow. So our apartment is on the second floor so we figured we could hop out the window and just run around the back of the building. So, we decided to pop the window in my bedroom, and there was a screen. Elder Ferrin punched the screen out and turns out that on the other side of the window at about the top right was a small beehive. Didn't knock the beehive off, but it definitely shook it and sent about 15+ bees flying on our window. The dorms are super small to so we all tried running out and we tripped over everything and the beds on the way out. Ferrin got stung by a bee on the head and then closed the door with me and Haslem still in the room, with the lotta bees xD We had to leave the apartment since we were late with the door open, since nobody wanted to get close enough to close the window, so when we came back in the room there were still like 2 bees on our sheets and a few on the window 2 feet away from my pillow. Finally killed them off, but it was freaky sleeping that night, fear of killer bees is real, i now know.
3-The dinner here is at 5:00 for us so as soon as 10:00 rolls around we are always starving. I had a care package sent to me a week or two ago with snacks so i wouldn't be starving when night time came around, and that package included wheat thins and easy cheese. Anyways, last night we ran out of wheat thins and still had the entire container of easy cheese and we were trying to think of something to do with the cheese. Long story short, we decided to have a Elder initiation for our district so we bought some microwavable chicken nuggets from the creamery( nastiest chicken nuggets of my life by the way) and we stuffed them with easy cheese. Nasty taste, but hey now i can say I've eaten chicken nuggets stuffed with easy cheese. Can you say that? Probably not, and i wouldn't recommend it either =P
Lessons are getting better, and we have finally started going to TRC every day now, which for those of you who don't know its like teaching a progressing investigator every day, compared to practicing with your teacher. Your not sure if the investigator is a member faking it or a real non-member, but you treat them the same regardless. My Spanish is progressing, but it has slowed down since the first two weeks. I'm still learning fine, my personal goal is memorize 75 words a day, and so far that's fine. I'm definitely an over achiever, as everyone else's goals are around 15 words, but hey I'm hear to learn Spanish, so i'm gonna learn Spanish! =P
If anyone happens to find a bunch of non microwavable food or snacks they don't want, and a box that already has a shipping label addressed to the MTC, by all means feel free to send it! But if not, i'm surviving just fine at the MTC, learning a lot, and getting giddy to go to Costa Rica.
Hasta próxima semana,
Elder Campbell
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Buenos Días Familia!
Elder Campbell
Mom & Dad:
Starting to already feel how the mission life is going to change me over two years. There are so many things i wish i could stop saying or doing to improve my personality and friendliness, and being with my companion and talking to other people all day gives me plenty of opportunities to keep practicing and growing. One of which is i'm learning to slow down how fast i talk, which is still really hard to do. I'm glad that when people speak fast in Spanish, they don't ever really tell you to slow down, so at least i can talk as fast as i think in my lessons, but with everyone else i really gotta focus on talking nice and mild. I feel like i'm talking to a baby kind of speed when i try, but everyone says its the same speed that everyone else normally talks at, so maybe ill just get use to it.
Its surprising how blunt a lot of people are here coming from all different backgrounds. I'm use to my friends and my family kind of sarcasm and ways to comment on something, but often times lots of the people here just feel like jerks the way they ask someone to do something. So many companionship's have so little respect for each other in the way they ask their companionship to do something, or will intentionally try to irritate their companions. Hope i'm not coming across that way with my companion, but man some people just learn to hate each other hear. I think i'll just have to adjust to some groups of people.
I've also learned to really tone down my competitiveness here. All the time when i play volleyball during gym i watch guys that get way to competitive or jump right in a girls way just so they get a slam, and then i get to watch how everyone talks behind their back about how mean they are during sports. Maybe i'm just getting so use to calm and uplifting atmospheres that anything mildly offensive or mean is super noticable to me, but regardless, i can see the aftermath of being too competitive with sports now. I apologize for anyone in the past that may have felt that way with me, i finally think i understand why XD
Todos modos, finally getting a hang of it here, just pushing a long and waiting tell i can get to Costa Rica. So excited to actually start meeting the people and exploring the culture compared to the same stories here.
hasta miércoles,
