Alright it is the first week of the MTC and although it is only the fourth day being here, it feels like i have been here forever! There is so much to do when we are here. The language is actually going pretty well and I love my companions. Well, i only have one companion, but the other two that share the room with us are really cool, too. My companion's name is Elder Duff, he is from Orlando, Florida. He is going to the Mesa, Arizona mission! How ironic is that? It makes sense why they made us companions though. We both speak pretty well and do our best to talk as often as possible en Espanol. The other elders in our room are Elder McMahon (pronounced McMan) and Elder Shumway. They are going to Spain...lucky dogs. They are super entertaining and we have a fun time. Elder McMahon and i have a LOT in common and we laugh when we find something new. I love the MTC!
So far we have been focusing mostly on the first lesson in Predicad Mi Evangelio (Preach My Gospel). We had our first investigator, Jennifer, yesterday and she wouldn't let us inside because "her family was sick." They are actually just members from the church that live in Provo that come to volunteer investigate. The scenario was that she had ordered a Bible from Mormon.org and we were delivering it to her. It was a pretty entertaining experience because although we know a lot of Spanish between the two of us, it doesn't nearly compare to the native speakers. So it was kind of a game to see who could last longer with Jennifer at the door. We were dying laughing at one point because the practically native speaker in the class, Elder Romero lasted the least amount of time and returned in only about 4 minutes, including the time it took to walk there. You could see disappointment in their eyes when they returned, and his companion Elder Conley said he wanted to die he was so embarrassed. HA! My companion and I lasted 20 minutes and we set up an appointment to come back today to share a message with her. So wish us luck as we return, with more preparation this time!
Our teacher's name is Elder Hosskins, but we call him Hosquito. It is a blend between Hosskins and mosquito because he is really small, so the elders before us called him that. He is a pretty good teacher, but i dont feel like we have really worked much on the Spanish yet. We have mainly just been working on the gospel words in Spanish. Not the whole study of the language. However, tonight we are supposed to do some more of the language study, so hopefully we will get the chance to learn more tenses and such so our sentences will flow better. I was put in the intermediate class, so we can all carry on conversations, but aren't fluent. Yesterday it kind of hit me how cool it was when we were all sitting around in a circle talking in Spanish and everyone knew what everyone was saying! What a blessing it is to have the gift of tongues!
So much has happened during my stay here in the MTC, but i only have 12 more minutes to share, so I'm going to tell you as much as I can! The first day was surprisingly long even though we were only there half a day! We got settled in and had an orientation meeting. Something that was really cool and stuck out to me was when we were singing the "we are as the armies of helaman" song, when it usually says "we will be the Lord's missionaries," the words on the screen and what we sand changed to "we are NOW the Lord's missionaries," and although it seems like something little, it brought the Spirit and opened my eyes that I was at the MTC! :) Sister Danley (if i remember correctly, that's her name) challenged us to do something when we get out into the field. When we stand up to bear our testimony, we need to say that our mission will be a WOW. Now the significance of this is that we expect only the best out of our mission. Whatever we put into it is what we will receive blessings from.
After the orientation, we had dinner, which by the way is SUPER early! At 4:45! So i have to get used to eating early, even though i had just gotten used to eating later. The food is not as bad as people talk about, but it is not as great either. I do the best i can to avoid the crappy food and i have been exercising a lot, so i feel a lot better when i am living off of 8 hours of sleep, which after a long day's work at the MTC still doesn't feel like enough...
One more thing that i would like to share before i get booted off of here in 4 minutes!
On our way back to our room two nights ago we were stopped by two Elders headed to Taiwan. They asked us if they could bear their testimony to us in Mandarin as practice and they did a marvelous job! I was super jealous, but they had been there for 4 weeks, so they had the hang of it! The Spirit was so strong and it was awesome when they asked us to bear our testimonies, too. I swear i had the gift of tongues then because i said some things i had never said before, but i knew exactly what to say. We all attested to the strength of the Spirit and that point, and i will always remember that moment! Can't wait to get out in the field, but for right now, i am going to soak up what i can in the MTC.
I love you all and i thank you for the support, and feel free to send me some letter through DearElder.com. We all love hearing from our friends and family back home every day :)
Adios!
-Elder Gallego
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