August 28, 2010

Dear Familia,

Oh, so I feel like I should correspond largely by email, since normal mail is so weird.  Oh gosh, I just implied, no I said that email is normal mail.  Sign of the times I guess. Or at least my thinking.

My email was a bit of a rant, mostly over the frustration of dealing with the MTC computer regulations which are abysmal.  So my mood is generally stressed while writing them.  I lost 12 minutes to the system out of my 30 minute time limit today.

Conversely, a letter can be relaxed, paused, resumed, and a happy experience over all.

Speaking of happy experiences, I don't know if my email included this, but the MTC is so great.  Every day is filled with so much growth and learning that I don't even know what to think.

Spanish is going well!  I have been learning, praying, and testifying.  Recently, I was taking notes in English in class, and in a sentence included the word "prayer". I stopped for a second to figure out how the supposedly ER verb should be conjugated.  So crazy.

A Bardzinski-ism:  "There is going to be a loud noise for a while."  That was the warning he gave us preceeding about 30 seconds of nose blowing.

Also a random tidbit, "jagar" [llegar] means "to arrive".  Ligar jagar goooo!  [Can someone explain this one?--besides the fact that his teacher must be Argentine]

Forty people [following the blog]?!  That's amazing.  Probably just random google re-directs or something. [Actually, it's a list of a lot of great friends and family who are following Mark's mission].

Grandma Wolthuis sent me a letter!  Well, not just a letter, but a whole package!!  It's awesome, and I've been eating the chocolately contents for quite a bit now.  It is the best.  On the letter is a picture of me as a two year old!

I feel like I should include a brief report of lunch today. . . There was as much yellow goya rice as a person could want, and then about 600 times more.  I haven't gone but one meal without drinking at least one cup of chocolate milk, but I average at 3.5 cups or so.

Also today, I met an Elder Johnson, who is in Elder Moss's district.  He went to Orem High.  Also, my district (districts have about 12 people) is the second to oldest district in our zone already (4-5 districts make up a zone). [Mark has been at the MTC almost three weeks now.  I imagine most of this zone is being sent to the Lima Peru MTC after being at the MTC in Provo for about three weeks.  That is probably why his district is second to oldest].

The sentiment around here is that everyone is super glad they decided to go on a mission, despite the face that surprisingly many people in my district didn't even want to go [on a mission] a year ago.  I am certainly glad.  So glad in fact.

I drive stick better than you Paul. IRL and ITG. [In Real Life and In The Game].

I miss my phone. . . but not too much.  Excitement reaches a climax on Mondays as reports of the upcoming week's weather comes in via email. . . ha ha ha.

Love,

Elder Mark Johnson

P.S.  I think this is the best form of communication.
P.P.S. I am in Branch 1 District A