Week 5 - Weird things happen to you at the MTC. . .

View from Inside the MTC

This is my last p day here in the MTC!!! I'm so excited to leave. I don't know how ready I am to leave but I am soooooo excited. In one week from now I will be at the airport flying to my mission! I always thought that they taught you the language in the MTC and then you knew the language when you went to your mission. That is definitely not the case. I know a ton of gospel vocabulary and then some basic grammar concepts but that's about it. I'm super excited to get out there and be surrounded by only Spanish 100% of the day. I really just want to learn the language so I can communicate with others easier. It has definitely gotten better though since I got to the MTC. When I got here all I could say is hola, buenos dias, and buenas noches. A whole lot has changed.

This week has been pretty good. I'm getting so sick of the same routine every day but it's ok. Only like 4 more days of classes. I can definitely make it through them. Everything here has been pretty normal this past week. The new kids got here Thursday night. It is crazy to think that it has been a whole month since I was in their shoes walking in here in the middle of the night not knowing where I was or what I was doing.

One thing that I will miss about the MTC is my district. We're all like super good friends now. After all, we have been together pretty much all day every day for the last month. I will miss being able to talk with people in English but I'm sure that the sooner I quit speaking any English, the faster I will learn Spanish. In my district there are 2 of us going to Piura, 3 going to Cuzco, and 5 going to Santa Cruz, Bolivia. It will be hard saying goodbye to everyone but we will be so excited to get to our actual mission that none of us will really care too much.

Probably the coolest part of this last week has been watching my teaching ability improve. The correlation between how well you can teach in Spanish, and how much Spanish you know is amazing. Who would have thought? This week was really the week that I have noticed a difference. When teaching our pretend investigators I am actually able to get my point across to them. I don't use all of the right grammar but I can at least kind of speak to them. I'm sure it will only get better with more practice. I can hardly believe that a week from now I will be starting to teach real people all the time. I get so excited thinking of the investigators that I will have in Piura. I can't wait to get there so I can help share the amazing joy and happiness that this gospel brings!

One of the downsides of having my last p day today is that I will not have time to do laundry before I leave. That means I am going to have to pack all of the dirty clothes that I wear this week with me. It's ok though. It will all work out. And if worse comes to worse I will just have to wear dirty clothes for a couple of days before I have time to wash them.

Sunday was one of the most encouraging times of the mission so far. Everyone has to prepare a talk for sacrament meeting every week and then they randomly call on like 5 people to give them. Luckily I didn't have to give mine but I was able to at least write it and write the things that I wanted to say in Spanish. This was the first talk that I have written here in the MTC that has actually been all of what I wrote. The last ones I would try to write as much as I could but I couldn't write much so I would quote a ton of stuff out of Preach My Gospel. I love seeing how much my Spanish capabilities have progressed. Another thing that was great on Sunday was that in sacrament meeting I said the prayer on the bread in Spanish and didn't even mess up. I was pretty proud of myself. Well I don't know if proud is the right word—more of a relief.

That afternoon the three advanced North American districts got to go watch The Testaments. It was honestly so nice to be able to watch a movie. I miss being able to watch movies. They usually show it to you your last Sunday in the MTC but they showed it to us this time because next Sunday something really cool is happening.

We found out last week that Elder Cook from the Twelve is going to be coming to the Peru MTC next Sunday to speak to all of us! I am honestly so excited. The best part is that he will supposedly be speaking in English so I wouldn't even have to use the stupid headsets with a translator! I love the devotionals here. They are already super spiritual and way fun. I can't wait until we get to have one in the presence of an apostle! There are only 150 of us here so I'm sure it will be a more personal experience than if it were at the Provo MTC to 4 million missionaries. That's another plus of being here at an MTC that is so small. I love it here though.

Weird things happen to you at the MTC. Probably the weirdest thing that has happened to me is that I have this strange desire to read. I don't know what it is but I have this desire to read all day. That is something that I definitely did not possess in high school. They gave us the July Ensign this week and I had an hour on Sunday so I sat down and read the whole thing cover to cover. I have read the Book of Mormon while here, and pretty much all of Preach my Gospel. I have read Our Search for Happiness, and Our Heritage from the Missionary Reference Library. And the crazy thing is that I'm not sick of reading. I think I just have learned to love learning.

Anyways, I hope I get to call next Tuesday morning! I hate how little time I have to write! My time is almost up. I love you guys! I know this church is true! I can't wait to be a missionary in the Perú Piura mission!

Love you all! :)

Elder Baker

Elder Baker with cousin, Elder Schouten