Erich at the MTC – Vol. 5 (of 5) Yup. I got you good, huh?

Opa, esta semana passada foi louca.

Yesterday was awesome, as usual! Lots of stories, anecdotes, and principles that were like spiritual beeeef. Om nom nom. It was great. But I’m jumping the gun here. :P Leeeet’s step back a little bit.

The first day of note was Tuesday, jam-packed with surprises and good experiences. Once again, the district got cut in half by visa receipt…for ME! That’s right. I got my freaking visa. I’m going to Brazil…with a flight tomorrow at 5 in the morning.

If you remember from last week, my first-ever companion Elder Shaw had to take his leave because of visa receipt. Sending him off made me sad…but my new companion, Elder Barnard, is pretty cool too. AND I got to room with Perkins and Gooch (zone leadership, for anyone who doesn’t remember).

Holy crap. I’m gonna be in the CTM in São Paulo, Brazil. In 2 days.

*squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee*

TRC also happened to be on Tuesday. It was amazing. We met a brasileira named Sister Roque who had worse English than we did Portuguese…but she was so loving. Her compassion for missionaries was so contagious, and she was super enthusiastic to talk to us. Kindest. Lady. Ever. For some reason, her Portuguese was much easier on the ears than that of my teachers (I love you, Irmãos Smith and Schirmer!) Maybe it’s because she’d been speaking it her entire life and understood that our verbal comprehension was less than the average Portuguese speaker. Still…I also have to consider some of the Brasilian Elders here, and how fast they spoke. *shivers*

So yeah. Life’s a little chaotic here right now. I gotta pack all my stuff up today AND get all this email and typing and whatnot out the door.

By the same token, this ALSO means that any contact info specific to the Provo MTC (read: anything that’s NOT an email address) will no longer be useful to you if you want to contact me. If you’ve sent any letters on Friday or Saturday, make sure I got them – I haven’t gotten anything in the mail today. If you’re not sending me a package while I’m in Brazil, I would really encourage you to avoid the two-week trip one way and send me an email instead until the end of my mission.

Returning back to Provo here, I’m simultaneously excited and sad to be leaving the MTC. I never thought about the goodbyes I’d give…or the numerous friends I’d make here. I’ve basically tripled my mailing list, and I hope I’ll be getting a lot of email from y’all in the future. By the same token, I still want letters from y’all at home! Write me a postcard, shoot me an email, do…something! I want to know how the people that kept me going at home are doing – and that’s YOU.

I’m going to miss playing 4-square with people here. But I’m also excited to get tossed into the Brazilian fire. I want to become fluent. I want to be able to call up my teachers and have a conversation in Portuguese. Currently, those people are Professor Santanna, and Irmãos Smith and Schirmer. Watch out, you three – I’m gonna be thinking of you as I master this language.

While I’m on the topic, I also have a tiny list of things I’ve found funny about Portuguese in the last week:

· “Pregar” means “to preach”, and “opregar” means “to force, to oppress”

· “prejudícia” is an adjective that means “harmful”

· “coração” and “oração” mean “heart” and “prayer” respectively

Cool, huh? I’ll try hard to remember more later. I know there’s much more left that I’ve thought about. That’s what my little Thinkpad is for. :P

Well, I've got to close up for now, but I've got a parting shot before I'm at the mercy of foreign powers and the TSA. It's about how I see my lifestyle currently changing - that is, having a purpose. By no means have I mastered missionary work. I'm not a great teacher, nor am I as good of a speaker of Portuguese as I would like. And yet, I've come what I feel is a considerable distance in this single month with much help from Him - and I realize that much of the education happens on the job. I think that this progress is because I have a purpose. Setting goals and carrying them out: these are the things that a purpose-oriented lifestyle requires. For 16 hours a day, I've been trying to apply these two things, and you know what? It's awesome. There's never any doubts about what I should do next, and I know what I'm doing is worthwhile because I decided before I ever got around to doing it. It's powerful. It's easy to adapt to. And best of all...it gives you a purpose! I can tell anybody what it is, without hesitation, in English and/or Portuguese. Since I got here, I've had a orientation around a purpose - and I plan on keeping it that way.

Anyway. Preciso sair ao Brasil agora. Tchau!

P.S.: Random quote of the week: "The spider do not like to be milked."

On Mon, Jan 23, 2012 at 8:47 PM, Erich Gubler <erich.gubler@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Family and friends,

Today's craziness has prohibited me from getting the post and most of my other emails out this morning as I planned. Sorry to keep you waiting, I promise I'm still alive!

Also, added s'more people to the mailing list. To the IntelliServ guys - I'm SO sorry I haven't updated you before this point. Definitely my fault. :\

Anyway. I'm alive! Here I am, world! DON'T FORGET TO WRITE! If you don't know where the info is, search the blog (http://erichgubler.blogspot.com), or the FB page (parents give a link to the FB page?)

-Erich Gubler

Erich at the MTC – Vol. 4 (of 9)

Erich at the MTC – Vol. 4 (of 9)

It would seem being able to sight-read means I now have obligations to play the piano. :D

Okay! Random ice-breaker out of the way now. This last week has been pretty good, and the only way I can possibly approach it all in a timely fashion is to present some of the content in my journal. Ready for the flood?

The speaker for last Sunday’s fireside (which I totally forgot to mention in last week’s admittedly lame post) was awesome – he showed us many of the ads from old Mormon ad campaigns. They were all a little cheesy, but some were touching. I’ll write about a couple of my favorites just to start you off.

I can’t remember the name for it, but the speaker gave some background for the first I’ll mention. This one had children actors – which are always difficult to work with. Sometimes they simply have to forgo the “acting” part. For this particular one, they took the favorite toys of a boy and a girl – a toy car and a dolly that sleeps, respectively, and aged 6 and 4 (I think?) respectively. The production crew placed the boy’s toy car inside the doll’s body while the boy was watching them, and then gave the doll back to the unaware girl – and they filmed the ensuing chaos.

During editing, they dubbed it with an audio clip of a married couple having a dumb argument. Put together, the clip was sort of humorous. At the end, it has a screen with the following text:

“If you think childish arguments hurt your marriage, don’t kid yourself.”

This is analogous to companion relationships as a missionary – though I realize that not everyone reading this will know what I’m talking about. So, time for a little education!

Firstly, we believe that missionaries should serve in twos – small enough so as not to be overwhelming when we enter and teach in the homes of others, but also good for the safety of the missionaries – buddy system, anyone?

Next, each pair – or “companionship”, as I’ve mentioned before – is assigned to an area in which we are expected to proselyte and reside. Generally, companionships stay within an area for six weeks, though the mission president may decide to have one or more missionaries stay. These terms are simply known as “transfers”.

I mentioned a mission president – this is a man who presides over the entire mission area, which is the largest physical area of management that isn’t totally executive in nature. My mission president, President Gonzaga, presides over the Maceió, Brazil mission – which is, of course, the city of Maceió itself, and the surrounding area (though I’m not positive how far that extends).

The mission presidency manages things underneath him in terms of “zones” – certain companionships are designated as zone leaderships, who collaborate with district leaderships in the zones – so, to make a little chain of the management scale, it’d be like this:

President -> Zones -> Districts -> Areas (I am here!)

I’m lucky enough to only have duties as missionaries in an area right now. I don’t have to deal with the headaches of reporting, which is one of the primary functions of missionary leadership. It’s also worth noting that all of these presidencies are in the form of companionships – zone and district leaderships are in companionships, and the president with his two counselors have their wives helping them fulfill their roles.

Anyway! Totally random tangent. The point is, though, as a missionary you live, walk, teach eat with a companion – so it’s important to have a good relationship with him (or her, for you Sister missionaries!). “Stupid” arguments certainly aren’t unheard of with 19-year-old males living together basically 24/7. I’m lucky – I haven’t had any serious disagreements that communication and a minding of our purpose hasn’t solved in my current companionship.

Speaking of changing companionships, our district got cut in half again because some more visas came in…including my companion, Elder Shaw. :( I guess it’s okay, though. I’m switching rooms down the hall and will be living with the zone leadership (Gooch and Perkins!) . I also get to be companions with the radical Elder Barnard. This will be weird…only two Elders for everything the district does now.

Again I digress…and I’m not even halfway through the week!

I must congratulate the wisdom of those friends who have sent me letters (three! :D), for they have forever earned a smidgen of love. Imagine what would happen if you send 5001 letters… ;D

Also. I must point out how disappointed I was that nobody in my district recognized the Assassin’s Creed symbol when I showed one that had been drawn in one of my letters. I think I may be the only serious nerd in my entire district…buuuuuut that’s meaning less and less since the district keeps getting bisected.

Anecdote of the week: For some reason, my alarm clock has been jumping around the hours – I totally wok up my companion at 3:30 one morning because my clock had somehow skipped ahead three hours. We were all suited up and ready to go to the temple…then he checked his watch. That day required some serious Ibuprofen. :<

“ELDER. It’s 6:30.”

Welp...time's running short - gotta wrap this stuff up. Here's a bullet list of some otherwise interesting things:

• Applesauce cookies. Freaking good. :D
• I heard through the grapevine that my one and only TWIN (eggs!) got his papers in. WHY DID YOU NOT TELL ME THIS, TWIN?
• Speaker for the fireside yesterday was also fantastic. "When a member doesn't magnify their calling, sometimes it is because they don't have motivation. But most of the time, it's because they simply haven't been taught. Likewise are our investigators. When they don't progress, sometimes it's because they honestly don't have interest. But most of the time, it's because we haven't taught them how."

Hmm...STILL NEED MOAR SPIRITUAL STUFF. Perhaps I should open this up, make the blog more interactive! What do y'all want to hear? Write your answers in the comments!

On Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 2:27 PM, Erich Gubler <erich.gubler@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Howdy again everyone! I've added a few people to the mailing list. I promise I didn't mean to forget anyone! It's just that time here isn't very conducive to thinking about that sort of thing any other day of the week.

My update's a bit short, but meh. :) I only hope that y'all will write me soon! Otherwise, how am I to know you're even reading?

Erich at the MTC, Vol. 3 (of 9)

So, my opening thoughts for this post regard the volume of people asking me if or assuming that the MTC is “fun”.

If you can answer “yes” to any of the following questions, then yes, the MTC is fun:

· You like teaching random strangers about a (very) brief history of the LDS church, informing them why you feel they need your message, and encouraging them to feel the Spirit.

· You like eating food that bespeaks “mass production”.

· You like going to bed before 11 each night.

· You like learning a new language for 8 hours a day.

· You like learning gospel doctrine/preparing lessons/teaching others 8 hours a day.

· You like having 16-hour days.

· You like people.

· You like feeling the Spirit.

· You like self-improvement.

· You like having a constant companion both physically and spiritually.

Most of my non-LDS friends that read this will probably react at first like “Bwuh…what?” Then again…most of the LDS ones will probably wonder too. XD

Alright. Now that that’s out of the way, I’m gonna review my journal. Can’t remember beans at time of typing. Which reminds me…I totally forgot to write in my journal for the first two days of this. But that’s alright, because I got me some more letters! :3 I won’t mention any names, but suffice it to say that they’ve made me really happy!

My companion got these enormous packages from his family this past week filled to the brim with nut mixes and otherwise “kosher” vegetarian food. My personal favorite’s the V8 – he’s usually willing to let me bum one off him. They taste fine, and on the plus side I get a serving of veggies (I must be honest…rather in short supply here. See comment about the food above.) He got quite a bit of stuff, and he’s a little worried that if we get our visas that he’ll have to ditch some/all of it. Mebbe we ought to weigh our bags and gauge how much extra crap we can acquire from the MTC before we have to lose something.

Portuguese is making (seemingly) slow but steady progress. I’m now aware of many names for concepts I’d have to handle based on previous concepts I’ve seen, and the technology-assisted language learning labs here are excellent for ironing out your understanding with grammar. I sort of wonder how the Rosetta Stone software compares with it – I hear it takes a similar approach to the software we’ve got here. My only regret is that BYU’s had a direct hand in developing it – I take altogether too much pleasure in finding bugs in the software. I’m attempting to make an account with their JIRA issue tracking instance, because I’ve got about thirteen little reports to make. Matt Peterson, stop laughing right this instant. :P

I must take a brief instant to reiterate: MAIL PLZTHX. If I don’t respond in a week, make sure you’re sending to the right address. ;)

Anecdote of the week:

I totally got a Sister to “swear” by accident on Saturday. I gave the following line to Elder Shaw that evening:

“Well, Elder…let’s make like exorcists, and get the heck outta here.”

A Sister looks over and says “I don’t get it…WAIT. Hah!” Her companion, wearing a puzzled expression, asks “Wait, what did he say?”

“He said…let’s make like exorcists, and get the hell outta…gah, whoop!”

I told them they’d make a spot in my journal and blog. :P

Man, the longer I’m here, the more it feels like a blur. I’m learning a lot, and I’m certainly making the progress the program here hopes for…but I can’t wait to actually get out into Brazil. The people of Maceió are sounding more and more interesting as I learn about Brazilian culture and food. I kind of wish I had minha professora here to give me an inside perspective, but it’s good to hear an American point of view.

Hmm. This week’s post is kind of short, huh? I’ll see if I can’t tease more content from my experiences. Might have to get spiritual in this joint. :P But only time will tell!

Até logo!

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Howdy again everyone! I've added a few people to the mailing list. I promise I didn't mean to forget anyone! It's just that time here isn't very conducive to thinking about that sort of thing any other day of the week.

My update's a bit short, but meh. :) I only hope that y'all will write me soon! Otherwise, how am I to know you're even reading?

Erich at the MTC, Vol. 3 (of 9)

So, my opening thoughts for this post regard the volume of people asking me if or assuming that the MTC is “fun”.

If you can answer “yes” to any of the following questions, then yes, the MTC is fun:

· You like teaching random strangers about a (very) brief history of the LDS church, informing them why you feel they need your message, and encouraging them to feel the Spirit.

· You like eating food that bespeaks “mass production”.

· You like going to bed before 11 each night.

· You like learning a new language for 8 hours a day.

· You like learning gospel doctrine/preparing lessons/teaching others 8 hours a day.

· You like having 16-hour days.

· You like people.

· You like feeling the Spirit.

· You like self-improvement.

· You like having a constant companion both physically and spiritually.

Most of my non-LDS friends that read this will probably react at first like “Bwuh…what?” Then again…most of the LDS ones will probably wonder too. XD

Alright. Now that that’s out of the way, I’m gonna review my journal. Can’t remember beans at time of typing. Which reminds me…I totally forgot to write in my journal for the first two days of this. But that’s alright, because I got me some more letters! :3 I won’t mention any names, but suffice it to say that they’ve made me really happy!

My companion got these enormous packages from his family this past week filled to the brim with nut mixes and otherwise “kosher” vegetarian food. My personal favorite’s the V8 – he’s usually willing to let me bum one off him. They taste fine, and on the plus side I get a serving of veggies (I must be honest…rather in short supply here. See comment about the food above.) He got quite a bit of stuff, and he’s a little worried that if we get our visas that he’ll have to ditch some/all of it. Mebbe we ought to weigh our bags and gauge how much extra crap we can acquire from the MTC before we have to lose something.

Portuguese is making (seemingly) slow but steady progress. I’m now aware of many names for concepts I’d have to handle based on previous concepts I’ve seen, and the technology-assisted language learning labs here are excellent for ironing out your understanding with grammar. I sort of wonder how the Rosetta Stone software compares with it – I hear it takes a similar approach to the software we’ve got here. My only regret is that BYU’s had a direct hand in developing it – I take altogether too much pleasure in finding bugs in the software. I’m attempting to make an account with their JIRA issue tracking instance, because I’ve got about thirteen little reports to make. Matt Peterson, stop laughing right this instant. :P

I must take a brief instant to reiterate: MAIL PLZTHX. If I don’t respond in a week, make sure you’re sending to the right address. ;)

Anecdote of the week:

I totally got a Sister to “swear” by accident on Saturday. I gave the following line to Elder Shaw that evening:

“Well, Elder…let’s make like exorcists, and get the heck outta here.”

A Sister looks over and says “I don’t get it…WAIT. Hah!” Her companion, wearing a puzzled expression, asks “Wait, what did he say?”

“He said…let’s make like exorcists, and get the hell outta…gah, whoop!”

I told them they’d make a spot in my journal and blog. :P

Man, the longer I’m here, the more it feels like a blur. I’m learning a lot, and I’m certainly making the progress the program here hopes for…but I can’t wait to actually get out into Brazil. The people of Maceió are sounding more and more interesting as I learn about Brazilian culture and food. I kind of wish I had minha professora here to give me an inside perspective, but it’s good to hear an American point of view.

Hmm. This week’s post is kind of short, huh? I’ll see if I can’t tease more content from my experiences. Might have to get spiritual in this joint. :P But only time will tell!

Até logo!

I'm seriously getting cramps in my hands from all the writing I've been doing lately. XD Ah well. Enjoy the update!
Erich at the MTC, Volume 2 – Getting into the Swing
As soon as I got done writing last week’s post and emailed it off so it could get on my blog, I felt a little friendsick…I miss you guys! I know that these first few weeks will be the roughest in that regard, though I can’t speak for when I actually go to Maceió…I’ve never been in a third-world area before.
The cure to homesickness, of course, is love and hard work. I’ve got one of those…and the other was given during this last week.
I always have been rather lazy…and 16-hour days are kinda meh if you’re not willing to utilize those hours. I know that diligence is a Christlike attribute, and that as his representative I’m supposed to try my best to follow his examples…so I thought. It was a good long think.
I know that my friends love me. I’d be silly if I didn’t recognize that – many of you have stuck through the years, and for those of you my age I know that’s hard to do…we’re all turning into adults and that means moving around, and thus a challenge to the roots you’ve established, including me. Even with tools like Facebook, you still have to make the effort to stay in contact. And many of you have done just that. I just want to let you know that I love y’all – it means a lot to me! Every night I consider the story I’m writing…and I’m glad to include characters like you.
It’s for this reason that I must lose myself in the work I’m endeavoring – otherwise it would be a waste of my time here, and a break of the trust I have with you that I will try to be the best I can for you.
Okay. Whew. Got all that heavy stuff outta my system. Now on to the anecdotes!
So, this week we got a new zone leadership – but I never introduced the old one! So. Originally, the zone leadership consisted of two of the neatest guys I know. Elder Rodriguez is from Howe, Texas – also one of the most intelligent people I know (Matt, I seriously need to get you in touch with this dude!). For instance, as a fun thought experiment, he was curious if it was possible to find a penny with a year that could be squared, then have the digits added together to make 42. All because I made a reference to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Elder Govier, his companion, is something people ‘round here call “legit” – he’s from Wales, and has got the accented English to prove it. He’s a master of “spooning” here at the MTC – that is, he grabs spoons from the cafeteria and slips them into your suit pockets like a ninja. There’s been way fewer incidents since he left for Portugal…*sigh*…
The new leadership is awesome, though. We have Elder Gooch, a redheaded fellow who…heh, is difficult to describe. He’s from California, and has a very spunky personality…which is a sharp contrast to something of a lack of tone in his speech. He’s a good leader, and compliments very well his companion Elder Perkins – who speaks Danish, English, AND Portuguese very well. I’m pretty jealous – my friend Andrea would argue against me, but I’d say a good Portuguese word for him is “polyglota”. I’ll let y’all Google that. ;) I think I’m going to remember Elder Perkins in particular, though, because he and I had a random discussion about calculus on Saturday and now some of my precious scratch paper (which I use to draft responses to letters and blog posts so as not to consume email time) is filled with limit equations for derivation proofs. Gaaaah. I feel so nerdy. It’s excellent.
Speaking of awesome things, I got a couple of letters this last week! Technically only one of them counts, though. The first was from my mom using DearElder.com. She only wrote this:
“Doesn’t it cost to use this service? Love, mom"

…please tell me you’re joking, Mom. Seriously? :P I’d ordinarily be disappointed, but I’ve gotten a small mound of emails from her anyway since I got here. Love you, Mom!
We’ve had significant chunks of my district (the group of Elders I do most activities with) get their visas since we’ve gotten here…last week we had 12; 4 left this last Tuesday. 3 more have received theirs this last week…and will be heading to the Centro de Traneiro de Missionários in São Paulo tomorrow. :(

In loving memory: Elders Graves, Higlee, Walker, McLean, Dewey, Jessee, and Polatis.

This bunch included two roomies...and now it’s just going to be me and my companion, Elder Shaw. At least until the new missionaries come in on Wednesday. That’ll be interesting.
I’m hoping to get a gadget that’ll let me attach photos from my SD card so I can get the blog updated with some pictures, and perhaps a couple of the ones I’ve got scanned! I’ve got a picture of me and another Elder who came from Maceió, where I’ll be serving. He’s hoping I can give a copy to his family down there. He assures me they’ll feed me at least once a day down there. XD
I also have a teacher here that seeks correspondence – he promise my district that if we send him a letter from our fields in Portuguese, he’d send us American imports that are hard to get down in Brazil. The item most worthy of mention was peanut butter. I haven’t quite caught on why, but apparently it’s the Holy Grail of food items for American missionaries down there. They seem to have a…worse variety in Brazil, or something. I guess that’s a question for some of the few Brazilians I actually know at this point – know anything about it, Professora Santanna?
Speaking of correspondence, I also need to get some information out for those who either don’t use Facebook or really hate checking Group notifications. I've been informed that my MTC mailing info has been posted here, with a direction towards DearElder for most communication. It's highly recommended you use this if you aren’t sending me a package. Why? Because instead of having to wait for the mail to deliver it, I’m guaranteed to get it the same day. And you don’t have to bother with snail mail, except for when I respond; direct email correspondence is frowned upon for now. Please! Send me something! I promise I’ll love you forever AND get you a response back in the pipe as soon as I can! I can send snail mail any day of the week, so be sure to leave your address!
Whew. That was a lot to write. :P I’ll probably be writing less once the novelty of the MTC wears off. But it’s still heeere…and my hands are tired. Até a próxima semana, meus amigos!

First official update! :D I'm so excited to get this all written out for everyone. I've certainly got a lot to go through - I'm probably going to have to buy another journal here so running out of paper isn't a concern in Maceio. But anyway!

Erich at the MTC - Volume 1

Herro world! Minhas queridas pessoas, I have good news and bad news.

The bad news is that the Erich Gubler you know will not be returning from the mission he left on. The MTC was not what he expected.

The good news is that a certain Elder Gubler WILL be able to return safely, due in part to what the MTC has given him. Also partly because it feels like he's been here an age already.

This place is like a little bubble, a whole 'nother world right within Provo. I had no idea. I feel completely isolated from the town I thought I lived in.

It's...actually pretty nice.

First week here is a bit rough, but I think I've got it much easier than my colleagues and companion currently...I have a distinct exposure to Portuguese they do not. I'm able to understand most of what my teachers say right now.

I'd like to take this opportunity to let my Portuguese teacher know how much I appreciate her right now. I'm able to focus on the content of the lessons I'm giving/given because I'm not worried about whether or not I will be able to understand my instruction - muito obrigado, minha professora! Espero voce ensina outras pessoas como bem voce ensineu-me! Voce deu-me uma abencoa grande!

A perfect example of this was when we got thrown into a "progressing investigator" scenario on our third day - speaking only Portuguese, and for most of us it was the first time hearing or speaking both the language and the lesson. I was frustrated that day - our egos were basically thrown to the ground and stomped on. I didn't sleep well that night.

BUT. Me and my companion, the amazing Elder Shaw, weren't exactly ready to give up. What's a rough day, if we can but get through it?

Did I mention we get to do a progressing investigator 5 days of the week?

I think I'll briefly describe the roomies now. The first I should mention is, of course, my companion. Elder Shaw is from Washington, a serious guy with a good sense of humor. He's also a vegetarian, because of this view of the Word of Wisdom. I think it's cool he's willing to make that lifestyle change (which I understand is recent) because of what he feels is best. The other companionship in our room is Elders Polatis and Jessee - a cool pair of guys who come from St. George and Salt Lake City, respectively. They're a lot of fun to be around, and we all have a lot of laughs before we fall asleep each night.

I think the biggest adjustment I've had to make so far is my workload. I took things pretty easily in life retrospectively - I usually spent only around 5ish hours doing work before I came here, and now I've got 16-hour days. It's not so bad as I thought it would be...just very tiring. I'm pretty grateful for sleep nowadays. :P

Four of the thirteen Elders (no Sisters!) in my district got their visas on the second day being here. They're lucky - they get to go to Sao Paulo on Tuesday, and the next Sunday go to the Sao Paulo Temple! I hope mine and Elder Shaw's get in soon...I would so love to go there at this point, even if it did mean another set of crazy orientations.

I'm always getting asked questions about Portuguese by Elders whenever a teacher isn't around - I'm able to answer or refer sources for most of them, and I feel good about that. Must be my inner UCAS (and a great professora! :)

I know I won't be able to remember much more than this, so I'm gonna refer to my journal for some of the anecdotes I've written down.

"During the MTC orientation, we had some interesting Elders get called up to the podium, most just randomly. Elder Steers, for instance, was asked to recount his experience opening his letter. He had many friends and family around him, some on Skype. 'I'd been waiting years to tell this joke...I opened my letter, and said 'You have been called to the Baghdad North mission.' I told them where I was really going after the noise died down a few minutes later.'

"We had an Elder from Dominica, who was hasty to point out that his country was very different from the Dominican Republic. There were also a couple of missionaries from Yorkshire - extremely fun accents to have around here.

"I think I might be slightly doomed to playing the piano for my branch - I had a member of the branch presidency come up to me and comment 'Yeeeeesss....we really like piano players in our branch, Elder Gubler.'

"Me: 0_o Okay?

"A certain Elder Patrick Stars got called to the front office today. The entire district laughed for about a minute straight.

"I should probably keep a running count of who sends me how many letters."

Resolve to endure to the end!