Week One

Hello everyone,

The flight here was ridiciously long and I wasn't able to sleep for any of it because I was sick and had to keep heading to the bathroom the whole time. And the layover in London was particularly horrible; no one there ever smiles especially when they saw that we were Americans. Being here in South Africa is really cool, there are about 30 missionaries here. Most are from the U.S. but there are 7 or 8 from all over africa, some from england, canada, and australia. We've all spent a lot of time making fun of eachothers' cultures. Its been pretty fun except that I'm super tired all the time from the trip here. My companion is from Zimbabwe and his name is Elder Masaya, I would send pictures but we're not allowed to while we're in the samtc. The mtc president said that this is the smallest mtc in the world. My bedroom alone has 8 missionaries in it and its only like 15x15. I'm still really sad because I miss everyone at home, but now that I've had some time to get to know the other missionaries it's getting a lot easier. A lot of the Elders here are really cool people to be around. This place is so different from what I had imagined. It is all very modern and seems very much like home apart from the hot humid weather. Everyday we have classes here from early in the morning until we go to bed at night, and it's exhausting. I keep finding myself nodding off in the middle of the lessons because everyone here speaks so softly. Yesterday we got to go outside and play sports for a while and we had a pretty intense game of basketball going with a ton of the elders and it was really fun and a good break from being inside. My companion and I also taught a lesson to a pretend investigator while it was being recorded for the other missionaries to watch, and I don't know really how lessons are supposed to go, but I know it shouldn't be like the one we gave. If the spirit was talking to me, I was sure having a hard time hearing it. I hate awkward situations and it was probably one of the most awkward things I've ever done. My P-day's while I'm here in the MTC are on saturdays but as soon as I get out in the field they will be on mondays. I love and miss everyone.

Josh