More MTC Adventures

Ah, my dear family (and friends who happen to read this),

So tomorrow morning will be two weeks here. It's flown by. The days are long, but the time goes by quick. Only a month and a half til we fly to Mada. (Should be on or around Aug. 20th).

So.. since my last email. Last Tuesday night, our P-Day got cut a tad short for a special devotional. Turns out that 10 of the General Authorities were here. They were here to help train the 100 and something new mission presidents. L. Tom Perry spoke. It was so awesome, I was so tired though. Speaking of being tired. So, I thought I was getting on the new schedule pretty well, but it caught up with me. It's not horrible, but I am ALWAYS dead tired in the morning. So now I shower at night so I can sleep for like 15 extra minutes. We're SO packed all the time. Except today. P-Days are so relaxed. it's so nice. I got up today at 5:30 to do laundry, and no one else got up.. So I just wrote letters all morning.

Also, they're not nearly as strict on hair as people say. An Elder in my district, Elder Ludwig, has way long hair for a missionary, and he was eventually told to get it cut. So one of our very exciting adventures today will be to accompany him to the barber shop. He's gonna save his hair and mail it to someone. Once again, this is the kind of thing that we find fun. You have to make your own fun here.

Oh, probably the most exciting news this week. We were talking to Bro Sender on Saturday during class, and he told me that in Mada, you can get a NICE custom made guitar for around $200 US. That may or may not be the one thing I want more than anything else. Plus, the traditional guitars in Mada are called kabosy. It's pronounced "caboose". Who wouldn't want that? Wanna look into those a bit?

Oh, another cool thing. So Tojo, our investigator, turned out to be a fake. (Didn't see that coming, a white 20 something living in Provo? Ha.) His name is Bro Sell, he's an RM from Mada. He got back the same time as Mike Riding. Him and Mike went through the MTC together and were comps in the field. And at one point, they lived with Bro Sender. He's way tight. Bro Sender is like the calm all-knowing spiritual genius, and Bro Sell is the chill funny one. We still teach Bro Sell every other day though, as Tojo.

Speaking of mail. MAIL IS LIKE CHRISTMAS HERE. It's a stinking competition. I love getting letters. When I was getting ready to leave, I fully expected people not to write or only to write for a little bit, and I thought I wouldn't care. No. Mail is amazing. I've gotten letters from Natalie, Ben and the bois, and all the family. Speaking of family, Brittany wrote and asked about what to send me in a package. I have plenty of cookies haha, so maybe drinks? Oh, even better. Sour Patch Kids or Peanut Butter M&M's. Those are perfect for our Air Mail game. Every night, we get tons of people and try to come up with creative ways of landing it in our mouths. We are seriously so good now. Elder Vigil caught a fruit snack from like 5 floors down. It's amazing.

Cool story, so on Sunday, we had a guest speaker at our devotional. His name is Ted Gibbons I think. He had the coolest approach ever. He dressed up like someone from Joseph Smith's time and gave like an HOUR long monologue. Except not boring, and I hate plays, so take my word for it. He spoke as if he was Willard Richards, and gave the most detailed description of his experiences with Joseph Smith that I have ever heard. It was so sick. So there you go, you can be comfortable knowing that we actually do a lot of spiritual things here, and I like them.

One more thing I find funny. If you guys back at home (people Tanner's age) think that setting up chairs is a hassle in the ward. Wait til you get here. They have it down to a science. It's insane. The guy here that organizes setting up the 2000 chairs is like military. YOU DO NOT MESS UP. I find it hilarious. But every Saturday, we do that for our service project. Like 2 hours setting up all the chairs and stands and random rooms for sacrament.

I'm not sure what else to cover, I forgot to bring my notebook with me that had all the questions people had. I'll try to remember all the cool stuff that goes on this next week.

Happy 4th and I love you guys!

Taylor