MTC Week 1

12/12/2012

Hola Familia!

DON'T LOOK AT THE PICTURES UNTIL ENTIRE MESSAGE IS READ

I mostly wanted to say that too see how many of you would look at the pictures first thing. You know who you are.

So this first week has been really great, and it ended probably in the best possible way.
So! They started us teaching on the 3rd day, Friday. Our first investigators name is Carlos. He's from Mexico and doesn't speak any english. So all of our lessons are in Spanish. It's super hard, lots of broken translations and just straight up read, which is really boring for Carlos and doesn't invite the Spirit at all, but it really helps me with me Spanish! Everything I learned in high school has come back to me, and I'm understanding new concepts really easily. This a huge blessing for being missionary.

We have class three hours a day, every day, sometimes twice a day. So much class time! But I absolutely love it. I love learning new doctrine and gospel principles, and I love learning Spanish! Our schedules are pretty freaking crazy. Literally every hour from 6:30 AM to 9:30 PM is FULL. We are non stop doing something! All my friends that went on missions would always say that they have no time to write or email or anything like that, and I always thought it was garbage, just an excuse,  but they were serious! Getting up at early is starting to hit me, and the other elders in my room like to get up at 6 so I'm getting even less sleep.

So mom, now is the time you've been waiting for. My nice long list of items that I need/want sent to me :)

My scarf - it's really cold down here! My scarf should be in my big tub of yarn on the top shelf of my closet.
A small bottle of lotion - my hands are falling apart. I look like I have lepersey. I need a bottle to carry with me to class and such
Gel inserts for shoes - my other pair of shoes hurt so much to walk in! I need to be gellin' with my homie Dr. Schoells.

That's actually it. The list in my notebook is way longer, but it's filled with more stuff to tell you about than stuff to ask you for. But first, a question. Can you ask Deavan which Mormon Messages he wrote the music for? We get to watch those here and I want to watch the ones he helped out with. Also I just wanted to let you know that mom is inspired. She argued and argued with me about bringing sweat pants, I didn't want to, but she insisted I did. I eventually did just because she's my mommy, and it turns out that I ended up needing them! Haha I was so grateful she had me pack them. Thank you mother.

Okay now on to the explanation of the pictures. So today, Wednesday, me and another elder were walking from my room to his, which was down on the other end of the hallway. He blurted out randomly "I wonder if I can touch the ceiling with my head?" Now this elder is about 6'3" and he played basketball, and the ceiling was really low, AND it was those white crumbly tile ceiling pieces that they have in a lot of buildings like schools and offices. You all with me?

So I had no doubt that he could do it. He jumps and pops his head up against the ceiling, the tile moves only a little, and it looked like a piece of cake. Instantly my mind says "well if he can do it, then I GOTTA do it!" So without even thinking, I jump as hard as I can up into the ceiling. I quickly learned that I can jump a lot higher than I ever knew I could. I was moving forward, while moving up, and smacked and then scraped my forehead on the metal spacers between each tile. My forehead then began to bleed like crazy! Seriously it would not stop bleeding. It's not a deep cut or anything, so don't get worried mom. I don't need stitches or anything like that. I've got a nice fat goose egg, and a wonderful bruise, all in the middle of my forehead. And I STILL haven't come up with a good explanation for my branch president. Maybe he just wont notice...

The one picture is not too long after it happened, the other is what I will look like everyday from here on out, in my missionary clothes with this wonderful blemish adorning my face. That's Elder Kiffe in the background giving me moral support.

So that's how I ended my first week at the MTC! By injuring myself. Couldn't have been better :)

Thanks for all the letters and surprise packages! I wouldn't mind if you kept those coming. Tell me everything that's going on at home. I love you all!

Con amor,

Elder Webb