Saturday, July 20, 2013

Alone in the MTC

Hi everyone, how is it going this week, your Dear Elders that you have sent are really nice to read and keeps me in the loop kind of haha. It's Friday again and we're up at 4:45 in the morning because we're doing Laundry because the rush that the laundry room gets during our scheduled time is rediculous and takes an unecessary extra hour of sitting there and waiting for someone to get back for thier washer to be empty so we can put our clothes in, and then another half an hour because we have to wait for our companions to ge their stuff in the wash, it's not that we need more time in the afternoon to do things it's that we don't want to take 3 hours to do laundry in the very hot and boring room of the Laundry room so that would be why. I'm doing more and more in Slovak trying to prep myself to become independant and I'm memorizing the charts that do the cases for personal pronouns as well as when the endings of words change due to the casing. It's funny because my teachers know these cases but neither of them do them right all of the time and they catch themselves with it and they know that people still understand and they laugh because people in Slovakia are very kind to foreigners learning their language so they always want to help but when in reality they don't do it right either, just kind of humorous. 10 Days from today and we will (hopefully) be leaving for Slovakia, nerve-wracking but more excited than nervous persoanlly, I don't know about everyone else since there is 25 of us leaving that day and probably 25 of us flying the same planes to London and then splitting there. Our teacher thinks that we're ready to go, and will only be more prepared, they've taught us pretty much all of the principles of the language and now it's just about practicing the language until we get the principles down, which I personally know how to perform the grammer but need it to be driven into my head so we're trying to speak 40 hours this  coming week which will be hard but actually not that hard because 40 hours is about 5 hours and 45 minutes a day which when you're up for 16 doesnt make it all that hard so we're probably going to try, at least I will, to go over that.

 

Today we should be receiving our travel plans and infact they could quite possibly already be there in the mail which is awesome! So we're gonna check that before we go back to the residence, I'm pretty sure that I'll be able to leave with everyone else and I'm excited that I should only have 1 more week in the boot, it's annoying not being able to play sports and walk at a normal place even though I will have to sit on it for a couple more weeks maybe months before I can actually do something on it but that's fine I can deal with that I just want my shoes to be equally worn haha.I think i'll make it out with everyone else and I guess you don't actually need a visa to be in the country so I should be fine ther I think, our teacher said he lived in the country for a month without having his Visa, so I don't think it will matter so much, maybe but doubtful he says. I'll get pictures of our zone the last Saturday before we go and I'll probably be sending my boot home in Friday when I get it taken off so I'm not sure if I'll be paying for it or if I'll be sending it home and then you have to pay for it or what, any insight on that would be nice. I might just tkae pictures on the msall memory card and then just send that one to you as well, we'll just have to see what's the msot convenient. By the way, did you receive the pictures that I sent last week, I would think you did but I don't actually know so... If you could tell me that would be great. So the MTC gives us $54 to spend while we're here over the course of the 9 weeks so the I've been stockpiling and would have had $30 this week but I started to buy tuff for over there like a shoe shine sponge and then also some pads to stick on the bottom of my shoe for traction and other small stuff like that. As for stuff that I want to go over there I don't really know, I'll always take Reese's and the stuff like that so I'll have room, there's some stuff that I'm not going to have in the Suitcase now that will make it lighter like the whole bottle of shampoo, and I'm not sure if I'm going to give away or send you home the contact liquid because I have no use for the giant bottle that I havent opened haha because I only have 2 sets of contacts now and I'm only done with half the small bottle so unless you're going to get me more contacts, which is fine, I won't need that haha. I am thankful for mom packing a lot of stuff that I may or may not use at all but it's there just in case that has been helpful on many occasions.

 

Some stories from this week include me playing softball and standing in the outfield not moving never getting the ball thrown to me ever so I brought my chair when I went out and just sat down because it was nbever going to come to me but at least it got me paying attention to stuff, the ball never went to me but that's besides the principle of the thing. We really do have a lot of fun here even if we have to make our own fun sometimes just to get out of the routine of constant studies, it's nice to have that time and we use it, probably better than everyone else in the zone, but it's also nice to just relax and not have to worry about something that needs to be done, or some grammer idea that we need to learn about, except that we will be speaking the language some of the time during the day. We usually play uno when we have free time now, and the zone is trying to play pranks on the other kids in the zone, it's funny because they're just harmless and no one actually get mad. Like one time, one of my companions hid under the bed of the Croations with one of the other Croations in a different room excpet for the other one got caught and they barely missed my companions, so my companion with the patience of a mad man waits for 3 hours for every to get asleep and then very very slowly inches his way out from under the bed almost hitting people in the process, but once he's out he starts just taking stuff out and putting in on the ground, so like food and books and shoes out of closets anything that he can take out quietly. So he does this and one of their elders sleeps on the floor because his bed doesn't work and it hurts more to sleep on it than the bed and hemoves the sheet that is under the door and a lot of light shines on this Elder, so he quickly does it and makes it out of the room without any of the waking up. So in the morning they clean everything up and we hear them talking about it and they think one of them was Sleep-walking and taking everything out haha. So we told them and they laughed really hard because they had looked under the bed where he was at because they caught the other Elder but then they didn't see him. it was really funny and crazy that night and my companion got in to our room without a peep.

 

Another Story from yesterday is that one of the Elders going to Czech is really interested in my job because I told him what his suit was and then also what everyone elses shoes/ties were here so he gets really excited about that stuff and I was telling him about Allen Edmonds ( the orangish shoes that I have in the dresser window). So yesterday he gets a Dear Elder from his Brother who just got home from a mission and tells him that he just bought a pair of Allen Edmonds and he tells me I was in class reading it and read that and then started to run to you, and his teacher stops him and asks what he's doing so he sits back down and is like, umm I don know... So after class he comes and shows me and then tells me that their blue with red laces, so I proceeded to tell him about what model, the coolness of it, the the popularness, when they came out and then how much they cost haha. it was funny because I was able to tell him the model without his brother actually telling him, as well as what they look like, which they were Allen Edmonds Neumoks, Blue, Wingtip, new model casual dress shoe, looks good with jeans, not super expenisve but still more than the average shoe, popular and good looking, and then also the colors that they come in also, he was pretty amazed, I think that I may have been ruined for life with shoes and suits...

 

So thank you everyone for sending me Dear Elders this week, they were all funny and nice to know, thanks Jackie for more updates on Jake's wedding you can tell him Congrats for me as well as it's cool that John Wayne is in a swimming class and I'm sure that he just wants to play around haha. Thatnk you mom and dad for your letters, I hope that you are both safe on your trip up to Utah and it's a shame that you will have to be home by Monday, but I will be calling you from the airport even if I have to skip my Cafe Rio date (just kidding I'll just buy it for on the plane if I have to). Let me know what numbers to call, I think that I shouldn't have a problem with time because I will buy a calling card, I don;t know exactly how those will work but I'll figure it out so I'm not psedning $40 at the airport, I don't know if those will come preloaded with minutes and if I'll have to buy 2 of them or what but I'll figure it out and ask them. I got the Donuts on Friday night and of course everyone wanted one thank you very much I had like 3 or 4, they were delicious! I think that I've gained about 5 pounds here or so, funny because one of my companions has gained about 15 and is now trying to work it off. I did use the gun and we did play our game with it and we will probably play it agian once or twice more so thank you so much for that and the stars are all over our room and they are very very cool at night. We made constellations with them and we have the best room at night haha. Everything has been great, even though I feel bad or having you spend money on it, but I have been using them and I also have way too much food and candy, I don't know where to put it all haha but thank you so much for it, it has made the stay here much more bearable because the food has gotten progressivle worse as time has gone one, it's not bad but theres definitely a pattern, my companion also say the streetfood in Slovakia is amazing, so I'm ready for that!

 

Anyways time is almost up for my laundry and we want to go check for our travel plans, anyways I love you guys a lot and I miss you even more, next week will be my last P-Day in the MTC and that will probably be spent prepping for monday. 1 ransfer almost down 11 more to go, puts into perspective how short my time here really is. Anyways I love you all, be safe!

 

Love,

 Elder Preston Ferrell

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