August 25, 2021

 Week 1 HMTC

I debated writing an email this first week because not a lot happens when you are on zoom for 40 hours a week but I thought the people would want to hear from me after the first week. Maybe don't expect a weekly email while I'm in the Home MTC. We will see how much content I have for each week. 

My companion's name is Elder Nielson. He lives in Heber and is awesome. We get along really well and have a good time together. My daily schedule for this last week and the next five is zoom classes from 8-12 and then more classes from 2-6. I am at the Colombia virtual MTC so all of my teachers and instructors are native Colombians. It's super helpful to be taught by native speakers but it is also a struggle as they are all learning English and it shows. One of my teachers can never remember the difference between reading and writing and she will ask us to write scriptures when she actually wants us to read them for the class. I get a good laugh out of things like that but I am sure my teachers get a bigger laugh at my attempt at Spanish. 

Overall things are good. My classes go by faster than 8 hours sounds which is a huge blessing. I love my district and couldn't do the Home MTC without them. My district is 10 Elders, 9 going to Cali Colombia with me, and 8 of them are from Utah. 

To end, I will leave you guys with something I learned and a funny story. One of the first things I learned at the Home MTC is that missionaries are celebrities in Utah. I lost count of how many random people came up to me this week and asked me about the HMTC, where I am serving, what language I am speaking, etc. It's fun and very motivating for me to meet all these strangers who say that they are praying for me and give confidence in me. My funny story isn't anything hilarious so sorry if you had your hopes up. One of our very first classes in the MTC was a "Welcome to the MTC '' pre recorded message from Elder Utchdorf. Since we are a Spanish MTC, the video had a Spanish voiceover over Elder Uchtdorf’s voice. However, it was our first day so one of our teachers said he would translate over the Spanish voiceover into English for us. Confusing I know. Needless to say I couldn't tell you anything that was said in that welcome message between hearing 3 different audios in 2 different languages at the same time and knowing an incredibly little amount of Spanish. That's all for this week.

- Elder Nixon