Well I survived the fist week so that's good. The first day was a little crazy but it was good. my comp is Elder Walker from Orlando Florida and he is a VERY interesting elder he is a good guy with a good heart we are just very different. I love everyone in my district they are all super cool and I mostly hangout with the elders from my district that we room with. Me and my comp room with the tri-panionship so we pretty much turned into a companionship of 5 because we are together 24/7. If you look at the pic of my district it goes (left to right) elder zollinger, elder yardley, elder Reid, elder Robins, elder wride, me, my comp elder walker; the sisters (left to right) sister oswald, sister joe, sister pickrell, and sister smith. My favorites are Elder zollinger and Elder Reid. So now for the good stuff, I got here and we had an orientation and then went to our first class and our teacher only spoke japanese so we were all super lost except for elder Robins who took japanese in high school and one year of college. Also, they gave me Portuguese name tags the first day so I asked to get jap ones too so now I have both, so sometimes I switch between Portuguese and jap just too confuse people. Everyone thinks it's super cool that I was called Portuguese but am learning jap here. So on the first night I found out that the elders two doors down from us were going to Brazil and Portugal so I went and started talking to them and found out they had been here 6 weeks and we all became good friends so every night from then on out during free time at the very end of the day I would always go and chill with them and speak lots of Portuguese. hanging out with the Portuguese elders is pretty much the only thing that kept me sane through my first week here. They were super cool and really chill but sadly they left two days ago so now I'm trying to find other Portuguese speaking elders so I can practice and luckily I have been able to find some and become friends with them too but I don't see them as often.  

 

      We study A LOT here and at times it is very hard to stay focused when you are in a tiny class for 12 hours every day but my jap is getting better and the more I learn the more excited I get. so far I have learned about one third of the characters I need to know but now I can actually write with characters , sing hymns in jap (hymn books are all in characters) , I can pray pretty well now as well, and also bear my testimony in jap. Me and my comp have been teaching an "investigator" since the second day and it has been a major struggle since our jap is terrible but because of the struggles we learned a lot. I can actually mostly understand my teacher now hahahahaha. The elders in my district and I try to speak as much jap outside the class as possible so that has really helped and of course praying day and night that the Lord will bless me to help me learn this language. 

        The MTC at times is a crazy place, especially the first couple days, but it has been good. The food here isn't too bad except for that if you don't watch yourself then you will get fat so I've pretty much made it a goal to eat 90 percent salad and fruits here. if you eat as healthy as possible here your body will be very grateful cause some of the stuff they serve here isn't too nice for your stomach hahaha. You pretty much figure out everything you need to know about the MTC by the first Sunday so after the first Sunday things calm down a lot.

        The spirit that is here is crazy and I love it.  we have had two devotionals since I got here and they were both so powerful and have helped me learn and grow so much. I have grown so much in just this first week. Being called to be district leader was an overwhelming experience but I have learned so much from it and it has humbled me so much and has taught me how I can better serve people. The MTC is overall an amazing experience and I look forward to the 8 weeks I have left here. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Love you all, 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Elder Myers

Elder Myers and Elder Walker

My MTC district

study time!