25 June 2009

Just so you know, I haven’t gotten any letters yet at the MTC and I don’t expect a single one, because I’m leaving tomorrow. 15 days. We leave tomorrow at 4:30 in the morning. My Spanish is progressing well. Everyone can understand me, and when I read PMG or the scriptures I can understand it. The hardest part is listening because natives don’t pronounce every letter in every word, kind of tough. But zone conference yesterday was way nice. It was a quick English lesson, probably the only lesson with English since the first day.

Oh, yeah, you guys might not know this yet. On Saturday we went tracting. Every missionary in the MTC (60 probably) left in busses and tracted for 7 hours. It was quite an experience. It amazes me how it all went down. The first people we talked to we basically taught the whole first lesson and gave them a Book of Mormon. There was a grandpa, 2 sisters and grand children. Elder Fuentes leaves on Tuesday so he'll be able to visit them again hopefully this Saturday.

My time hasn’t run out, so maybe I’ll say a bit about the MTC here. Every day is practically the same. Wake up, breakfast and study time. They give us pages to study that correspond with the day’s lessons. After companionship study we have district with our morning teacher. Class before lunch and after lunch. Then we have physical activities: basketball, or soccer, or volleyball. I’ve been lucky enough to never hurt anyone in volleyball yet - miracles. When we come back in and shower we have what we call PAC. I still don’t know what it stands for, but it’s just free time to study. Then we have district with our other teacher, dinner, more district and then we plan the next day (which takes 5 minutes because we’re told what to do). Then we teach 2 practice lessons with the other elders and then get ready for bed. I never really enjoy the practice lessons because you can't teach and listen to 4 whole lessons in 30 minutes, but we do our best.

So I ran into Brad’s old companion who started working here. That was cool.

So I hope this letter gets to all the people that care, I need to finish packing and go to the temple during the rest of the day. Last week the temple was amazing. I was with all the Latinos in my zone so I had to wear the translators. Thanks Wetzel! Have fun doing whatever you guys are doing, and tell Steven I want an update on his pushups.

Love, Jeff

18 June 2009

It`s pday finally.

Yeah, like I said briefly last week, it looks like ill only be here for 3 weeks. It was a tough choice to make, because right now I’m completely overwhelmed with learning Spanish, to the point where I literally can’t understand a thing past 10. But I’m glad I’m in this situation because it’s better than being completely bored for 9 weeks.

I’m in a zone with 10 elders and one sister. There are 2 Americans and 1 Italian, the rest are South Americans. Elder Godoy is the district leader and he’s going to Brad's mission. He’s a good guy. Elder Godoy has a brother in Montevideo right now. Weird huh? My companion is from Los Angeles, Chile. It’s tough having a companion I can't understand all the time. Yeah, the first day was the longest in my life it seemed. I barely caught a thing, but my Spanish is coming faster than I ever expected, but I need to remember to be patient with it.

On Sunday we got to watch the huge stake conference Brad noted in his letter. I was given the choice to watch it in English or Spanish and I understood a ton of it in Spanish. The food here is okay, but I feel like I’m always hungry. Kind of depressing, but I'll get over it. For exercise we can play soccer or basketball on the worst hoops ever. I also do pushups to keep myself busy.

Oh, yeah. As for the classes, we have 2 teachers, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. We just learn the gospel and how to teach and stuff. We haven’t gone over one grammar principle, which is kind of hard, but I have a study book. The problem is I never have time to study the book because they keep us so busy. If Brad brings his home I would recommend having Steven look at it. It’s planned better than all the ones I’ve seen in a school.

In about 45 minutes we get to go to the temple. I’m looking forward to that. It’s just across the street.

Oh, if Kyle comes over looking for dad’s lifting gloves he'll have a problem, because one of them was stuck to the inside of my shorts. So I'll have one lifting glove for a while.

Jeff

11 June 2009

I`m here and well. I was interviewed by the president and it looks like I will be on the 3 week track of training. Pray for me. There were 8 elders and 2 sisters that all met up in Dallas and we made it here okay.

Love Jeff

Elder Whitaker

Elder Whitaker's on his way to the MTC in Argentina.

Because he'll be gone, he turned over administration of his blog to Mom and Michelle for the next two years. As he sends us emails and photos, we'll keep you updated with his activities and growth. However, before he left, he specifically requested that we post this wonderful picture for all his relatives, friends and fans!

He's still our marvelous Jeff! Good-bye - see you in two years!