Elder McKay Howell -- MTC Week #1

Hi Mom and family!

Life here at the MTC is great!  I'm probably only saying that because it has been one week and I have not yet come to think of this as "spirit prison" like some of the language elders. Then again, I'm already a third of the way through my stay here while some of these guys are here for 12 weeks!  Lol, then again, a lot of the elders who have been here for ages also call this the "Missionary Temptation Center" as it gets old looking at swarms of suits and ties day after day and any sister walking by is a welcome reprieve. I'm glad I only have a short stay.  :)

I think Daniel would love this place based only on the food. The cafeteria is all you can eat and they usually have three or four different options on each meal as well as a salad/wrap bar (which has been a life-saver for me) and desserts with everything. I always feel full here. Ugh.  Thank goodness for gym!

So, interesting stories:

1.  Mom may have already told you this, but they made me district leader on my first day here. Which basically means I check the mail and attend a bazillion additional meetings as well as write weekly district reports.  Ah well, good thing I'm used to sitting at a desk because I sure get a lot of it here.

2.  The Teaching Resource Center (TRC) is the bomb!  Basically, it is volunteers from the community coming in to be "investigators" for us to practice with.  We had a really awesome old guy the other day and spent about 40 minutes with him and have a return appointment for later this week and I'm really looking forward to that.  The practices and actual simulations are my favorite part about being here. Actually being in Florida is going to be sweet!

3.  Boys will be boys, no matter where they are  other day, some of the elders from our zone decided to pull out the rubber stretch bands that we were given for personal work-out time.  They then started firing a hacky sack down the hall of our residence building using the band kind of like our water balloon launchers. This thing was fast!!  The hacky sack was whistling down the halls smashing into things (they dented a heater), and then they decided to switch over to launching candies. Lol, I must admit, it was kind of funny when jolly ranchers and tootsie pops were exploding on the wall across from my door.  One of the guys decided to tease the others and would jump out daring them to hit him. He ended up with three welts the size of grapefruit on his back, shoulder, and behind from a hacky sack.  Crazy kid.  The church must be true or it would have a hard time growing on the efforts of 19 year old boys, I think.  =P

4.  When we got here, our room had been totally disregarded!  They had provided us with keys, but no pillows, sheets, bedding...anything!  And our room is the coldest one on the floor!  So we had to scround and scrape to come up with stuff.  Made for an interesting few nights until we could come up with stuff.

5.  We watched the Joseph Smith, prophet of the restoration video on Sunday night after ice cream. It was really quite funny to hear thousands of love-starved young men whistling and cat-calling during the scene where Joseph and Emma have their first kiss.  Lol, maybe they shouldn't show that video here....

I hope Gabe has fun in Moab; don't get hurt!  I always had lots of fun with it though. Jake, you crazy, dating fiend!  Way to be with three dates in three days!  Mom says I was cramping your style and that it's now much easier that I'm out of the way.  :P  I want to hear about the Festival of Colors though - it sounds awesome! Benj, if you forget things, the bookstore here is great - missionaries get a 40% discount - I've gotten a backpack, oil vial, highlighters, pencil lead (including red lead for mechanical pencils!!!) etc here. They also give you $6 a week to spend on whatever, so no worries.  And like your ties!!!  Grandpa, thanks for emailing me - it was good to hear from you.  I'm sorry I wasn't able to return your call before I left. Sounds like things are going well with the family.

Well, my time is up and blinking red. Gotta run!

Love ya,

McKay (aka Elder Howell)

P.S. DearElder.com is great!  ...for the next three weeks at least.  We get those letters the same day you send them instead of having to wait until P-day. We only have 30 minutes on P-day with the computer, so I'm typing fast trying to remember what happened.