#grindingitoutattheMTC

 #igotmywholesistrictspeakinginhashtags

Okay, here’s my life currently:

So since not much happens daily here at the MTC besides trying to cram as much information into our heads as possible, let me tell you all a little bit about MTC life. Every Elder, and a few of the sisters, in this entire place does this finger snap thing. Maybe Erin or Emily will know what I'm talking about. It’s where you keep your middle finger still and whip your wrist around so your pointer finger makes a snapping noise when it hits your middle finger. Hopefully that made sense. Anyway, literally everyone does it. It’s like you’re not a real missionary until you've figured out how to do it. It’s ridiculous. And it’s not just the people around me. Our teacher who just got back from his mission to Portugal a few months ago does it, my friends brother who’s been back for almost four years did it and says everyone did it when he was out, and we taught someone at TRC (I’ll explain this later) this week who served in Brazil and went to the Sao Paulo MTC and they did it there. It’s insane, and so …. dumb.

Another thing about MTC life: there is absolutely no joy in eating. We eat an all you can eat meal three times a day, which wasn't a big deal when I was a freshman in Helaman, but now that all I do between meals is sit at a desk and try to learn, I feel like I haven't done anything to deserve the food I'm eating. I just feel gross. It feels more like they're training us to be competitive eaters than missionaries at times.  I run or bike or something for gym almost every day, so we kind of keep it under control. But yeah, I can't wait till I get out to the field and am actually walking and doing something and feeling hunger. What does hunger feel like? I can't even remember :)

Since life is so dull here, people get excited about the smallest things. We had a saxophone duet at our Sunday night devotional this week and people freaked out. We're all just so sound deprived haha. Also on Sundays they play church movies and conference talks and old MTC devotionals each week at night, and this week they played the testaments and half the MTC turned out to watch it. It’s the most action we've seen on screen in forever. Our lives are so dull haha. Also, our District Leader Elder Muniz? I've told you guys how he was an extra in High school musical 3 and a model on the lds.org missionary website, yeah? Well, he's also in a few of the bible videos and Mormon messages, and so now the district joke whenever we watch the testaments or a Mormon message or whatever: Hey look its Elder Muniz! It’s funny. Maybe you'd have to be here...

So we had our first TRC (teaching resource center) this week. We had some people who speak Portuguese come and let us talk to them and let us teach them a lesson. They weren't pretend investigators, they were just letting us practice our Portuguese. It was actually super depressing for me, because the first person we talked to was a 17 year old girl who's trying to go to BYU and she moved from Brazil and so she's like, legit. And I couldn't understand anything she was saying. That was not fun. I'm doing pretty well as far as learning the language and being able to speak and give lessons goes, but understanding people speaking is so hard. So I’m a little freaked out for when I get out to the real world. But I'm just gonna keep working super hard and hopefully the Lord will make up the rest. We had the chance to practice teaching another class of people that are going to Cape Verde and Portugal this week (everyone else is going to Brazil) and it just made me really grateful for my teachers. They are both so great and push us to learn and really help us and they served in Portugal so that’s nice that we hear that accent too. I didn't realize how awesome they were until we taught this other class and realized how well I can speak, comparatively. It’s only because of prayers, and I know it, and I'm sure I'll be humbled when I get out there, but regardless I'm grateful for my teachers.

We got new roomies this week which was kind of a bummer because I love the extra space and I love my sistrict and the fun we have and how much we laugh, but the new girls are alright, except one of them has this old fashioned alarm clock that rings louder than anything and she likes to wake up at six. The first morning it woke me up from a dream and in my dream someone started screaming bloody murder and then I woke up and realized it was the alarm. That might have to go soon.

I did the unspeakable this week: I played basketball at gym time. I've heard of so many people tearing their ACLs during basketball, but it was just girl so it was pretty slow and frankly, pretty ugly haha. It was a good work out though, better than just running in circles without music. I'll probably do it again.

We had a pretty good devotional this week.  I know that there are people on this earth that need this gospel. Where ever you are, Europe, South America, Africa, or even just Minnesota or Utah, I hope you share this gospel, live this gospel, and I hope you never take for granted what you have.

Love you all so much!! I love letters with all of my heart, keep sending them. Hope you guys have a good week!!

Paz, Amor, e Casamento do Templo,

Sister Kelly Briggs