What a Quiet House

October 22, 2009
Hey momma... Ok, wow I've got a lot to say and hardly anytime to say it, we'll see how this goes... The elder that lost his passport is back in Provo right now at the MTC... bummer huh? haha but anyway... The MTC here is SWEET!! the rooms are like hotel rooms. We have a bathroom that is only for 6 guys instead of 25 like before and we have a view of the temple from our room :) but I think they do it because after we leave here the odds of me having hot water are next to none... (I heard some of the cooks talking about it...) But still, I'm loving it while it lasts. We're right on the Temple grounds and people that make trips from other parts of the Carribean can stay here in this building. We take over the 4th floor and the only time we ever really leave it are to eat in the kitchen down on the main floor, have gym outside,and go to the temple and do service projects. Oh, and go to the University once a week... I'll get to that :) The weather has been pretty hot and very humid the entire time. It's gonna take some major getting used to. I'm used to sweating a lot, but not in church clothes, so we'll see... The food is... a little interesting... We have this oatmeal-like stuff every morning for breakfast with a banana on the side. 6-days a week lunch is tons of rice with tons of beans poured on top with some sort of chicken or beef hidden somewhere underneath. Except for what we have for lunch on P-days; it's called Sancocho and I still have no idea what it is, but I had probably a whole plantain and half a chicken with some rice and I think pinneapple mixed in there... and of course bananas are a given for lunch as well. Then dinner is something smaller, like Mangu which is mashed potatoes but with plantains instead of potatoes...that made my entire room sick the first night after we ate it... and of course bananas for dinner too :) But for the most part it's really not bad... Class is sweet and I think 2 out of the 20 teachers can speak anyEnglish at all, but it makes us learn way faster. My district is sweet! There are 6 Elders and 2 sisters, 1 of which was in my district in Provo too. Oh, I'm District Leader hahaha it's kinda fun and I even got to conduct a devotional in Spanish with Elder Viñas of the 70 this last Tuesday. I got a, "bien hecho" so I guess I did alright... And we went to the University on Monday and made contacts. It was SWEET!! I talked to 7 people about the church and it went great!... until they asked questions. They don't speak Spanish here... It's something similar, but out of nowhere they decide to drop all sorts of letters out of the words so I had no idea what they were saying. It was a learning experience though haha I'm super pumped for next Monday when I get to do it again. Anyway, all is well here and it sounds like all is at home too...That's awesome that Nick's working for Dad, that'll be good for the both of 'em. And you're in my prayers too Mom, every night. I love you and can'twait to talk to you again... I'll send some pictures soon...LoveElder Joel Cornwell P.S. The address you used is good, it's the address of the MTC here. But supposedly the pouch works well too. It has restrictions, but you know about that and you have that address. I'd love it if you would make sure that Nick, Rachel, Johanna, and Nikki have all of those ok? :)