Week 3: In which I join the choir, learn to love Spanish, and laminate a schedule

¡Hola, mi familia y mi amigos! Mi vida aqui en el CCM es muy fantastico. Inserio. Amo mi compañeros, y estoy muy agradecido por mi tiempo aqui. Gracias, madre, por su ayudar con mi Español. [Hello my family and friends! My life here in the MTC is really fantastic. Seriously. I love my companions, I am very grateful for my time here. Thank you, Mom, for your help with my Spanish.]  I already knew some of what you said (and just slipped in the email), and some of it I ended up learning before your letter arrived, but some of it I didn't know at all. It was very helpful.

I have a few little bits of interesting news. For one, my companions got fed up with me and decided to kick me out of the companionship. Naw, I'm just kidding around. The real news is not unrelated, though. Our little triumvirate is being broken up, and I'll be getting a new companion who is coming into the MTC (or CCM, if you prefer Spanish) soon. The two of them will remain in my district, and will still be companions, but they won't be my companions any more. I'm going to be companions with someone who is probably already fluent in Spanish, judging by how short his time at the MTC is going to be.

I also auditioned to be able to play a cello solo for one of the big MTC-wide devotionals. I will receive notice by mail shortly before the devotional in which I'll play. They told me in person that they really, really want me to play. I found a missionary (after he played in Sunday's devotional) who is going to the Berlin Germany mission and is also a piano major. I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. We actually auditioned together playing "Consider the Lilies".

Finally, I have been attending choir here. The news? I was selected to sing in a special, 40-or-so person choir for the Mission Presidents Seminar. All the new mission presidents-in-training will be there, and very possibly a few apostles (or - who knows? - the prophet) will be there. I'm pretty excited. It's going to make the first few days with my new companion interesting, at least. I have no idea what we're singing, but the letter I got says that "because of the importance of this assignment, choir rehearsals take precedence over ALL other MTC activities." I'm pretty psyched for it, as you can probably imagine. It's going to be awesome.

I continue to learn Spanish all day, every day. It's quite nice. I have learned a lot about the preterit, future, and present cases. I've also started learning other grammar rules, like using the infinitive after "deber"  ["to have a duty to ( to 'should')"], "poder" ["to be able to"], and similar words. I love learning so many new things and focusing on it.

One of the Hermanas in my district suggested we create a schedule and laminate it, so we could use a dry erase marker to assign prayers, hymns, and spiritual thoughts each day. As District Leader, I loved the idea, so I took a schedule one of the Hermanas made, laminated it, and we're now the most organized district in the Zone! Okay, that's probably just not true, but it sure feels nice to have something along those lines.

I love it here. It's a great environment, and there is a great spirit here. I feel inspiration every day. Sometimes, when I'm teaching, words I didn't remember I knew come out of my mouth. One of my companions even used a word while teaching that he never did know, and didn't realize he'd used it. I feel a great love for those I teach and for my district. There is so much to do here. I feel I'm learning so much, both about the gospel and about the wonderful language of Spanish.

Thank you so much for the really beautiful picture you sent. I have it on my desk, and I see it every morning and evening when I'm in the residence hall. I will treasure it. Thank you.

Elder Adams

P.S. Oh, and fyi, we no longer have a surplus of food to snack on in the residence hall. ;-D Honestly, that will probably change, but still thought I'd mention it. We do have vending machines, though.