October 15, 2015

Labas Everyone!

The MTC is great!! There are missionaries here going everywhere so it's really fun to find out where people are going! Everyone sees my Lithuanian tag and always ask because they haven't seen it around really hahaah! There are five total people going to Lithuania, four elders and one sister! All the elders going to Lithuania are super super smart so I definitely have to give it my all in class to keep up with them! So I'm sure you all are wondering...My companion is Elder Kendall from Bingham, Utah! He is a genius. Super smart! All my academic accomplishments are child play to him hahahaha! However, I couldn't have asked for a better companion! He really helps me with the language, is a super chill guy, and we have lots of fun together. Whoever said you can't have fun in the MTC is not telling the truth! We laugh all the time and tell stories and everyone here just has an awesome spirit! The food here is well....cafeteria food. Sometimes you get a good meal and it's manna from heaven but most of the time it's okay. It's all you can eat which I think is awesome! (Don't worry mom, I have had a salad a few times here.) You can exercise everyday for 50 minutes and that is probably the best stress reliever of the day! Basketball is fun here along with soccer and beach volleyball! My district consists of all the crazy countries like Lithuania, Armenia, Georgia, Indonesia, Madagascar, Greece (no Greek people though), and Singapore! I love my zone (it only consists of 14 people)! Everyone is super out going and we all get a long really well so it definitely helps having people around you to always talk to! Elder Meacham is in my district! For those of you that don't know, Elder Meacham's older brother served as Spencer's companion for a while and now we are in the same district! Also Elder Bradshaw is in my district and his brother is currently in Denmark on his mission as well! So it's a small world!

So the MTC has zero idea what nationality I am or where I am from. The minute I arrived I was taken into a room to be quizzed on how "good" my English speaking was. That as you can imagine was a really short quiz. A few days later I got called down to the travel agency to give them my passport and drivers license to copy. While I was there they told me I was born in Bountiful, Utah and my nationality was Danish. Which are both true but would'n't it just make sense to put American and American? Well later that day I got called down again and they wanted me to bring my Danish passport as well so mom I'm going to need you to send that to me ha! The following day take a guess what happened...I was called down again! Yay! This time they wanted me to fill out all the places I have been the past 5 years out of the country. So ya I am already excited for the next adventure I have to the travel agency. To be honest however, I actually have been speaking a lot of Danish here! And surprisingly it has actually made me a little homesick of Denamark? Weird I know hahaha! I saw Sister Anderson (from Denmark) and we speak Danish all the time together and then I see the Danish elders and sisters around all the time and speak Danish to them! At first I blew all their minds that I could speak it and I wasn't called there haha! Now we just talk! I'm also teaching my companion some conversation in Danish so he doesn't always just stand there awkwardly and as you can guess he remembers it after the first time I tell him ha. He has a photographic memory or whatever it is! But ya it's actually a lot of fun! There is also an elder from Sweden here and I understand more Swedish than he does Danish which is really weird cause he's from Sweden. The funny thing with talking to the Danish elders and sisters is that whenever I say a word or something outside the of the gospel they look at me and have no idea what I said. I laugh and then explain to them in English what it is. For that reason my companion and I set a goal to learn 15 words a week that are outside the gospel language so when we get to Lithuania we aren't completely slapped in the face.

The language is really hard. I guess you all could've guessed that, but it just has so many rules to change words. You are constantly changing the ending of words at the end so its tough but I testify that the gift of tongues is real! It's not like "ya the gift of tongues is real, I pray and suddenly know everything I need to say." It's more like someone says something to you in Lithuanian and word for word you have no idea what they are saying but you know exactly what they said to you and the meaning of it and you know how to respond! It's really cool actually and I pray for that ability every night! We taught a lesson the second day I was in here...in all Lithuanian...ha ya it was terrifying! Our investigator is super nice and guess what! The second lesson we gave her a Book of Mormon! Super cool story actually so if you would like to hear the whole thing just email me;) But the gist of it is that I learned that the spirit is the real teacher. I know we hear that all the time but it really is. We are only the tools for the Lord in his work! This is the Lord's work! He loves every one of you and wants you to succeed in life! I hope I answered questions in this email so let me know if you have anymore! 

Love,

Elder Curtis

Lithuanian MTC group
October 2015