Welcome to the MTC

"Yeah... We call that the dork dot" - Lady who gave me my name tag

"Inflammable means flammable? What a country!" - Dr. Nic

"But Fratello (Brother)! The acoustics in the bathroom are fantastic!" - Anziano Kelley

"Handier than a pocket on a shirt" - Old MTC proverb

"In Bocca a lupo (In the mouth of the wolf) " - Fratello Weller (Mia teacher!)

"Different yolks for different folks"

"Yeah! I really just never got a handle of the language!"

After a little bit of thought and a bit of writing this email... I've decided to start every weekly email with a few memorable quotes or thoughts from my week that'll spice up the letter writing process! Each quote'll match up with a story or experience I want to share with the folks back home!

"Yeah... We call that the dork dot"

Not gonna lie.. The first week in the MTC is brutal! They work you through the language learning process and it is a culture shock for everybody that dares enters these walls. After my parents dropped me off they sent me through a long line of smiling saccharine elderly sisters that gave me my name tag (which... if I may say so... looks pretty fresh), a couple thousand pages worth of Italian language books, and a big ol' "Congratualtions Elder! Welcome to the MTC!" After all this I inquired of the orange sticker on my name tag to which she said "Yeah... We call that the dork dot". She never did give me a straight answer. I figured it out that all the fresh missionaries 'get' to wear them so that everybody knows you have no clue whats going. But I liked it!

"Inflammable means flammable? What a country!"

So the first shower in the MTC was an interesting one. You'd think that the red knob would imply hot water? Nahh.. Here cold means hot and hot means cold. Wished I would have known that before I got into the shower just to get back out in about one minute with a mild case of hypothermia. We live on the third floor so the hot water takes a while to get up to the top so when I checked if cold was hot cold was cold. But now that COLD IS HOT the morning routine is truly a pleasure!

"But Fratello! The acoustic in the bathroom are fantastic!"

So I have instituted nightly hymns and nightly prayer before going to bed every night with all of my room mates (Which are all going to Rome). Each night we sing a hymn out of my Italian Hymn book and then say night night prayers as a room. Well.... That idea caught on so that the whole district (10 missionaries headed to Italy, 4 to Milano 6 to Roma) sung a hymn in Italian and said a night night prayer. Well that caught on so that now the whole floor (about 32 missionaries headed to Italy, 18 to Milano 14 to Roma) sung a hymn in Italian. Well.... Elder being elders... We ended up singing "Called to Serve" at the top of our lungs in the bathroom one night to which we were quickly flushed out (no pun intended) by a few of the campus security and told to return to our cells.

"Handier than a pocket on the shirt"

I've always admired Tyler's use of the multi pen... But I've never appreciated its full potential until entering the MTC! I absolutely rave about the multi pen now and converted everyone in my district into investing in one! With four colors and a creative mind you can organize your notes like no other ballpoint writing utensil can! The only thing is... It's hard to know what to write down if you can't understand anything the teachers tell you.

"In Bocca a lupo"

Our teacher "Fratello Weller" is a kind hearted man with short ties, big black glasses, belt buckle shoes, and skin tight suit pants. As you know... In the MTC they only talk to you in the language your learning, in my case Italiano. It is real juggling act trying to feel the spirit and interpret what the teacher is saying while trying to take notes on the gospel lecture and notes on how to speak Italian. After Friday's lesson the whole district had a verbal and emotional breakdown because none of knew what to do or how to speak Italian. Fratello Weller, being the spiritual giant that he is, gave us a real powerful lecture about how the spirit can teach us the language. He wrote the phrase "In Bocca a lupo" on the board, which is an italian idiom meaning "Life is hard". I honestly learned a lot from that lesson and actually felt, for the first time, that I could understand what he was saying. It's amazing how when you tune into the spirit it truly can teach you.

"Different yolks for different folks"

I really am loving my district and my companion (which I'll tell you about him when I get to know him a little better... It sufficeth me to say he is a good kid from a wealthy family in Atlanta)... But anywhooos... Every single person in my district is from extremely different backgrounds and each has had different trails in their life. Anziano Romano is a city boy from inner city Boston, Anziano Smith is from an expensive prep school in Atlanta, Anziano Carter is the big teddy bear, Anziano Smith is actually Italian but doesn't speak the language, Anziano Gardenhier wants to compose movie scores for living.. Listen... What I'm trying to say is we are all so different that is makes us great. Surprisingly enough we all get along really well despite being from all over the place! And the best part of all... None of us have a clue how to speak Italian.... Honestly... This week has literally been the most frustrating week of my life, for everybody in the district because none of us know how to learn the language when we never have time to.. learn the language.

"Yeah! I really just never got a handle of the language!"

It's this phrase that keeps me going. I can pray in Italian, speak extremely broken Italian to stumble my way through lessons, and maybe pronounce everything right. I keep praying for the spirit to help me teach and for things to start aclickin'... But as of right now. I don't know what's goin' on! :)

God bless America.

Pace (It's italian).