Week 3 from the MTC

Week 3!

Life at the MTC is getting crazier. I’m already halfway done with it, and I’m honestly super glad.  The food is just absolutely horrible, and I know that I have said that already. 

There were no rolls left during dinner, and my companion turned to me and said, “Well, I guess I just won’t eat then.” Because the rolls are legit the only thing to eat here. 

Pizza should be good right? Always? Not exactly. Thursdays are pizza day, but I swear, they take the left overs from the other meals and just throw it on top with a bunch of cheese. It it pretty disappointing when you get there and the pizza toppings are literally roast from the night before and some kind of fish.  Ok, I’m done talking about the food.

Wednesday we went to the temple and during the endowment session, the lady at the altar literally passed out and her husband didn’t even look worried. She was really pale, but he was just standing there with a face that said, “Why did you have to do this now?” Clearly, it wasn’t the first time she had passed out. 

The Campinas temple is really pretty. The view from the site  is really big. You can see forests and a huge city, and lots of other buildings scattered.

We went to a steak place later that day. I got this kabob and it was really stringy. (Gross alert) I swallowed part of it without thinking, and the string was still caught to the piece of steak that I didn’t swallow. So I started choking on a peace of steak until I literally had to grab the food in the back of my throat and pull it out. Pretty disgusting. It was a really good steak though.

I went to the doctors office on Thursday morning because I was still feeling sick, and he told me that I had a bacterial infection in my throat, so that was pretty fun. I got some medicine, so at last, after a little more than two weeks straight, I am finally starting to feel better. 

I am getting really excited to get out into the field. Time has been going by so fast, but every time I think that I am still only halfway done with the MTC it makes me a bit sad, haha. I think this place is great, but the work doesn’t truly start until I get out there. 

Once I’m out in the field, I will have some much better stories for this email than I have been sending out.

Just some rapid fire stuff about the MTC…

-Missionaries don’t drop trays in the cafeteria too often, but there was one day that one missionary dropped hers, and then less than five minutes later, right after another lady cleaned it up, another missionary drops his tray in the exact same spot. Missionaries collectively started giving sighs of disappointment. Then another missionary comes and drops it AGAIN right next to it, and the whole cafeteria just started mourning for the broken dishes. 

-Two missionaries started sprinting down the hallway slamming on doors after curfew had hit. Everyone opened their doors, and came out of their rooms half dressed. After several minutes, we all go back to our dorms, and the moment I lay down, we hear them start running down the hallways again and slamming on doors. Elder Fogg, who is in our dorm, sleeps right by the door, and the moment he heard it, he jumped out of bed and swung the door open as the two elders ran by, and then he chased them down. Apparently 1 in 4 missionaries get sent home. The guy that slammed on doors had apparently had gotten into some trouble before so there’s talk of him getting sent home for breaking curfew rules and others on multiple occasions.

-The MTC president is a great guy, full of spiritual knowledge and I really respect him, but he is actually scary sometimes. He’s this tall and big Brazilian guy that doesn’t know much English, but he is everywhere when you least expect it. He patrols the hallways after curfew to make sure all the missionaries are in bed, and he always seems suuuuper angry when he catches missionaries out. I usually go to the bathroom and brush my teeth right before I go to bed. So I do that maybe 5 minutes before curfew. What I didn’t realize is that he starts patrolling before our curfew. Curfew is 10:30 and I finished brushing my teeth right at 10:27. I turned around, and he was standing RIGHT behind me and I jumped so bad. He didn’t even say anything. He just looked at me with reeeally big eyes and tapped his watch.  I said, Ok, President” and hurried back.  

-My companion is always super tired, and it is kind of ridiculous at times. After I got my medicine last week, I told him that I wasn't feeling well. I was super nauseous and had a really bad headache. He was like, “Do you need to rest for a bit  instead of go to class?” I said, “Yeah, I think so.” His reaction was basically, “Thank goodness!” He didn’t say it, but he kicked his shoes off and fell asleep on his bed before I even finished taking my medicine. Maybe an hour later, I was feeling better, so I was like, “Elder, let’s go.” I struggled to get him out of bed. He was totally fine, but he did NOT want to get up. It took him a ridiculous amount of time to get moving. He does this a lot in the morning too. He lays in bed for like 15-20 minutes every day and then decides to get up when I am about ready to go. It’s honestly so dumb, but it makes me laugh.

That’s it for this week! 

Sincerely, Elder Gibson