MTC Schedule

Mom and Family,

Here is an answer to all the your questions.

My companion is Elder Austin Huckvale (sorry Tori, he's engaged), he's from Eagle, Idaho. I have three roommates; My companion and I, and then Elder Standley and Elder Hayter. Elder Hayter is our District Leader (Our district is one of the smallest in the MTC, there are only six of us! Four Elders and two Sisters; Sister Ackely and Sister Magleby are the sisters). PS I'm senior companion, haha my companion should be though, he is much more a teacher to me than I to him.). Yes I got your packages and letters, although I'll have you know I am still as air-brained as when I left, because I've already lost my immunization records... oops. Thank you for all of the treats, and rolls, and jam, and cookies!! I'm one of the most popular Elders in our zone!! haha. My birthday was incredible. Conference was amazing, I learned how to crush a soda can with my shoulder blades, everything went great in all my classes, and we had a great mini devotional in our room that night. The language is the hardest here, plain and simple. We get comments all the time from people who tell us that the Mongolian missionaries always work the hardest, and for good reason!! Oh man, the sentence structure is different, the grammar is different, and the letters are different!! haha I AM learning though. Right now I can introduce myself, say a simple prayer, read most words (I can read the Book of Mormon, I don't know what most of the words mean but I can read them!) and more.  My companion is a natural though, he's incredible at Mongolian!!! I cant wait until I'm fluent, that's the biggest stress/frustration here, is not being able to teach our investigators what we want to because we don't know how to say it!! Funny story about the language real quick; when you want to say good, you say Canh (pronounced SAN), and you can do a thumbs up to emphasis it. As a joke many Americans will say Super Cahn, and put on fist under the other fist and make a thumbs up sign with the top hand. Well a similar movement will make the sign for going to the bathroom, and of course I mixed the too up and said "Super (bathroom sign)" with a huge smile on my face! After like 10 minutes of laughing my teacher politely told me I had just said 'super going to the bathroom!', haha it was pretty funny! A typical day here is really busy. I bag of candy will last me a week or more because I'm too busy to eat it!! Also time is really strange here, the days go on forever (not a bad thing, I love it!), but the weeks fly by!!! Its really bizarre! Here is my typical day:

6:30- Wake up, get ready

7:00- In the classroom, companion study

7:30- Breakfast

8:00- Language Study/ Class Time

11:30- Personal Study

12:15- Lunch

1:00- Companion Study

2:00- Gym/ Exercise

3:00- Language Study/ Class Time

5:30- Dinner

6:15- Language Study/ Class Time

9:00- Planning

9:00- In the room/ Personal Time

10:15- Quiet Time

10:30- Sleep

That's my schedule.

The variety of food here is great, usually three to five different choices, only problem... it gives you SERIOUS bowel problems!! I have never IN MY LIFE made such horrific smells come out of my body!! And its like that for everyone, so you can image how the rooms smell!! Yeah I snore, and no those didn't help. But on the plus side, I've been talking Mongolian in my sleep!! Probably more fluently than when im awake!! haha My companions love it, when I wake up they all re-enact what I did last night. On night I fell out of bed, and in my sleep I heard the bang of me hitting the ground, but I didn't realize it came from me so I slept walked to the door and opened it and YELLED "Who's there!!". Needless to say I've been the butt of many a joke! :D

Tell everyone thanks for sending me letters, I've gotten lots!! :D When I get to Mongolia it may take several months to get a letter so email is preferrable, but keep the letters coming in the MTC!!

 

Here's just some fun experiences I've had here in the MTC.

 

My zone if AMAZING!! I have all the guys going to the islands. Fiji, Hawaii, Marshall Islands, etc. Many of them are from Tonga, Samoa, Australia, and Karibus. ITS SO COOL!!! They all have the coolest accents!! They are also the most inviting and happy people I have ever met!! When mom sent me the Poprocks I realized many of the guys probably never had tasted them before! So out I went on my quest giving them Poprocks!! Watching their faces as they tried it for the first time was priceless!! They ran around to each other with therir mouths open saying "listen listen!", it was so funny!!! There is an Elder here named Elder Tebatonga, he is the most incredibly humble person I have ever met!! He lives on an Island called Kiribus, probably didn't spell that right, and all he eats day and night is fish and rice. He lives in a hut, that's lifted off the ground by bamboo. When he was 11 his parents left for three months to work, and he had to take care of all his siblings!!! Even before he left he spent his whole day fishing for food for his LARGE family!! He is also quite the ladies man!! HE HAS 19 GIRLFRIENDS. At first I thought he was exaggerating, that is until I saw the letters from them!!! They are all super romantic and they are all SUPER in love with him!! It's amazing though just how humble he is!!!

 

I've also gained 10 pounds since being here... I guess I'm gonna have to be exercising now! :(

 

We have Sunday Night Firesides, and this last Sunday was INSPIRATIONAL!!! I have been sick for the past few days and felt really bad, and on Sunday was the worst (I had to go to the Doc). When we had the Fireside I was prepared to sleep through the whole thing, but as he started talking I realized God was talking through him straight to me!!! It was amazing!! He was the Church's Missionary Department President. He was in charge of promoting the Church and our beliefs!!! He talked about all my passions: Missionary Work, the Church, SEO, Marketing, Web Design, and Graphic Design!!! They even played my favorite song with my favorite instrument; Hie to Kolob, with the violin!! He talked about how they have launched campaigns in New York, London, and Ireland. Look up, "Mormon Campaign, UK". Its incredible!!!!!! They rented all the posters in the whole rain station in the main rail station in England!!! Anyways I don't have much more time so I just want you to know I love you all and miss you, but I want you to know that I love what I'm doing and know that it is true!!

 

-Elder Clement