Elder Benjamin Darrel Mitchell : Week 1 at the MTC

Hello Everyone,

I have a few words of business to start with:

If those individuals in my BYU FHE group receiving this email could kindly remind everyone else in my FHE group that they will not be receiving any emails from me unless they send me one first, that would be great. Also if someone could tell Trevor that he's a bum that would be much appreciated. Finally, if my family could talk to Ben, Luis, Heze, Nathan, Nathan, Kjellden, Isaac, Josh, Cody and Brandon to see if they want to get emails from me that would be great. :)

General email:

Some of you were probably starting to think that I had forgotten you, or that I didn't love you anymore because it's been so long since I was able to send an email. My Pday ended up being a full week after I got to the MTC, so I couldn't send any emails until now. I apologize for all of the grief this may have caused you. :)

This first week has been pretty good. I started the week with two companions, Elder Turk and Elder Kendall. Unfortunately Elder Kendall had some problems with homesickness and went home Sunday afternoon. Now Elder Turk and I have a room of three bunkbeds to ourselves. Elder Turk is from Santa Barbara California, and Elder Kendall was from like 20 minutes away from here, so his parents just came and got him. Interestingly, Elder Turk and I are now the only two Elders in our district, and there are only two sisters, so we're easily the smallest district that our teachers have ever seen.

All the Elders here seem to be pretty cool. I'm not sure what goes on in the sisters residence hall, but in ours there was a Mexican style wrestling event on the first night. Nobody is ever quiet at 10:15 when quiet time starts, and only somtimes at 10:30 for lights out. There is also a lot of singing that goes on in the shower. The clear favorite is the "somebody once told me" song, and they generally get stuck on a loop of "and they don't stop coming and they don't stop coming" for between 14 and 47 seconds. I don't remember what the song is actually called, but I can't look it up because I'm not allowed to surf the internet. It might be called Allstar or something. Also, anonymous writer asked me if there were any raging New Years parties. There were not.

The food here is pretty good. A lot of people complain about it, but I don't have to do any grocery shopping or cooking, so I'm feeling pretty good about it. It's all you can eat too, so I'm probably like 40 lbs heavier than the last time any of you have seen me. You should all try to imagine what that would look like. Actually I think I've only gained like 4 lbs if any, but 40 sounds more exciting.

The Japanese is starting to come back. Everyone in my district except Elder Turk has taken some Japanese, but he's a genius, so we're all progressing pretty quickly. We're focusing on different things, but I think that I've already surpassed my Japanese level from the end of taking the class for two years.

I hope that you're all doing well.

Love,

Elder Mitchell

ミチェルちょうろう

The first P-day (Preparation Day) at the MTC. This is the day that the Elders are allowed to email friends and family at home and to do laundry and have a bit more relaxed schedule.

Elder Mitchell in the new shirt that Amy gave him for Christmas. Missionaries wear shirts and ties every day of the week, except on P-day. They get to dress more casually while doing laundry, etc.