Zavatra Tsara

Manahoana Fianakaviana!

     I've got some more time to email, so woot!  I'll start off by telling you a few of the stories that I didn't get to in the last email.

• District Leader Mugging: One of the Elders in my district--right after I was made district leader--pulled me aside and kind of pushed me up against the wall and said with a hate-filled smile, "Make sure you're the perfect district leader because I would have been great." It kinda freaked me out, but I understand because he is a very by-the-book missionary and that's some of the stuff I struggle with (getting to bed on time, following exact protocol). I can learn from his example honestly. It's all worked out now, and our district loves each other so much! The companionships are the perfect matches. 
• Broken Thermostat: Our zone leader was joking around with me about how hot/cold we wanted the apartment. He loved it cold, but I always woke up freezing, so I would turn it up. We pretended to fight over it, and we ripped the thermostat of our dorm wall, whoops! The next few days it was definitely below 60 degrees in our room, and we needed to take as many blankets from other Elders, heh! The workers came to fix it just yesterday; that was a huge relief, still a fun memory though.
• Awkward experience with sister, random elder and I. There was a time where huge crowd was in line for the cafeteria food. There was a bottleneck up near the front of the line where everybody was getting squished together. An elder, a sister and I got squished together, and he started half-screaming: "This sister's holy parts are touching me, and the elder (me) is kind of touching my butt!! Please stop. Please stop." Oh man, I cried laughing so hard because the whole crowd turned to look, and he started throwing elbows. Some missionaries are a little too uptight, but at least he's focused on the mission, haha!

Those were probably the weirdest events of the first week, but this second week was much better!

Couple o' Trials

     I finally feel like I'm getting the grasp of the MTC rhythm and the constant work. I am definitely learning the virtue of patience, hoo boy. The next couple days after last P-day were pretty hard because of a couple things. Elder Hamon has trouble breathing due to the dry air, and as a result, he makes the weirdest moaning sounds throughout the night. I couldn't get to sleep 'til about 3 AM for two nights in a row. I started to get a lil' grumpy, and I could tell I wasn't feeling the spirit as much. Because the MTC day is about 14 hours of consistent work, I could barely make it through the day. Then, when settling down for another night of little sleep, an angel's hand (Elder Schnoor) reached down from the top bunk and handed me some earplugs. I slept a full 8 hours, and I felt so energetic the next couple days! Plus, the back injury finally healed, my gawsh.

     I'll quickly tell you my other biggest trial. I'll talk about the tsara things next! I wasn't prepared for how hard the language would feel the first week. I felt like I wasn't progressing for so long, and I struggled to teach during the role-plays. It started to scare me because I just thought about if I was teaching a real investigator this way, I could ruin my chance to help them feel the same love of Christ and hope for eternal life with our family that He gives, an unsettling thought. I had been working hard to learn as many vocab words I could each day and constantly study the grammar lessons, but no cigar. But then, on the most recent Wednesday, it clicked. Elder Schnoor and I taught the Restoration again, and I felt like I could understand and answer everything! I still have a ton of work to do, but it was nice to finally get some concrete evidence that I am progressing.

Zavatra Tsara

• Being district leader has been a huge blessing! It's so humbling, while at the same time it is encouraging. Each of the Elders and Sisters in my district exhibit such good qualities that I need to learn to possess. We've grown really close. 
• I've made some great friends here! Elder (Lee) Hamon and I laugh together all the time and love having spiritual talks. He and I have really similar humors, straight-up weird. So I might have become more unhinged since I've left, heh! Elder Schnoor and I are a good match. Our styles balance out very well, and I can't imagine anyone else being my companion. He's super easy to work with and is very committed! One Elder named Elder Lutz just left to go to the Kiribati Islands, but he and I clicked for the short time we were together, tough to see him go. He has a crazy life story I need to tell you guys sometime. Elder Simisky (zone leader) makes fun of me all the time, but it's only because I try to react funny every time, so I like it. I love so many of the guys here. I'll give you a bio of each Elder I'm really good friends with sometime.
• Elder Schnoor and I were walking down our building's stairs and saw this random guy with only a towel on, kind of ominous. Startled when he saw us, he quickly turned around ran into the brick wall next to him, got a bloody nose and his towel fell down. I felt so bad, but I couldn't stop from crying laughing. He laughed too luckily.
• I've seen so many people here at the MTC that I wouldn't expect, holy cow. One of my great friends from OHS is actually in my zone now, Elder Ben Smith! It was so awesome when I saw him! I still have a turkey on my back from when we hugged haha!
• For some reason, a couple Elders think I'm so funny just because I'll pretend to get mad at the smallest things for them. It's not even funny, but it's nice to have an audience like that heh!
• We started a tradition of singing hymns in the showers. I can't tell if it's appropriate or not, way fun though.
• Hunger hasn't been as big of an issue recently. We've got some good snacks in our dorm. Can you send some saltines maybe?

     Whew, this letter was long! I wrote as fast as I could so I could tell ya everything! Fantatro fa marina ny filizantaran'i Jesoa Kristy. Tsapako fa mamaly ny vavakao Fanahy Masina. Tia ny traikefa MTC aho! Apparently Google Translate can't translate Malagasy very well, so hopefully you can infer what I'm saying! Tia ianareo aho!!! Sorry I didn't upload any pictures! I left my camera in my residence :/ Next week though!

Love,

Elder Soper