Life at the MTC

Hey everyone, It's really nice to be able to get all of the letters from everyone. Life here at the MTC is for sure a really busy one. The Bulgarian class that we are taking right now usually consist of hours and hours of class time. There are some days where the total amount of time that we are in class for is 7-8 hours. Not all at once, but usually have two major class times. I have to say, I don't think I've ever had so much information given to me a t once time. I loved hearing about the things that are going on at home. It sounds like I'm missing out. Some things about my companion (Elder ...), is that he is from Missouri. Before coming here, he worked as an exterminator. He's also 20 years old and is going to have a birthday while in the MTC. I love having him as a companion. He is also knows a lot more Bulgarian than I do or at least that's what it seems like. Even though it's been a week, we already taught 3 lessens in Bulgarian. It's crazy. Having a script for trying to sound out words helps but it sure is hard. I can testify that this is the hardest thing I've ever done. There is a joke for everyone going foreign learning a new language. It's that Spanish isn't close to being a language. We count it as another Dialect since it's closer to English. There are two people that are going to the Bulgarian Sofia mission that have been here for 8 weeks and are leaving this Monday. They can speak Bulgarian and have conversations in it. It's hard to even imagine if I can get to that point in that amount of time. The class have 2 teachers. They speak Bulgarian the whole time so it's kind of a guessing game to figure out what they are saying. The trip to LA was a lot of fun. We woke up at 4:00 in the morning and went to the airport. They had tour buses for everyone leaving the MTC. There were so many missionaries leaving for there missions so when anyone asked we just said that we were just going to LA and back. We had a personal driver that took us to were we had to go and lunch. After that he dropped us at the airport. We got done with everyone in LA (Signing for Visa in person at the Bulgarian Consulate) at around 12:00. We had to wait at the airport for 6 hours for our flight back and we couldn't go anywhere or in other words, no transportation. We weren't able to go to the LA temple. I was super excited for the idea of it but it didn't happen. With the Dear Elder letters, they print out all of those and have it delivered to us everyday, twice a day. It's really nice because I can here from all of you during each day of the week. It's also hard to describe all of the things that happen at the MTC. I love it here but being as busy as I am it's also really hard. We had a devotional on Sunday and watched a talk given by Elder Bednar. It was given a year or two ago during Christmas time. I have to admit that is my favorite talk ever given. It talked about the characteristics of Christ. I don't even know if it is available out of the MTC. It was so powerful. The spirit was really strong. Also, for the LA trip, we missed Elder Cook coming to the MTC. The Bulgarian group that I'm with was so sad because we missed an apostle because of the trip. I would rather listen to an apostle here in person instead of waiting at an airport. Also at the airport we got 2 pictures with random people in LA because they saw that we were missionaries. It was kind of weird being in public to be honest and it's weird to call myself a missionary. Elder ... (another Bulgarian person in my group) and I were also offered dinner from a random family. We said thanks but we're going to fly out soon. I also want to send some pictures but I forgot to bring my camera to the computer lab. Maybe if I can get on later I can load some pictures but it's hard to tell with the schedule that we have. I wish I could email everyone everyday. Like I said earlier it's really hard to try to put everything into this letter. My companion has actually already gained 8 pounds based off food. I guess it's true when you can gain a lot of weight here. Every meal feel like I've eaten thanksgiving dinner just because it's basically an all you can eat buffet here. The chocolate milk is also very good. It's nice because every morning I drink a ton but drinking it for every drink also gets very tiring. In our gym time I've started running again. It's not that far because it's a 1/10 mile indoor track and we don't have all the time in the world for it also. Another thing that is in our dorms is a pull up bar. Yea... I get to play with it just like at home and I love it. I love the the package that I got. It was nice to get the cloth that I forgot in the wash and the popcorn with all of the messages on it. I ate all of the popcorn after 5 minutes of opening it, so it was a good package. It's fun to see everyone get packages here. It's funny because someone family actually sent a little Christmas tree in a package. Another funny story is a guy from Poland I think got a package and he never gets packages. He was super excited to open it, but when he did, he discovered that it was just hangers so everyone in his room was teasing him. I didn't see it but how it was told to me was very funny. It's hard to keep track of what I've told also. The missionaries going to Bulgaria right now are Elder ..., ..., ..., Sister ..., Elder ..., and I. Elder ... is from Finland, so the same place that Brother Pace served. It's fun to hear stories from him and to have him taste new american food. He always joke about how American food is always deep fried and/or bad for you. Come to think about it it's kind of true. I also wanted to mention that there are certain salads here that taste amazing. I've never eaten a salad so good except for Mom's salad of course. It's amazing to see people from all over the world here. I actually saw Elder Goodwin (Josh Goodwin). He left for France this last Monday. It was really lucky to see him. Also seeing Miguel (the watch person) was fun seeing him. I've also met another person from American Fork but I had no idea who he was and the same for him. It was kind of funny. Elder ... is one of the funniest people I've heard. He's 25 and from Kentucky. He has a deeper voice and he is the comedian of our group. I would like to send everyone personal letters but email time is limited. I'm spending my hour just writing this letter. I hope that the surgery went well for Kaylie. It doesn't look fun being in that state and we've never had someone in our family in crutches before so hopefully it works out good for her. I think that doing that surgery should help because it seemed like nothing else would help it heal all of the way. It's amazing how well Lexie and Kaylie did at Footlocker. I'm super happy to hear that because I was just waiting for the day for those letters to come talking about it. It sounds like you both had really good times. I'm proud of both of you. Just from running here I really need to work at getting back into the shape that I was in. It's not an easy sport but having races like those really make it worth it. Allie, I'm excited to hear about your concerts. I wish that I could come see them. If only your first one was a couple of weeks earlier before I left. I hope that your having a fun time with band. I loved junior high band. It's still hard to think that I'm not going to be able to see any of you in 2 years. It's going to be different when I get home. I also love seeing those pictures that Mom sent me. It's good to see the family again. I know without a doubt this is the place that I'm supposed to be. I also know that this God's work and it's an honor to be able to be part of it. 

                                                                                                                                    Love Elder Green