Our District
Well, week 2 of the MTC has finally come and gone (well, officially after tomorrow but still faster than I thought it would go!). There's an old saying here that the days go slow but the weeks go by fast here, which is pretty much true (but, it's not too big of a deal for me since things have been going pretty well and I haven't been too homesick!)
Thanksgiving was really cool though. The food was, ehh... umm... MTC food so not amazing but everything else was! I know Mom's gonna be so jealous when I saw that Elder Jeffery R. Holland came and spoke to us Thanksgiving morning! He gave an AWESOME talk, it was mostly about how big missionary work is becoming with the new announcement (apparently, it's going to start spiking in mid-December with all the new people... then President Brown, the MTC mission president, sat with us for lunch and dinner one day and gave us the low down). Anyway, he was really encouraging and talked about things that we might not have thought about being thankful for before. A few of his grandkids (how cool would that be!?) and his wife gave talks too and there was a really great spirit throughout the meeting (throughout the day really). We also made these medical emergency kits and educational kits for kids in Mali (everyone piled up in the gym and we made over 3000 care packages or so. It was pretty cool!) At the end of the day, the MTC presidency surprised everybody with a movie (17 Miracles) and gave everyone big bags of kettle corn. It was a really cool movie and honestly, the whole day was really special. It wasn't the typical Thanksgiving (no football *sad face*) but it will be one that I will remember for the rest of my life. I'm excited to see what we're going to be doing for Christmas now!
So, this week has been going good. Our district is actually getting a new sister tomorrow who is going to New Caledonia! Maybe I can ask Grandma and Grandpa to give her the low down on the country. The French has been coming pretty quickly for me... Right now, I'm just learning gospel vocab and brushing up on my French. Tomorrow we have our first PVL (parlez votre langue, or speak your language) which will be from the morning to after Lunch. So, it will be me and my district (who can't really speak French at a great conversational level!) speaking only French all morning... I'll let you know how that goes! Although, I'm really proud of my district because they are learning French way quicker than I would have ever learned it if I came in with no French! I'm really happy to help everyone though because it really helps me solidify my own French.
Things with Elder Seidl have been going well. He is... an odd character sometimes! He has the weirdest taste in food! Hot Cheetohs with vanilla pudding? Ketchup and bananas? Peanut butter on every freaking thing IMAGINABLE!?!?! Are you kidding me? WHO EATS THAT!?!?! Haha, but I'm happy he doesn't make me eat the things he does. He has a huge thing of JIF PB to bring to Africa with him... glad he has his priorities straight! So far, things have been going well though. We get along pretty good but he's pretty quiet. It's hard to teach lessons with him because he doesn't speak very much French at all like the rest of my district, but we're getting better! But, there is one thing that gets on my nerves a lot... he loves to sing. Oh my goodness, it's like being with a male version of Sienna all the freaking time (kidding! Sort of...). I swear he hums and sings random hymns all the time and it gets super annoying!!!!!!!!!!!!! We went to the music center today to get some music because he wants to audition for some upcoming solos. Thankfully, he got Oh Holy Night (one of, if not, my favorite Christmas songs). He's pretty good (sings pretty high for my taste) but it gets pret-ty, pret-ty, pret-ty annoying. I really hope I don't get sick of it this coming week! I'm trying my best to look at him through the eyes of Christ though, it's hard but it's making the singing more bearable.
Comps being goofy!
Thank you so much for the suit! It fits perfectly. I'm going to try to get my other suit dry cleaned and fixed up this coming week so we can figure out what to do with it later. The shirts you guys sent me are nice, but they aren't wrinkle free! So, I like them but for my other shirts maybe you can get wrinkle free ones?! Also, could you send me my family tree? Forgot to get that! And I also need some family history stories too (maybe Grandma & Grandpa Koncurat & Hawkins could help with that?). Also, might need a box of Philly stuff to show my district (Tastykakes, pretzels, Birch Beer, etc... they're missing out!)
Thanks to everyone for their letters this week! I got soooo many it's going to take my all day today to reply to them all! Anyway, got to be finishing up now. I feel like I had so much more to say, so I'm going to start to keep a running tab of more experiences I've been having and such.
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.
Love,
Elder Hawkins
PS Sending a few pics home... Sending the Christmas pic Fro asked for. Sending more pics in other emails because there's a limit!
Elders Hawkins, Seidl & Kunz - the Benin Brothers
NOTE from the MOM, er Fro: You will all have to wait to see the Christmas pic Fro asked for *wink*. And yes, YES! I'm SUPER jealous he got a visit from Jeffery R. Holland. For those of you unfamiliar with Elder Holland, let me introduce you.....
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