Naranja!

¡Hola! Ok, so i realize that my letter last week was horribly jumbled and i forgot things and it just probably made no sense. So, i made a list of things to tell you so this letter should be much better! so first off, i forgot dad wanted me to send a travel log....so, on Thursday 2 weeks ago we left Provo at like 330 am, left slc at 6 am to Dallas, left Dallas at 1045 to Miami, left Miami to santo Domingo at 515, landed at around 8. and man alive it was the longest day ever! but luckily i had a window seat every leg of the flight! the flight to the DR was amazing, the Bahamas were outside my window the entire flight! SO beautiful! i took some awesome pictures to make you jealous with...but alas, the president of the CCM wont let us bring our cameras in the lab to back up photos on drives or email them until right before you leave, and i don't want to send my card till all my pictures are backed up. so, ill send them in a few weeks! sorry!

So from last week to this week i still feel like i have not really learned any more Spanish, as if i have plateaued a little, but when we taught yesterday i defiantly did better and knew more than i thought i did (granted, i was still just saying super super basic sentences! most of them memorized because i still don't know to much so its hard to make my own haha) but its coming a lot! I'm starting to understand more and more of what my teachers say which is nice!

Ok, so i don't remember if i talked to you guys about the university really. so every Monday, our district and one other district goes the the university which is about a 5 min walk away from the CCM, and then we just go and wander of and hour and a half and talk to people, share a message about the church, testify about it, and hand out pamphlets and such. its not so much to get investigators for the missionaries, we just do it to practice speaking with natives. the first lady we talked to on Monday was sorta interested, and i could understand about 25% of what she was saying and i was STOKED about it! haha. the next few i really had no clue what they said to me. the last guy we talked to was awesome. he was interested, i could understand most of what he was saying, and we gave him an El Libro De Mormon and he seemed pretty excited about it! so ya, the university is crazy. its so hot. SO hot. walking around in ties with backpacks on in the blaring sunshine,90 degrees and 100% humidity....aye! but, it gets a little stormy looking for a little almost everyday since its hurricane season. we have had a couple cool storms! the lightning is so crazy! and every single time it thunders it sets car alarms off its so loud and vibrates everything. so so cool.

the power goes out ALOT here! a few times a day. it just went out, luckily the computers are on a backup battery until the generators kick in. too bad in the field we wont have generators...

glad to hear you guys had a good 4th of July! i almost forgot about it! i really wanted to sing happy birthday to America at dinner, but totally forgot....panda triste. anywho the 3rd of July, however, was an awful day! i dunno why, everything was going wrong, everyone was driving me crazy and i thought i was going to have a melt down. scratch that, i WAS having a melt down. i don't really know why. just one of those days i guess. i almost just wanted to leave it was such a bad day! but back to the 4th. Sundays are waaay better than p days here in the CCM. p day we go to the temple for like 4566 hours, barely get back in time to eat dinner, have like 15 min to write letters, go do a service project for an hour and a half in the university (where we have to wear JEANS! :( ) then have an hour to ourselves then we have gym, then class and meetings. Sunday we watch devotional and apostle dvds and movies (like testaments and such). and we have longs breaks in between everything. and who, on the 4th we got to watch the June 2009 MTC devotional with Elder Bednar. i have already seen it, but i could watch it over and over and over again. even though its meant for missionaries, it EASILY applied to everyone. its about the spirit and how you can know if its the spirit prompting you or if its just you. AH! so good. if you can find it, you HAVE to watch it! again, June 2009 MTC devotional with elder bednar.

so my companion is starting to bug me. all he wants to do is waste time and hang out with one of the other companionships in our district. it doesn't matter what i need or want to do. it he wants to sit and play ninja, and i need to use the bathroom or go study in the lab, NOPE! he is going to continue to play ninja. its ridiculous. I have talked to him about it and he just is like "ah you need to stop being a sissy and have some fun occasionally! don't be gay!" and such. its making me really mad. when i first got assigned to him i was not happy, he just looks like a person who's parents are loaded and drove around a supe'd up Subaru wrx or audi that was all blacked out. and alas, he was! and is like the skater dude type. we get along still, but every day we just clash more and more. he never studies Spanish. i always have to teach pretty much the entire time because he knows nothing because he never even tries. every night he whines that he cant understand the teachers and gets nothing out of the lesson, but while they are talking he is just doodling or staring off into nothing, putting NO effort into actually trying to listen. then the teacher will ask us to do something, i will start doing it, she will ask the class if we all understand, he will say yes. then he will sit and do absolutely nothing for 5 min while we are all whatever it is she wants us to do, and turn to be and go "ok so what exactly are we doing? i didn't understand". AHHH it drives me crazy. i feel like i will never learn Spanish with a companion who doesn't seem to give a crap about learning it yet whines constantly about not understanding. sorry for that little rant, its just REALLY bothering me.

everyone, i still need to know your opinions. Is Cain Bigfoot?! let me know what you think. i think he is!

but yes, i like this MTC alot better, but man i am ready to get out! we stay in the same hallway pretty much all day except for gym time. it is so beautiful here! but at the same time, its not haha. you can see the ocean from the temple, lots of palm trees and lizards. but, everything is super run down and old, and the is trash everywhere. absolutely everywhere!

so i don't really know what else to say. life is all the same. love you all!

oh, some of my favorite Spanish words so far....

naranja - orange (like the fruit)

Palabra - word

habalabamos -we talked

arrepentimiento - its just long and fun to say! means repentance

anywho, love you all and hope you have a good week! write me more! (cough raquel and brigham cough cough april danny cough heather cough) haha

bye! and ill have like 5 min to write tonight, so if you have any questions you need to ask email them to me before like 6 your time.

bye!

-Elder Brady MacArthur