Ben's First Week at Provo MTC, 8/18/11

Mom and Dad,

Thanks for the two letters they were great.  Tell Dan that he had some great advice.

It’s been weird for me because I’ve been called as District Leader.  I sometimes have trouble keeping my district on task and everything has been made a bit more difficult because me and my companion are in charge of escorting Sister Rust (our solo sister) everywhere. 

It’s pretty crazy here.  I really like my district.  We have gym time almost every day.  And we go out to the field and play soccer.  Today for P-day we did fitness as a district.  Me and Elder Crooks did over 50 pull-ups, 200 crunches, 200 bicycles, 243 pushups, and 2 minutes of wall sits.  So that’s what I did today. 

I went to the temple today and that was pretty nice.  I felt like I got an answer I was looking for. 

Portuguese teacher:  Irmou Morrey served his mission in Boston, Portuguese speaking.  He is pretty good at teaching and part of the learning process is to only have the teacher speak Portuguese.  We had 2 lessons in Portuguese last week and they went OK.  But the hard thing about learning is that there aren’t tests, and we set out own learning goals.  So I have a hard time gauging how much I’ve learned and how much I should be able to speak in a week or two (this is also nice at the same time). 

I’ve seen Hayden and talked to him briefly a few times, so that’s cool. 

Sorry about the stream of consciousness writing style.  I feel like I am running out of time all the time. 

*****

It’s super hot here. 

I finally got my BOM on Friday.  That was really nice. 

Everyone in my district is going to Brazil and not many of us have put in our electronic applications.  Only one other elder has.  My companion and one of the other missionaries in my room is also going to Belém. 

Portuguese sounds like:  -em = ang,  de =  G(ee)

*****

Dan, you haven’t written me!  Please write me.  I’d love to hear from you and it would be way cool if you could send me a water color or drawing of yours to put on my wall!  Love you.  Ben

P.S. I didn’t have time to write/and or read every letter that was e-mailed to me so please use dearelder.

*****

I solved a math problem while I was feeling particularly homesick.  Here it is:

The Integral of a Mission from 0 -> 2 years:

[font won't support integral sign and equation, but integral of a mission from 0 to 2 years = infinity]

This is one of those mathematical anomalies that make sense on paper but are disproved by real life observation.  

Well, I love you guys.  And I hope you show each other the letters that I wrote to each of you!  Write soon. 

Love, Elder Benjamin A. Clark