Preston MTC Jan 21, 2016

Bossin' it in Preston!

At the Preston Temple

Hello Everybody!

It's finally emailing day, I feel like it couldn't come soon enough, I have so much to tell you guys! So the flight from Georgia to England was great. I got a window seat in the front row, so I had tons of room! All the other missionaries were in middle seats crammed in the back, somehow I was the lucky one.  I met up with all the other Americans at the airport and it was a 45 minute drive to the MTC. I sat by Sister Esplin from Alaska, and now she's my companion! We have a lot of fun, especially during exercise times. 

The view from our classroom!

So there's only 33 of us here at the MTC. Everyone's from all over!  My district (training group) had 11 people at first, with all of us going to Scotland and Ireland. There were 6 American sisters, 1 Finnish sister, a German elder, an American elder, an English elder, and an Australian elder.  But on Monday, the districts got switched around! We lost three of the sisters and our German and American elders. Our district is a lot smaller now, but it's just as fun! Our teacher is Brother Wilford. He's 22 years old and from South Africa. He's super nice and a great teacher!

Let me tell you about some of the other missionaries here.  We have a 4'11" elder from Ireland (literally, he's the most energetic little guy I've ever met) who is companions with a rugby player from Tonga. There's the foreigners learning to speak English, all in one district.  They are from  China, Belgium, France, Portugal, and Italy. It's hilarious, they can't understand each other at all, but they all have a great time! The girls I get on best with are Sis. Duncansen from North England and Sis. Thornton from Australia. Sis. Thornton and I are practically the same person, it's crazy. We have classical music jam sessions and stuff like that, she's so awesome! We have way too much fun together. They're both going to Birmingham though, so we're going to try and meet up the summer after our missions. OH MY GOSH AND there's one sister here who has the coolest story ever. She's from Repub of Ireland.  She was watching old episodes of South Park, saw the one making fun of Mormons, decided to check out the church and got baptized.

Jake, the MTC pet swan.  His nest is right here!

Oh, I'm picking up the weirdest accent. So, Duncansen has a very Jordy accent, which is like super thick Northern England. I've picked up a bunch of her sayings.  Thornton just has the cutest Australian accent, so I say some words like her as well. And then our teacher, who we hear from allllllll day, has a S. African accent, so all of us in his class are picking up some of his words as well. So I talk pretty weird already. Some of my favorite things to say are "Bossin' It", which is crushin it, "Proper", which I use to describe pretty much everything, and, my favorite, "Bless his little cotton socks", which is like bless his heart. One elder in my district is from London, and he is always trying to teach us his sayings and explain how they make sense...they don't at all haha! Like one, he says I feel "creamed", which means "cream-crackered", which means "knackered", which means "tired". It's so fun!

For exercises, we played volleyball once in the church building across the lot, but it's been closed for refurbishment. But volleyball was fun, Esplin, the Tongan elder, and I bossed it against the teachers in 3 v 3. Since then though, we've been playing around the world ping pong instead. It gets super competitive, but I've been pretty victorious. The football pitch is also closed for maintenance (bummer.....), but it's been fun regardless. 

Oooooh, I ate haggis for the first time! It really wasn't bad, I kind of liked it! The food here has been absolutely amazing!

Classes have been all over the place. Some are super interactive and helpful, others are kind of boring. I'm just glad I don't have to learn a language. The missionaries learning German always look super stressed out. I'm definitely learning a lot, I'm excited to get out into Scotland and Ireland!

We went to the temple today, it was a really cool experience!  Tomorrow, we get to go into Manchester and practice teaching. It'll be so fun to get out into the city!

PJ party

So we ship out to Edinburough next Wednesday, so I don't think I'll be able to write again until the Monday after that, but we'll see.  Miss everyone so much, I hope all is well!

-Sister Stapley