MTC Week 2

Family, I'll give you the basic update. I was really worried I was going to get a companion and district that would be very hard to get along with and not social. Now I wonder if they ever do not shut their mouths! MTC is good, don't know if I mentioned but my entire Dorm (all four floors) is islanders. The islands are: Kiribati, Tonga, Samoa and the Marshal Islands. And a couple New Zealanders. Tonga is the smallest island. The ratio of palangis (whites) to pacific islanders is 1-10. I am the smallest here by far. Majority of them do not workout, but one wakes up and runs and works out with me every morning. His name is Elder Nonu. Pushups are to easy for him so he does decline pushups with me on his back and can amazingly do 30 reps. If he's feeling really good he does my companion. I didn't believe it till I saw it done. Frequently we get attacked in a joking way by the Samoans. They all brought squirt guns and water balloons. 22 is the person limit in the elevator, but we only had 15 in it and somehow it broke. Only stuck for about 45 minutes before everyone realized we weren't in class.

Dad-you talked about the novelty of the MTC has likely worn off. It has, but even the MTC here is a very different place because of the people. They are the most selfless people I have ever seen. One elder only brought one pare of shoes because that's all he could afford and they wore out. So one of the islanders gave him his nice pair and now he wears his old ones. If you could please send a size 11 shoe that fits a little wide I'm sure it would be appreciated. Take the money out of my savings to pay for it. Another example of selflessness: One elder was sick and couldn't go to class. One of the islanders offered to stay with him. He never complained or asked for a switch for the 6 hours we were gone. In which he missed lunch and dinner. Our dorm is the only one without vending machines. Why? Because in all Pacific Island cultures everything is shared and I guess the last group of Tongans picked the vending machine up and shook all the stuff to the bottom. So we asked the sisters to use our card and buy a vending machine mini pizza for the elder that stayed with the sick elder.

Mom-I finally found the diet section of the MTC and it actually has really good food. You'll be happy to know I also started my thank you cards. But that takes a while. Are you still calling Lys every night like you promised? Hope so! I also will never think our home is to loud again. By no means send any junk food. We have 6 costco sized boxes full of it. No kidding. Why? Because two nights ago a huge group left for the field at 1 am. Everyone puts all their food outside the door. Me and elder Nonu were the first ones up so we got it all! Seriously close to 60 pounds of candy no joke. You'll see when I send home Pictures. I sent a letter home to the PO box two days ago. Hope you get it.

Emma+Hanz+Izi+Leif- Love you all. Thanks for the pictures! Send more!

I love letters. dearelder.com would be great if you want to send more. I have time from 10:30-11:00 to read them because it's supposed to be lights out but the Samoans on the other side have a huge tag war around that time and you can't sleep till they quiet down.

I love you all,

Elder Lundskog