Exercise AFTER a meal?!

This is the beginning of my fourth week here at the MTC. Its weird that I have been in here that long, and still it will be ages before I can leave. But its even more strange to see people that came in the same day as me pack up and leave already. I will see several transfers of new missionaries come and go before I do. We are the old timers here, us twelve weekers. Life is starting to get routine now, and the days are beginning to peel by in a quick-like fashion.

I just realized I haven't outlined what my days are like to all you folks yet. Would you like to hear? I bet you would.

I get up bright and early at 6:00 to get ready for the day, yes a full 30 minutes before anyone else does (all of you that are laughing at me right now. Just stop. Rude.). This week however I will be starting a new routine where I crawl out of bed at 5:30 to squeeze in some extra excersise time. Crazy? I think so. We leave for the building we have class in every day at 6:55 and have personal study from 7 until 8:15. I'm really starting to like personal study in the mornings, and surprisingly enough I don't fall asleep. I do often wake up Sister Petersen (companion) though.

At 8:15 we join the throngs of elders (tastefully sprinkled with sisters) on the walkways to the cafeteria. We wait in very long lines for food, then head back to class. Now our schedule begins to varry a little more. Sometimes we have companionship study for an hour, then some Missionary directed study time (or mdt) or we have class. Usually the classes are pretty long, and they vary day to day because our teachers are students and we must work around their schedule.

1:00 brings lunch, and then sometimes Gym is right after. I really hate that, gym being after a meal. Its very much by the way of annoying. How are you expected to go running after you have just eaten? really? inconsiderate. Or sometimes we have gym right after dinner! There are two days a week where we don't have it right after a meal, once a week its at 6:30 am, and one other time it is before dinner. *sigh* Oh well. I really think those of us here the longest should get the best times...someday when I'm in charge...

After lunch when we do not have gym, or MDT its more class. Then dinner is at 6. Tuesdays and sundays after dinner we have a fireside or a devotional. And every one I have been to so far have been very much amazing. We have had many a speaker from the 70 come. (once in reliefe society we had Sister Elaine S Dalton, the gerneral president for the yong women speak to us. It was great). On every other day we either have more class or some MDT. From 9-9:30 we have planning, 9:30-10:30 we do whatever, mostly it is filled with showering, getting ready for the next day, then lights out.

Now it may seem like we have a lot of MDT time and that since its not class time, it is free-ish time. This is a fallacy. We are so busy all the time that there is simply not _enough_ time! I need more time to study! Honestly! How else am I supposed to learn chinese and all I need about the gosple to bring hundreds of conversions to the church in only 9 more weeks!! (ok, I really am Not expecting hundreds...but why shoot low eh?) MDT is a precious time we take to research and apply what we have been learning.

Sundays our schedule actually does include free time. It is my favorite day of the week now (besides monday when I get to write you all of course. And Wear PANTS!). It is very restful most of the time, and I take a break from chinese and just give all my time to the gosple. Or sleeping, I actually got to take a real nap yesterday! For an hour! it was amazing, let me tell you.

My district is getting very close, and I am enjoying all my elders. they try so hard to be mature around us (the sisters). Its comical really. But they are young men with such amazing depth in the gosple that sometimes I forget they are so young. And they really are so young. But the Lord really knows what he is doing after all. They, every single one of them, will be amazing missionaries. And I learn a lot from them.

Well my time has once again ended. But I love you all! Write me people! Bring me some sunshine!

-Sister Melissa Thiessen