Merry Christmas!!

Hey family! 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

I dont have much time so I'll make this quick!  The MTC is awesome.  I love it here.   There are so many amazing people. My companion is awesome and the spirit is so strong here.  I feel like im in a giant bubble though.  I got to see the real world on Sunday when I walked to the temple.  It was closed though since it was Sunday.  It was fun I got to in the snow and stuff! I  got to have one of the 70 talk to me yesterday and today I'll have one of the apostles talk to me.  I don't know who yet!  Also send me letters.  I'm the mail man for my district and I check mail 3 times a day since I'm the district leader. My district is awesome.  My "pee" day hehe is on Friday so expect an email from me then.  I wasn't allowed to email last Friday since I was still getting adjusted to the mtc. But I love it here and its awesome.   I'll definetly have a once in a life time Christmas!   Also I found a sister here a sister BARRUS how crazy is that?  Her name is Taylor and she is serving in Mexico!  I also saw Brenton Jackson but no sign of an Elder Brown - he must be in a different zone. The first day I got here  was a blur.  I had an older missionary lead me around and help get my books and he helped me find my dorm and classroom.  I spend most of my time in the classroom learning, studying, and preparing to teach the gospel.   I have an investigator named Pedro who is a returned missionary, and he pretends to be a 17 year old boy that he taught on his mission.  He acts just as the Pedro on his mission would act so it's alot like im teaching a real person.  The first day I taught him I knew so little Portuguese.   After we said the prayer he kinda pushed out of the room and my companion got frustrated but I thought it was awesome.  That was on the third day!   I can now pray and bear my testimony in Portuguese though so thats awesome!  It's deffinetly a great experience.   I'm learning the langunge extremely fast!   I made 250 flash cards or so and the Elders and Sisters in my ward made a bunch as well so we quiz each other and we're all improving a lot!   Tomorrow I'm having an English fast where I only speak Portuguese!   It's going to be so hard but I know that ill learn alot.  In my district (it's a very small district) I have myself and 7 missionaries -  and one of them got their visa!   I told him to email me to tell me what the MTC in Brazil is like!   Oh yea,  and on Sunday I had to write a whole talk on repentance in Portuguese and we sing hyms in Portuguese too!   I'm deffinetly glad Portuguese is a pretty language or I think I'd go crazy - haha,  but I love learning the language and its awesome!   My schedule:   At 6:30 I wake up and shower.   7:05  - I leave for breakfast.   From 7:30 to 11:55 is personal and companion study.  Depending on the day is classroom instruction.   I'll have a teacher teach me more Portuguese and that helps a bunch!   12:00  is lunch and then from 12:30-4:50 is more companion and language study.   Somtimes I'll use this program called TALL and its a lot better than Roseta Stone!   Learning alot!   Then I have dinner at 5:00.   From 5:30-9:25 is more language and personal study, or depending on the day,  3 hours of classroom instruction.   At 9:30 I head back to my residence hall (dorm room) and get ready for bed. From 10-10:15 I have companion study where I go over the day with my companion, and talk about what we want to improve on.  Then I write in my journal from 10:15-10:30 and then have a prayer and go to sleep.  By 10:30  I'm exausted! I love you guys so much.   Have an awesome Christmas.   I can't call you from the MTC because its a few thousand phones short  - haha.   On my first day here on Wednesday (Dec.18) there were 784 new missionaries that arrived!   Have an awesome Christmas.   I'm having a blast here just getting to hangout with all the other missionaries.  Feeling the spirit and stuff its pretty awesome!   Oh yea and that sword was a pratical joke  - I advise you to take that thing away immediately -  haha!  I just wanted to make Chrismas without me a memorable one.   hahhahah.   love you guys peace out!!!

-Austin