8 September 2009
Hello!
So, it's the last week here, fun stuff. We got our travel plans last Thursday, which was pretty exciting. So here's the deal: we leave the MTC around 5:30 am Monday. And our flight from Salt Lake is at 8:35 am, and we fly to JFK and we're supposed to be there at 3:25 pm eastern time. And then our flight leaves at 4:50 pm eastern time. So I'm not sure exactly when we'll call home, if we'll have time in Salt Lake before we get on the flight for a few minutes or what. But I don't think it looks like we'll have a lot of time in New York, because an hour and a half is a fairly short layover all things considered. But we'll see, it's one of those times that I'll call. So we leave New York at 4:50 and we land in Rome at 7:55 am. Then we leave Rome at 10 am and land in Catania at 11:15 am on September 15th. So, we spend the whole day traveling and going way forward in time, it should be pretty interesting.
We're excited to get going. We're also excited that we got Delta, because they allow a lot more luggage. We do have to spend 50 dollars for our second checked bag, but I guess that's okay. We get a 40 pound carryon and a personal item, which is a lot better than the missionaries who went to Milan and flew Lufthansa and could only take an 18 pound carryon.
This week was our last appointment at the TRC, woohoo! Next time we teach a lesson there will be no video cameras, which is kind of nice. WE taught a girl this week who served in Roma, and she finished her mission a year and a half ago but then she was living in Italy and dating an Italian and teaching English until earlier this year. She was probably one of the best "investigators" we've had, because she didn't slow down for us at all. She talked just as fast as she would have in real life, and came up with all kinds of real concerns. It was pretty interesting.
I'm excited to be done with eating a full meal for every meal, it's really kind of annoying. Did you know, by the way, that they changed the food pyramid and that fruits and vegetables are at the bottom now? You're supposed to have 9 servings a day of fruits and vegetables. We learned this at our health and safety meeting last night. I think it's really funny though, how people say "make sure you eat in portions, make sure you don't eat everything" in one place--like Sister Smith, the MTC president's wife, told us to be careful of how much we eat, but then she gave a talk on Sunday where she told us that people might be giving us everything they have so we better make sure to eat it all. I don't know if she was talking so much about Italy. However, we do know that we don't have dinner appointments, we eat lunch with people, and we have a time limit otherwise they'd probably feed us a ton. Which is a good idea, I think. There's a teacher here who served in Milan who gained 50 pounds on his mission!!!
So, we're trying to make this week "the best week ever" in the MTC, since it's our last week. We're doing this by complimenting each other, making detailed plans for our day, and studying hard and smiling. Fun stuff. Yesterday went pretty well, but we may just have been excited that we don't go to the TRC again. And we got out of going to the TALL lab because of our meeting. That's the language program which is apparently very effective for the Spanish and Russian and German missionaries. But our program is different I guess, and I've looked at it and it seems utterly ridiculous except for the fact that the computer tells you how to pronounce the word. But then you have to repeat it back to the computer about twenty times.
I bore my testimony in fast and testimony meeting on Sunday in Italian. One of the brothers in our branch presidency did too, it had been a while for him. He served in Italy a few years ago--like 25-30 years.
Anyway, that's sad that Warricks moved. Who's going to be in Young Women now? That's like half the people! That's too bad. But I'm sure it's a good thing for them too.
I hope that everything is going great with you guys, I'll try and call home from the airport for a few minutes at least.
I love you, have a great day!
Eliza
So, it's the last week here, fun stuff. We got our travel plans last Thursday, which was pretty exciting. So here's the deal: we leave the MTC around 5:30 am Monday. And our flight from Salt Lake is at 8:35 am, and we fly to JFK and we're supposed to be there at 3:25 pm eastern time. And then our flight leaves at 4:50 pm eastern time. So I'm not sure exactly when we'll call home, if we'll have time in Salt Lake before we get on the flight for a few minutes or what. But I don't think it looks like we'll have a lot of time in New York, because an hour and a half is a fairly short layover all things considered. But we'll see, it's one of those times that I'll call. So we leave New York at 4:50 and we land in Rome at 7:55 am. Then we leave Rome at 10 am and land in Catania at 11:15 am on September 15th. So, we spend the whole day traveling and going way forward in time, it should be pretty interesting.
We're excited to get going. We're also excited that we got Delta, because they allow a lot more luggage. We do have to spend 50 dollars for our second checked bag, but I guess that's okay. We get a 40 pound carryon and a personal item, which is a lot better than the missionaries who went to Milan and flew Lufthansa and could only take an 18 pound carryon.
This week was our last appointment at the TRC, woohoo! Next time we teach a lesson there will be no video cameras, which is kind of nice. WE taught a girl this week who served in Roma, and she finished her mission a year and a half ago but then she was living in Italy and dating an Italian and teaching English until earlier this year. She was probably one of the best "investigators" we've had, because she didn't slow down for us at all. She talked just as fast as she would have in real life, and came up with all kinds of real concerns. It was pretty interesting.
I'm excited to be done with eating a full meal for every meal, it's really kind of annoying. Did you know, by the way, that they changed the food pyramid and that fruits and vegetables are at the bottom now? You're supposed to have 9 servings a day of fruits and vegetables. We learned this at our health and safety meeting last night. I think it's really funny though, how people say "make sure you eat in portions, make sure you don't eat everything" in one place--like Sister Smith, the MTC president's wife, told us to be careful of how much we eat, but then she gave a talk on Sunday where she told us that people might be giving us everything they have so we better make sure to eat it all. I don't know if she was talking so much about Italy. However, we do know that we don't have dinner appointments, we eat lunch with people, and we have a time limit otherwise they'd probably feed us a ton. Which is a good idea, I think. There's a teacher here who served in Milan who gained 50 pounds on his mission!!!
So, we're trying to make this week "the best week ever" in the MTC, since it's our last week. We're doing this by complimenting each other, making detailed plans for our day, and studying hard and smiling. Fun stuff. Yesterday went pretty well, but we may just have been excited that we don't go to the TRC again. And we got out of going to the TALL lab because of our meeting. That's the language program which is apparently very effective for the Spanish and Russian and German missionaries. But our program is different I guess, and I've looked at it and it seems utterly ridiculous except for the fact that the computer tells you how to pronounce the word. But then you have to repeat it back to the computer about twenty times.
I bore my testimony in fast and testimony meeting on Sunday in Italian. One of the brothers in our branch presidency did too, it had been a while for him. He served in Italy a few years ago--like 25-30 years.
Anyway, that's sad that Warricks moved. Who's going to be in Young Women now? That's like half the people! That's too bad. But I'm sure it's a good thing for them too.
I hope that everything is going great with you guys, I'll try and call home from the airport for a few minutes at least.
I love you, have a great day!
Eliza
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