To my family, Hello everyone love and miss you all. I responded to all your mail. And it should send tomorrow morning. I don't know when you will get it, but i got your mail two days later. So old fashion mailing will be faster then emailing. If you need to tell me something crazy or something thats the way to go. Also thanks for the package. Its like Christmas. I hope my bedroom is treating Thacker and Eli well. Because my rock hard bed is not treating me so well.
Where do I start.... The MTC is a humbling place, besides when I play soccer. But honestly if I had a dollar for every meg ive had this firsts week I could have paid for my mission all by myself. Kidding. (well kind of). Anyways I will start from the beginning, I got out my car trying not to cry and my host took my bags while I headed into the MTC. I walked into a big room where i received nametag, books in spanish and english. Then i got on a bus and got shipped off to west campus. The MTC is so full right now that they made a temporary MTC of all spanish speakers out of apartment buildings. So I rode in the bus to my new apartment, and dropped of my bags. Then walked to spanish class(which is in another apartment building). Yes within 30 minutes i was in my first spanish class. The teacher talks totally in spanish. I have only heard him say like 6 or so english words the whole time ive been here. The spanish is actually coming along quite well for only being here for 6 days. The second day here Me and my companion taught our very first lesson in spanish. I did not go very well, not only because i knew like 0 spanish but also because we didnt teach with the spirit. Now though we are pretty good we got our investigator "Daniel" to commit to reading the El Libro De Mormon. Oh part of learning spanish here is speaking in Espanglish. Its pretty much trying to talk in spanish then using english words for the stuff you dont know. So my mind is just a jumble of english and spansih words. My schedule is wake up at 6, and do some cross fit with my district. which is a group of 6 guys. Ill talk about them later. Then i get ready and get to breakfast by 7:30. Then Class, lunch, excersize, class again, then dinner, then class till 9:30. Out of the three classes a day. 1 session is with a investigator. Whether that is teaching him or preparing for our next lesson. 2 study session is, 1 hour personal study, 1 hour companion study, and 1 hour spanish study. 3 study session of the day we are with our spanish teacher who just teaches us gospel principles in spanish. Mingled with vocabulary or conjugation study. My companions name is Elder Lebaron. I have not quite figured him out yet. It is like reading a book and chapter 1 is good then chapter 2 has nothing to do with chapter 1. He is skinny, blonde, and super nice. He always hold doors or if you drop your pen he will get up from his desk pick it up for you even if it is in range of you grabbing zone. We work hard together and are actually pretty good at teaching. Well the spirit is good at teaching, but we are good at bearing testimony of the gospel and letting the spirit come. As for the rest of my district its Elder Brown, he is a Student body officer of some school in salt lake city, he is super nice and outgoing, and very lanky. His companion Elder Miles who a convert with a strong testimony and quiet personality. He is also funny, Elder Abernathy, who has a personality similar to mine, hes from arizona, he is probably my favorite, and his companion Elder Gonzalez who is a short mexican from LA. All he does is tell us conspiracy theories, and complain about the food and everything else he can. but he is a good man. And the sisters, my whole district is going to the Resistnecia, Argentina mission. there all interesting. Anyways all we do is laugh and study spanish. But elder gonazalez has a point the food does suck. Since we are on west campus we really have nothing to do with the other MTC besides sundays and P days. I will explain in a second. Our cafeteria is like the building outside schools that the the troubled kids go to so they dont shank other people. Except full of missionaries. The food is super processed and almost always burnt, but cold. So i just eat from the salad bar and soup. So i forgot to do my FBI background check so me and my companion got to ride with a campus police...... up to the police station to get my finger prints, its possible the will issue a temporary call. But i took care of it as fast as i could, its to close to call because it takes 6 weeks for it to be processed. So we will see. Sunday we go to church and just have a lot study time then in the night we go to a devotional. We walked to the Marriott Center or whatever its called and Listen To some movie director, it was pretty good. He talked about the poineers. I guess i had forgot about all they had gone through, and are grateful for them. After i went to say hi to a person i know for like two seconds and turned around and my companion was gone along with the rest of my district.I figured they just started walking so went to find them. I could not see them anywhere. So i figured i would just meet them back at the apartment. I just walked next to other elders. To make it look like i had a companion. Its actually really bad not to be with your companion but oh well had no choice.I eventually found them. Turns out they couldnt find me so they walked around for like an hour after looking for me and couldnt find them anywhere. Side story one of the Sister in our district had been praying all week that she would see her friend at the Devotional since that is one of the few times we interact with the main campus. And she walked around the Marriot center like 4 times trying to find her. She gave up, only to here that i went missing so she walked around again and found her friend. So i was just an instrument in gods hand in answering prayers. Ive Seen Cole Christenson, Walker Van Tassel, Erica Egburt, Shad Mortenson, and Brett Roberts. So pretty much everyone i know thats here except for reed. Oh well. This morning i went to the temple and it was amazing as usual. Did my laundry, stocked up on chips and Cup of noodles, and now is sending emails. You know its really cool to have the spirit with you pretty much all day. although this is the hardest thing i have ever done, im also having so much fun. Every day im here i become more and more thankful for this gospel. It blesses our lives so much. More ways then we will ever know. Our branch president challenged us to read the book of mormon in the six weeks we are here. Ive learned so much more from The book of mormon in 6 days then i have in my entire life. 2 years is a long time, but its not my time its the lords. Im just here to work hard and love the people. I love it so much and its barely began. Sorry for not capitalizing the "I" but trust me it saved me so much time. Speaking of time i wish i could say more but im already past my time.
Anyways Love all you guys. Here is a tip. Letters get to me faster than emails, i know its more expensive but if you love me you will sacrifice. so if you have any questions or just want to say hi id love to hear from everyone. Send it to
Tanner Matthew Simmons
Aug 25 ARG-RES
2023 North 900 East Unit 864
Provo Ut 84602
<3 Elder Simmons
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