Online MTC - Week 2

 Hello everyone! 

This week was a major success in the Online MTC experience. I still am not fluent in the Portuguese language by any means, but I've been making good progress so far. Monday through Friday were all pretty much the same deal schedule and lesson wise, so I'll just go through my new and improved daily schedule.

 

7:00am: I wake up, pray, prepare for the day, exercise, shower, get dressed into my white shirt, tie, and nametag, and eat breakfast.

9:00am-10:00am: Companionship study with the, most lovely, Elder Loveless.

10:00am-1:00pm: Online MTC with Sister Nascimento, which is mostly pretty brutal language training. This week she has decided to only speak Portuguese with us, and we also have to only speak Portuguese unless given permission to speak English, so that's been tough.

1:00pm-2:00pm: Lunch. This is where I get to eat my wonderful homemade microwavable dino-nuggets and personal pizzas.

2:00pm-5:00pm: Online MTC with Brother Zanfolin. He's a lot easier on us with the Portuguese, but we still learn a lot and focus mostly on specific grammatical intricacies of Portuguese.

5:00pm-6:00pm: Personal study. I have time during personal study to really get into the Book of Mormon and Preach my Gospel depending on what I feel I need, and sometimes it's both.

6:00pm-7:00pm: Language study. Last week Elder Loveless and I did half of lang together but we decided this week it'd be more effective at our developmental stage in Portuguese to study separately. Language study is mostly taken up with the memorization of vocab that we might need most in the near future.

7:00pm-9:30pm: Dinner and Family time.

9:30pm-10:30pm: Bedtime. It's a lot earlier than I am used to still, but I try my hardest to fall asleep before it gets too late.

 

And that is how all of my days have been going this week. It's quite the change from my previous life of just waking up whenever and going to sleep whenever, and everything in between was just whatever I wanted to do. But I really enjoy having some structure and a good daily routine to keep me focused and busy.

P-days are a lot more relaxed. Today my parents and I went into DC for brunch at Medium Rare (a fantastic steak restaurant), the National Zoo, and to say hello to our dear friends that we haven't seen in quite a while due to corona. Of course at Medium Rare I got steak, and it was delicious as usual. The zoo was really nice because it was in the low 60s all day and breezy, and we saw a tiger, some lions, monkeys, and a couple of Elephants. It was great to see our friends Josh and Nicolette for a little bit totay. Josh just recently got back from a long deployment in the Navy (on a submarine), so we hadn't seen him forever, and it was great to catch up with them and see their nice new house in DC. We finished the day eating some nice tasty burgers at Good Stuff (the best burger place in DC) and driving by the Supreme Court to see all of the love for RBG. It was a really fun day and a nice break from my beloved MTC routine. Thank you all for your support and I hope all is well!

 

-Elder James