March 10 [the outside of the envelope says "Mi companero se dice: 'Get on the ball! Send more pics!' Please!"]
Hey Fam,
How's life? Mine's great, especially when I get a letter. Send many many letters! hehehe packages are ok, too. If I have any more shorts, then send those . . . I think I've a black pair and blue pair. Also any t-shirts I used to wear . . . no more than 3 tho. Life at the MTC is great. Routine, yes, but great. I've got a great companero and 2 cool roommates, too. The espanol es, well . . . coming. I am soooooo glad that I took spanish in HS, and that I actually listened. I don't know where I'd be without it. Actually I do know. All of my roommates hadn't taken spanish before and they're really struggling. Luckily I've been able to help them out a bit, so that's good. I know how to pray, bless the food, get to know someone moderately well, the names of the principles (1-6) in the 1st charla [discussion], the smaller headings in principles 4 and 5 (12 titles total) and the first paragraph in charla 1, principal 5. So I'm coming along.
[He writes individual personal notes to his siblings and parents]
Life at the MTC is like I said; routine. Enclosed (for real) is my entire schedule. Also, you can go ahead and add some haircut appointments (I've one on Monday at 10:30), choir practice Tues and Sunday mornings, and time to write, read, pray, study, etc. It's actually great. Helps keep my mind off certain people/things, too. The food is well . . . cafeteria food. As for gassy . . . we're told (they actually addressed this particular concern in a movie everyone has to watch) that it's because we sit in chairs all day long. ALL day long. You can see when we have gym time. That Elder that I was talking about only knows some moves of capoeira, but doesn't play it. He just breakdances. Ah well.
My entire district (the 11 other guys in the group I'm in) is going to Venezuela, which is apparently pretty uncommon. Some going to the Barcelona mission and the rest, Valencia. So I may be seeing some of these guys a lot, for awhile. My companero y todos the roommates in me room are going to Valencia.
It snowed! From the sky! Sooo cool. I took lots of pics. I couldn't believe it. It is the coolest thing. I made lots of snowballs. And you guys should've seen the mountains. AWESOME. Prolly snowed like 3". Everyone was laughing at me because it was so amazing for me. Everyone's from UT except one guy from Las Vegas, one from Lodi (the same guy whose papers we each got in the mail) and one from Sacramento, and of course our "Wyoming Cowboy." Oh yeah, a guy from Chicago.
How's the web page coming? I'll send pics home when I get them developed. But for now you'll have to settle for a name tag and HLJ rings. Haz La Justo! Wahoo! [These are "CTR" rings in spanish]
Well, my hand's about to fall off. Please give me James Wyett's address. I want to warn him :) Actually, about half of the Elders in my district are just starting to like the MTC. It's really weird and hard right off, but I pretty much settled in quickly.
[he asks for different dress shirts]
That's about all I can think about right now. Palabra la semana [word of the week]: Pecador (sinner) It's a funny sounding word.
Love your Elder,
Elder Onken
P.S. At least e mail me a lot! mail is checked 2x a day.