Christmas in the MTC

Christmas here was alright. Christmas Eve we all had a fireside and then watched "A Christmas Carol". The MTC, as always, provided kettle corn. Christmas day we didn't have any classes. We woke up at the same time, had breakfast, and then went to our classroom to waste away some time. My district used the time for a Secret Santa. The most memorable gift was a Book of Mormon picture book that Elder Slavens got for Hermana Baker. He bought it a few weeks early and found out, when he gave it to her, that it was in Tagalog instead of Spanish. We all had a good laugh. My companion had me and gave me a sketch book (which is awesome). The we went to the morning devotional, guest speakers were Elder and Sister Nelson. There was food, a temple walk, a bit of e-mail time, and then a talent show. The most memorable acts were a guy who did amazing yo-yo tricks, a very spirited rendition of "It was the Night Before Christmas", a set of twins who did a piano duet/routine, and an Elder who played some very lively and amusing piano piece. This was followed by a fireside featuring Greg Olsen (who paints all sorts of pictures for the church). It was fun and we saw a bundle of his pictures via his slides. Then we left for sac supper, and came back to the gym to watch (a slightly censored version of) "It's a Wonderful Life". I also found out that some of the Hermanas in my zone are incredible artists. (We managed to get almost our entire zone seats together.) And then 10:30 bedtime as normal.

Also, thank-you for the christmas package and the calendar :)

New year's at the MTC is the same as any other day except that there seems to be a super horrible flu going around. Tons of people puking and in solitary confinement. There's even a "No handshake" policy to try to stop it. Theories are going around that it may just be food poisoning but nobody wants to take that chance so they're treating it as a contagious disease. As far as I can tell I'm healthy.

Also, I don't really need any tie trade ties. A bit after I sent the request we were told that tie trading is to be stopped. Though the night before that though was like a tie trade flea market, it was pretty amazing.

Best of luck and Happy New Year!
~Levi