Blog 4: Last Reflections of MTC in Provo, Utah

I finally got time to write another update, which is really the rest of the previous entry because I ran out of time. It´s now 7:10pm in Lima, and I swear this is the last entry about Provo. I´ve been here in Lima, Peru for 3 weeks and have a dumb time limit that hinders me from catching up!

We had Independece Day at the MTC in Provo, and we got to celebrate. American flags were hanging everywhere, and us missionaries got to leave our dorms late at night to watch the fireworks. I had heard that the fireworks were supposed to be so big they would fill up the sky. However, because of our distance from the BYU stadium - which is where the show was held - we didn´t have any sky get filled. I could see them being shot into the air, and they were pretty big for being about 10 miles away. There were a huge amount of missionaries hanging out in the lower part of the MTC campus cheering and singing the national anthem. Did I mention sparklers and glowsticks? There were a few among the couple thousand. The explosions were loud enough to echo off of the mountains behind the MTC, so it was a really cool effect to hear explosions in rapid successions.

In those 3 short weeks in Utah, my companion and I grew attached to our district members, so it was a bummer that we already have to leave them behind. Our teachers´lessons, the sand volleyball, Devotionals, and Independence Day all passed by quickly. I, however, enjoyed most the stories that our teacher Brother Swensen told us about his mission. Particularly about Marcos in Chile. He was a hairy and scruffy man who was always drunk and always found the missionaries on the street thinking they were from the CIA looking for Osama Bin Laden, and would always tell them "¡Arriba los manos!" To avoid trouble, Brother Swensen and his companion would play along like they actually were from the CIA and talk into their watches like in the movies, and later tell Marcos thanks for the tip. The funny thing is, every encounter always started exactly the same because Marcos was so drunk all the time that he wouldn´t remember the previous encounter... sort of like 50 First Dates.

Our district in Provo had many memorable events at the MTC, so the night before we left, it felt like high school graduation all over again because people were signing journals saying goodbye. On top of that, I had to repack everything which took forever. Out of our entire district, my companion Elder VanDuyn and myself were the only ones going to Lima, Peru. The rest of our district, Elder Nash, Echolls, Stafford, Cameron, Miller, Fisher, Chaay, and Udall were going to Independece, Missouri. On top of that, only about 10 other missionaries were going to Lima on July 8th, with my companion and I, out of the whole MTC. I already miss those guys back in Utah. They were really good friends.

3 minutes left on the clock, and I have finished my experience in Utah. Next update I will try my best to sum up 4 weeks in one entry.

Emiliano