Life In The MTC

Hey Amigos,

So it’s been 2 weeks at the MTC and its going good. A typical day starts around 6:30 am. We get up and exercise for 1 hour then at 8 we eat breakfast. From 8.30 to 12 is class. 12 is lunch. Then from 1 to 5 its more class. Classes are language and how to teach. At 5 is dinner and after that its personal study or study TALL (Technology Assisted Language Learning). It is a program created by the church to teach missionaries. Then from 9:30 to 10:30 we get ready for bed. Lights out is at 10:30. It’s not too bad. The spanish is awesome here. 2 weeks here is like 1 year in school back home.

We do service every week but it is mostly within the walls of the MTC. The whole place has a high fence around it. Sometimes they open the gate and you get to rake leaves or trash near this catholic school/church. Its not much but its great to be out side the gated compound for that short amount of time. Church is even in the same building where we are. On p-days we get to go to the temple. The only problem is its all in Spanish so I don’t really know what they are saying. The temple workers have to help me with every word.

I just changed rooms this week. I was in a room with the group that I flew in with but now they have split us up so me and my companion are now going to be in a room with 4 other latinos. Tuesday almost everyone else left and there were only Americans in the building so the president asked if the remaining american elders wanted pizza. All of us had to think really long and hard about it, not. He had us pay for the pizzas. It was 20 dollars per pizza for the large. All of the companionships split the cost of the pizza so it was 10 dollars per person. None of us really cared about the high price we just wanted some pizza.

Love you all lots,

Alec

Our Gym

Flag Posing

Settling In

Hola,

First off while I am in the CCM (Bogota MTC), my p-day is Wednesdays and I will only have 30 min to read and write letters to everyone so if they are short you know why. The CCM is great and all the people are really nice. It kind of small and in the middle of a residential area. From all the stuff I have heard about Provo I can say it is much better here. There are only like 20 Americans here and all the rest like 80 are Latinos. Its crazy since I can only pick out small parts of what they are saying. The american guys are really awesome and are really fun to hang out with. We have no teachers in the after noon for some reason right now so we have a lot of time to get to know each other. I’ve picked up a lot of Spanish since I got here its amazing. Its like one week here is like one year in school back home. The food is really good here in the CCM, because its all fresh. I’m doing really good and I’m really busy.

Funny story, while I was teaching a practice investigator I messed up the scripture I read in Spanish. It was supposed to be about jesus's baptism, Matthew 3:16-17. Instead I read Matthew 2:16-17 which is when Herrod kills all of the children after he cant find Jesus. 

We went to the temple today. The traffic down her in Bogota is insane. 10x worse then it was in Mexico that time, but it was cool hearing the temple program in Spanish. They let you rent clothes in the temple in Bogota but the missionaries get them for free.

Also they took my camera away while I am in the CMM and they give it back after I leave. Actually they take everyones so it is not a distraction so I wont be able to send any pictures till I’m out. On the good side, they do take pictures all over the place for us and put them on a disk and give them to all the missionaries of the CMM on the day we leave.

Time is up so I have to go.

Love,

Alec

Bogota MTC

Bogota Temple

Welcome to the Bogota MTC

Sup Family,

I’m sorry to disappoint you but I didn't cry after you guys left or on the plane or any time at all after that. I think that I am just so excited to start serving that I´m not really sad.

So after you guys dropped me off and I went through security, I stopped and got breakfast at Jamba juice and then went to my gate. When I got there no other missionaries were at the gate so I decided to go and find a place to find a bottle of water. By the time I got back there were two at the gate and in a matter of minutes four more showed up. I met Elder Cox (the elder Grandpa was talking about). I hung with them a bit and then we boarded. After we landed in atlanta we met four more missionaries. We landed in Bogota around 9:30 pm and were at the MTC by 10:00. I unpacked a lot of my stuff and went to bed. We woke up this morning at 6:30 am, ate breakfast and then went to an orientation.

I don't know when the next time I will be able to email so if you guys want to send me questions I will be able to answer them next time I get to check my email.

Love,

Elder Meyers

Last Goodbyes

Atlanta Layover

Headed to Bogota

Up by 6, to the airport by 7:15 and through security at the airport by 8, Alec is now headed to the Colombia MTC in Bogota via Atlanta for his mission. It was so wonderful to see how excited he was to hit the ground running. We wanted to hold him longer for pics and hugs but he was so ready to start this wonderful 2 year adventure that we felt just a tiny bit cheated. Right now we are feeling so happy and proud of him but I’m sure the tears will come frequent over the next few days. We love you Elder Meyers. You will be an awesome missionary!

Sharp Dressed Man

The official picture is done. Mike took it and it may not be as awesome of work as his talented sister Barbara but I think it is perfect! Tomorrow is the big day, we'll be dropping him off at the Salt Lake airport. From here on out all posts will be letters from Alec himself after tomorrow morning.

Set Apart - Its Official

With travel papers finally in hand, Alec was able to be set apart today. Even though he leaves Tuesday they set him apart on Sunday since they really like to keep Mondays free of church stuff as much as possible and his early morning flight on Tuesday made it difficult to do it then. Both sets of his grandparents came over for dinner and then came up to the stake presidents office with us to see him set apart. It was really a nice evening with a few tears, a lot of hugs and bonding to try and make up to the coming 2 year absence. It’s getting very real now. We’re really going to miss that boy!

They Finally Arrived!!! Travel Papers Are Here.

Alec’s original mission call stated that he would be reporting to the MTC in Bogota on March 13th but as that day got closer and closer and we had not received his travel plans all of us started to get a bit worried. Several calls to the Missionary Travel did nothing to soothe our fears. He was told that Colombia would only issue his visa for exactly two years. It was not hard to get but they wanted to wait to the last minute to apply for it to give him as close to 2 years on his mission as possible. We were told not to worry, that he would have his passport and plane tickets fedex’d to him over night 7-10 days before his reporting date. The morning of day 7 dawned and still no travel papers. Missionary Travel said he might still get it in time to report straight to Colombia but he needed to start preparing himself that he might be switched to reporting to the Provo MTC at the last minute. Needless to say, all of us were not happy about a change. Alec really wanted to jump in to his real mission as soon as possible. The next day we had an early morning doorbell ring and Alec jumped up and ran downstairs. IT WAS HERE!!! He had his passport and tickets to fly to Bogota in 5 days, Tuesday the 12th. What a relief. Now to try and get some Colombian pesos for him before he leaves.