Hideous tie exchanges and the chair of shame........

Hey everyone!

So finally I've been here a month! Not really finally, because it came here so fast. I can't believe that I will be heading to Chile in less than a month. Makes me want to practice my Spanish a lot more (haha).
  Spanish is coming good. So last week we "killed" it, so we don't really use English all that often now, well not in class anyway. All this practice is doing me lots of good though so I'm happy. We're doing a competition like thing, where if you speak in English during class you get a point (points are bad) and whoever gets the most points that day has to sit in "la silla de la verguenza" the next day. Thats the "chair of shame" haha. Its just a regular chair in front of the class so its not even a big deal. But if you get the least amount of points in a day then you "win" the day. Whoever wins the most days in a week gets a candy bar, and whoever wins the most weeks at the end gets a tie. Pretty exciting. Ill keep you informed haha. But yeah, Spanish is good. Hard, but good. OH, so we went the the referral center on monday night (the place where you call people) and we did calls in spanish....CRAZY. I / Everyone made at least one call. It was so nerve wracking! I'm pretty sure I sounded stupid at some point haha. But our teacher was able to help us if we got stuck or couldnt understand what they said (which was a lot cuz they talk so fast!) But they're all really nice people so they didn't really mind all of us white kids in our horrible spanish. Definitely a learning experience.
  Everything with the companion is going good. We're practicing teaching all in Spanish now, so we're still obviously adjusting to that. It'll come though eventually.
  Haha, so the other night we did a tie exchange. Basically you pick the worst tie you have and throw it into a pillowcase and a bunch of people do it. Of course you tell the new kids to put in their good ties (which some did HAHA). So its pretty much hit or miss with the tie you get. I got a pretty good one, so I was happy. Other people didn't get so lucky though haha. There's certain ties that are so hideous that they stay in circulation in tie exchanges because no one wants them. So that's always fun to see who gets those ties. When you pick the tie, you put your arm in the pillowcase and everyone(the hall) counts to five and then you have to yank your arm out and everyone sees the tie and either cheers or goes crazy because its ugly. Very fun stuff haha.
  Not much else is goin on in my life at the moment. Pretty monotonous still. Thanks to all who have sent me emails or letters, its much appreciated (SHANT WOOOO! :D) That was for you shant. Be sure to include a home address, so I can write back to you.
  So I hope youre all doing well back at home! Im still doing good here. Just waiting to get out of here and talk to real people! Its ok though, over halfway there of my MTC experience and then its off to to the races in SANTIAGO! Wish you all the best!

Elder Mayberry