Week 1-Dominican Republic MTC

Hello Everybody,

The first week at the MTC has been amazing. When I got to the MTC the first day, it was a little overwhelming because there were so many missionaries who had come to the MTC on July 5, but what is funny is that my companion didn't get to the MTC until about 2:30 the next morning, so I had to sleep in another room with some elders in my district for half the night. My Companion is Elder Edwards. He is originally from Jamaica, but he has lived for the past five years in Saint Lucia, and he's going to the Jamaica mission.  He lived in the Barbados Bridgetown mission, and he remembers seeing Elder Anderson from Security ward.  The other four elders in my district are going to Trinidad with me.  Elder Henriksen is form Alberta, Canada, Elder Allin from from Boutniful, Utah, Elder Shields is from Northern Georgia, and Elder Griffith is from Georgetown, Guyana.  We are the only English-speaking district in the whole MTC. They are a really fun district, especially because they kind of secluded us in the MTC. The MTC houses missionaries on the fourth floor of the building, but now there are so many missionaries that they put our district on the third floor.  They have more missionaries than they are used to, but I still think that this MTC is a lot smaller than Provo. There are only 58 missionaries total here. The MTC is on the temple grounds, and the other floors are used to house senior missionaries and people coming to the temple from other islands in the Caribbean.  It has been a great week. We had a devotional with Elder Hugo E. Martinez of the seventy. That was so cool.  I also got to go to the temple twice.  Once because my companion hadn't gone through yet, and I got to go through with him, and we also all went today.  It is such a beautiful temple.  The food here is pretty good. There is a lot of rice, but they also have nutella, so I'm pretty happy. I love the MTC president and his wife. President and Sister Gulbrandson are amazing and they really love missionaries. I am so glad to be here, and I will email you all next week.

Sincerely,
Elder Hanni