Elder Brandon Sharkey's Mission Blog: Second Week in the MTC-Dec. 18th email

Here's his latest email sent on December 18, 2012:

Week number 2 is in the bags. I can communicate and write in spanish very well now. Conjugating is gonna kill me I swear haha. Just memorizing when to use preterit or imperfect, para or por. Seriously some of this stuff haha. We are now teaching two mock investigators. Eduardo, from Madrid(yes he has a lisp) and Jason from Chile. Both of them are our teachers playing an investigator they taught on their missions, except Eduardo is from Spain just to prepare us for the way they speak. Eduardo is from Argentina for all the other companionships. And yes, we have two teachers now. Hermano Wald y Hermano Law. That means we have some teaching us around the clock. In a private discussion with one of my teachers, he told me that he thinks I can be fluent by the time I leave the MTC which is insane. He said if this isn't my goal then I am not trying hard enough. So...challenge accepted ofcourse. Other news...It is snowing like crazy here, tons of Christmas decorations up. Got news about the visa, I will not be leaving on the 26th. I will leave when the visa comes in. The travel office said Spain has stopped giving out visas and the consulate will re-open January 1st. Some missionaries have been here for 12 weeks and are being temporarily re-assigned until they get their visas. They said we probably won't be re-assigned and it will be around the 5th maybe when we get our visas. But that is fine with me, I love it here. I love my teachers so much. Just a little antsy to get into good weather and to emerse myself! Our zone lost a district this week. They left for LA and Peru. Pretty sad and we've only known them for 2 weeks. Wednesday a new district will be joining our zone. Not much else is new here. Had some rough health days that I had to push through. Had a really bad sore throat that I needed meds for, a bloody nose monday, and a migraine tuesday. But whatever It wasnt bad haha. I just sucked it up and kept studying. It is crazy to think I study spanish for about 6 hours everyday. A note for people writing me that are at college:I can't write back or if I do it goes to your college address. Thank you all for continuing to write me. If you haven't, send pictures! That and food are the best gifts here at the MTC......... Most of our zone is suffering because we couldn't see The Hobbit. I hope it was amazing and I'm excited to see it all when I get back. But not for 2 years, I'd rather stay here than go watch it. Oh really quick before I run out of time, Sunday we had a devotional by...uh a guy in the mission department in SLC, but before hand we had a family singing group perform. It was amazing! They performed in Branson a lot and have performed with MoTab. All of the men in the group are RMs. The last song sung by the eldest son, Come thou fount, was so powerful. Towards the end he was in tears and could not finish the song, because he was remembering all the experiences he had when he was on his mission. I can't wait to gain those experiences, I already am! I love you all, keep writing/emailing/sending packages! Sorry for spelling and typos, this keyboard is not too good haha!

Elder Sharkey

Elder Sharkey emailed these pictures to us on Dec. 18, 2012. He appears to be enjoying himself at the MTC. His emails reflect that as well. He LOVES the MTC and the people there!

We think he's really happy to see the Christmas lights?? haha
Look closely at the side of his tongue, We think he just ate some red candy.
Those who know him well, will recognize this expression on his face. Yeah, he's happy!