The first day you are there you get your things and get your "dork dot" (the sticker on your tag that meant you are new). You meet the other noobs and get your rooms and whatnot. I had a cousin that was there the same time as I was. He was going to Mexico so he was there for 6 weeks and his last two weeks overlapped my first two. I got to see him a couple of times at meals.
At that time the old "Tree of Life" was the shower. It was just a big room that had big posts in the room with several shower heads running around the post. When my friend went through a month later they had been done away with and replaced with individual shower stalls.
I loathed being in the call center. Phones are not my favorite thing in the world. I don't care to call and talk to people that I know let alone some weirdo on the other end that's more than likely not interested in what's going on. I couldn't decide if I liked the inbound calls or the outbound calls better. Inbound the phone would ring and you had to answer it. It was slightly easier because at least they were calling you. No thanks. Outbound you sat on the line and after a beep you heard the other person answer and away you go. Also no thanks. There were two calls in particular that I remember fairly well.
Call 1: This call was an outbound call. I heard the beep and an older guy was on the line. He was a pretty good story teller and was interesting to listen too. Any time I was on the phone was less time I had anxiety hoping I wouldn't hear the beep and have to say something. I had opened with the script on the screen and this guy was friendly enough to just go from there and roll into story after story. He told me all about how he thought the moon landing was a hoax, and how he had just gotten his lungs cleaned out. He was a smoker and had to go have all the junk sucked out of his lungs from years of smoking. He asked me "Have you ever thrown up so hard you though you might see your toes come out your mouth? That's what it feels like." It sounded like he was going to work his way into another story when his doorbell rang and his dogs started barking. He then asked if I could call back later. I said sure and marked him as a call back later. He was a friendly guy.
Call 2: This was also an outbound call. After the beep I hear a mumbled "Hey". I read the prompt in front of me and sat there listening. The guy is talking to someone else and clearly not paying any attention to me. I asked if Johnny was there. More mumbling and muffled speech. I asked again and again go no reply. I asked one more time just for the sake of saying I tried and suddenly the dude must have heard something because he screamed "WHO THE *&%#! IS JOHNNY!?". I apologized and told him I must have had a wrong number. I marked as a do not call back.
I did like listening to the stories from my teachers. They were a welcome break to the endless grind of learning the lessons and preparing for the upcoming abuse I was mentally trying to prepare myself for. My companion was from California (I had a hard time getting along with my companions from California) and the district leader of our group in the MTC. This was a pattern that I would get to follow most of my mission. A lot of my companions were district leaders (or shortly after me became a district leader). This one was probably the easiest Californian companion that I had, but I still didn't like how pushy he was with me. The perks of being the companion to the district leader is they go to meetings you aren't invited to so you get some extra time to study or goof around or whatever, as long as you are in a close proximity of course.
While I was in the MTC we got to meet our Mission President. He and his wife were also in training and would be my mission president my whole mission (with the exception of the first week in Oregon and one transfer where He had to go home for surgery). I liked having that connection with my mission president. We went out the same time but because mission presidents serve three years they had another year after I went home.
I did connect with a couple of the other Elders. What sucked was half of us were going to Oregon and half of us were going to Arizona. Of course the Elders I made friends with the best were the ones going to Arizona.
We did have our moments to goof around though. There was about an hour or two before bedtime that we had to get ready and wind down a bit. Being a bunch of 19 year olds of course we found some wild things to do. We got some pictures of ourselves looking like we were in The Matrix (with some help from an ironing board a chair and a doorknob) and of course when they tell you not to hit each other with your workout elastic bands that's the first thing that happens. One of the Elders going to Arizona was 26 and from Australia. We all worshiped his accent and made a few videos of him stroking the Book of Mormon saying "Crikey! It's the Word of God! Isn't she a bute!"
The day that we left for Oregon was the day that G. B. Hizzy himself spoke at the MTC. I was a little bummed out that I missed out on that but, I was glad that I was on my way out and on to a new adventure.
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