Week 2

FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ah! Yesterday was sooooooo hard!  Our schedules changed this week and our pday got changed to Tuesday...we didn't know this until Sunday evening so it was such a let down because we have been looking forward to it then we found out we would have to wait another day to email and have a lil break... yesterday was seriously sooooooooooo long and hard and discouraging. But now it's Tuesday so that's good!

Where to start!!!  Something funny that happened was on Sunday we get to go on a walk around the Temple.  Hermana Walker and I were so pumped for that because it was sunny!  We were looking forward to it all day, we decided to go change into some cooler clothes because it was really hot when it was our turn to go.  So we went back to our residency and changed.  Then we went to go look at the full mirror outside of our room, check ourselves out ya know, we went to go back into our room and we got denied! We had locked ourselves out! I didn't have my shoes on yet we could only find two other sisters in residency. They offerred to lend me some shoes to go down to the office. This sister actually had the exact same shoes that I did...just twice the size! So I had to walk clear across campus in these shoes way too big for me and we hadn't put our tags on yet either, haha. Also this week a fire alarm went off at 1:30 in the morning!!!!  We thought it was a drill but it wasnt.  We had to sit in the gym for a little while then we got let back in, but we still had to wake up at 6:30 the next day. Also our branch president's wife came to check up on us in our residency one night and I had just gotten back from brushing my teeth and whatnot,  Hermana Bambrough and I decided to put this white face mask stuff on our faces that night so I'm sure branch president's wife gave an interesting report to the president that night haha.


Spanish is coming.............slowly..........ver..y......s..........low...........ly!!!  Spanish is still not really my friend.  I don't feel like I speak it any better than last week.  It is kind of frusterating because a few elders in our district are not very obedient, they write letters to their girlfriends, sleep and talk during study time, and yet they are speaking spanish so well! I am studying my tushy off and I am struggling so much!  So honestly I appreciate your letters so much!  You can't write too often!
Sister Dibb was the speaker in relief society on Sunday and that was sooo cool!  She just told us about her dad (the prophet!) and some advice he would give to us.  Sunday was such a boost. It was cute, she said she loves coming to the MTC because there probably isn't a place in the world where more prayers are being offered in one location.  She thinks the Spirit is so strong here because we are all doing something new and often times when we do something new we are humbled.  I think that is so true.

You should all go to lds.org and watch the Witnesses of Christ videos, they are so good!  I love Elder Holland's.  My favorite thing he said was, "the atonement of Jesus Christ is the compassionate foundation and central fact in God's eternal plan for our salvation and our happiness." I just loved that he called it the "compassionate foundation" and the "central fact." That is so powerful!

Elder Stephen Allen talked at Sunday devotional and told a story about what he did at a drinking fountaing he waited for this little boy to get close to driniking and then pushed the button of the other fountain so it would squirt the kids face. And that is what satan is going to try to do with us. Push our buttons and frustrate us. But that we need to recognized discouragement and negative thoughts are from satan. I needed to hear that because I have been discouraged this week that I will be able to learn the doctrinces plus the great way to teach them plus spanish. But I liked when he said this, "God wants us to be exhausted at the end of everyday! Work your hardest everyday! It will all be worth it."

The italian sister never made it. Everyone around campus tries to speak the language they are learning, so when we say hi to people in the hall or just around we say hi and whatever in spanish. We were laughing how we are not even communicating with people because no one even understands the language they are speaking! So we decided we could just speak jibberish to people around campus and they would just think wow they must be going to some crazy country haha. So when elders get our doors or we say hi to sisters in the residency we just say random sounds.

It is hard not to overeat...serioulsy after sitting in class i am exhausted and hungry and they ahve so much food here, it takes a lot of self control haha. We say "God be with you til we eat again" because we feel like that is what we look forward to around here haha! and that is when we talk to the rest of our zone. You can tell this zone hasn't had any sisters yet, we have a lot of help in our classroom a lot...too bad they don't really know spanish either.

So Hermana Stull is in my district and one of my roomies, her mom didn't really teach her about make up or doing her hair etc. So we have given her eye liner and she likes using that now but I was wondering if we had an extra flat iron lying around? If not don't worry about it bc she is going to peru so she shouldn't take somehing real nice anyway but if we do could we let her have it? we straightened her hair and she liked it a lot so that would be cool if whe had her own flat iron. She leaves to the peru mtc on tuesday. and maybe a lotion if you have an extra. other things that would be nice are some pics :) I haven't figured out how to get you pics yet. Also a water bottle...like just one you have lying around a cheapo one. Some almonds :) But i really am doing well! Loving here a lot even though it is hard at times. I am grateful to be here for 9 weeks, I need it! Oh mom my room number is building 17 M room 351. It is the building by the gym, room is on the third floor. My friend Garrett sent a whole box of peanut butter bars!! That was so good!!!!!!

I have learned how to get ready super fast. I've only had to take one cold shower..on sunday when everyone showers at the same time. Mom I just love your letters, they are just so good. Wish i could reply more. Thank you thank you. I miss you and love you tons. I never realized how much missionaries need letters . i want to write to missionaries the rest of my life. I am sorry it is so scrambled and crazy! it is hard to wait a week to get everything out there is so much I want to know about you guys and telll you.  Love you guys so much!! and I miss you so much!! I feel like i have been gone a lot longer than a week and a hlaf!!! Sometimes 18 months seems short sometimes it seems long. Either way I just think everyone shoudl go on a mission! Lvoe you please write! Oh another cool thing would be like a calendar or something with important dates...like bdays or things so I don't have to worry about remembering them. I can feel the hugs from your prayers mom. and I found a few more things you had stuffed in my bag haha a few dollars and ibprofen etc. LOVED it! sometimes i don't get teh dear elders the same day you write them but I am getting them. and am LOVING them.

Love,
Hermana Mulliner

Week 1

FAM!!!! I logged on and no emails....what is this? remember me....your favorite daughter/sister!! Your long lost friend who you saw last week but it feels like months ago!

When we got here the first day was so overwhelming!!!!!!!!!! Everyone told us to make it to Sunday than it gets easier....and it's monday!!!!!!!!! We did it! Thanks to everyone who has written me so far, it is so nice to get mail. We get mail twice a day, our district leader checks it at lunch and dinner, so dearelder is the best because you could send a lil something somethin ereday (hint hint). Everyone here says the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days. I can see how that is true the days feel so long. At night we will be talking about stuff that we liked or what ever and we will have to ask ourselves wait was that today?! That feels like last week!

So basically this is how describes the MTC or CCM en espanol.... spanish is HHHHHHHAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRDDDDDDDDD!! My companion (Hermana Walker) and I are by far the worst in the class lol. But we feel lucky that we got a companion who doesn't know anything either because we cannot rely on each other at all. We both feel the responsibility and nerves to learn it all before we go into our investigator. What is cool about knowing absolutely nothing is the gift of tongues is more noticable. I had a cool experience. So really, spanish is so hard if I didn't mention that already. My companion and I seriously know nothing so we are starting from the very basic. Our district is 4 Elders and 4 Hermanas. The 4 Elders all have a little background in Spanish so they are doing well and one Hermana knows quite a bit so she and her companion are doing fine. And then there is us, we are working our guts out! Every spare minute we are studying flashcards and learning phrases. We didn't go to the Sudnay night movie yesterday to study. And yet we still know so little haha. It's funny because we pray in spanish together now and we only know how to pray for a few things, so we pretty much thank Him for our companion and our families and the atonement, then thing ask for is the gift of tongues. So anyway the cool experience was on Friday I just felt like crying during class. We have two 3 hour blocks of class a day. Nothing in perticular just needed to cry haha. But I was trying to stay focused...because I have to focus really hard because our teacher only speaks spanish. She is so nice though. We were learning how to testify. She told us to practice a few phrases, I was tempted to just sit there and take a personal minute. But I decided to practice even though I didn't feel like anything was getting absorbed into my brain. Then she told us to write down our testimony, I tried to write it down from my brain not just copy phrases from the book. I was able to do it. Then she said we were going to have a testimony meeting. We knelt to pray and then nobody got up....so for some reason I felt like I should even though I am the worst in the class! And I got up there and bore my testimony without any problems and I knew what I said!! It was really awesome. The rest of the class memorized their paper that they wrote their testimony on but I just got up there and tried to say what I wanted to say. Then I understood everyone elses testimony. At the end Hermana Verwer, our teacher, testifed that the gift of tongues es real! It is so cool when she says it and the spirit was so strong. Then I had an interview with her right after that and she asked me how I was doing and I expressed how spanish is hard! And she told me that grammatically, my testimony was perfecto! She said that is awesome but that isn't even what matters, it was also very powerful.

So I know it will come little by little. We feel like if we are working our hardest the Lord will bless us when we need it. We are not comparing ourselves to the others in the class and are getting excited over little, and I mean tiny haha, things. We also laugh at ourselves a ton because we are always messing up! We had to teach an investigator our third day here...haha we were soooo nervous and scared!!! His name is Jose, and we just love the guy. Even though he is not real haha we are trying to pretend he is. So he is volunteeer, but he is a progressing investigator. So we don't just teach him once, he comes back everyday so its like we are teaching someone for real. Our first visit was hilarious! We were so nervous , we asked him the questions we had prepared to get to know him but couldn't understand anything he said so we just said "si" and "bien" a lot haha. And he asked us a question and we heard donde so we thought he was asking us where we were wfrom so we answered haha and then he said somehting but we udnerstood that is not what he asked. He also invited us in because we forgot how to ask if we coudl come in so we said hola and then just stood there in silence!! HAHAHA! We just laugh a the way down the hall after we teach cause we make so many mistakes, Jose probably cracks up after leave. I prayed at the end of the lesson and I'm pretty sure I said we ask thee for when I was really thanking him. But one thing I have learned is what makes a successful missionary is bringing the spirit. So even though we did not have the words to extend any committments and the words we said and the words in the prayer were totally wrong, I felt the spirit. Haha so we just cried for a minute together.

Oh...so cool!! Every sunday and tuesday nights domingo y martes is MTC devotional. Last night guess who showed up.....Elder Ballard! It was an awesome deveotional! It was just a boost. Our MTC president spoke first and he sounds a lot like Pres. Hinckley so I love listening to him. Then Elder Archuleta sang which was super awesome, especially since he sang one verse in spanish and I understood it. Then Elder M. Russell Ballard got up and just blew us away. What I basically got from it was human interaction in missionary work is one of the most important things. missioanries will never be replaced by just technology. So connecting with the investigator our countenances and attitudes and using our personalities and creativity and being ourselves is part of missionary work. That made me feel like I could make a difference. He said we are not asking you to be perfect, we are just asking you to do the things we've told you to do. So we know we need all the blessings we can get and all the help so we are in bed with lights out at 10:29 and up at befoere 6:30.

The food is great, I feel like we are always eating though. It is hard to make good choices cause so there are so many. Gym is the best! We had fun playing speed and four square this week. We are the only sisters in our whole branch. And I haven't met anyone going to my mission yet..:( I am just praying that I will get sent to a spanish speaking area very first so I don't lose the spanish I've learned.

The elders in our district are funny. Two really don't get a long and i sit right by them...so I get a little entertainment during the day.And I've seen a lot of people I know here.

Thank you thank you for writing me!!! It is so nice to get a little pick me up during the day! doing well love you guys!!!!!!! hope you are doing welll!!! please write often even if it is just a little hey. 18 months seems pretty long right now...but I am taking it one day at a time. I love the MTC so far! I only get 30 mins on comp so sorry if typos or deosn't make sense it all just came out when i sat down!!

LOve,

Hermana Mulliner

Headed out....

Entering the MTC on April 11! My address while in the MTC is:

Sister Shalee Jo Mulliner

MTC Mailbox # 267

CA-SFER 0613

2005 N 900 E

Provo, UT 84604-1793