HELLO!!!

Family!!!!!

In our planners it is the start of week 8!!!! It is really hard to know how to start these emails...so much to say...so little time! So right now Dal is graduating!! What the heck!!!! Wish I could be there! And tate is going to the farm? What?! lucky!!! How are ella and reesey? On sunday a lot of branch presidencies have their families come to the MTC, it is so fun to see little kids! but makes me miss ella and reese.

This week has had ups and downs! I honestly cannot tell that my spanish is progressing but my teachers tell me I'm doing ok. I am not completely clueless when they give directions in class....but still mostly clueless haha. So today was the saddest day so far...the sisters that came into our zone three weeks ago left to the gautemala mtc. We became really good friends with them because they also struggled more with spanish. They were really nervous about going so they wanted us to come wait with them til they got into the vans this morning, it was really sad to say goodbye. We are all going to climb to the top of the y mountain in a year and half though...because that is what we coudl see out of the window where our zones classrooms are. We would stand there and look at the mountain and freak out after our lessons haha and laugh about all the dumb things we said!! haha

Hermana Walker and I have been signing up to work one on one with some teachers a lot lately. It is really good, it is funny though because I am exhausted afterwards, it is an hour of only speaking learning and doing spanish really intensely and it wears me out! haha its hard to imagine I will speak it without thinking so hard someday. But I heard this poem this week and loved it:

Fear knocked on my door,

Faith answered,

No one was there

 

I have been working on learning the numbers so I can say and understand what chapter and verses and what song we are singing etc. So I feel like I know them pretty well now..but for some reason whenever I am in a lesson or giving a spiritual thought infront of people I am talking in spanish and I say chapter and think of the number in spanish and then... it just comes out in english! lol its like this little tick I can't control haha it just comes out!

 

This new workout class is really fun but I am so exhausted at the end of the day. We go back to the residency at 9:30 and I could fall asleep on the way there haha.

 

This week I had a new perspective on missionary work...that we can help the other missionaries as well. A sister in the zone came into my residency room at 9:45...I am kind of a werido about my personal time. A lot of sisters socialize or eat or i don't even know but I am antisocial, I need that time to write in my journal and have my own time and it goes by so fast. So at first I was a little hesitant to talk to her because I've learned that if you kinda don't respond sisters won't get offended they just move onto someone else haha. But I talked to her for a minute and she just started crying! She just expressed how she doesn't feel like she really fits in with the other missionaries and she is having a hard time here. My heart just broke cuz I couldn;t imagine doing this feeling that way. I just realized even though most missionaries put on a tough face everyone struggles with something. I was so glad I listened to her.

 

Haha Hermana Walker and I get to take the new districts in our zone on a tour of the mtc the second day they are here and it was so funny...we were showing them where gym is and we were up on the track. We looked down and there was a ton! And I mean a ton! like 20 asian girls bouncing around and laughing .... this is how they were playing basketball!! haha it really was hilarious. Wish i had that on film. Could have won big bucks on AFV.

 

Memorial day was kind of hard because we didn't get any mail and all of our teachers came in with sun burned faces from doing fun things with theirfamilies that day! haha. So you should all get onto lds.org and watch the new mormon message its called words with friends or something! So good! you will love it! Watch all of em actually! haha they are all so good!

 

I am supposed to leave the mtc on the 13...hermana walker is supposed to leave on the 11...it is going to be very hard to say goodbye, she is my family here. I am really scared to leave and really excited haha! I remember feeling this way about student teaching...we do three semesters of school to prep up to the big event...so you are so pumped to go do it but so scared to actually do it! We shoudl get our actually travel plans this week though on weds or thurs. So ill know my flight and everything next week. I think ican get calling cards here! This week I have learned so much. Elder holland in a talk said somethign to the effect of we are Gods investigators. Everything we want for our investigators and everything we want them to do God wants for us. That just kind of hit me. I realized how much of a blessing it is to come to the MTC first before going out into the field. it is cool to just have the purpose of converting myself more everyday and having a lot of time to do it. Pres. Hinckley said you can't lift someone if you aren't on higher ground...or osmething like that haha. But I have been realizing how little time I have left here at the MTC and I just don't want to waste it. I will miss a lot about being here. What I have loved most about it is how my testimony of the scriptures has grown! My eyes have been opened to how the Bible and book of mormon really do work together. Elder Scott said, "Scripture can calm an agitated soul, giving peace, hope, and a restoration of confidence in one's ability to overcome the challenges of life." Isn't that amazing? I just think its cool that the book of mormon has such cool stories!! LIke if it was just a book it would be a good book! But it also has the gospel principles and doctrines all over it, I don't know...it is just a special book. My favorite scripture this week was 1 Ne 21: 15-16. I love little kids so much, and I am not even a parent. He loves us and never forgets us more than that! Just really, the scriptures have answers and comfort for everything. I wish I would have studied the scriptures with as much meaning as I have been here my whole life.

 

I love you and appreciate the letterso much!!! I know you are all busy so thanks for letters! They seriously...just really make me be able to do it! I lvoe you and wish I coudl write more!! Have a good week!!!