OOoooo Weeee - Finishing up Week 3 !

Hola!!!

Today marks week 3, our HALFWAY POINT here at the MTC! Wooooo

Okay.  First order of business:

pretty please STOP SENDING DELICIOUS UNHEALTHY THINGS, unless we've previously discussed and made arrangements already :) The amount of baked goods overflowing from the Residence is dangerous to my health and my dress size.

Hermana Walters tempting me with
crinkle cookies before bed !!

So anytime someone receives a package slip, its as though you've won the lottery, sooo it's the best thing ever.  So of course I pick up Dad's package, and after rummaging through all of the ridiculously random things, Hermana Walters discovers a hackey sac...

We quickly discover that we are all REALLY bad at hackey sac, but we were trying so hard to keep it in the air.  The level of intensity is running high as Hermana Bosse, Walters, and I manage to keep it up in the air for longer than two seconds.  Hermana Bosse catches and passes the hackey sac flawlessly when it launches equidistant between Walters and I.  Being the untalented, yet committed fools we are we go for it with the same karate kick technique, collide, and fall to the floor laughing/crying uncontrollably, convinced we just broke all the bones in our feet. Go us.

One of the best things about this place is obviously that I literally have no worries.  Besides occasionally getting stressed out when I realize I don't know anything, God really is taking care of everything, and it is so easy to forget that there is in fact a real world out there outside the MTC.  Our teachers for instance, what? have real lives and go to BYU? So one of my teachers is *gag* a chemistry major, and Hermana Allen was asking about the classes he was taking and what he was studying for and such...thinking about school and O-Chem and Physics was actually starting to make me sick.  So grateful I don't have to worry about that for a while.

Taking "candid" happy pictures so people
think we like it here :) ha!

Kay. Plot twist! The first investigator that we taught was actually fake.  Not only was she already a member, she's a teacher here!!! Also, just about all the investigators that we teach are fake.  I felt so betrayed and confused when I found out, but then again I'm not that surprised.  I wouldn't really want to be held responsible for ruining someones eternal salvation. PASS. But anyways, the story gets better. So "Karina", our fake investigator who actually works here informs us that just because she was pretending, Karina really was a real person, who had real questions, before she became a member of the church.  We got to learn about her conversion story which was really awesome, and a testimony builder for sure.  Just because these investigator aren't real, the lessons and doctrines are.  The Holy Spirit of God that we feel when we teach is real. And role-playing really is the only way to prepare us to teach REAL lessons to REAL people.

So...lots of funny things happen all the time, but when I try to remember them so that I can share them with everyone 90% of the time they're either "you had to be there" moments, or they're just not funny, which is rather unfortunate, because my already mediocre sense of humor is definitely going down the toilet.

Anyways, I begun to develop less embarrassing, even adequate volleyball skills! Yay! I'm staring to become less afraid of the ball hitting me in the face.  Of course that can be accredited to Walters hitting me in the face with a basketball.  So I'm thinking a volleyball wouldn't hurt nearly as much. Really though, it's so much fun and a great opportunity to meet new people.  The Russian crew always plays, and even though I never know what they're saying, they're way nice!

With my new responsibilities as Sister Training Leader, my greatest fear has been confirmed; our leaderships meeting are incredibly boring...new life goal: learn how to fall asleep with my eyes open.  With great power, comes great responsibility, and lots of boring meetings.  Just kidding their all delightful and inspiring.

Seriously I'm just kidding, my actual life goal is to be as cute, loving, faithful, and filled with the Spirit as the Stevens's.  Sister Jean A Stevens came to talk to us for relief society and her and her husband are assigned to be mission presidents over in London, England! So cool! She was so excited to wear her own name tag everyday, and I hope I never forget how amazing it feels to have taken upon the Lord's name, put on my name tag, and be a part of this great work.  The Spirit in the room was too real and too strong to deny its power and truth.

After Relief Society with everyone, we have sacrament meeting with our district.  Every week we have to prepare 5 minute talks and at the last minute they announce two people that have to speak.  We got there, and I realized I had forgotten to bring mine.  Because of my luck in the past, I wasn't overly surprised when they called my name to speak. classic.  So Hermana Allen was kind enough to loan me her talk, thank goodness her handwriting is excellent.  After, the presidency was thanking me for my words and everyone else was thanking Hermana Allen for my words.  And I was thanking my companion for saving my butt.  Lesson learned.

My super awesome District 

On this weeks episode of, "When Worlds Collide" when we went on our temple walk I saw my home teacher from last semester, with his fiance! Sidenote: he was very single last time I saw him, So either BYU is still working its springtime magic or I've been in here a lot longer than they're telling me...interesante.  Also caught a quick glimpse of my ward crush holding hands with a girl, so that was a slight let down. Oh well. Then, I saw Brent Butler, (the physical therapist I would go to during gymnastic season) ! He's serving as a Branch President here at the MTC with the Japanese Branch! Cool/weird.

For yesterday's devotional, Don R. Clarke of the Seventy came to speak with us, and it was a really good message, life changing all that good stuff, but I LOVED what his wife shared with us before his talk; she told us that our message, "is the tithing for our lives". Being almost 20, and giving almost 2 years to serving God, I know in my heart that I owe Him every ounce of these 18 months. This is my time to walk and talk with God. As we focus on the Savior, we will change, and we will change lives.

While everyday has the same schedule, places, people, everyday is different.  New experiences, new lessons learned, new strange noises I make when I cry, new scriptures studied, and I'm being so fast and so hard, but I love it I love every moment.  And as much as I complain about this place, I know I will miss my safe little Utopian missionary bubble

I love and miss you all mo much! Oh btw: best feeling in the world? Being handed a wad of DearElders during dinner. 

Thank you for your messages, updates, and love :)

Te Amo,

Ciao!