First Email!

Thank you so much for your pieces of advice and the motto, I actually do really like it and with the advice, I have come to find some of those already during this past week before I could email you guys. So today was supposed to be our first P day but it is Thanksgiving today so we have a different schedule which is ya know okayyyy hahahaha its just that I know all of us newbies were looking forward to a P day. So with that in mind, HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL OF YOU! I love each and every one of you so much and am so grateful for you guys in my life. I only have a half hour to type everything I can so Im sorry if I miss some details, I will probably add them in my next emails. Speaking of emails, this is this email program called Dear Elder, it is where you send an email but the MTC prints them out in letter form and we get them the day you email them, which I prefer because that way I can read what you guys are saying and already have responses prepared instead of taking the time to read and then type a response. So all you go to is dearelder.com and type in my name and the program should fill in the rest of my mission address info and it will be sent to me :)

Also, I wanted to wish you, Mom and Dad on your 22nd wedding anniversay that was on Saturday, I thought of you guys on that day :) So with the MTC, I definitely already feel like i have been here for more like 3 weeks than one but i think its because i have gotten just as much work done in one week that would have taken me 3 weeks to complete. Also, I will be in here for 9 weeks instead of 6, the new changes that were made during General Conference will not be active until january 2013 so yeah i missed it by a transfer or two... My companion is Hermana Catron, she is Seattle but her family now lives in London, so she has visited several European countries. She is my age, actually her birthday is August 26th so im just 13 days older than her. Our personalities are different she is passionate like me but she is more emotional than me and expresses a lot more especially when she is frustrated that our lessons didnt go as well as she had hoped but I have learned to handle her tears and worries and help her gain more confidence in our lessons and in herself. Because I do think she is a great companion and we work well together because we both want to be the best missionaries we can by following the mission rules with 100% obedience and setting goals like trying to speak at least 50% spanish a day. Our lessons with our "investigator" were difficult in the beginning because on our third day we had to teach him the first lesson in spanish and there was so much i wanted to testify of but the language barrier sometimes breaks it apart. So i learned on our third lesson to break away from spanish and just say what was in my heart in english because even though we need to get the language down, they are trying to teach us to realize that love and what is in your heart is most important.

This is basically my daily schedule: 6:30 Wake up and get ready and get to breakfast by 7:20, by 7:50 we are in the "classroom" until 10:50 which means we are actually preparing our lesson and studying the language, from 11-12 it is personal study (scripture study and or PMG) then there is lunch for 45 minutes and then we have companionship study from 1-2pm where we share what we learned form personal study and plan goals and read from the white handbook or the biblia blanca, then from 2-5pm we are in the classroom with our muestra, she went to honduras on her mission and she helps us with learning the principles of PMG and spanish phrases and terminology...finally we have dinner at 5 and then at 5:45 until 6:45 we have a language lab where we use a language building program on the computers and then we get gym time for 50 minutes where i usually run a mile and do weights to release stress i didnt know i had built up until i realize how much im running. Then afterwards we change back into our church clothes and have additional study time for an hour and then we read our Book of Mormon for 15 mins in spanish as a district, then plan for our next day in our missionary daily planner and then get ready for bed and lights out in bed by 10:30 and trust me i have no problem falling asleep...its like a nap every night....

My district is AWESOME! the first couple of days we were kinda like not though, it took us a few days before we snapped out of it and started settings goals and really pushed to do stuff together as a district when we finally felt super comfortable and happy to be around each other. Now we joke around maybe a little too much but i have realized that laughing is awesome and things seem a lot funnier now, probably because I immerse myself into things that uplift the tension and long days. I am doing great overall though, some times are harder in the sense where they just seem longer than others like our afternoon class room time because sitting in one seat for three hours IS a long time! But besides that, Im getting used to the MTC well i think, and learning alot. Like our Branch President told us, "you might feel like you are drinking from a fire hose.." and yeah that is a perfect description.

Also mom side note, while i have been here i have noticed that i need a couple of things, so if you could send me a package that would be great :)

-i need a really good facial mask like deep deep cleansing because apparrently my face is telling me i am really stressed out

-STATIONARY! but not like super girlie, just my kind of style ya know

-stamps

There are other things but I wont really need them until later, anyways i got to get going becuase i have a thanksgiving devotional starting like now!!!

LOVE YOU LOVE YOU LOVE YOU :) :D