Saturday, July 27, 2013

First Email Home


One Week and 2 Days since Entering the MTC!
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My dear "Elite force writing me"

As things would turn out, I did end up getting my luggage the next day so I had to spend a night borrowing things from my companions and roommates. [Sister Spencer's luggage was sent to Memphis when she flew to Salt Lake City from Denver . . . oops.] They were so sweet though. Thank goodness.

The MTC is definitely very different from anything before. I have had some hard days where I just miss home a bunch but then there are also some moments where I just absolutely love it! When I first got here, everyone told me "wait until Sunday... wait until Sunday" As to why they said that I am still not sure. Sunday was the HARDEST day for me. I got so homesick and what not. But there was an awesome devotional at the end of the day. There were a few lines in there that really hit home. One of them was that "there were angels walking among us" (I just thought that was really cool and I felt the spirit really strong to) and also that your family is praying for you. Dang, I don't even know how to describe it, but I can feel all of your prayers and am SO thankful for them! Thank you so much!!! 

The best time of the day is exercise time in my opinion. I get to sit in a classroom for 10-12 hours a day and absolutely love the time that I have to get out and move around. My companion is super awesome and does the hard workouts with me too!!! :D We found out about these 6 am exercise classes that they have for sisters and have been going to them. They are like kick-boxing, yoga, cardio, things like that. They are only for a half hour, but are really fun to do. I find that this is SUCH a good stress relief for me!!

My companion is Sister Pennington. I don't know how I got this lucky, but I really do have the best companion possible! She is from Boston and is super smart and helps me out a lot. She is also super patient with me, especially with learning Portuguese. (she is a bit better than me, but that is okay! :)) I thought it was kind of funny though, we were having a companion inventory and she called me "easy going" haha! oh I'm not sure if I would even describe myself like that sometimes!!! My other roommates are Sister Acevedo and Sister Guynn. They are fantastic and we all get along so well. I just love it! We laugh quite a bit. It's very nice!

My district consists of 10 elders and 4 sisters, me included. At 9:25 at night we get our mail from our district leader. My district leader told me that I have "an elite force writing me" to which I responded that I had recruited and trained my troops well. It was funny... but seriously, thank you so much for all of your letters! They really do make my night so much better and I just love it so much!!!! Anyways, back to my district. My teacher (I'll talk about him later) is single, so we decided that as a district that we should pray for him to find a wife. Well, the person who was saying the prayer messed up a few words, so in Portuguese he basically asked that our teacher could find a wife who was beautiful in a masculine way. We all got a good laugh out of that! My district is super strict though. I think that they have a lot of super silly rules. I am trying my best to obey them though, even if I think they are stupid. Every Sunday we have to prepare a talk, just in case we are randomly called up to speak. Since we are past our first week here, if we give a talk, it has to be totally in Portuguese.... talk about intimidating. Haha. Oh man, I hope I have a few more weeks before I have to give a talk so that I sound better and all... but whether or not I get a few weeks, I will be ready!!

The language is coming along pretty well I think. I think I have learned A TON in the past week and a half that I have been here. On our second day we learned how to pray in Portuguese and now my companion and I try to say most of our prayers in Portuguese. On our 3rd day in the MTC, we had to give a lesson all in Portuguese to our investigator, Leonardo. My goodness, talk about nerve racking. Since then though, we have given 5 lessons to him in Portuguese. On our 4th lesson, we invited him to be baptized and then on our 5th lesson we set a baptismal date for him! It was THE BEST FEELING!!!! .... Really though, our investigator was just a teacher who was already a member here. But still, it was very exciting!!!

I have ran into quite a few friends in the MTC though!!! I have seen Andrew and Colby Thomas, and Eric Garn!!! I thought he was going to be at the other campus, but apparently not, so that was a very pleasant surprise! I was really nervous that I would not see Arden, so I kept praying that I would. There was one day when I thought she had left, but I came out of my residence and THERE SHE WAS! It was SO great to see her! And then I also saw her on Sunday and sat next to her in RS. That was so great. We talked for a while and that was super great!! I love being at the Provo MTC because I get to see all of my friends here. It's very comforting!!!

Okay, so PACKAGES are the BEST!!!!! I absolutely love them!!!! When you get a package, you get this absolutely beautiful slip that says you can leave your class and go and get your package. THEN, once you get your package, it is just about as exciting as Christmas day!!!!!

My teachers are super nice and good at explaining things. Although, they only speak in Portuguese. But I am getting alright at understanding.

Well this system is down and my computer is freezing every half sentence.  I'll try to write more next week!

Love,
Sister Spencer

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