Mi Familia (snail mail)

January 25, 2015

Hola mi familia!  I have been meaning to write you for so long!  Technically I'm only supposed to write on P days, but we walked back to our room after sacrament meeting, and mi companera fell asleep, and I don't have anthing to study, so in order to use my time wisely, I thought I should write instead of sleep.  Como estan?  I've had so much fun here in the MTC!  I've seen friends all over the place and I'm making so many more!  Thanks for all the letters and for the package!  even though I don't really have time to respond, I love reading them and rereading them.

Some cool things that have happened are
1.  [this one is also sad, though, but i love it] Ever since night 2 in el CCM, I either wake up multiple times during the night and can't sleep and immediately start praying en espanol or I talk en espanol en mi duerme.

2.  In one of our past lessons w/Maria*, she said my accent was perfect.  This last lesson, she told me not to try so hard to say things, but I was just having an off day that day.  But I'm pretty happy!

Every Sunday night we get to watch a movie/video.  Last week, we watched Character of Christ by Bednar from 2003, I think.  Dad, you wrote to me about something & I can't quite remember what, but you would love that talk.  I think we are going to watch it again tonight.

You guys all sound so busy!  Enjoy what you do while you do it!

Today I taught a district lesson w/Hna Cobb.  It was on faith in Christ.  Those meetings are in English, and our lesson/discussion went well.  Each week, before sacrament meeting we each have to prepare a talk based on a certain topic.  This week's topic was faith in Christ...

There is so much to tell you, I don't even know where to begin.  You can send packages to missionaries w/giant cookies in them.  One of the Hnas in my room has an uncle who keeps sending them.  They are barely smaller than my hand.  And they are so good! 2 different kinds of chocolate, oats, whole wheat flour, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon...I have had a lot.

The words & tenses we can no longer use (main ideas, not everything) so far are can, should, will, have to, going to/gonna, gerunds, want, like, and read.  And tomorrow we are doing an ayuna de ingles.  I'm so excite!  We can't use any English all day.  One thing I've noticed since I've been here is how blessed I am for the faith I have exercised.  Thursday (Jan 08), we learned how to pray and bare our testimonies en espanol.   Our teacher told us from then on, all our prayers should be in Spanish.  Since then, I have said every prayer (except 1, oops) in Spanish and I know for sure that is a huge reason why I am having such success with Spanish.  I see people around me struggling, and I also hear them praying in English because they don't want to try, it kills me.  I wish I could just make them.  I think I can almost speak as much Spanish as I could French although right now my French is suffering.  Sometimes I speak it to Elder Caine, and then after TRC on Friday, I ran into some French speaking missionaries, my friend included, and got to talk for a quick couple minutes.  Definitely going through learning another language has made learning Spanish almost too easy.  Just kidding.  Not too easy, but I already get rules and tenses, and forms and it all just makes sense!

Oh!  Someone tell Mdm Call that Elder Caine remembers her from her mission, please!

I'm so glad I'm on a mission, and I'm so glad I know that it's what I'm supposed to be doing right now.

We have a lesson tomorrow with one of our investigators, Julio*.  He is a tricky one because he has faith, but doesn't like organized church b/c he feels like members of any church are quick to say they are a member but don't live by it.  It's an interesting point.  We're going to teach about covenants

1/28

Our lesson went well with him!

Today is P-day!  I just almost finished writing you, but because I sent so many emails, it kickec me out for an hour.

I hope you all are doing well!

I ONLY HAVE 3 MORE WEEKS HERE!

In an interview thing w/one of my teachers yesterday he said he has seen me apply what I'm learning, that my Spanish is fantastic, I'm an example of a hard worker, I have a good relationship w/my companion, Hna Cobb and I show diligence and exact obedience, but that we can still be happy because of that.  He said he was proud of my effort and also that he knows God is proud of my efforts.  I twas nice to hear that (from someone besides family)

That is all for now I guess.  I'm running out of energy to write.

Hermana Abuela