This week has been so great! I keep asking myself how did I get so lucky to have the best district in the MTC and best teachers. Remember how the last week home really sucked for me cause I knew I would be saying good-bye soon? It's the same way here, I'm so sad to say good-bye to these Elders and Hermanas. Hermana Child went to the temple with us today and ate breakfast. It was a lot of fun being with her outside of the MTC. I've been seeing Courtney a lot this week! It's been so fun! It seems like she really loves it, and her companion. Her comp seems really great. She leaves a day before me!
This week for Relief Society Sister Stevens from the Primary Presidency spoke. It was one of the best talks I've heard here. I had to give my first talk in sacrament last Sunday. It w as all in Spanish. I admit, I may have copied and pasted from Preach My Gospel, but no one knows that . . . :)
The weather has been so great here. Hermana Jacobsen and I decided to study outside for an hour this week, and I already have a sunburn and now a tanline. . . Arizona is going to give me sun cancer. ha. One of my roommates said that somewhere in AZ it's already passed the 100s. I received a letter from my mission president this week, and it's gotten me pretty excited, and a little nervous. But more excited than nervous, I know it'll be great. If I have amazing people in my district like I do right now, it'll be a blast.
One of our branch presidency was talking to our district this week and said that Elder Holland was secretly on campus this past week and visited a specific branch. It really surprised me - - I wonder how many times he comes to the MTC without us knowing - - probably a lot because he's in charge of us all. Every Saturday we do TRC, where we teach members of the church and just get to know them and give them a message - - I wish it was everyday it is SO much fun. A couple of weeks ago we taught a guy from Mexico, and he was the nicest guy we've taught so far. Hermana Jacobsen and I found him this week. Turns out he's a brand new missionary! He's going to serve in Colorado, but is staying here for six weeks to learn English because his mission president doesn't speak Spanish. It's fun talking to him. His branch is all learning English, but they are all from different countries, Mexico, Brazil and Japan. That would definitely be interesting.
I can't wait to talk to you SOON!!!!
I should be getting my travel plans today! I'm so excited to leave! And so nervous, too. We're learning a lot of spanish, and I feel like I'm not really catching on as much as I used to. But our district is trying to speak our language as much as possible, I'd say we're doing a pretty good job. We are officially the oldest district in the zone, which is sad and I don't like it. haha. I miss the other districts.
I have a "calling" in the zone. I was called to music coordinator, and since I'm not very musical we'll see how that goes. Hermana J is the coordinating sister so we go around every night to all the girls' rooms and talk with them. It's a lot of fun. We have awesome girls.
So, Sundays here. Usually we begin our day by studying, and then while the elders are in priesthood, we go to the gym and watch The Spoken Word. Directly after that is Relief Society and usually someone really cool comes for that. One of the presidency of the YW or RS, so it's fun and always great. Then we go on a temple walk where we take pictures and just relax by the temple and come back for lunch. Then we go to sacrament meeting for an hour. Sunday night we have a devotional by someone cool. Last Sunday it was a member of the Seventy -- one of the funniest people I've heard talk. I can't remember his name now. Then after that we watch church movies in the gum.
The food here all tastes the same, and they give us huge portions. Wednesdays and Sundays are good because we get the good BYU ice cream :) Plus this week Hermana J's mom sent cookies, Elder Biggs' mom sent literal Cheesecake Factory cheesecake (a whole one), and Elder Roger's mom sent homemade cinnamon rolls, so I've been fed well by the district. haha.
I'll send a letter today letting you know my travel plans, and so you can be ready for a phone call. Only 13 days left until I leave.
Love,
Shelb
I'M AN AUNT!! Whoo freakin hoo!! As soon as I found out I ran to my zone and told every one - - high fives all around! haha. It's fun cause they're so excited for me, too. As soon as I saw the pictures the first thing I thought was that she looks SO much like Janelle! She is literally the most beautiful baby ever and even though I won't meet her for a while I love her SO much!! No offense to anyone, but she's officially the one I'm most excited to see when I come home :)
The temple was great this morning. There's always such a calming effect that the temple has, and I am SO grateful for that. I'm going to miss going every week once I'm in AZ. I love going with my zone and seeing them there, and not to mention the temple food is amazing and cheap. Courtney gets here WEDNESDAY!! I'm so excited! I told Hermana J that I'm going to be snooping around for her, and I hope she doesn't mind. It'll be so nice when she's here.
This week has been crazy. Spanish has been getting harder. We're learning past tense and future and adding "ed" and my brain feels like it's going to explode. Thankfully, we have the best teachers in the MTC, so it makes it a little better. Elder M was trying to say "son muertos" - - talking about two of the elders, but instead he kept saying "son M****" over and over again. Hermano D just started laughing and said, "Elder M, you're saying the "S" word - - you probably shouldn't say that."
Another story of the elders is that Elder O got in a race car accident a couple of weeks before coming here and he has a HUGE gash in his leg. Everyone has been telling him to get it taken care of because it's leaking. haha. So one day Elder F is playing basketball and rolls his ankle. He goes to see the doctor and while there Elder O asked the doctor to check out the gash on his leg. The doctor took one look, started freaking out and sent him to the emergency room. They were talking about emergency surgery. The doctor told him that if it had happened 15 years earlier they probably would have had to amputate. But, thankfully, after scraping it out (gross) and good meds, and going to the hospital once a week, and to the MTC doctor 3 times a week, he should be fine. Elder F never even got his foot looked at and said "the Lord had to break my leg to save Elder O's."
The district that is leaving soon just got reassigned yesterday because their visas to Argentina haven't come yet - - 3 are going to Georgia, 2 to Louisiana, 1 to SLC South, and 1 to Pocatello. It was fun watching because it was like they were opening up another mission call.
Once this district leaves we will officially be the oldest district in the zone. It's crazy, we're already more than half way done.
P.S. I really loved that President Monson talk! Try to find the talk that Elder Bednar gave to the MTC on Christmas Sunday. It's called Attributes of Christ, I think. It's the most profound talk I've ever heard. It's changed my mission already, I think. It's not on LDS.org, so you might have to dig, but it's worth it.
