I know what missionaries mean now about mail being like gold out here!!! It has been so good to read your letters!
I am doing well! This first week was pretty crazy, and challenging, but Sunday and my time after that has been wonderful. The language is coming, and I just have to remind myself of how much I have learned. I am picking it up pretty fast, I think, but I still have a long ways to go, and that can be pretty discouraging at times.
Sister Nasau (her companion) got sick on Saturday. It was hard. She had a 24-hour stomach bug. We are the only ones in our room, so I studied basically the ENTIRE day in the residence hall while she slept. But she felt better after she took the sacrament the next day, which was a tender mercy. The other sisters spent time in the room with her so I could bring lunch and dinner back to the room and so I could exercise for part of our gym time that day. It was hard to be cooped up in the room so long, but I got a lot of studying done, so that was good. :)
Sunday was so awesome. The talks were so great and I felt so much peace and comfort. I have been a bit more homesick than I expected to be, but Sunday helped a lot with that. I think it's just when I think about you all for too long, I start to miss you. Haha I don't want to see you or to come back home, but I just miss you a bit. But it's okay. I am learning to pray and read scriptures when I start to get those feelings, and then I feel comforted and I can focus completely on this wonderful time at the MTC.
Sunday afternoon, Sister Nasau and I had companionship inventory, and can I just say, companionship inventory is AMAZING!!!! Apparently she had been making us a little late just because she wanted to pull my chain a bit, because she knew how much I like to be on time. But we talked about it, and we talked about being better communicators. I guess I had been imagining a lot of bad feelings between us, because she hardly said anything, but I explained that and we have been working on communicating with each other. It has been really good, and she is also working on opening up a bit to the other missionaries in our branch (there's only 13 of us, but I was wrong... we have three districts, not four).
We started teaching our investigator, Adriana, on Friday. At first, our teachers wanted us to teach two lessons each day, except Saturday (and no lessons on P-day, of course). It was so stressful and hard to plan two lessons, one right after the other, for the same person. So the elders talked to our teacher on Saturday (Sister Nasau was sick), and then all of us talked to him again on Monday. I expressed my concerns about planning lessons according to the needs of the person when we don't know what those needs might be for the second lesson, and told him that it was really hard for me to focus on teaching people, not lessons, because of this, and he completely understood. Now, until we teach two investigators at once (starting Thursday, I think), we will only be teaching one lesson a day. Without that stress of trying to make sure our next lesson would also be what she needs to hear without knowing if her needs have specifically changed, Sister Nasau and I were able to have a great lesson. After the companionship inventory and the change by our teacher, we felt the Spirit there and I was able to feel the Lord's love for Adriana. It was so amazing, and I think it showed both of us what to work for.
I love it here. It is so hard, but it is so, so good. I'm glad you all are praying for me, I definitely need it! But I am doing well, and loving it. I am the Music Coordinator for our branch (oh yeah! President Radebaugh is now in a district presidency and President Jackson is my branch president now), and that has gone pretty well so far. Yep, I am the pianist now :). This has been a great experience and I can't wait to hear the devotional tonight. It is really weird that I can kind of take a break today... I can't get used to it yet. But I am reminded of that scripture that says "it is not requisite for a man to run faster than he has strength" or something like that. Sorry, I'm not going to look it up because I don't know how long to expect myself to take on emails yet. :)
Also, if you use Dear Elder* to get me a hard copy, please try to send it to me the day before. The elders haven't checked the mailbox today yet, but they checked it last night. That will also allow me more time to read it. :) Thanks!
Oh and one more thing. I think I need to buy a card reader to send you pictures... this cord isn't working for me. So I will send you a bunch of pictures next week, I promise!
Love you all!
*Note from mom, dearelder.com prints out and delivers letters the same day for free. Go to the website, choose send at letter to the Provo MTC click on "write a letter" Her unit number is 103, mission code is CAP-VDE and her Estimated departure date is JUL 09
No comments:
Post a Comment