June 14, 2013

Hola mi Familia!!!

It was a good week.  But they are always good weeks :)

Sunday was AWESOME. We got the watch music and the spoken word, and then have relief society. Somebody (I can't remember her name right now) from the general relief society board, spoke and it was amazing. I took some awesome notes that meeting. Have you all heard that there were some verses added to "As sisters in Zion" that focuses on missionary work? We got to sing those on Sunday. Very neat!

Tuesday we got to go to the Marriott center for Devo, that's neat that grandpa sent pictures. I was wondering if I was going to see any familiar faces in the many cars we passed! Apparently they are going to try and do devo this way from now on so that the West Campus can attend, and all the missionaries can fit in one place. The choir sang "Called to Serve" in the Devotional. It's the one we are singing in the announcement on the 23rd. It's very neat to have almost the whole MTC in a choir together! It's HUGE!

Mervyn B. Arnold of the seventy spoke on Tuesday. His wife spoke first, and she was my favorite part :) She shared a story that he husband shared in conference recently. It was the story about how she was watching cattle over the summer and stopping them from eating wheat and becoming bloated. She said this one morning, this one cow got out and ate wheat. She quoted " You stupid Cow." Even though she was so bloated she could barely breathe, she kept eating and died. She compared this to obedience and commandments. It's SO important to stay as far away from the fence as we can. The commandments we have been given are here for a purpose and for our protection. Obedience with exactness!

I am very lucky that I have companions that don't try to break the rules. We are all pretty set on being as obedient as we can and uplifting each other in that way!

This week was full of Class time and practicing Spanish and teaching. Me and my companions were late to class one afternoon and as a punishment we had to attempt a "door approach" in which my teacher, Hermano Whittiker, made it very difficult to convince him to let us in. It was pretty funny.

We had TRC this week, which is where we go and practice Spanish with members. They come as volunteers and we talk for about 20 min and shared a quick message. We had 2 appts and one of them was this super cute old lady that has served 6 Spanish missions with her husband. She mentioned she liked Family History, and I got to chat with her about Indexing. She was super fun to talk to and bare our testimonies to.

My Spanish is coming along. There will be moments where I feel very behind and lacking in the language. But the other day, we went to teach an investigator, Raquel, and I truly experience the gift of tongues. I don't all of a sudden speak super awesome Spanish, but I am reminded of words that I know and what to say. I love being able to bear my testimony in Spanish, even if it's bad grammar. The spirit speaks louder.

The food here is so addicting. It's not even that good, but there are SO many options and desserts every night. Therefore, I am lacking in self-control. Luckily we are working out every day. I have trying to run the track for a mile a day. Apparently, there are fitness classes at 6am for the sister. We tried them this week and loved it! We did step aerobics and yoga so far. It's a good way to start the day, but I have to say.....They are a LOT easier than the old fart lady classes I did with mom before I left.

The food also doesn't sit too well in my stomach. Apparently, it doesn't sit well in anybody's stomach. We have come to notice that almost the entire MTC has bad gas. It has been a funny way for us all to get to know each other better. As wise leaders have said before....."gas speaks louder than words."

We got a new district this week in our Zone. We got 3 new sisters. We went to their room the other night to see if we could comfort and give some advice and they were totally fine. They weren't overwhelmed or anything. They are in an intermediate Spanish class, so they are ahead of us anyway.

I have noticed that being on a mission makes me want to watch the Best Two Years really bad. We quote that movie, as a district, A LOT. It turns out they were pretty accurate on a few aspects of a mission :)

I LOVE my companion Hermana Wilcox. She is such a sweetheart and I know that we are going to be friends for a long time. I am learning a lot from Hermana Stanford as well! She is a very difficult girl, but she is full of great help and insights. This week I just observed a lot of companionships and I found that I was very grateful for the companions I was blessed with.

We had a mouse in our residence hall this week. Luckily it never came in our room, but we were up late to the sounds of many screaming girls.

I got your package! I got it like the day after you sent it. THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! The pants work awesome. My companions all joked that they wanted you to send them the same ones a size bigger. The flip flops, towel and pills were perfect. I am so grateful to have a family, a mom that is willing and would do that for me!

Give the Snow Family my love. I am praying for them.

I am still not able to figure out how to attach pictures or work the alphasmart. Eventually I will!

Thanks so much for the dearletter updates from everybody! After lunch and after dinner is when we get the mail and that is always a happy time! Thanks so much for being supportive and loving.

Much Love,

Hermana Spencer