I'm Aliiiive!!!

Hello my wonderful family!


They told me I could write home the first night, but we didn't have more than a few minutes and I'm horrible about writing short letters. Any way, I'll be sending that letter today, and you'll probably get it in a while... and Amy, I'm really sorry, my handwriting isn't the best, even though I tried to do otherwise.


So yes, I am able to write emails at the MTC, I have a half hour, (24 minutes now since I had to register) And there are some computers at the laundry room, so while I'm waiting for things to wash, I'm writing you all! how exciting.


Any way, so far it's been awesome :D. My district is a bunch of guinea pigs, because our first day in the MTC (full day, not Wednesday) we went to the TRC (where people from the outside world come in and pretend to be investigators so we can practice teaching them) and taught 5 ten minute lessons, without planning. We just went in, got to know the people, then tried our best to teach them something that applied to them. The first one was really crazy, but it got better, and our (sister Shurtliff, my companion and mine) best contact was our last one, who was an older man.After the TRC, we went to the TEC which is where we teach teachers, or teach with teachers, etc. Sister shurtliff and I took turns teaching with a teacher, then the two of us taught that teacher. It was a lot of great practice, and our experience a few hours before let us appreciate and pay attention to it more, because she helped us pick out what questions we should ask that would be better to get to know people better, etc.

From the TEC, we went almost immediately to the TC, which is where we called people (actual real living people who aren't members... scary) to make sure whether or not they received their book of Mormon, etc. Two people answered for me, one person just told me the person who asked for the thing wasn't home then hung up soon after, the other was polite, she had received her BOM but hadn't read it, so I fumbled until I asked her if she wanted a movie, she said that'd be great but she wasn't home often so could we just send it, I couldn't find the button that allowed for something like that so I asked her if the representatives could contact her before they went over to her house and she agreed with that. My companion on the other hand got in contact with an older lady that is clearly very lonely, and the lady talked to sis. Shurtliff for about a half hour (we were there for a little under an hour, so it felt like it was longer)Of the three things, I must say that the teaching was MUCH more enjoyable than the calling. I'll have to work on the calling thing, but... oh well.


Anyway. Friday was kind of a let down after Thursday, because instead of teaching and going out and doing things, etc, we were in a classroom the whole day and some of it wasn't nearly as interactive and so on as the other. In other, we could have really excellent classroom discussions, and so on, but the teacher we had seemed to want to rush things, or something like that.
Saturday was better. We had our real teachers for the first time since we got there (they'd been there the whole time, but they weren't the ones teaching, other people were because they were experimenting on us.) They're so cool. Sister Harlen (something like that... I'll get it right one of these days) and Brother Manasco. They teach us at different times, but they're both excellent in their own ways. They're both return missionaries, Sister H. was on a temple square so she'll be able to help us, and Bro. Manasco went to Hawaii where our elders are going.Speaking of our elders, they are a hoot. Currently they're chatting and singing together while we all write letters. Sometimes it's hard to pay attention when we're doing companion study because we're all having such a good time, so sister Shurtliff and I tend to leave the classroom so we can focus on what we're doing. They're really good about studying when it's personal study time, or at least being quiet.


On Saturday, we found that we really liked the elders in our district. We did a Zone activity where we had to teach and be taught by people who weren't in our district but were in our zone, and... yeah... The elders that I and another sister (one of my roommates, sister Allred) were interesting. I liked my 'companion' for the teaching thing, elder Loar, but her companion was the type of personality that liked to somewhat antagonize her type of personality, so it drove away the spirit at first, but after a while it got better. He bore a wonderful testimony at the end, but the whole experience really helped us sisters appreciate our elders in our district.

And I'm running out of time, so I'm going to have to wrap it up.

Sunday was wonderful! I loved everything, and bawled when we watched the Joseph Smith movie.

Today we went to the temple and that was wonderful, as usual.