Week One: I Am So Tired!

Day One: So I got here to the MTC. First off, I do not like this whole driving on the wrong side of the road thing. Totally freaks me out. I feel like someone is about to hit us all the time.  We finally found out who our companions and districts are. My companion is Sister Koepf (pronounced like Kef). She is from Michigan, went to BYU-I, and is also headed out to Leeds. Love her so much. My district (The Ammon District) also is comprised of another companionship of sisters and a trio of Elders. Sister Williams is from Wales, and I would describe her as a proper lady. Sister Hall is Danish, just so hilarious. Elder Bailey is from Tazmania, Australia and has a great accent. He is our District Leader. Elder Cunha is from Brazil and really doesn't like this cold weather. Sometimes he struggles with speaking English, but he is super great. Elder Gibson is from Sandy, Utah. Of course. ;) Have to have at least one. The Elders are all also going to Leeds, but Sister Hall is headed to Scotland Ireland and Sister Williams is going to California actually, by the way of Manchester. She has been having some visa issues. So that is my district!!

Day Two: It is crazy how much they jam pack in a day!! Lesson after lesson stuck between study time and meals. By the way, I haven't really eaten anything out of the norm. Though lemonade here is basically Sprite. Don't be deceived. I love all of my teachers. We basically have two, Sister Alston (from Canada) and Brother Duddley (native). They all are amazing actors, when they get in character to be an investigator, they are really in character, it is wonderful. We also have like this float teacher, Brother Turner. Today we also sang to the man who picked us up from the airport because he retired after 15 years of working here!!! He was so sweet. We sang "Called To Serve" and then "God Be With You Till We Meet Again." As you can guess, some people were crying, it was a great experience. Also, afterwards everyone in my district knew I could sing. While Sister Koepf had noticed pretty early on, it was Elder Bailey who drew everyone's attention to the fact that I like to sing and do it loudly....  Oh well.

Day Three: This was the day I started to realize that the Elders in my district really like to dance and it is hilarious. They are also amazing for other reasons. The only reason I will tell you guys about this lesson is because it was hilarious. Sister Alston got us to do it. We were doing teaching exercises of course, but our investigator  was someone pretending to be different Disney Characters. I ended up teaching both Anna and Elsa, both portrayed by Elders. I had to be Prince Charming and Pumba at different times. Yeah.... Not sure how productive it was, but we certainly stayed awake!!! Today was also pizza day, apparently they also believe in having pizza on Saturdays. So as I mentioned earlier, our teachers pretend to be investigators and we go into these little set up rooms and teach them a lesson. This was the first day Sister Koepf and I did it. We were pretty nervous to begin, but it wasn't a complete wreck, so I suppose that is good. :) His name was Dom and it's a part member situation. Oh, I discovered today that I really like cranberry/raspberry yogurt. Oh, so there are less than 40 missionaries here at the MTC right? Everyone here is either going English speaking or German. Apparently Greek speaking missionaries come here too, but there aren't any here right now. But so we have some sisters who are from other places learning English. Sister Huang is from China and she gave a prayer in her native language for the first time since coming here, and you could just feel the gratitude she had. It was really amazing.

Day Four: WE ARE ROBBY THE RESCUE BOAT!!! You had to be there. Today was wonderful. Sister Koepf was feeling sick and she asked the Elders in our district to give her a blessing. Elder Cunha had given one before but he didn't feel comfortable doing it in English, while neither of the other Elders had given one before. But Elder Bailey did step up and gave her a really wonderful blessing. And she felt so much better. It was a great experience for everyone there. We got to walk over to the temple and take photos. But because it was Sunday, we couldn't actually go on to the grounds. But it was still fun. Also, we watched a devotional that Elder Rasband gave at the Provo MTC earlier in the week that was great. He went around asking questions and answering questions, all relating to his experiences giving calls to missionaries. It was cool. Also, I could see some girls from my mission prep class in the choir that are currently there!!! Crazy right!?! Fun fact, stop lights here go red yellow green, not just green yellow red. Also, President and Sister Preston are the cutest people on the planet. So sweet.

Day Five: Today Elder Cunha told us the sweetest thing that just kind of resonated with my soul. He told us that when he met us all on the first day, he felt like he knew us all before we ever came to this earth. It was super great. Elder Bailey had just said that I reminded him of his sister because of my curly hair. Also, every day that we have had exercise time, we go play volleyball. Sister Koepf played in high school, so she really likes to. Also, President Preston had noticed that I could sing, so he tried to volunteer me to sing like a solo or something like that. I only agreed to sing in choir. And half the reason I agreed to that is because we are singing "This Is The Christ." It is such a great song.

Day Six: Today hit me by surprise. It was lovely, but emotional. I realized I could trace it back to when I showed my district sisters some photos of my family. And a bit later, I went to choir practice, so we were practicing the song, "This Is The Christ." I am trying to learn the alto line for it. Later, we were teaching our investigator Gloria (played by the lovely Sister Alston) about the Plan of Salvation. I had bore testimony of the reality of it to her based on my own personal experiences. As you can imagine, I got a bit emotional then.

Day Seven: P-Day!!! We got to go to the temple!!!! The Preston Temple is so beautiful!!!! I loved it. Especially after yesterday, I needed to go to the temple. It was Sister Koepf's second time ever going, so I was glad I was there to help her out a bit. One Elder was receiving his endowment for the first time. I think he is from Spain, so getting to the temple was really hard for him. I really hope we get to go again on Tuesday before I head out to Leeds on Wednesday. Also, not sure when I will be able to email again because of that.... I will try to when I can!!! After the temple, we got to go into town!!! We got to go to the store. I think it was like a British equivalent to Wal-Mart? Not sure. It was called ASDA. Sister Koepf and I also went to the distribution center here by the MTC. I guess we are going to hear from a member of the 70 later today, so that is cool.
I love you all so much!!! Thank you for all of your love and support!!! I miss you guys, but I love being here too! Cheers! ;)