All by myself

So my whole district will be leaving on Monday, and I won't be reassigned a new companion till Wednesday. That means I get to hang out with the two other sisters who are in our district. I will attend their meetings (which are in dutch :) ) it should be interesting. I won't have a teacher so I will be studying on my own and picking up what ever I can from the other classes. I don't really know what the visitor center training will entail but I do know I will get to go to Salt lake at some point. The sisters I will be with are really nice and fun but I will miss my sisters especially Sister Brendlinger.

Oh we had a health meeting the other day and the man conducting was 85 years old he got off topic a lot and seemed to enjoy our discomfort, he made jokes about diahrea and nose picking. He went over by thirty minutes which can really throw a missionary off. He ended the meeting by playing his harmonica for us. He was a funny old guy but I wouldn't ever want to have a meeting like that again.

Apparently a couple of weeks ago temple walks were band because missionaries were having picnics, and running across the temple grounds as well as picking flowers and all sorts of other things. I'm really glad that our Elder aren't that immature. They like to have fun but for the most part they know when to get to work. I forget sometimes that they are only 19.

Oh here's something funny. I thought that being a missionary I wouldn't have any boy troubles but that's not true. I was doing my laundry last week and an interesting elder leaned on my companions washer with his elbow and said " so are you new here? I haven't seen you before. I notice you at gym and thought you must be new" I felt really awkward because I was washing all my stuff and I wasn't engaging in the conversation. Luckily we left, but the next day he found me at gym and was talking to me and said I was really anti social because I didn't talk to him in the laundry room. I told him I felt awkward talking with him there and he didn't really understand why. He finds me occasionally and talks to me and my companions help me out by getting me out of there. Its pretty funny when ever anyone in our district sees him they say watch out there's your boyfriend. Very awkward, I don't know what to say to him to get him to leave me alone without being completely rude. :)

Oh I have been taking exercise classes in the morning. They start at 6 so we have to wake up earlier to get ready to go. they have things such as Pilate's, yoga, aerobics, kickboxing, toning and stretching and steps. They are pretty intense and really hard to wake up for but they are pretty helpful for getting in shape, it is actually a lot like the wii stuff just faster.

I just want to let you all know how simple the church is really. If you gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon everything else falls into place. Because if you have read and pondered the book of Mormon and asked with a SINCERE heart and a true DESIRE to know if it is true you will receive a witness. And if the Book of Mormon is true Joseph Smith was a true prophet and he organized the only true church on the earth. A false prophet cannot bring about a true book or a true church. So since he was a true prophet which I will testify that he was, we are still receiving revelations from god. And if we follow what god wants for us to do we will return to live with him.

Reading the scriptures as if you are going to teach it so someone who doesn't understand it make SO many more things stand out and makes the scriptures very interesting. It brings out more questions that you have to make you self under stand so you can talk to others about it. And just because you might not have someone to teach it to doesn't mean you shouldn't talk about what you have learned to others.

I love you all and would hope that you can all feel the love of god as strongly as I do. And I know that if you ask for it you will receive it.

One week

Hello! I can't believe I have only been at the MTC a week. So much has happened and I honestly feel like I have been here a year. People say that the MTC is hard but they never really say why. I think its because we are going from six in the morning till literally 1030 at night. So the schedule is pretty hard, and it feels like there isn't hardly ever time to work on what I need to work on. But it has also been a time for extreme growth. I never really knew how much I didn't know. My prayer has become so much better. My relationship with god is actually being formed. All the things I thought I knew, have been changed. It's hard to explain really. I always believed in this gospel but I'm actually learning why I believe the things I believe. I'm taking more time to actually delve into things I haven't before. It's been a hard adjustment because I haven't felt good enough and some days are better than others but I can truly feel my self changing for the better.

My companions, that was a struggle in the beginning because one of the sisters rubbed me the wrong way and I was really trying to love her but everything she did seemed to bother me. But we have what are called companion inventories where you all talk about whats going well and what could be improved on. Me and the other sister explained our concerns and our discomforts with our other sister and she explained things and ever since it has been really great. I think part of the problem is the fact that we are actually a lot alike in a lot of ways. We all have strong personalities and we all seem to complete each other. One sister (the one I struggled with) is REALLY knowledgeable about the scripture references and the Gospel, another sister is really uplifting and happy which raises my spirits, and I think I'm the positive- go with the flow one. If we combined we would be the absolute missionary. We are still working on somethings but it's a lot better than it was.

I think my expectations were I would learn the lessons and have a lot of time to read for my self and figure things out better. That hasn't really been the case, I'm enjoying what I'm learning but I'm still trying to figure out how to most effectively spend my time.

I haven't seen Bryce yet but I have seen Tannen once and I also saw Chelsey George today too. They are both doing great.

The Elders are surprising at times with their spirit and their dignity and other times they are 19 year old boys who just want to mess around. But they are all great and it's fun to get to know them. There are 8 Elders in our district, and three sisters and only five sisters in our zone so we are the relief society. We share a room with the two other sisters who are going to Belgium Netherlands and are learning another language (they are really nice).

We had a fireside on Sunday and we able to listen to sister Sheri Dew. It was amazing she talked about how it's not an accident that we are here and three things we should try to do 1 read sec.138 and pray to know the lord it there for us and who we are. 2. lean on the lord always. 3 Ask the lord to teach you how to receive personal revelation.

So this last Tuesday we had a devotional and we had been told that for the last three weeks an apostle has spoken so we didn't know what to expect for our devotional. I was ECSTATIC to learn that Elder Bednar would speak to us. I wish I had more time to tell you everything but he focused on getting us to learn the difference between doctrine, principles and application. we often focus on application rather than doctrine. Why do we home teach? because the lord told us to, that's not the doctrine, he told us to find the doctrine in the Scriptures.

I don't have much time left so forgive my mistakes but I need somethings from home. For some reason I didn't pack shorts i thought I had but didn't as well as my backpack and I cannot remember where I put it! Also I don't know why did didn't know this but we are not allowed to have gum (big problem :) ) So if you could send like altoids( Cinnamon) or something stronger than just life savers that would be great. It is definitely getting colder as well and I don't know I can last much long I think I need a bigger coat and Some nylons ( I don't know if there is such a thing as thigh nylons but that would be awesome. and Tamales would be great too. :) Thanks for everything my time is up so I will talk to you next week.

P.s dad I have been getting up at 540 to exercise in the class they provide for the sisters, I'll explain more next time, but I thought you would be proud :)