MTC Week 1

I made it!  

The mission has begun and I am officially in the MTC... and yet I´m not.  Not in the main campus that is.  As many people have guessed, the Raintree apartments and WYview housing for BYU has been transformed into an extended MTC in order to compensate for crazy influx of missionaries since last years announcement.  It´s called the West Campus and as of last week it is all Spanish speaking.  We sleep and have gym time at WYview but all of our classes are in Raintree, so lots of walking back and forth.  They don't call it the Mission Training Center for nothing.

There are two things that I hear the most often here as a newbie.  How are you feeling? and, Just make it till Sunday.

Drop off at the MTC with my Sister Mckenzie.

How am I feeling?  I honestly couldn't tell you.  I haven't known how I felt since I've been set apart to tell the truth.  Flying out to Utah, I was a blank slate.  Saying goodbye to Provo friends, a blank slate with enthusiasm spreading.  Hours before reporting, blank slate again.  Actually going inside, no time to even register or think about emotion.  There is no way to anticipate what is going to happen, therefore, no way to know how to feel about it.  After being here four days I still don´t know how I feel just because there has been so much work to do emotions can´t even register.  I take that back, there have been many times when I've felt excited, tired, and frustrated, but I love it.  I love the work.  

After my attempt to learn Spanish in high school, I was somewhat worried as to how well I would be able to pick it up for the mission.  But I've come to realize that just like when I was learning Hebrew, a desire and purpose for learning it helps tremendously.  I still know very little, but it´s coming along.  We've already learned how to bare our testimonies and say prayers in Spanish.  The trick is to now memorize it.

I´m so excited to learn Spanish and I can´t wait for the day when I can speak it fluently.  That´s probably what makes me the most frustrated.  Yesterday my companion Hermana Washburn and I taught our first teacher investigator and the lesson was so simple but we had to do it all in Spanish.  So even though I knew exactly what we needed to say to Lorenzo we couldn't because we didn't know all the words.  Whenever he asked us about something we hadn't prepared to talk about Hermana Washburn and I could only look at each other and be like, ".....uh....no se...."  ARG!!!  SO FRUSTRATING!!!  But I guess that's why Padre Celestial ...blessed?... me with a life full of awkward moments.  He knew I'd have to be able to handle awkward silences on my mission.

Why do they tell us just make it till Sunday?  While I haven't experienced it yet, many missionaries get discouraged the first few days because there is no adjustment period.  They throw you into a ocean of work and just assume you can swim (little did the MTC know I was on a swim team when I was nine).  The work can seem hard and overwhelming and like there is now way we will be able to understand anything.  But once Sunday comes around it feels like how everyone imagines the MTC experience should feel like and it gets better.  The work is still hard, but everything is okay.  Sunday is tomorrow so we will have to see if they are right!

Email time is up for me so I must end here.  This is exciting stuff people!!!!  I'll let you know how it goes!