Hi Family! How is everybody! I'm doing well. Still healthy. Oh! Dad, I had an idea. Would it be possible to get an extra memory card for my camera? That way I could just send one card home at a time and you could get the pictures off of it and send it back. I'm mailing you some pictures today but I think the memory card would be an easier mode of transportation. Oh, and Mom, if you see nylons on sale, could you snag them for me? I have a feeling mine will run out quickly (literally-run) and the ones in the bookstore here are expensive. Thanks for sending me that package. I will enjoy the jeans on preparation day.
Well, James! I’m looking forward to that bodacious pebble! Sorry, I don't have time to write one for you this week, but I'll think of a good one.
First of all, everybody, I only have half an hour timed to write so a lot of things slip my mind. I basically have to type as fast as I can whatever comes to my head. So, sorry if I jump around and I miss some things. Thanks for the letters Aunt Julie, Lila, Grandma Darlene and Grandma Oldham! And thanks for e-mails family! It was great to hear from everybody. Letters really do make a missionary happy.
So I think I said before with study time we have personal, companion, language and MDT which is a combination. We typically have 1-1.5 hours of each every day but it switches. They have a computer program to help learn languages that can be helpful but also quite annoying at times. Several questions have wrong answers. Argh! Oh well. The language is doing well though. Saturdays we have our Teaching Appointments where we practice on volunteers that come to the MTC. Every week we have a specific task. This last week we did a door approach/get to know someone/set up an appointment to come back and teach all in Spanish. I was excited to practice. My companion was nervous. I actually understood most of what the fluent volunteers were saying. Then we came back and taught the first lesson in English. The Spirit was really strong. We both bore our testimonies as often as we could. We also asked the "investigator" what he believed Christ did for him. Cue testimony! Since we all bore our testimonies, we all felt the Spirit easier. I came out of that so happy! I wanted to jump up and down. I think I actually might have. :-)
Oh! The devotional speaker this last week was L. Tom Perry, the apostle! We were there early for missionary choir practice and they were checking under all the seats for bombs, so we knew it would be someone important. He was a great speaker. He gave us really good advice on how to teach people. One of the things was let the person who's being taught talk just as much as you. That way you're teaching, not just presenting. I hope everybody had a happy Halloween. It was crazy here. Well as crazy as you can get at the MTC. I actually got away with a costume. My companion and I dressed as “elders” just with black skirts and shoes and white button-up blouses. We even took some of her scarves and tied them like ties. No one made us take them off. One of the mothers of an elder in our district sent us all fake teeth. We only wore them in our dorms though. Up until quiet time was a party in the dorms, let me tell you. I'll send pictures. A lot of things made me laugh. It reminded me of going crazy in college.
During the past few weeks, I've been practicing juggling basketballs during gym and I finally learned how to do one behind my back. I was happy.
I've been learning new words in languages other than Spanish too. Tagali for "good" is "Mabuti" and "yes" is "o-o". Spanish for "Bring it" is "Traigalo". That reminded me of "Trogdor". Just thought that was cool. Still a Strong Bad fan.
I'll be right back.
Sorry, my companion got called to the front desk so I had to come back.
Anyway, it's been getting colder. It snowed twice this week. Didn't stick, but still, snow! The past few days have been gorgeous though. When the days are nice we go outside to play sand volleyball. It's quite hilarious. We just all get silly because none of us are very good.
We had a zone conference this week and the teachers spoke about things they thought our zone needed. Two things they hit on are diligence and pride. The diligence part hit me hard. I can't afford to waste any time here! I want to do my best and learn as much as I can! My companion likes gym time because she can give her mind a break, but after that meeting, I want to get to the point where I don't want a break! I know this gospel is true! I know the truth and I want to spread it along! My life is not my own right now. It belongs to the Lord 100%. Thanks everybody for supporting me in it. I can truly feel my Savior's love. He is real. He died for us and is just waiting for us to decide to come back to him. He is our Savior and Redeemer. Through Him and only Him, we can be saved.
Satan is striking at my district. We had one sister quarantined for swine flu, my companion has had ankle problems and one elder found out this week that he has to have his gall bladder removed. Not good. He’s a good elder. I seriously believe he's going to be a general authority someday by the way he bears testimony of the Book of Mormon and the gospel.
I'm trying to be patient with myself and not worry. Faith and fear cannot coexist. At first I was nervous about teaching the volunteers. But I can't afford to be nervous. I mean, whose side am I on anyway? The winning one, that's right! I can't wait to get out in the field and help real people! I'm not afraid of failure. I'm just going to do my best.
I bore my testimony in fast and testimony meeting on Sunday. We were encouraged to do as much as we could in the language of our labors. I got away with only one word in English.
The MTC is awesome. The church is true. Chocolate is good for the soul. Laugh and sing as much as you can. And come unto Christ!
TTFN
Sister Evans
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