6 weeks in the MTC 10/18/2010

Hola familia!

 

      It's great to hear from everyone! It's been another week here at the MTC, and you know whats crazy? This Wednesday is the day I was originally supposed to come in. It's weird to think that I could just barely be starting in 2 days. This week has been pretty good overall. I think I've gotten to the point where I'm used to the cafeteria food (which is probably not a good thing) because it doesn't gross me out as much. Though yesterday's dinner was one of the worst I'm pretty sure the ravioli was leftover from the cannon center or something because it was not fresh. I tried some but then decided to have frosted flakes instead. A much better choice of course. So there's this one tree by the building with the cafeteria that everyone says smells like cream soda (or skittles), Of course I'm too smart to fall for such nonsense but we see people smelling it all the time. This week however, they roped off the tree and put a sign that says "keep out" because the grass needs to grow or something. I thought that was funny.

 

      The devotional last tuesday was really good, his name escapes me now, but he's in the presiding Bishopric. Actually what he spoke to us about escapes me now too.  Oh well. I just remember that It was really good. I'll have to review my notes later. This week I got a packet full of letters/notes form the Lake Stevens ward youth. That was pretty awesome, it was good to hear all the encouragement.

 

      Teaching in spanish is going well. I still have a lot to learn though. The elders in my district are getting a little better at focusing and I hope it stays that way though  they are still really bad at HSI habla su idioma (speak your language). We are trying out this game called "the native" to help motivate them, it only motivates half of them, for half the time, but its still better. For the game one person is chosen at the native and they have to speak in Spanish for the rest of the day. At the end of the day everyone votes on who they think the native is. If someone votes for you you get the point so theres motive to convince everyone that you're the native even if you're not.

 

      Wow I think my timer went super fast today or something because I'm out of time already! I love you all thanks for all your support!

 

Sincerely,

 

Hermana West

MTC Half Way! 10/11/2010

Hola familia!

 

      Thanks for the letters! It's great hearing about the outside world. That's crazy about whats happening with the stakes, I wasn't expecting that at all! I can't believe I am already half-way done with my time at the MTC...but at the same time it feels like I've been here forever. This week has been good I'm still progressing in Spanish (at least I hope). The Elders in the district are really bad at focusing both during class and during their study time so now our teachers are saying we're behind where we should be in learning Spanish. That's a little bit annoying, but hopefully this week will be better because they've been "lectured" a lot about it this week. This week will be our first where we are going to practice teaching in Spanish, which is crazy. I'm excited but at the same time its going to be hard. So we switched rooms since my last e-mail up on the 5th floor of another building. The room is bigger, but we don't have windows, which is a bummer. To make up for the lack of windows they have fake sky lights on the ceiling, which confuse us a little because now we never now when it's getting dark. haha. Also, I'm going to have super toned leg muscles now from going up and down all those stairs all day.

 

      Yestereday was 10/10/10 so we decided to have a party at 10:10 pm. It was epic. We ate chips and salsa. whoo! Also yesterday, I was asked if I would be the new coordinating sister for the zone. So I had to go to some training meetings yesterday and stuff. Basically I will be like...coordinating the sisters. haha like helping with orientation and stuff. So thats pretty sweet.

 

      Wednesday is the day new missionaries arrive and guess who showed up!? Lori Lund! She didn't end up getting her visa to Brazil either. It was really great to see her! So many people are having trouble getting visa's into Brazil right now. I was talking to another sister (sister Powell) that I know from my BYU freshman ward and she said there's like 200 missionaries who are in that same situation right now. Some people are having to be reassigned stateside temporarily. It's that same story with missionaries going to Mexico. One district in my zone who are going to Mexico all just got reassigned stateside (California. Idaho, and Utah) until they get their visas.

 

      Sorry if my e-mails the past few weeks seem short, it's hard to think of new things to say sometimes because every week is so similar here at the MTC. Me and my companion are getting along great and we hope that we will be able to be companions again in Chicago. We'll see I guess, it probably depends on how many sisters there are. Well I hope that everything continies to go well for you all this week! El evangelio de Jesucristo es verdadero!

 

Love,

 

Hermana Kristen West

General Conference in the MTC 10/4/2010

Hi everyone!

 

      Thanks everyone for the letters, I love hearing from everyone! We all got to watch conference this weekend which was pretty cool. Most of us all fit into the same huge room. It was neat to watch conference with all the other missionaries here. The only downside was that we all had to be in our seats early which made for a lot of sitting. My favorite talks were Elder Holland, President Monson, and Elder Oaks. Elder Oaks talk was really interesting. I look forward to when they are printed next month so I can read them again. Did you guys go to the lunch/party inbetween sessions at the church again? Congrats Mom on making it into the UW music ed program! I bet thats a relief. Also it's neat to hear that missionary work back home is going well! Oh, I just found out yesterday that a girl from my freshman ward is going to the Everett Washington mission. Sister Denison, so thats cool. I haven't had the chance to talk to her yet though, I found out because she had a small part in the devotional yesterday, I need to find her some time.

      So they are still keeping us a little bit in the dark about this but apparently my zone has been selected to be sort of a guinea pig zone for some new teaching methods and I think possibly an new expanded version of the "Preach My Gospel" book. We are switching rooms later tonight to the top floor of another building and apparently the rooms are nicer and a little bit fancier which will be pretty sweet, but I'm not looking forward to having to go up all those stairs. Also we may or may not be video taped. So hopefully they will let us know all the info tonight, overall I think it's pretty neat.

     Thats cool to hear about Barry's success so far in Guatemala! Thats so exciting that he's already had some people get baptized! I'm looking forward to being out in the Chicago area but at the same time scared because of the spanish....haha. I've gotten pretty good at understanding when other people here are speaking in Spanish, but I know its going to be another story when I'm around native speakers. This week will be our last week at the TRC (teaching resource center) speaking English...next week we are going to have to start teaching in Spanish! It's going to be so hard, but it will be good for my brain.

      So we had a little excitement in the dorms saturday night. One of the girls decided that she wanted to burn the place down with her popcorn in the microwave. Actually that probably wasn't her true motive but I think it adds dramatic effect to my story so go with it. So the fire alarm went off around 10:15 so we evacuated the building. I thought the whole situation was really funny, but I bet she was really embarrassed. Our hallway still smells like burnt popcorn haha. This morning I met an old mission president of the Chicago Mission at the Temple, he was really excited for me and Hermana Maughan. He told us that there are a lot of spanish speaking people there and the wards are pretty good.

 

My times almost up, I love you all, hope you all have a great week!

 

Hna Kristen West