(e-mail Friday, Nov. 16th, 2012)

 

Hola Familia!

Sorry it has taken so long for me to e-mail you! My p-days are on Fridays while I am here. They let me send you a letter, but I didn't have a chance to stick it in the mail until Monday or Tuesday, so you probably just recently got it.

My first few days were pretty rough. There are just so many rules here, I find it hard to keep track of all of them!  Also, as I mentioned in my letter, I am what they call a "solo sister", which means that I am the only sister in my district (our district is the people we have class with). I do have two companions though, they just are in different districts. And the elders in my district are awesome. One of the members of our Branch Presidency gave them a talk about how they need to respect me since I am the only sister, so every time I enter the classroom they all stand up until I sit down... So, as you can imagine, I pretty much run across the room to my chair when I get to class.  Oh goodness. It is so great though, they are all so diligent and thoughtful. I can't ever walk anywhere by myself, so if my companions aren't around, they walk me home or to the cafeteria or wherever I need to go.  And they all act so happy about being able to walk me somewhere. How sweet! My companions are Hermana Bradshaw and Hermana Bartschi, who are both solo sisters as well.  Hermana Bartschi has been here for 7 weeks, but Hermana Bradshaw came in the week before me. They are both going to SoCal on their missions, Spanish Speaking.  Hermana Bartschi is also the coordinating sister in our zone. They are both so nice. The first night I got here, when I was super tired, Hermana Bradshaw made my bed for me while I unpacked. Which wasn't so easy, since I have a top bunk.  And both of my companions have been super patient with helping me figure things out here.

Some informational things:

My MTC departure date has officially been changed to Dec. 5th, and I am supposed to get back on April 23, 2014.

My sweater arrived in the mail from Grandma, muchas gracias Abuela!

I have seen lots of people that I know here. Not so many that you would know, though. Mostly from school-- Amelia Bruneel, who was my visiting teacher, Michelle Crosby, David Durfee, and Elder Nelson (I don't remember his first name) have been in my wards up at BYUI, Matt Yen (He worked with me in the Math Lab), and a few others.  This girl that I met while I was working in Utah lives on my floor of the residence hall, so we run into each other a lot.  She is learning Hungarian, yikes!

For every meal, I just go to the back of the kitchen and get a plate of food with my name on it out of a heater thing, it's super efficient. Although I did get sick last Sunday :( It was probably my fault though, I brushed some crumbs off of my chair before I ate, and they probably had gluten in them. But my companions took care of me! I went and laid down in a random classroom, and a friend of ours --Sister Aldridge--stayed with me while my companions went and tracked down some ibuprofen for me. We almost missed the fireside, thank goodness we had some sisters saving seats for us! But besides that I have been fine. During lunch on Sunday I just grabbed a bit of gluten free bread for Sacrament.

Only one elder in my district isn't a native speaker, so talking in class is a little intimidating sometimes. But my Spanish is getting so much better! The other day we were at the TRC (this place where we go to teach a random volunteer acting as an investigator), and I was teaching with Elders Munoz and Garcia about the Book of Mormon. The man wanted to know about Joseph Smith, and I was able to recite for him the first vision, as well as bare testimony that I know that if Christ could appear to His Apostles three days after His death, then surely He also appeared to Joseph Smith-- He lives, He loves us, and He wants us to come unto Him.  It was so great, and the spirit was so strong.

I have been marking my Spanish scriptures according to topic, and I feel like I am getting to know the scripures all over again. There is just something so neat about reading them in another language. And talk about a tender mercy, I haven't had a hard time reading them in Spanish at all! I think I have studied the scriptures so much more intensely than I ever have. I love it!

Anyways, I've got to run! Time's out.

I love you all-- Hermana Burner