Week 2 in the MTC

Hopefully this works. I’m trying to send you pictures via email, but it’s a little bit complicated around here, so I’m just trying to do stuff that other people have told me to do. Anywho…Onto the exciting life I live these days as a missionary :)THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for the packages! The coat is SUPER cute, I love it and wear it all the time (I forgot that when it’s not July, I’m always cold…so no, my packet never said to bring one, this is just for the MTC, then I’ll be sending it home where Kellee can use it til I get home). The banana bread was AMAZING (the chocolate was sorta melted, but really not bad, and the bread was perfectly moist. Thanks for getting up so early to get it done so I would get the same day! You really are awesome, and I don’t deserve it) and I had it for breakfast for a few days. It’s so much better for me to eat that than all the garbage I usually get here. I’m slowing working down on how much I eat…I hate the feeling of not being hungry when I go from meal to meal. It’s been going a lot better the last few days. Thank goodness.

The pants are good to have around as well. I wasn’t told to bring pants, but I need them when we clean here, and I think the jeans will be good to just have around when I get to Indo. LOL, it is true that I would otherwise have a VERY hard time finding anything else over there that fit me, as a sister so nicely informed me yesterday (She and her husband got back from Indo 6 months ago, and are going on another mission...but she wanted to come meet the Indo missionaries now). Sis O. and I were thinking maybe some caramel brownies or cinnamon rolls for the next batch of goodness you send me? And also thank you for getting all those things done from my list that I gave you. Sorry again that I didn’t get them done myself!I got a DearElder from Lynn Bendall, chastising me for my interest in the Utah game last week, and my complete lack of interest in the BYU game. LOL…It made me laugh. But I laughed even harder the next day when I got another DearElder from him…but not for me. It was for Eric. Haha. I still have it, but I’ve been looking for Elder Bendall everywhere. Hopefully I find him soon so I won’t have to carry it around much longer ;)

Mom, I also wanted to ask you if you’d check up on my visa info…I want to make sure that everything will be alright for me getting over there since I’m not going at the originally planned time. The number for the travel department is in my info booklet. Thanks also for sending me Connie & Catherine’s addresses, and Jack’s postcard. AHHH! He’s awesome, and I can’t wait to see him when we both get home. Dad, in companionship study we were reading different talks, and for some reason I thought I should have you read a talk by President Monson. It’s an ancient one though…from before I was born. I dunno why I had the thought, but I’ve decided that whether or not all my impressions are from the Spirit, I need to act on them. So look up “The Aaronic Priesthood Pathway.” It’s AWESOME.

Now, onto the exciting events of the week…First and foremost ELDER HOLLAND CAME TO THE TUESDAY NIGHT DEVOTIONAL AND WAS EXTRAORDINARY! I call him “The Pounding Prophet” because he likes to pound his hand on the pulpit, and even if he’s not pounding his hands, his words are pounding your heart, and you can’t help but KNOW that there is a special kind of power within him. He talked a lot about not wasting a minute of your mission, about taking advantage of every opportunity, and not letting anyone down when you come home. Gosh…he seriously had so many different things that he went off on that I thought were just incredible. Sis O. turned to me during it, and said “I wish Elder (I don’t remember his name, but he’s from the other Indo. Group, and he went home last week) would’ve heard this talk before he left, because then maybe he would’ve stayed,” to which I replied, “But what if he needed to go home now so that he wouldn’t have to regret anything when he comes back out?” I dunno who put those words in my mouth, but at the time I knew that some people have to do that. They have to go when they are fully prepared to NOT waste any time, and just go to work. Anyways…it was an absolutely incredible talk, and I can’t hardly wait for conference now!

We had our first TRC lesson on Saturday. OOOOOH man! We were told we had to do the first 6 principles of Lesson 1 in Indonesian, and then the last 2 we could do in English. Well…Mom, do you remember Josie? The cute lady in red from the Indo party? She was our investigator, and she was SOO cute. Sis O was totally nervous, but as soon as I found out that she was going to be our investigator, I knew she’d be WAY better than an RM who would just show off to us. And she was awesome. We got through the first 6 principles, and then we started doing the last 2 in English, and she said, “No English. You keep trying in Indonesian, and you WILL get it.” So she helped us stagger our way through the last 2 principles, and it was so great to see that, as long as she gave us a few needed vocab words, we were able to give the last 2 principles basically on our own! It was great, and Sis O was about ready to burst with happiness after it was done. All she could do was talk about what a cute lady she’d been, and how much she’d helped us. LOL, Sis O is the happiest perfectionist I’ve ever met in my life. I love her.

Sundays are pretty low-key here. Which is nice, cuz we need at least one day that we get to be that way. We have breakfast then Sacrament at 8 am, then Sis O and I do our companion study before we go watch the Sounds & the Spoken Word with the MoTab. We’ve started a list of things she’s gonna do with me when she comes out here after we get home, and that’s one of them. I love going to watch them live…I was sad I didn’t get to do it one more time before I left. But it’s nice to watch and listen to them here. Oh, btw, I never told you the huge rule that I’m having the HARDEST time keeping! Just a few weeks before our group came in, President Smith changed the rules on music so that now no one listens to any music. Ever. At least in our rooms and stuff. No Ipods, no mp3s…nothing! So we try to sing hymns ourselves, but sometimes its just not the same as singing with the MoTab or Singles Ward soundtrack, ya know? Oh well. Hopefully President Marchant doesn’t have that rule!

After the Spoken Word, we have Relief Society with all the sister missionaries, and somebody basically just comes and talks to us. It’s not much of a lesson as a talk, but mom, you’ll be jealous of this…this week the “teacher” was the general primary relief society president. She talked about involving the children as we teach as missionaries. It was a good talk/lesson.

After that, we had to go to a “New Sisters Meeting” where they basically chastise us for what we wearing, and tell us how to look better and more professional. It’s a good lesson for the most part, but a few things they talk about I really don’t agree with. However, they are the rules so I will follow them

Then it’s onto District meeting, where Pres. Dodge (my branch president) talked to us about companion inventory, and how to do it so that it really works and isn’t just a waste of time or a bunch of fighting. Then we have time to do whatever we want (“as long as it is productive”), so I worked on vocab and stuff, then we get to go walk around the temple, then Sis O and I go to choir practice, dinner, fireside, movie (or more MDT time, as Sis O and I like to do), and then to bed. That’s a Sunday for me, and it was WONDERFUL!

So funny story…Last night we were having interviews with our DL (Elder Lang), and he was asking me about school and stuff, and when I told him that I was going to be a teacher, he started telling me about the only hot teacher he had as a kid. Lol, I had a good laugh about that. I’m hoping it was a compliment?

There are 8 missionaries in my district...2 other elders are going to Indo with Sis O and I, and the other 4 are going to Malaysia (Elder Parrish, who ashlyn knew, is one of those other 4. btw, do me and Ash really look that much alike? Parrish always tells me how creepy alike we are, and I had one of the other Indo teachers come ask me if I had a sister or cousin at BYU, cuz he had a class with someone who had a shirt on that said "Hewlett" and "she looks exactly like you!" It's definitely a compliment I'll pride myself on, but I've never been told that before...). The other Indo class has 6 people in it (3 elders and 3 sisters), and they're all going to Malaysia as well.

The missionaries from Madagascar that were in our branch left on Monday, and next Monday the Mongols leave (missionaries going to Mongolia), which means that the rest of the time we’re here, our districts are going to be the oldest in the branch. For 7 weeks! That’s a long time! But it’ll be awesome, and I’m sure we’ll see a lot of other elders and sisters come and go while we get to enjoy our stay at the MTC.

K, I think that’s all I got from my journal. You guys want to know what an average day in the MTC is like…not counting Sunday. Here ya go:

6:30: Wake up, get ready for the day
7-7:45: Personal Study
7:45-8:15: Breakfast
8:15-8:30: Finish personal study
8:30-11: Class
11:10-12: Gym
12:30-1:15: Lunch
1:15-5:30: Class
5:30-6:15: Dinner
6:15-9: Class
9-9:30: Companion Planning Time
9:30-10:30: Write in journal, get ready for bed, go to sleep

& 8 hours later you start it all over again. Fantastic, isn’t it? Never a dull moment, I can assure you of that. There are things not in this list that happen once a week or so ( like service), but this is the general format for the day.As you can tell from the pic, mom, my bag is already ripping. Will you send them this picture? I’ll admit, I carry too much in the bag, but IT’S ONLY BEEN 2 WEEKS! The thing should last longer than that if it’s gonna be a good bag.

I’ve seen the doctor once, he told me to be careful while I’m on the cumidon, and I’ve had my blood drawn twice now. You got my numbers, yes they’re low, but hopefully they’ll start getting up again. I dunno what my numbers were for yesterday, but I suspect I’ll find out either today or tomorrow. It’s good to hear about Mary…Tell her that I love her and miss having her around the next time you see her. I wrote a letter to Grandma this morning, so she’ll hopefully be getting that when she gets home next week. I REALLY miss her, but I know I’ll be seeing her in no time.

The language is slowly but surely coming along. I really hate not getting things right off the bat. I dunno if I told you this in my last email, but Sis O remembers EVERYTHING. She has half the dictionary memorized, I swear. I’ve really found that the gift of tongues is NOT just going to come to me, and I’ve been working extra hard to help Heavenly Father know that I deserve the gift (haha). Dad…I have a newfound appreciation for the story you’ve always told us about you in the MTC learning Finnish, and having such a hard time with it. I know how you feel now! But it really is coming along, and I can definitely feel the Lord’s hand in everything that I’ve learned thus far. If any of you want to use a little bit of Indonesian in your every day life, you can say “Buang air kecil” or “Buang air besar.” They mean “throw out little water” and “throw out big water.” Haha…yes, they are bathroom references, but I’ll let you figure the specifics ;) DON’T WORRY! I can’t give the first discussion, but I can tell ANYONE that I’m going to the bathroom. Oh, the things we remember…

Well, I think that’s everything. I really love and miss you all more than you know! I was telling Sis O this morning that I didn’t think I’d miss you all this much, but I really am thinking about you constantly, and praying that you’re all doing well and are happy. Let me know if there is anything I can do for any of you (especially if it has anything to do with prayer…cuz I’ve gotten REALLY good at that ;)! Loves!

~Sara

PS the pics aren't working on here, so i'll be sending those to you later today. LOVE YOU ALL!!!

PPS just so you know, my address is "umpan hiu" because that means shark bait in Indo, and "hiu" is the word that bro leo told me to tell me people so they could pronounce my name...cuz they won't be able to otherwise. so ya!!! totally awesome, i know :)