First off, DEAR ELDERS! WOOH! Mail, is like opening a Christmas present here. Thank you EVERYONE for all the letters! I will try my hardest to write you all back! The only bad part about mail is the Elders in our district think it's hilarious to wave the mail in our faces and run away with it. -__- So lame!
Despite, the Elders taunting us with the mail I LOOOOVVVEEEE my district. That's right! I said love. (if you know me you know how much I hate saying love and cheesy garbage like that) All 7 of us will cry when we leave for different areas in Uruguay. Sometimes we have too much fun and other times we are very serious. The other night when we were walking home from the devotional from main campus we were all LOCO. That's what you get when you keep us in a class room all day. I'm pretty sure all the other missionaries around us thought we were the district that just came out of the great and spacious building. It's good to be studious in the MTC, but it's also important to have fun. We laugh and a lot of stupid things. There's funny and then there's MTC funny. MTC funny is when you are so secluded from the outside world that mostly anything will make you laugh to the point of tears. SPEAKING OF WHICH Elder Finlay just sent me a picture of a guy with a purple beard. We ALL just wasted 10 minutes of our hour computer time laughing.
Not only does our district have fun, but we have a teacher who's HILARIOUS. The other day we spent a half an hour after class talking to him about Uruguay. It's the best to have a teacher who served in the same place we're all going, but it can also be a distraction. He wants to talk about Uruguay and we want to listen. We had a whole discussion on dogs in Uruguay. Apparently there's random dogs all over Uruguay and you have to find ways to get them to leave you alone and his companion lifted a dog to try to get him over a fence once and ended up spearing the dog! AHHHHH! His companion was from Guatemala and all he could say was " Oh...Elder O.o..........VAMANOS!" We laughed so hard!
Our district does have a lot of fun, but some of the best spiritual experiences I've had have been in our classroom. The MTC is like the spirit prison. It's a place of learning CONSTANTLY. I've only been learning Spanish for two weeks now and I carried an ENTIRE lesson and conversation in Spanish with someone yesterday. No notes at all! Of course, I don't know EVERY word, but as long as I'm trying my hardest and being obedient the lord handles the rest. Me and Hermana Paris run a mile during gym time everyday and we memorize words as we run. I write a page full of words and it takes 8-9 minutes to run a mile.... 8 minutes to memorize a page of words! 4 words.... THE GIFT OF TONGUES. When I first taught lessons I felt like I could only hear " Sí, halkdfjapodfhaopfhapsdojpasofj pasofjasfod´´ when the investigator would speak. Now I can understand so much. They are also making the ENTIRE West campus spanish speaking. Meaning... if you say ¨HI¨ to someone at this campus they will look at you weird and say ¨No, it´s HOLA!¨ Bring on the español!
As far as investigators go there´s a PLOT TWIST!!!!! The investigator we were teaching last week who I dreamed about IS OUR TEACHER!!!! So, we have Hermano Bullock and Hermano Civic. He really is from Argentina and has a thick spanish accent. Our zone leaders spilled the beans and told us that our first investigator would end up being our teacher so we all knew and on Monday when we walked in. I didn´t call him Hermano Civic. I walked in, put my hands on my cheeks like I was surprised and said ¨ MARTIN!!!!!!!´´ He had told us he was moving back to Argentina so we stopped teaching him. Our teachers take turns acting as different investigators for us to teach in spanish and everytime they pick different names so now Hermano Civic isn´t Martín he´s Guillermo so I call him ¨Hermano Martín Guillermo Civic¨ He´s cool. And I still say ¨MARTÏN!!!!¨ every morning I walk into class. He just shakes his head and laughs.
SAD STORY.... There´s a sister named Sisar Knapp that I met here in the MTC and she left for Finland on Monday. She was in a trio and they would come visit us EVERY night. We both had the same struggles in the MTC. It was so nice to have her here to talk to. Instead of me being on a roller coaster of emotions alone she was riding the SAME roller coaster. So sad she´s gone but we will email!
Now for some FUNNY STORIES
1. The MTC is really busy. There are missionaries going from one place to another all the time. So to make things fun I always yell ¨HEY ELDER!¨ or ¨HEY SISTER!¨ and then keep walking like I said nothing. haha We laugh as 12 Elders will look around for who said it.
2. We also made a game where we steal apples off of trays and see who can come back to class with the most. We call it MANZANA!
3. We got a new district last Wednesday and Hermana Sorenson and I told them we were cousins.Here´s the story.....¨We opened our mission calls at our grandma´s house in Las Vegas and we got called to the SAME misson. Luckily, we´re in the same district in the MTC but if we were companions we would end up killing each other.¨ We also told them that there´s a video on Youtube of it that went viral and if they don´t believe us they should go watch it. NEWS FLASH no Youtube in the MTC. They´re minds were BLOWN! hahaha
Seriously, Hermana Sorenson and I could be related. It´s the best having her live in the same apartment because we are both the same size and It´s like having DOUBLE the wardrobe. We end up matching a lot not planned! And sometimes we look at each other and we know we just know we are both thinking the same thing.
The MTC is a lot better! It´s a big adjustment but I´m learning a lot and creating friendships I´ll have forever! Yesterday we taught a local member of the church a lesson in español. We decided to teach him about the Holy Ghost. One of the biggest things I´ve learned here at the MTC is how important it is to have the Holy Ghost in our lives for guidance, comfort, and just companionship. The holy ghost has given me so much comfort when I have bad days at the MTC. It´s a gift that Heavenly Father has given us to use in our lives. In my lesson I told the brother how every year at Christmas time my dad knows EXACTLY what to get everyone without being told what they want, because he pays close attention to the things we focus on all year. He´ll pick out presents that my mom mentioned she wanted in July. It´s always a gift he knows we will end up using every day. Heavenly Father has given the gift of the Holy Ghost. It´s the greatest gift we can ever receive on earth. This can be a useful gift everyday if we are worthy of it. Take advantage of that gift we are so blessed to have as members of the church.
I miss you all! Thank you for all the letters and things that have been sent! I hope everyone had as great of a week as I did here!
Love, Hermana Baca
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