Week Four. Area: MTC. Companion: Hermana Otte

Hola otro vez!! (Hello again!!)

Hermana Atendido here giving another weekly update on my days in the MTC since last Pday Friday!!

Saturday: So nothing much happened on Saturday other than more Spanish lessons, Teaching lessons, and teaching our 'investigators'. One thing that I guess I would like to mention is that after me and Hermana Otte (mi companera) had taught 'Areli' we were preparing for our next lesson on Monday, but we couldn't get the song Creeo en Cristo (I Believe In Christ) out of our heads. Seriously, because of one of the Elders in our district, even the mention of it gets it stuck in our heads. So, in order to be able to concentrate and get the song out of our heads (We really do like the song, but it just won't get out) we started to sing other songs in Spanish. It was really fun. Hermana Otte sings really high and I can only sing... not so high. But we at least sounded decent X'D

Okay, so I curled, yet not curled my hair. Hermana Otte told me to twist my hair after washing it and sleep on it. So, this is what it looked like, sort of, that morning. I know you're happy, mom XD

Sunday: On Sunday was me and me companera's first time as Greeters! That was our calling, and we got really into it. So, of course we greeted everyone that was in our zone to welcome them. I was a little hyper, for some odd reason, and hugged the other Hermanas or shook everyone else's hands, even though they briefly went out to go to the bathroom or something and when they'd come back it, we were like "Bienvenido otra vez!! (welcome again!!). After Sacrament, we had Relief Society, where we all saw a poor bat flying around the gym. We thought it was a bird, but when it got a little close, we saw that it was really a bat. Not only did it get close, but we saw it climbing up the wall and Hermana Otte was like "Birds don't climb walls, that is definitely a bat." Then the Elders had their meeting, and afterwards we went on our temple walk and it was such a great day! Loved it XD Then we had our Sunday Devo. OmiG, every devotional, Sunday and Tuesday, are always great. I of course am a bit guilty of nearly falling asleep every now and  then, but I've been taking notes and paying attention. And then every Sunday after Devo, we have a church movie night. The Sunday before we watched Meet the Mormons (finally) and on this sunday we watched The Testaments. I never got to fully watch it till then.

A forest cliff drawing (not yet finished)

Monday: I don't know why, but I agree with my zone that Mondays and sometimes Tuesdays feel like extremely long days. But we started off the morning good with Spanish lessons and teaching our investigator Areli (who is played by our teacher as a single mom with two kids, working at a hotel, and not having much faith in Heavenly Father cause she hasn't seen any kind of blessings in her life) about the Restoration and a bit of prayer on the side. I love monday's schedule cause we get to have gym first before lunch, and oh is gym fun. I've been playing volleyball with my companion and a few other sisters and elders from other zones and districts. And I've got to say, I'm quite the teacher! Chiste, HotaKa (joke/kidding, JK) It's just that there are these adorable Sisters, one Mongolian speaking and one Chinese speaking, are always playing with us and in the first few days when were were playing with them, they have been getting better at playing since I've been helping them XD Then we taught 'Maribel', another one of our 'investigators' Hm, I sort of forgot what we taught her that day, but I know that we've been making awesome progress with her. She wants help with trying to get her daughter to 'at least believe in something, even if it's a dog' (those were her words) and we have been teaching her about the Plan of Salvation (which we taught first cause she was curious about it), then recently the Restoration, but I'm skipping ahead XD ... Though, I did make another Spanish mistake with her. So instead of saying "After Jesus Christ's death and the apostles were dead, pieces of truth was scattered throughout the world..." la di da di. Of course, all in Spanish. When I tried to remember 'pieces' in Spanish (cause I had just learned the word like 15 minutes before we taught), I instead said 'farts'. Maribel is such a great 'investigator', but her eyes went wide and she laughed so hard for a few minutes and explained what I had said. Oh well, at least my mistakes are funny and not awkward... yet. 

Finished

Tuesday: Now, Tuesday was a whirlwind of teaching. In the morning we taught 'Marcos' (another one of our teachers who is playing as a guy who was on the fence whether or not God existed and totally lost faith when his parents divorced and is living with his active member grandparents. It's also kinda hard to get to know him cause he's usually closed off.) Hm, we sort of had a bad experience last week with him, but we were able to teach a little more better. It's just sometimes hard to answer his questions cause he asks a lot of... interesting questions that we don't have much of the vocab to answer :P But we're improving. Oh, and today was very interesting as well because... Okay, so as I said, every Sunday and Tuesday we have devotional at night. On Tuesday devos our choir sings (consisting of anyone who wants to join). Hermana Otte wanted to sing in the choir so I had to go with her. What we didn't know until we went to practice was that night's devo was going to be broadcasted to every MTC and I was like "O_O Ohmysweetgoodness!! What?!" But it was fine... I guess. Unfortunately... or fortunately, depending on perspective it cannot be viewed by any other way than in the MTC's. I don't know why, but that day Quentin L. Cook and his wife Mary Cook gave talks :) It was soo good. They talked about missionary work, to not underestimate ourselves, not doubt our calling, and even told us the process of how missionaries are assigned. It was so spiritual and very amazing to hear.

A drawing I drew while waiting for devotional to start when we had a break from choir practice. It's supposed to be Nessie

Wednesday: So lately Hermana Otte, mostly on Wednesday, Hermana Otte started feeling sick, but not so bad. Nothing much different happened, just the usual teaching schedule and lessons and classes that are always amazing and randomness that happens in the classroom when we're too tired to concentrate but have finished our work. Though, what I did find a little more amusing was that one of the teachers, Hermano Ostler, for the other district, and who often came over to our district to help us out with our spanish, was that he asked me in spanish when I was going to teach him French, cause he'd herd me say that I had taken French when I was in highschool and that all these various languages where getting in my way of learning several spanish words. I seriously could not remember almost anything about French, I accidentally told him a line in French that meant something totally different than what I was thinking, but I don't feel like mentioning it cause it... just weird XD

Thursday: Yesterday was a bad day for mi companera. She was feeling a lot worse and so later on when me and the other Hermanas in my district thought that she really not looking so good, I took her to the clinic and we ended up not being able to teach Maribel today. We at least told our zone leader that we weren't going to be available. But what was even more funny and odd but an interesting experience was that because I was in a trio companionship with Hermanas Hoth and Wilson, we had to teach for an hour, 30 minutes each for our own lessons. So, we all saw how different each of our 'Areli''s acted depending on the progress we've gotten on our lessons. 

Friday (today): Pday!! Awesome Pday! So unfortunately Hermana Otte was not able to come to the temple with our zone today and had to stay with another sister in our zone who is recovering from back surgery. Of the nearly four weeks that I've been here, I have now seen every single temple video. It was very interesting to see them all and how different they all are. The first time I went to the temple as a missionary was the curly brown-haired Eve (The other hermanas in my zone differentiate the videos by what the Eve's look like), then the second week was the straight, brown haired Eve that I saw in my own endowment, then last week was the blonde Eve, and then today I saw the older version. Muy interesante XD

So, that has been my last week :) So many amazing experiences and so many wonderful and spiritual experiences. I've had to rely so much on Heavenly Father and the Spirit and I'm not really even in my mission field yet. But I know that all these practices are truly helping me to be prepared for my mission... in spanish!

Hermana Otte working on her spanish flash cards and drawing on them

Okay, so this last paragraph is dedicated to my MTC Companera. Mostly cause my mom sent me a message saying I should at least talk about my companion and explain why we're so similar to each other and just what she's like in general. So Hermana Otte is from Fort Worth, Texas. She likes a lot of things that I love like reading, writing, & drawing, though she did like wolves when she was little, but she likes a lot of animals now. We've both made our own alphabets XD Though hers look more... ancient squiggles while she said mines look like Egyptian-like runes. We've had to deal with friends with very similar personalities. So her friends and my friends can get along well. Oh, and one of the Elders was in a 'what is your animal' phase and named her an owl, which she said that a lot of people say that's what she looks like... and then she called me a small black happy hyper Shitzu puppy. Though the others did agree with the puppy part, but more wolfy ^_^ chiste. Hm, what else... She also likes horseback riding, our investigator Maribel knows her YW's leader back in Texas, and when we play volleyball she has a lot of power, like me XD, though, for some reason, she bruises easily. So it looks like she has some purple leopard spots on her arm.

Well, that's it for today, hope you enjoyed learning of my adventures! Til next time!! :D

OH, P.S

So we have four wardrobes, one for each of us. One of the days, I forgot when... yesterday, I was talking to Hermana Wilson and I looked up randomly at my closet door and in one of the pics you will see that the wood mark looks like a wolf XD I love my closet door now!!!!!