Ola Amigos!
Can you send me
the lyrics to "I'm leaving on a jet plane don't know when i'll be back
again"?
We're doing laundry in
the a.m. - thus I am awake extremely early. Alright you have till 9am to write me
something really great...this week has had a lot of stories so I hope you do!
I'll write later, but
just so I don't forget: I eat bagels for breakfast. I was in the bagel line the
other day and talking to a Sister Turnbow when she says "are you by chance the
Sister Sackley that is related to the Richards?" It threw me off way bad so we
started talking and realized we were related! I had no idea any cousins were in
the MTC so it was quite funny to just randomly bump into her. Her classroom is on
my floor so i have seen her tons before we made the connection.
Also, Garrett I have fun
with my zone, but I am the only one in my district. It's just me and my teachers
for 6 hours of my day. Surprisingly enough, it's not horrible. But I am my own
zone. okay I'll write in a bit-
Tcao!
(Later that morning)
This past Saturday, Elder Laga left for Arizona. (His visa hadn't come and so they reassigned him to AZ). So officially, I am one of three of the "oldest" in the zone. There is no word on the visa, however some elders just got theirs today so who knows. However, the other zone of elders waiting for visas to Brazil have a theory: The Consulate for all of our visas is a Mexican. He hates Brazilians and he hates his job even more. Because of this, he sits at his desk all day long grumbling and right before the day is over, his boss comes over and is all "CARLOS PICK SOME VISAS!" And then he half-heartedly thrusts his hand into the growing stack of visas and picks a few. Sometimes however, he goes on a date or has a good day, and when this occurs he does more than just one visa.
This story is not true,
however the way the visas are coming it is definitely a possibility. There is no
rhyme or reason to who gets their visa. However, I have finally smartened up and
decided to be adopted into a district in the branch. The Elders that adopted
me are going to Mozambique and Angola and no matter what, they are here at least
a week after my departure date.
On that note, this past
week I was pretty sick. I was coughing and had a really bad sore throat and
stuffy nose. I planned on sticking it out all week and then I ran into one of my
branch presidency members and he told me I needed to get a blessing. I enlisted
our zone leaders (who are in the Mozambique/Angola branch) and the whole
district gave me a blessing. Elder M anointed oil and then Elder
B gave me a blessing. He had never given a blessing before and as the
sweet elders placed their hands on my head I could tell they were nervous (their
hands were shaking). They gave me a short heart-felt blessing and the next
morning I felt LOADS better. All that is left is a cough, if that.
Because I am the only sister in the zone, I have the privilege of never ever opening doors. I get in trouble if I go for the handle these days and I am starting to worry I'm going to be a snot come 3 weeks from now. I am with the Elders all day every day. They pick me up in the morning, walk me to class, walk me to meals, to lessons, to workshops and then home again. Sometimes one of them even carry my purse! Because of this, I have totally grown accustomed to being around only Elders.
Sundays are a little harder because they
have priesthood and I have to find a group of sisters who I can just hang out
with for an hour. I found sisters going to the Baltics and we had a great
conversation about all sorts of things. Needless to say, by the end of the hour
we were all weeping and in each other's arms. As funny as it sounds, I had
forgotten what it was like to be around just sisters! I had a weak moment as I
wished desperately for a sister to come to the branch, especially at dinner that
night as the Elders all talked about girls and girls from home and what sisters
here are cute blah blah....I had "a sister moment" and ran to the bathroom to
cry in pity for myself. (a woe is me moment). They noticed instantly and came
looking for me. They immediately apologized and had a "coming to Jesus talk" as
a zone and repented. Since then, all girl talk has ceased and it's going really
well. I would never wish solo sisterhood on ANY sister. I can see why a lot of
sisters have problems with it. But if someone had to be a solo, I would wish for
them to have elders like mine. They are the best and I am so thankful for
them.
(When I refer to "My
Elders" I refer to the whole branch of elders. there are 17 of them
TOTAL....which is extremely small for a branch....)
We had a guest speaker
in Relief Society that talked all about the trials and hardships of life. I
thought to myself of how hard a mission is. How much work. How tired I am every
single moment. How ugly your clothes get SO FAST. It is indeed the hardest 18
months I have ever loved. Because that's how I feel. I just love it here. Even
if the food is sick, nasty...and it is. for real. (on that note i eat a bagel or
cereal for breakfast, a salad for lunch and then I put my fear factor face on
for dinner...it's not always horrible but a lot of the time it is. The only good
thing that comes out of the processed foods is the Rice Krispies treats...and I'm
not even sure that counts as processed).
Because I make up my own
branch, lately I have been teaching just by myself with the Spirit being my
companion. This past Friday we finally found a Sister teacher who could come in
and help me during my lessons. Her name is Sister Christensen and she is SO nice
to have just to sit next to me while I teach. I totally understand why we teach
in two's....I run out of things to say pretty fast in Portuguese! I was talking
to her yesterday and she was Mark Grether's teacher for the week he was here.
(p.s. where in Brazil is Mark again? I can't remember.)
Funny things that happen
in the MTC lately: My elders think it is the funniest thing to do the whistle
from the Hunger Games while at meals. They do it probably three or four times
and before you know it, someone on the other side of the cafeteria is doing it
back to us. The other day they did it right before devotional and all of a
sudden everyone was doing it.
We also find the
smallest things amusing. Someone got the plastic jumping frogs in the mail and
left them out and so we all took them and played with them during lunch for a
solid 20 minutes without getting bored.
The statue of two elders
on bikes that everyone knows about? One is a Spanish speaking missionary and the
other is a Portuguese missionary. There is a constant rivalry between the
Spanish and the Portuguese speakers going on here. The latest is that the
Portuguese biker is more attractive than the Spanish one (which he is...if metal
could be attractive)
Random: My bunk bed
roommate is Sister Johnson. She is Josh Ellis' cousin. It might be the
funniest connection I have made since being here at the MTC.
This week we are
expecting one Elder. His name is Elder Stacy and he is going to Brasilia,
Brazil. We all feel so incredibly bad for him, because starting out with a
district, then losing them is a lot better than starting out alone. He will
always be the only one his teacher teaches for the next 9 weeks and I can't
imagine how hard it would be to start out that way here. I have come to the
realization that when the visa comes, it comes. I am totally game for being
reassigned at this point....So stop praying for my visa, start praying for Elder
Stacy's. We're hoping either way that he fits right in with us.
Alright that's all for
now,
Love you all,
Mad
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