Hola!
Thanks so much for sending me tights! Now hopefully I won't freeze. I found out last week that they have a little fridge in the cafeteria with gluten free bagels, bread and other snacks. I don't eat from there very often though.
They have a different salad and soup every day so that's usually what I eat. They also have rice and chicken almost every meal. I don't eat much for breakfast...surprise surprise. I don't think I need a flat pencil case. I have a pocket in my purse that I keep a few pens and then I leave the rest in my desk in our classroom. I can't believe there has been a 600% increase of missionary applications. They're really trying to prepare the missionaries at the MTC now to be prepared because we are most likely going to be training a lot of the new younger missionaries once they get into the field. I might have a 19 year old companion! Not sure how to feel about that. That was really nice of Brother Hanks to say I should go into public speaking. I enjoy it but I get pretty nervous. Especially now that I have to speak in Spanish.
The weather has been really nice and during language or personal study, my companion and I sit outside in the sun to study. It's so nice.
Mom I really liked your comment about missionary work being a little piece of heaven. That's exactly how it feels here. Nothing else matters except serving others and brining them to Christ. I just need to remember to enjoy it ALL the time. And this week I learned that the way to gain a greater love for someone is to serve them. You have always been a selfless server. It's easy to serve the people you already love but if you serve someone first it's almost automatic that you'll appreciate them more. Especially if they show appreciation for what you've done. That's why it's important to serve and to let others know that you appreciate their service. My companion and I got a lot closer this week because of that. The blog password is the same as your other blog. It's on the same account. I think it was ethanalexboston or something. So however you sign into appleicious. Maybe Jessica or Andrea could help you. If you can't figure it out Amy Kate and maybe a few other people will want you to forward them my emails because I told everyone to check my blog. Or maybe Andrea and Jessica could make a different blog and put it on facebook.
Andrea & Jessica- Thanks for the letters! I love hearing from both of you and especially how the boys are doing. Reading stories and hearing about them in the middle of the day makes it a thousand times better! I want to see pictures of their Halloween costumes in a couple weeks. Andrea are you still going to send me blog posts? You can email them to me since you're family. I only get 30 minutes though so if you mailed them it might be better. How are both of your houses coming along?
And Dad you were close with "como es ta"..."esta" is one word. But you used the right form! A lot of missionaries have had to break the habit of saying "como estas" which is the informal form. I didn't know anything in the beginning so I haven't had to break any habits. I did take a foot picture for you but I don't know how to send pictures from the computer yet. I might print some off for you guys soon to send in the mail. Did you figure out how to deal with the troublesome coaches yet? It sounds like it's their own problem. But I'm sure there's a way to handle it. Even if you're right and they're wrong. Just don't turn it into "who's right and who's wrong" because that just causes contention. Maybe you already figured it out. That's a good idea to get testimonies from the people here in the MTC. Four elders in our district are leaving on Tuesday for the guatemala MTC.
I hope when I get back from my mission I stay in the habit of going to sleep at 1030 and waking up at 630. I love it and I get SO much more done. Mainly because we have to. But I'm always so shocked at how much I can do before noon. I'm definitely starting to recognize certain phrases and every time we learn a new verb I recognize it all the time during conversations. They expose us to conversations with native and fluent speakers all the time. Our first conversation with a native speaker was very interesting. I couldn't understand a word he said but somehow I still knew the message he was trying to get across. If that even makes sense. So I responded to what I thought he was talking about and he seemed to understand. At that point I didn't know how to conjugate anything so it probably sounded ridiculous. But we finally learned basic conjugations! Which I think would have been helpful to learn the first day not the second week. But oh well, at least now I know.
Is the kitchen done yet? I haven't used my jump rope yet because they have a lot of things in the gym that I want to take advantage of while I'm here. I still alternate lifting and running every other day. I got my voting ballot so I'll fill it out and send it in the mail today. We got our second teacher. I don't know if I told you that already. He's the nephew of Elder D. Todd Christofferson and he has some awesome stories to tell. He served in Argentina so his accent is very different. He doesn't say his "S's" So Dios sounds like Dio and I never know what he's saying. But I'll probably be running into people with different Spanish accents all the time so I guess it's good to get used to it now. I never thought I'd miss CC but I do! Don't sell her while I'm gone.
Sister Burton (the RS presidency) came to speak to the sisters on Sunday. And then we all got a lesson about being "lady like". I felt like Miss Congeniality. She demonstrated how to "glide" not "bop" down the stairs and a whole bunch of other stuff we should do. Right after the lesson I was walking up some stairs and I took like three at a time. Oops...that definitely isn't gliding. Sunday's are definitely my favorite day. Our district walked to the temple and it was such perfect weather. The fireside we had that night was about having an eternal perspective and it was awesome. The speaker also talked about making "finding people" (as in finding those who have been prepared to come unto Christ) a lifestyle instead of an event. That way, once we return from our mission we will still be able to bring others unto the gospel of Jesus Christ. The book of Mormon really is evidence of everything we believe. And I'm so grateful we have the fullness of everything we need to know. I thought missionary work meant you had to know a whole bunch of doctrine but the Book of Mormon has all the answers anyone could ever ask or want to know. So I'm not worried about not knowing enough anymore. Not knowing enough Spanish is another story though So I'll just make sure to carry enough books of mormon for everyone. Well I think that's it for this week! Feel free to pray for me in learning the language :) Love you all!
Hermana Billings
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