Hola familia!
Let me start this email with a business meeting:
1.) Apparently sperries are allowed
2.) So are maxi skirts as long as they don't cover your ankles...now I feel silly for turning down mom's offer to buy me those skirts in Cozy right before coming here...
3.) Elder Ferguson from my district said his Dad served in France Toulouse Mission! Maybe you know him, Mom?
4.) THANK YOU for the package! Those cookies were so delicious. Saved my life. :)
5.) Thursdays are P-days for me! In case you couldn't tell ;)
Now onto my letter!
Shoutout to Sister Carlson for sending me some cute cards! They were lovely. AAAAND on our way to the Marriott Center for our Tuesday night devotional, I saw the Anderson family! I guess they were just getting into their car after visitng the creamery, and all of a sudden I hear someone yell "Hermana Blood!" so I was able to give Sister Anderson a quick hug before I had to get back to my companions!
Kate arrives at the MTC!
MYCOMPANIONS!
MYCOMPANIONS!
I have two. There is Hermana Harris, who is 21 and from SLC and she is super cool. She is also a Type 1 Diabetic, so I have a story to share about that later. There is also Hermana Briggs who is also 21 and originally from Idaho, but has been living in NYC for the last year and a half. They are both super sweet and I am learning a lot from them! It's interesting though, because we get both ends of the age spectrum in our district-- 6 out of 7 of the Elders in our District are 18. But they are all so spiritual and so ready and willing to work! We LITERALLY (que Parks and Rec) have the best District ever.
In the last week, I have seen approximately a gazillion people here from my home ward. I see Elder Hardy quite frequently and I saw Elder Strobelt before he left for Texas this past week! I see Hermana Woodruff from my FHE group alllllll the time along with Sectpa (sister) Garrett who will be going to Ukraine in a few weeks! It's so fun to see so many people from BYU here, my companeras try to claim that I´m super popular but I have to remind them that I am the same age as all of my friends who are serving missions...haha.
So...the MTC. It is absolutely the best place ever and they have this process down to perfection. When I first got here on Wednesday, i felt a little bit like a Sheep being shepherded through the various processes that I needed to go through (nametag, room, etc) and then Thursday was probably the longest day ever because our Teacher, Hermana Heinzen (who is a rockstar by the way), was talking to us ONLY in Spanish, which made it a bit stressful and it was seriously sink or swim... But we were talking in class one day and Hermana Heinzen quoted Bruce R. McConkie and I swear she is inspired because this was EXACTLY what I needed to hear right then.
"I am called of God. My authority is above that of the Kings of the Earth. By revelation I have been selected as a Personal Representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is my master and He has chosen me to represent Him-to stand in His place, to say and do what He himself would say and do if He personally were ministering to the very people to whom He has sent me. My voice is His voice, my acts are His acts, my words are His words, and my doctrine is His doctrine. My commission is to do what He wants done, to say what He wants said, to be a living, modern witness in word and in deed of His great and marvelous Latter-day work. How great is my calling!"
How comforting to know that my imperfect Spanish and my imperfect teaching skills can be perfected through the Atonement of Christ so that I can be a messenger to the Children of God that are prepared for the truth that I have to share.
I am learning SO much here! We had to teach our first "Investigator" (a teacher here at the MTC) on our 3rd day here IN SPANISH. Suuuuuper stressful, but it was a really cool experience. I am learning to be patient with myself and it's really cool to be experiencing the gift of tongues in that various words and principles of the Spanish language that I haven't studied in over a year are coming back to me during our lessons. I also have the first vision memorized in Spanish, and that was perfect because I used it in one of our lessons with Marco Antonio (our "Investigator") and the Spirit was incredibly strong when I was able to recite it from memory. The spirit is strong here in general, because on the main campus there are approximately 2,000 of the Lord's set apart missionaries. How cool!
Here are some quotes from the devotionals and class this past week:
"Faith in Jesus Christ means faith in His ability to change our investigators if they let Him."--Brother Avila, our Zone Teacher
"There are individuals that need you to be the missionary that the Savior knows you can be."--Matthew O. Richardson, 2nd Counselor in the Sunday School Presidency
This work is so important and I am so privilaged to have even the smallest part in it. The church is so true, and I feel it every time that I bear testimony of it every day through word and deed.
Some funny stories:
On the first day, my companions didn't arrive until like 7pm for various reasons, so I had to be companions with the elders in my district! During dinner everyone was looking at me like I was already breaking the rules...haha even though I was assigned to my elders as temporary companions.
Also: because Hermana Harris is a diabetic, we need a fridge in our room to keep her Insulin (sp?) cold. It hadn't come for like 2 days and she SERIOUSLY needed the fridge, so one of the wives of our Branch Presidency members compained to the front desk and finally, at 10:30pm on Friday night, we got an announcement in our hall over the intercom. It said, "Sisters on the 3rd floor, there will be a male security guard entering your floor so please be decent accordingly." WE BUSTED UP LAUGHING. This poor security guard had to haul up 2 flights of stairs a mini fridge and of course AAAAALLLLLLL the sisters on our floor had their heads poking out to see this foreign man on our floor (as if we don't spend 16 hours a day with the Elders...). When this guard had already carried this fridge up the stairs, the hermanas in the room next to us came out and said sheepishly, "Ummm, so I think there was a mistake because we had a fridge in our room all day and we don't know why..." Poor guy....he hauled up that second fridge for no reason, there had only been a mistake in the delivery! Me and Hermana Harris just started laughing, it was the funniest thing of my life.
Missionaries are so funny. Here are some examples:
Elder Marble (from a neighboring Zone): Hey Elder, check out my earlobes! They are so soft!
Elder Hill (from my District): Hair just gets in the way of wisdom. When you're bald, you are just open to wisdom from the Heavens. <<<-------Thought Dad would like that one ;)
Elder Ferguson is from my District and he was helping to teach Marco Antonio about the law of Chastity. He wanted to say that he knows it's hard to keep this law because there are so many beautiful girls in the world, but that he knows there are blessings from it. Unfortunatly, he said that it was hard to keep this law because there are so many beautiful HERMANAS in the world.....bahahaha poor elder. Good thing it wasn't a real investigator...
It's so fun to get those Dear elder letters! I feel the love from however-many-miles away. I love hearing how things are and it sounds like you all had a really great Sunday this week! Sounds like Nat is working just as hard as Dad (chistes chistes....that means joke. haha) And thankfully we haven't really felt much of that heat like Jake/Caleb and Michele have had to since we are in air conditioned classrooms basically all day :) I also love the quotes and scriptures and thoughts you guys share, it's nice to hear more about what struck you throughout the week. I love hearing from you and I look forward to hearing more about how things are going! Let me know what else you want to hear about. I may have to send you another letter (i sent one just this morning) since we have all day P-day to write letters but only an hour to email...wah wah. But I look forward to hearing about everything that's going on!
Hurrah for Israel!
<3 Hermana Blood
P.S. this is the first time I've worn pants in 8 days and it's both nice and strange at the same time.
P.P.S. I don't know how to send pictures yet...so I'll have to learn how to do that...
kbyeforreal
#Ilovemissionarywork
#IfeeloldeventhoughImonlyayearolderthanourelders
#preachmygospelisthebest
#predicadmievangelioenespanol
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