7.17.2012

Fam....
So this is timing me and I have to be quick because I only have 30 minutes! So I don't even know if I am sending it to the right email addressed because I realized I don't have yours and you don't have mine...so hopefully this gets to someone! This week has been hmm....hard. All your Dear Elders have seriously been amazing. At almost every mail time I have something and the Elders think I have someone writing me because I always get something but I just said I have an awesome family which is true! I wrote home my first day but who knows if it got there. My companion is Hermana Dansie from Victor, ID and she is pretty sweet. We get along and have some good laughs everyday. There are two other sisters in our room that are in our district Hermana Ward and Hermana Sanchez. The first day we got here the teachers started speaking Spanish to us and then told us we were going to be teaching our first (fake) investgator on Friday. The teaching was..hmm...horrible. Kid you not we sat in silence for 5 minutes at a time just looking down and at our books and back at each other while the investigator would either say something in Spanish that we didn't understand or sit there and not say anything. So that was pretty sweet. The other thing is almost everyone in my district (10 of us- 4 sisters and 6 elders) speak some Spanish from high school or college except for me. Most can at least understand but I can't even do that. I can pick out a word here and there but seriously during our daily 3 hour class where our teacher, Brother Stoddard, teaches all in Spanish I maybe get 5% ish out of the class. All of church is in Spanish too so I don't catch things like "we are having a ward fast for an elder that is going in for an MRI on monday." I guess it's more than when I started but it's SO hard not to get frustrated when everyone around you is speaking it. There are so many things I want to say and express to our investagtor but I can't because of the language barrier so we rely a lot on the spirit to be able to tell her the things we can't and hope the little things we try to teach are testifying to her. It's hard, probably one of the hardest things I've done, but gotta keep on keeping on, ya know?

So I found out a couple days ago I will be heading to Guat MTC on just my passport I don't even need my visa! I leave on the 31st of this month. So about 2 more weeks-ish. My companion and I went to the Provo Police station today to get a clearence letter and said that was the last thing they needed so hopefully I will be heading out then. They also gave me my release date Jan 11th, 2014......exactly a year a half. Idk why they do that but whatevs. ha Hm what else the food? Not so great, it's okay but my companion and I get a wrap almost every lunch. Mom you would love those. I always think of tons of stuff I want to say during the week and now I can't remember a lot of it. Thanks again fam for all the support you're all so great. Regardless of how hard it is, I know it's the Lords work. He needs my help and knows I can do this, and that helps my confidence when I get down and discouraged. I pray for you guys everyday Love and miss you all! xoxo -Hermana Ahrendsen