Week 3

Hello everyone,

So guess what?! I am totally leaving tomorrow morning at 4:45 am... which means I get to wake up at 3:20 in the morning.... o joy. They only gave me three hours to pack and do laundry. ahhh and clean the room. it has been a little crazy. But I thought I would write one last time before I leave the country. so ya. here it goes.... I can't believe how close my district has gotten. It is going to be so sad to leave them. They just gave all the hermanas blessings. wow, I can really feel the power of the priesthood when those young men give blessings. It was the the first blessing that some of these elders have ever given, and I know that the spirit was there to guide their words. because it was exactly what we needed to hear. So here is my random thoughts for this week. I apologize if they are not cohesive at all....

Okay so ya. we do weekly service for 70 minutes every friday morning at 6 am.... ugh. and guess what we had to do?? we had to scrub walls... and clean the gym bathrooms. (can I just say that boys bathrooms are gross) so ya we are pretty much cleaning zombies every friday.... it is not much fun, but it is good that we are serving the MTC.

So we learned a really good lesson in class. You can either say (in spanish) "you can be cleansed of your sins" OR!! "you can be cleansed of your fish." A couple of us made that mistake in our practice. hahaa so we had to make sure you say pecado and not! pescado. ahahaha i guess you had to be there.

I had my first humiliating moment!! yaya. just kidding... it was probably the most humbling experience I have ever had. So we were in a lesson and the investigator was talking really fast in spanish. she said that she didn't have much time. she said that she thought God loves us because we are good people, but god doesnt love her.... I just didn't catch thtat last part, so I thoguht she was telling us to get going. So I just went on with the lesson and asked to end with a prayer. my companio stopped and told me what she said.... uggggghhhh humiliation. I totally shattered the spirit's presence... o hackin. We then had CRT, right after. Which is we have to go talk to a real person about the church and teach a lesson. so naturally, i still felt so dumb, that i totally froze up in that one too. This is the reason that I have two companions instead of one. They can pick up my slack when I have no idea what the investigator is saying! hahaha. well, I have been sufficiantly humbled this week. And i am sure that it will be even more humbling when I am trying to teach on the streets of peru next saturday night...

The most exciting part of the MTC: 4 Square. ya thats right. this is what the entire zone looks forward too. I have never heard such excitement over an elementary school game. I never got into it, but the rest of my district is addicted. they spend their entire gym time playing four square... (and the other 14 hours of the day talking about 4 square.) haha so all you future missionaries... you bettter practice your four square skills before you come here.

Newest movie we are quoting and i am DYING to watch:..... Mulan. you know thats right. "come on cricket pack the bags"

The part about learning a new language is that my english skills seem to be getting worse..... I wish i could draw a diagram... my english skills are plummeting.... and my spanish skills are barely raising... so.. I pretty much can't speak in any language right now. it is a miracle that I am able to write this email. ;)

My mom sent me scripture stickers to put in my new scriptures... I have never done anything more addicting. I just can't stop putting all of these stickers in my scriptures. It is truly my daily stress relief routine. My companions are totally jealous too. muahahaha.

Funniest part ofthe week: one of the hermanas in my district had a really loud alarm clock. it would tick tick tick tick all night long. so she took the batteries out. We started listening to all of the watches and clocks in the room to see which ones ticked really loud. (missionaries ahve a lot of clocks and watches) She had the most serious face when she listened to her digital watch.... concerned she asked why it wasn't ticking?....... hermana, that is a digital watch. so our lack of sleep pushed over the edge and we laughed for at least five minutes straight.

So in lifeguarding we sometimes had surprise tests to make sure that we were paying attention to the patrons in the pool. One of the tests was the head guard would throw a purple and red nerf ball into the pool. We had to treat it like it was a drowning person. and jump in and save it as soon as we noticed it. this test would cost us a suspension if we failed it. so needless to say, all lifeguards are afraid of the red and purple nerf ball. So ya, we were having a planning session and I was literally half asleep. and then an elder walked past with a nerf ball. I jolted awake and screamed a little. I then had to explain myself to my companions and my teacher. My heart was racing for like five minutes afterwards. Wow I really have been conditioned to react to the nerf ball.... ugh

Well I am out of time. Hopefully I will find a computer in Peru!! pray for us!!

Hermana Milne

Week 2

Hello! Greetings from the Provo MTC.... yay!

So ya we finally fixed the mailbox and I got all my mail finally! yesssss.. So what do I do at the MTC.... I wake up eat, study,eat, run/play volleyball, eat, study, drift off to sleep in class, study, study, study.... 16 hour days... wow. It is A LOT of hard work. My spanish is coming okay. needless to say, I have a long way to go. So I have a few funny things that happened this week... here it goes. I am typing as fast as I can because I only have a few minutes.

- The elders of our district put up with us.... the crazy sisters.... I feel bad for them sometimes. They will totally miss us when we all head to the Peru MTC next week

- by the way! I got my plane ticket to head to Peru next tuesday at five in the morning.... yessssss. So unfortunately I will not have access to a computer next week... sorry! and you might as well write me a letter before next monday, so you don't have to pay international postage rates.... just saying

-I am quite certain that missionary mtc inside jokes are NOT at all funny to normal people on the outside... so if you don't think this is funny... too bad for you because we are usually laughing hysterically.

-Our room of girls has taken a SEVERE liking to quoting Nacho Libre. Like that is all that we say. We even came up with our own mtc lyrics for the song that Nacho sings.. Funny quote: "how did you get here so fast?? Secret tunnels... shhhhh" I totally want to watch it right now! ahhhhh Needless to say, I may be a little stir crazy.

-I am reminded how young the elders are when: 1. Overhear them planning out what they would do if their was a zombie apocalypse (although I think that guys of all ages do this) 2. Discuss that Satan is probably a pretty good looking guy..... what? 3. Discuss who would win in a fight to the death.... Harry Potter vs. Luke Skywalker

-Everytime an elder looks like he might be flirting with a sister (or vice versa)... everyone yells "slippery slope" It is quite a common phrase.

- We had accent Friday, when we all talk in ridiculous accents for some of the day.... (I was sid the sloth, and Nacho Libre)

- I have the song from youtube, "harry potter in 99 seconds" stuck in my head this ENTIRE week. My companions are going crazy. You should watch it if you haven't already. hahaha

- Getting ready on time is SO much harder than I thought.... We are late to everything. ugh!

-The newest thing at the MTC.... Bouncy balls. Every elder has one, and they bounce them constantly. We ask the elders where they got them, and they said that there is a MTC Black Market located in the Elders residence halls where they can get any toys that they want. THey have been passed down from generation to generation.... (that is the difference between elders and sisters) Elders have nerf gun and lightsaber wars in the halls. Sisters are running around just trying to frantically get ready on time. hmmmmm interesting.

-The one time that I almost started crying: When all two thousand missionaries at the MTC sang the army of Helaman song together. wow. (o just kidding, I choked in the district testimony meeting.... ugh i hate crying)

-The scripture that hit me hard this week: Alma 26:16 and 27.

So ya. this is my mtc experience so far. I can't believe that I only have one more week here, and then I am leaving the country!! My companions are doing well. and we are having a good time. pray for us!

Hermana Milne

Week 1

Hola!

How is everything going? I bet that a million exciting things have happened since I left last Wednesday. So I am only allowed to write on Tuesdays here at the MTC. It is my P day, yaaaaaay! O my goodness I can't believe that I have been gone for seven days! One of my companeras had a quote that is so applicable to the MTC... "A week feels like a day, and a day feels like a week." It is so TRUE! The MTC is always busy and you don't have time to catch your breath. Okay maybe I should start from the beginning... I am in a trio companionship. It has some difficulties. I have never had to wait for two other girls, before I could start going anywhere.... It is an adjustment that I am beginning to get the hang of ,...... ish. The funny thing is after a few days... I totally get seperation anxiety if I can't see them. ahaha!

My companions names are Hermana Jury and Hermana Boyce. H.Jury is from California and H.Boyce is from Indiana. We are all going to the Bolivia Cochabamba mission. I am so excited. We are rooming with another companionship also. and the five of us are never seperate. It hasnt been since high school sports that I have had to travel in a huge pack of girls...

My first day... My parents just dropped me off on the curb and they whisked me away to a classroom, where I met the rest of my district. 6 Elders and 5 sisters... pretty even. But all of us sisters are leaving in three weeks to the Peru MTC. Except visas for Peru might be delayed so I might be in Provo for longer than I was expecting. So a maestro came in and talked to us in spanish for like two hours!! WHat is he even saying.... i dont know. The first day was very humbling... But we learned how to bear our testimony and pray.. (Which I still haven't gotten the hang of yet) ugh... patience patience

So they ask us to cut out slang and sarcasm out of our everyday language. and it is so hackin hard!!! ahhhh hackin IS a slang word.... NOOOOO! Needless to say, I am still working on that one. The food is pretty good. I can definitely see how people can gain weight here. I have accidentally drank too much chocolate milk and ate too much food a couple times and felt horrible afterwards. But! I have avoided the orange juice. (the orange banana passionfruit juice is way better anyways) We totally get fifty minutes in the gym five days a week. I love it! I have been playing some of the best volleyball here ever since high school.

Hardest thing: We had to teach an investigator on our third day here. IN SPANISH Her name is Briana and we have attempted to teach her three times now..... ugh the first time was a trainwreck but we are getting better. it is like they throw us into the deep end of a pool and tell that we better learn how to swim (speak espanol) fast or else we will drown... (make fools of ourselves ALL the time)

So our mailbox isn't set up yet or something... because none of our district has gotten any mail yet. I feel bad for some of the guys. They really want mail. hah. If I do have any ...... HEY I just realized !!! HAPPY VALENTINES DAY! yayaya. Dates and time is kinda morphed and unimportant in the MTC. weird.... So ya I haven't gotten any mail yet... anyways... I dont have much time on the computer so this email is all over the place.

Most crazy thing so far. A sister collapsed in Relief society meeting!! wow! Needless to say the meeting ended early when the ambulance arrived. She had a heart condition and passed out. but she is totally fine.

Goal: Mi companeras really like to stay up late and wake up late. That is where I am learning my patience. We have been late to almost everything this week... ahhh. I didn't realize I was a punctual person until now. I get really tense when we are late. So ya they talked until midnight last night and we had to get up at six thirty. and then we were late.

Well I have like one minute left so good luck with everything at home!!

I love you guys!

Hermana Milne