Week 5

Hey hey hey!

how is it going in utah? is it still snowing? it is a little hotter here. but ya okay i wont talk about the weather anymore. so life in the mtc in peru goes like this.... all that i do everyday is study, read, learn grammar, attempt to teach in spanish, play soccer, shower and get ready frantically (sometimes i have time to do my hair.. sometimes i have like 10 minutes to get ready... we battle for showers) and also i try to communicate with my companion. Hermana caicedo is from ecuador. she was a nanny before she came here, so we call her mom. she keeps track of all of the hermanas in my room. it is a lot of fun. i can say that personal study is the best thing ever. i never really got into it before the mission, but i am telling you. i have recieved so much strength my personal study. in fact... guess what?! i am about to fininsh the book of mormon tomorrow. it took me two weeks to read it all of the way through. yesss. next i am going to start on the new testament and pearl of great price. i am so hackin excited.

you would not believe what i had to do last saturday. i had to go out and visit less active members in the streets of peru. it is soo so different here, there are a lot more locks barbwire, and bars and no one has any yards. weird.... most of the people on our list were not home. but it was hot and we got lost a couple of times. i am so grateful that my companion speaks the language. i have been humbled once again, because i didnt understand most of what the people were saying... o boy. there were stray dogs everywhere!! unbelievable. no animal control here. and we got the talk about rabies. so now i am officially afraid of all of these dogs. probably the biggest culture shock came from my companion. it is so simple, but it made me realize we were from different places. we bought some bottled water and drank it while we were walking... then my companion crumpled up the bottle and just threw it in the street!! i was just so confused by this.. i dont know why. i had to stop myself from yelling, litterer!!! wow it was weird.

we got a visit from a ward here at the mtc.. all of the young women wanted to talk to us, but we couldnt understand them. they just had this pitying look in their eyes. they would try to correct our spanish a lot. all who read this... please pray for the poor north americans at the mtc in peru. we really really need to learn spanish... and fast. but it was a lot of fun.. the young people of the church are so faithful here.

soccer is getting a little crazy. we had four minor injuries in one day. ankle, hamstring, nose, and foot. we need to calm it down a little bit. i dont know if i am getting much better, but o well.

i was reading the story about alma the younger, and it is so great. you should read that story this week. o ya and i just got back from the temple and i want to give all of you a challenge.... i want you to go to the temple once a month for the next 17 months. can you do that? it is so simple and doesnt take much time, but it will make all of the difference in your lives. so ya. that is what i want you to do. i am going to ask you if you went to the temple faithfully when i get home. i am giving you a commitment, just like all of my future investigators.

Thanks for the emails. they are so much fun to read. i get so excited every week to hear from you. i am out of time once again. so ya i learned a new phrase.... are you ready.

the church is true, the book is blue, and Jesus is a mormon

hahaa have a great week.

hermana milne

Week 4

hola!

how is everything going at home? my address is... i will give it to you before i forget.

hermana janessa milne

Centro de Capacitacion Missional

Melgarejo 159 La Molina

Peru

this email is going to be all over the place because i have even less time than when i was in provo.

so ya. hahaha where do i start? we just got back from the temple and it was beautiful... the bus ride was not as beautiful though.... it was so crazy and crowded. but luckily for me i was taller than everyone else on the bus. i was a head taller and my head touched the ceiling... there is no such thing as personal space here. hahaa.

today was a little warmer but it isnt as hot has it gets in utah. the weather is perfect everyday! it is so crazy. okay so ya. the mtc here is almost like the other mtc in provo. we workout and shower and then study study study. we are focusing a lot more on spanish here though... o ya because no one else speaks english. our teachers only know a little broken english, but we communicate well enough. i am pretty sure i only get about sixty percent of what is going on here... owelll. so my companion is latina. her name is hermana caicedo. she is from ecuador, and she talks really fast so i dont know anything else about her... woops. we are companions outside of class. but i am in the north american class, so i have american companions too. the same ones from provo. we are growing really close. it is hard to believe that we have known each other for less than a month.

most disappointing part.... they dont know how to play volleyball at all... no!!!!!!! o well. i knew it was too good to be true. so ya... they have a really nice turf soccer field here. needless to say, i am now slowly learning how to play soccer. why didnt i learn this skill before i came here. i have no skills and the latinos just laugh at us. one of my companions is going to teach me the basic soccer skills this week though. i am gonna be a pro when i get home. we have to play soccer five days a week here. but! we played north americans vs. latinos and we tied.... that has got to count for something.

it has been a blast talking with my companion. i think that i am picking up spanish so much better here. i am always surrounded by it. i am trying to teach lessons with hermana caicedo but i only have like five minutes worth of spanish vocabulary... and then she just takes over. ahahah. my latina room mates are now calling me rapunzel... i wonder why.... haha jk.

the food is okay here. it is different. and they have weird juices... the corn juice is the worst. the orange juice is the best. i honestly dont even know what the other juices are. o ya! and i have already accidently said my first swear word. i was trying to practice joseph smiths first vision and i mixed two words together... all of the latina hermanas froze and then started laughing. they said that the word i said was really bad.... sorryyyyy! i am not even sure exactly what i said. but mental note.... pronounce all the words in the first vision story..

gross moment. we cant chew on our fingernails or else we will get a parasite!!! wow. no way! that kind of scared me to death a little. at least i havent seen any huge bugs yet. and it was gross when i got a cold a couple days ago. it was the worst cold that i have had in quite a long time. thank you for dayquil, it is my salvation. the jet lag plus the cold was not fun. the president told me to clean out my nose. he said i have to breathe in water into me nose and then breath out. ugh is was like when i get water up my nose in the pool. but it helped a little.. unpleasant.

on the first day of the mtc. we had to introduce ourselves and bear our testimony in front of the entire zone in spanish. the latinos chuckled at our accents but it was really intense... i am pretty sure i dont even know exactly what i said... ugh ..... language will come.

the best part of the day..... Fruit time!!! at 845 every night we get to go to the cafeteria and eat fruit... it is the best thing ever! it is what i look forward to every single day. the fruit is really good, and sometimes we get ice cream. it is all that we talk about here.

i love you all!! o ya and i can only send letters if i have american stamps.... i dont have any. so if you send a letter... send stamps too. because i wont be able to mail any letters before then. i am out of time. i love you

Hermana Milne

p.s. funny random english phrases that the latino elders know

im the best in the world

are you talking to me??

pokemon, i choose you

sometimes they will just scream I LOVE!!! to the american elders, they always forget the you at the end. they are so funny to talk to.

Another Week 3

no hablo español.... haha

hola hola hola,

lucky you. I get to email twice this week. Once from Provo, and now............. from Peru! huzzah. So ya by the way i am not dead. I have had the craziest 36 hours. So I had the frantically pack and do laundry and attempt to get to bed on time.... i may have been a little late, but i was really close to 1030. the other hermanas were up til 1230 and they got in trouble by the security guard. wowww. so we woke up at 320 in the hackin morning and packed everything, and attempted to drag it across the mtc at 430 in the morning. we drove on the bus and i waved to murray as i passed by. the airplane ride was really fun. minus the part where we were trying not to watch the movies on all of screens in the airplane. ugh. so i tried to sleep and we told embarrassing stories for four hours. o ya. the hermanas have definitely bonded. we got some hackin sweet food on the seven hour flight from georgia to lima. wow.

by the time we got through customs and waited for elders that never showed up after us.... their flights were rescheduled. we didnt get to the mtc until 330. i didnt get to bed til 4 and we woke up at six to shower and get ready.... but then they told us to sleep for two more hours... p´hew. so ya i am running on not a lot of sleep... i think that makes me even more confused than usual...... o ya and the small detail that everyone speaks spanish here. ughh. we have no idea what is goin on cuz we dont understand the announcements.

i know you are wondering what lima is like... it is beautiful. it is a little humid, but the tempurature is perfect. the mtc here... is wow! amazing. it really does look like we are on temple grounds. i think that you can look at pictures of the mtc online. I havent gotten attacked by any bugs yet so that makes me happy. they also have volleyball courts here, so i am hoping that some of these south americans have got game. it also helps that i have at least six inches on everyone here. o by the way. we are like the only other americans here, at least as far as i know. we have new elders traveling with us to bolivia... elders murdock, gilbert, and herndon. yes... i cant believe i remembered their names. so ya i think it is really chaotic today because they are getting a lot of newcomers. i havent met my real companion yet. but i am pretty sure she wont speak english.

okay so i dont have any really funny stories... sorry. i just wanted to write to you before next wednesday. so have fun this week! i am sure it will be pretty interesting for me also. love you guys

Hermana Milne

p.s. sorry if this email is lacking punctuation... spanish keyboards are hard! i worked really hard to find that exclamation point!!!

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

Thanksgiving, Birthday, Finals, Christmas, Cruise, Farewell, Mission

Holy Crap I haven't written since October. And unfortunately, this will be the last post for awhile... 18 months to be exact. I also have to cover a few major things that I haven't talked about yet.

Thanksgiving. I got to drive home and see the family. It was a lot of fun. The bad part was that I had to finish three huge projects before thanksgiving. (because we all know how productive I am during the holidays... not) I wrote a 22 page psychology paper on post traumatic stress disorder. and I made an exercise program for my sisterinlaw. So ya... that is when I started to panic about finals. After Thanksgiving, I headed back to Cedar City for the last three weeks.

Birthday. My birthday was pretty awesome!! I had school, but I planned a dessert party. I went over to Kjersti's house for some dinner and then we came to my apartment for dessert. It was totally awesome and delicious. The neighbor boys decided that Ineeded to learn how to play poker. We played with cheerios, and I totally won!! so cool. It was a good bday.

Finals. ugh. They were the worst! I had five finals... bleh. I studied like crazy, and I was also cleaning my apartment like crazy. But I finally finished, and I moved home from school. And guess what!!!??? I got a 4.0! I graduated with my Bachelor's Degree with a 4.0 gpa. awesome. I am so glad that school is over for now. I only have four more years left!! and then I am done for good.

Christmas. Christmas was really nice. I got to see all of my family and i got a new camera... yes! I mostly just got mission stuff. Christmas was on a Sunday. so we had to wake up early!! Because (I admit) that would be bad to miss church on christmas. It was really great. I can't really remember anything super amazing, so I will just leave it at that.

Cruise. The cruise was amazing! We were on the Carnival Freedom. It was a beautiful ship. I think that it was the best that I have been on so far. We had funny waiters and all I did was eat, sleep, eat. It was fun to have the entire family with us. It is a rare time period where there are no young children in the family, so we took advantage of it. and called it my birthday/graduation/mission/christmas trip... My family went offroad with jeeps on Cozumel. I didn't want to do because we did that the last time we went there. So naturally, they left me on the rocky beach with no money or food. haha, but I did get some sun i guess. I wish I was certified in scuba diving, because Cozumel has some beautiful reefs. We went to the beach on Costa Rica. The waves were huge! so I didn't get in the ocean. Aubrey had to be saved by a local boy, because she drifted over to the rocky part. The driver told us on the way home that lots of people drown at that beach... That isn't comforting. It was sunny all day, and supposedly that is rare for Costa Rica. We also visited the Panama Canal. I thought that it was really interesting. We got to watch a boat go through one of the locks. We had a blast, and the food was amazing. The weather was really great. I tried to pick up some spanish, but it really didn't work. The flight home wasn't fun, but o well. The trip was worth it.

Farewell. I am finally done with my farewell! People ask me if I am nervous to leave... but honestly I was more nervous for my talk than actually taking off. hmmm. I need to get over this anxiety. So ya, I prepared the night before because I went to a movie on Friday. And then my parents decided to take me to Texas Roadhouse at like eight o clock... I was about half way done with my talk, so I decided to go. I was still gonna give a talk whether or not i prepared it now or late at night. So I went and ate some pulled pork instead of finishing my talk. I finished it eventually... And i went to church bright and early the next morning. I kind of freaked out because I tested my joke out on my little sister and..... nothing. she didn't even laugh!!! (cue Panic mode) But I gave the talk, and I think that I was accidentally funny at some parts. I may have gone overboard when I pretended to high five James E. Talmage, because he had such an awesome quote. hmmm o ya and I described my professor as built like a fire hydrant. (It really is true, that man is hackin solid) My talk was on my missionary scripture. Nahum 1:7. I got my entire talk from my dad, and an institute lesson that brother Gudmunsun taught at SUU. yesss. Pretty sure that most of that talk was not original at all... (Thank you institute!) All I know is that I went long enough. The bishop told me that he never knows what is going to come from me.... what is that supposed to mean? People told me that my personality shined through.. considering my personality...... I am still trying to decide if that is a good thing or a bad thing. haha! O well, it is over. We went to the house and ate some delicious crepes that my wonderful mother had made the night before. It was really nice. I was able to talk to some old friends and my family. I think that I am going to count this as mostly successful... yay!

Mission. So the mission preparation is going well. I have most of my shopping done now. I just have to pick up a few more things. I just don't really know what I am supposed to bring... ugh. so frustrating. I have to get some hackin random things for the mission. Do not worry, I have enough bug repellant to poison several cats. Now I just need to wait a week and a half. I will stay busy. I plan on eating more crepes and tearing off a roof or two, lifeguarding, teaching swim lessons... awesome. So ya, that is my life right now.. gotta love it. Have a nice year and a half!