Hola Family and Friends,
Let me start off by saying, I am doing SO well here in the Missionary Training Center (MTC)! There have been times when I have been super overwhelmed and completely disapointed, but the Lord wants me to be here and I know if I work hard, he will bless me with what I need. The spirit is very strong here. And everyone is so nice. Elders hold the doors for the Hermanas and people are always saying Hola.
A special thanks to those who have written me! Mom, Corinne, Hmna. Bitter, Aunt Linda, and Kate. Today is only a half P-day but I will try to respond to as many of you as I can. My regular P-day's will be on Friday, but we didn't get one yesterday for whatever reason.
So much to say, I don't even know where to start! My companion's name is Hermana Greenwood. She was born in Kentucky, lived in MI for 11 years, and has since lived in Japan. She is super awesome so far, and I think we will only become better friends. She is going to serve in the Spain Malaga mission. We have had a lot of workshops and orientations about being in the MTC. We have had a lot of meetings getting to know our district, zone, and Branch Presidency. We have also had a lot of study time, and Spanish Class instruction. My teacher is pretty awesome. He grew up in Hawaii learning some pidgin language that is not English. He learned Spanish on his mission. So he doesn't speak English very well. But we make do. He does understand it, so that is good. I forgot to tell you about the other Hermanas in my district. Hermana Butler is going to serve in Panama, and Hermana Minert Anahiem California. I feel like now would be an appropriate time to mention my atrocious spelling. Being an English Major is going to be really hard when I get back! Oh well.
So a brief summary of what I have done this week!
Wednesday: I entered the MTC! It was great! We took pictures by the Provo Temple before entering and while taking pictures a group of sister missionaries came running over to us. I remember thinking, wow, everyone is super friendly here. Which is true, but this group of hermanas, just happened to be Dayna and her friends. So I got to see Dayna before I even entered! Now I see her two or three times a day! She has class in the building I live in and I have class in the building she lives in. We also see each other at meals a lot. Once in the MTC I had two Elders take my suitcases and introduce me to my host sister missionary. She got me checked in and taken to Spanish class. Within about 30 minutes of entering the MTC I was already in class and immersed in everything about missionary work! In the evening we had a teaching experience where we got to practice teaching people more about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We had three different people in different scenarios. the best was when I stood up and asked Arnold (his wife had passed away and he was very lonely) if he would commit to praying to God to know if his wife was okay and if he could see her again. He said yes!
Thursday: Thursday we spent more time practicing how to learn about people and what God sees in them. I got cleared for immunizations. No shots for me. Not like I was really worried about that. Lots of class and study time. We had our first language study and it was good but a bit overwhelming because we have about 5 language books to study and I didn't know which one to use first!
Friday:On Friday in class we learned how to pray, greet people, and bear testimony all in Spanish. Me and Hermana greenwood spent most of our time preparing our lesson for our first Investigator Lesme. We were going to teach her about Joseph Smith and the restoration but decided that was not a good place to start. So we taught a 20 minute lesson about God as our loving father and how we can pray to him about anything. The lesson did not go super well, it was disorganized, our spanish was not perfect, but the best part was when she asked what happens if God does not answer your prayer or you do not like the answer. I felt prompted to testify that he does always answer our prayers and that sometimes we don't know when it will come but it will. I also testified in the best spanish I could muster that sometimes we don't like the answer but he knows all and his answer is best.
I have felt a little discouraged. We aren't supposed to speak any English, and I haven't done so well with that. But I realized I can get down on myself and say I can't do it why try or I can say, I made a mistake, I have room to improve and as long as I try hard and do my best, God will take care of the rest. I'm going to try to not get down on myself and just work harder when I make mistakes.
Well my time is running out. Love you all. Please write while it is free!
Love
hermana Olsen
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