Wow I already have a lot to say and not a ton of
time. First, I hope I am even sending this to the right people. I forgot
to ask what email addresses to send these to so let me know if it is
something different. Second, I LOVE the MTC! Mom was right in saying
that it would be a fun rest of the day wednesday and everyday has been
very fun since! The days feel like weeks because we do soo much in one
day but I still love it. (Also, Friday's are my P-days if you didn't
catch that.)
I am always amazed by how organized everything is
here. When I first walked through the gates, I was just sent from one
person to another in a long line and given my tag (Allie Howe's mom/Cade
Terris's aunt got to put it on), my room key, my ID card, my books and
my companion! My companions name is Sister Foutz and she is the cutest
sweetest girl ever. I feel like I already have a built in best friend
for the six weeks that I am here. She is from Las Vegas and for those of
you who went to high school with me, she reminds me of Jessica Harmon
so much that its a little weird. ( and I didn't know Jessica that well.)
The best part is that she is also going to the Buenos Aires West
mission along with my whole district so we will get to see each other
for the rest of our mission! My district is also amazing! We are the
only sisters and there are five other elders who are all recently
graduated eighteen year olds, but we already feel like close friends.
Our zone and roomates are also amazing. I can't believe how lucky I have
been to associate with such amazing people. There are only three other
sisters in the zone and they are our roommates. Two of them leave this
week and we are hoping we will have some new sisters on Wednesday. Just
so I will remember this later, their names are Sister Acosta (going to
Costa Rica), Sister Dautell (Canada Spanish Speaking) and Sister
Shoemaker (St. George Spanish Speaking). I don't know if we are related
somewhere down the line to sister shoemaker but its very possible!
As for spanish, we were thrown in from the minute we
got here. Our teachers VERY rarely speak English, but I have been
really surprised at how much I remember. I have been very grateful for
my high school spanish! I can understand just about everything my
teachers say and can even speak back. It has really helped me keep a
positive attitude. I can tell some of the Elders struggled the first day
because they couldn't understand anything that was going on. I think
that would have made things much harder. We teach our first
"investigator" in Spanish tonight and I'm very excited! I am loving
speaking Spanish and I can tell a lot of those blessing from my setting
apart are coming true. I'm constantly looking forward to learning more.
One of the biggest things I have learned so far is
that we teach PEOPLE not lessons. We had a group activity the first
night where they divided the new missionaries into three groups with a
different investigator in each room. The investigators were convert
members, but they acted the part of themselves before they joined the
church. Our teachers started the lesson, and then we took turns raising
our hands and answering questions or teaching principles. At one point,
we couldn't figure out what the investigator needed and why he didn't
seem to care about the message. I even raised my hand and bore my
testimony, but it didn't seem to do much. We realized it was because of
the experiences he had had in his life made it difficult for him to
believe us. After he told us his situation we knew EXACTLY how to help
him. We just needed to get to know his needs before we started teaching.
That is what we have been working on the most with preach my gospel.
Just some random things, our meal hours are pretty
early. We have breakfast at 7:00, lunch at 11:40 and dinner at 4:40 so
by the time we get to our rooms at 9:00 we are hungry again. I would
love some snacks that aren't sugary treats for after dinner. Beef Jerkey
or Cheeze Its or something like that maybe? I don't know. Salty would
be good. I also forgot my mini preach my gospels and those would be
wonderful to have so I don't have to carry the big ones around. I think
they are in the scripture cupboard. The last thing I forgot was an
Argentina pin that i bought at the bookstore. Its in the storage bin by
the foot of my bed in the front pocket of my mexican bag. I would love
to have that too. Speaking of mail, we get dearelder letters and other
packages every day and its soooo great to have something to look forward
to, so everyone send me lots of letters while it is still easy and
cheap in the MTC.
Oh, and Kyrst, remember Brother Merrill from the
work crew at pageant who said you were his crush of pageant or whatever
that was? Ya, he's my zone leader. He recognized me and I didn't say
anything, but he said he recognized me because one of his friends liked
you. I knew it was really him so I just had to laugh to myself a little
bit. Also, one of the Elder's in my district's twin brother got to the
Santiago MTC on Wednesday. Keep an eye out for Edler Van Liew!
Hmmm, so I think that is everything. Its a longer
letter today because I didn't have to use any of my time reading emails
but I have had sooo much going on! I'm soooo excited to hear about
Katie's mission call, so you will have to dearelder me as soon as you
know. I would even love to know if its been assigned yet.
Love
Hermana Millett
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