Life in the MTC

It was wonderful to hear from Hermana Spencer today! Sounds like she is enjoying life in the MTC!

Dear Family and Friends,

Happy Birthday Jeff and Madre! I hope they are wonderful!

I am so excited to write you. I have been waiting...patiently to write you! The MTC is so different than normal life. I basically am busy all the time and don't really have any time to think - but I love it at the same time. I can only write on P-day - TODAY! There is so much that has happened in the last week that I do not even know what to say. My first day was wonderful. My companions name is Hermana Thomas from Las Vegas. She is also going tot he Denver South Mission. Everyone in our district, besides us, are going to Salta Argentina. We have 3 sets of Elders and another companionship of Hermanas. We have two wonderful teachers. One is a native of Argentina. She is a returned missionary and speaks perfect espanol and english. As of Monday, she will no longer speak any English to us. So....I was scared, but so far I have done alright. Our other teacher is also a student her at the Y. He is really nice and funny. He served in Argentina.

So Spanish! I will not lie - it is very difficult. I have learned so much over the last week. The second day here we learned to pray, and since then all of our prayers have been in espanol. My english is already beginning to suffer :). On Sunday, RS was in English and I was so excited to hear a pray in English. My prayers are slowly becoming less repitious as my vocab grows. I am doing great with the grammer. On the other hand - my pronunciation is horrible! But I am reading out loud every day with my comanion from El Libro de Mormon and she is helping me. I am ever so slowly getting better. I am surprised at how much I understand. My companion and I have been able to help eachother so much already. Oh another thing - Sacrament meeting is terrifying. Our Branch President will randomly call on someone and have them give a talk in Espanol. AHHHH!!!! I have never been so nervous. I was so greatful when he didn't call my name.

I am the oldest and the shorest in my district. All of the other girls came out here right after they turned 21. I think I have met one person older than me :)

Right now I am doing laundry. I am so excited to get clean clothes. Just so you know we are extremely busy around here. I have loved getting your letters. Every day that I get a letter/Dear Elder is instantly better. I won't lie, I have struggeled the past week. Not in a tremendous way, but it is harder than I thought it would be. In a different way. Spanish is definately humbling me. I really want to understand it more. I can definately say that I am grateful for all the wonderful experiences I have had. I feel prepared to teach in English - now I just have to work on Spanish. Tomorrow we are teaching our first lesson. I am so excited to teach...and scared at the same time. We are teaching lesson 1 - the restoration. My testimony of the Restoration is increasing. On Monday our teacher, Hermana Purizani and another teacher, practiced teaching for us. When they shared the story of Joseph Smith - I felt it so powerfully. I loved it. Yesterday, Hermana Thomas and I had a wonderful companion study. We were reading PMG (ofcourse) and the spirit really did direct our study. I am so excited to become better. Another wonderful experience was last night. We sang Called to Serve as an MTC! IT WAS FANTASTIC! I loved it.

So my schedule. I wake up at 6:10ish. Eat at like 7:00. Sit in class most of the day - like 11 hours. We have two Spanish/doctrine classes and then we have personal study, companionship study, and missionary directed time ( which means we decided what to study and with who). We eat alot. I love the wraps and eat them everyday for lunch now. Some of the food is not so good. I really miss cooking - but will survive. We go back to our rooms at 9:30 and do whatever. At 10:15 its quiet time and then lights out at 10:30.

Ohh something that I didn't expect was that I don't feel like the normal "Allison." I feel like I am only part of myself. This is good and bad. Because I am in the MTC - I cannot serve people the same way I normally would and I am missing this terribly. I do feel like I am growing in a very good way and am learning to give up my burdens to the Lord. I know that without his help there is no way I will learn spanish. I know that I have to be obedient. In our zone we have a goal to be exactly obedient. This is difficult, because we have some silly rules. But I am getting over that.

I seriously love you all so much. And I love the people who have written me so much. I love that I have been getting so many letters! My district is sometimes jealous. Can someone send me the weather. It snowed today and it was just lovely. We got to go to the teimple and it was so wonderful. I was so tired though and had to fight to stay wake.

My companion and I are so different. I definately can see that the Lord is helping us work together.

I am so exctied about everything. The Lord totally loves us. I know that the gospel is true for so many reasons, but mostly because I feel God's love for me daily. He is really sustaining me!

Funny story - The second day - I was playing volleyball and I got hit in the face! Isn't that just like me! My companion is laughing as I read this.

We live with two Herman's in our district - Hermana Cocina (Kitchen) and Jorgensen! I love them so much already!

I have no more time! I love you guys so much! PLEASE WRITE ME!

Love you all!

Hermana Spencer