Last Week in the MTC!

04/16/13

Well hey.

I GOT MY TRAVEL PLANS!!!! Okay. So here's the lowdown. I have to be at the travel office on the 22nd at 3:00 in the AM. Baah! American Airlines Flight 436 to Dallas. Flight 640 to Miami. Flight 927 to Guayaquil!

Also. Going completely by myself. So that will be fun. My companion is also leaving on the 22nd by herself to Chile and the rest of my district didn't get travel plans today so that probably means they'll be reassigned state-side tomorrow.

Ummmm let me just begin by saying SIX DAYS.  In 6 days I will be in ECUADORRRR!!!!!!!  I'm going to die I'm so scared but at the same time I'm going to die I'm so excited!!  Everything there is going to hit me like a huge wall but ya know what I say to that?  Bring it on.

Thank you Mommy for the package!  Everything was great!  Except the string cheese.  I didn't think you'd actually send that but thanks!  It was pretty warm and nast by the time I got it.  But I am still so grateful you sent me that package!  When you send the next one, will you also put in my blue scripture case?  I'm not sure where it is.  Either on or in my nightstand, under my bed, or in my closet.  Thanks so much!!

We're up to 141 empty toilet paper rolls.  It's pretty awesome.  I'll have to send you a picture.  We're still not entirely sure what we're going to do with all of them but it's gonna be big.  (Hercules)

So this week was really good overall!  We've had some pretty incredible speakers!  Last Tuesday, Gerald N. Lund came and spoke, and holy incredible.  He talked a lot about the Spirit and how we can be receptive to its promptings.  So good.  Then on Sunday in Relief Society, we had Sister Mary Edmunds, who used to be in the YW board I think?  I don't remember but she was hilarious.  At one point, she kept being like, "Sister.  DO NOT.  TOUCH.  THE ELDERS.  DON'T DO IT!!" Like 20 times.  And then she paused..... "But... Just keep track of the ones you would like to touch."  And she just kept a stone-cold face the whole time.  And she just kept saying random things that were sooo funny coming from a cute old lady!  Loved it.  I know it probably doesn't sound funny as it actually was because one, everything is funnier when you're a missionary, and two, I'm not doing a very good job telling about it.  Then Sunday night, Greg Droubay came, who is some guy who does a bunch of media stuff for the church.  Oh it was so cool.  He was talking about how the Lord is hastening His work like never before.  He showed us a bunch of pictures of a mormon.org campaign they did in times square around Christmas time which was huuuge.  So awesome.  And then a huge thing in London in all the tubes with mormon.org posters.  And he was talking about how we have ads in the paybill of the Book of Mormon musical that say things like, "You've seen the play, now read the book" or "The book is always better."  I just love it because Satan is trying so hard to stop God's work but in the end, it's just increasing even faster.  So awesome.  He also told us that 44% of the missionaries in the MTC right now are sisters, and that is going to be half way soon.  That's right.

I absolutely love my companion!  We are sooo much alike so we just make each other laugh so so hard.  And our studies together are so so good!  She has an incredible excitement for the scriptures and it just makes me excited too!  The other day we were doing some activity in preach my gospel, looking up a bunch of testimonies from a bunch of different prophets and we got to the one in D&C where they say, "He lives" and we just got so excited because those 2 words basically sum up the whole gospel.  I'm so excited to declare my witness to real people with real problems in Ecuador and share with them the only way to true happiness!  So awesome.  After that study, we were both just like, get us out of here, we need to run around screaming about this gospel!  But then we keep having moments like, uhh hello, in a week from now we are going to be in South America working like there is no tomorrow.  And then she always says, "oh I'm going to chuck."  It's great.

K I'll send the box home where you come and pick it up.  I was wondering though, what if I sent home the pages in my journal I've already written?  Our branch president was telling us how some missionary's journal was stolen on his mission so maybe I could send home pages every once and a while?  I don't know.  What do you think?

Oh guess how funny I am.  So one of the elders in our district got mono so I came up with the GENIUS idea of giving him one of the random stuffed monkeys we have from one of our thousands of packages.  Get it?  Because monkey in spanish is mono.  Get it?  Because he has mono.  And monkey in spanish is the word mono.  Get it?  Funny, huh.  I'm just really clever and funny.

Kirstie left today!!  Last night I got to talk to her for a while before bedtime so that was happy.  And this morning when we were going to the gym, I saw her in line for the bus so I got to give her one last hug!  It was so sad to say goodbye to her but she's going to be so so good in Oklahoma!!

Oh.  So cool.  So we were studying about the brother of Jared and I realized something way awesome.  I'm probably the last person on earth to realize this but oh well.  I'm going to say it anyway.  So when he prayed about the barges, he asked 2 questions- one about the light and the other about the air.  But then the Lord only gave him an answer about the air, not even mentioning the light.  So instead of being like, uhhh hello, what about the light too??  He immediately acts on the answer he received about the air and then returns to the Lord and says, okay I did what you asked and now I am wondering about the light.  His example of faith is sooo incredible!  I love it.  I love the Book of Mormon!  The church is true.

My spanish is making me crazy and it's really hard to spell english words and form sentences correctly sometimes.  So sorry if this email doesn't make sense.  I'm trying.

Daddy, how is your espanol going?

OHHH lanta.  Can I just tell you???  The number one inanimate object I miss more than anything:  my toilet in my bathroom.  Really though.  I'm not even kidding.  Oh it just makes me sad thinking about it.  The toilets here are just sketch so going to the bathroom is just not a pleasant experience.  And it's just going to get worse.  So the next time you are sitting on your own personal toilet, just take a moment and be grateful.

So happy yesterday!  An elder walked by my the other day and was like, "Oh are you related to--" and I thought he was going to say John Bytheway because every single person at this facility has asked me that, followed by, "oh I'm sure you get that all the time, huh."  But no!!  He said LELAND!!  And then I was just happy inside because I just love Leland!  I miss him!  Oh and the guy we taught in TRC yesterday went on his mission to Santa Cruz and totally knew Ty Cann!  THE Ty Cann Trading!  Small world.  Love it.

OH MY GOODNESSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK!!!!!  I met a sister who was on "words from us kids" on Arthur!!!!!!  Not even kidding.  I was so excited.  And so jealous.  I told her how much I love Arthur with all my heart and how I could quote all of them (not the new ones of course).

Mmkay, well I've run out of things to say.  I may or may not email you on Saturday, but for sure I'll call you on Monday at probably 4ish??  Somewhere around there.  But thank you so much for all your love and support!  Thanks to Dallin and Grandma and Grandpa Solum for the letters!  I wrote you all back today so you should get it pretty soon.

I love you all!

Hermana Bytheway