OFF TO PERUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

04/09/2013


Well hey.

HA, definitely not going to Peru.  I talked to the travel office and they said that I'll most likely just stay here for the rest of the time, which is good.  I love my district and my teachers!  Oh but I got a new companion.  Her name is Hermana Peterson, from Mesa, going to Chile.  She was supposed to leave the MTC yesterday, but she broke her foot a couple of weeks ago so she's staying for 2 weeks with our district and leaving when we leave.  At first I was super nervous about leaving my companions since we're so comfortable with each other, but it is actually really really good!  At first it was awkward, but our lessons ended up being so incredible!!  We taught our investigator, Octavio, and then 2 people at the TRC.  They both went really well and I'm excited to teach with her more.  She's so good at just simply and sincerely saying what she knows and I feel like planning with her is really good.  And I still am in the same room with my other hermanas so it's perfect.

Oh, Kirstie's room is on my same floor so I see her a bunch!  It's so so so happy!!  She leaves next week though... Weird.

Ummm okay, conference was amazing.  I loved it!  I did see Brook and that made me so so happy!  Oh my lanta, the songs they sang were incredible!!!  Those were definitely my favorite of all the sessions.  We just watched them in the gym where we have devotionals.  Suuuper different than how I normally watch conference.  That made me sad to think of how you all were watching conference but it was still good!  But my favorite session was definitely the YW session.  Okay, if you didn't see it, please just go online and watch the opening prayer.  Just do it.  You won't be disappointed, I promise.  It was the most sincere prayer I've ever heard in my whole life.  But during the choir's song, I was just overwhemed with excitement for all of those girls.  I could just see so much potential for them to be amazing missionaries and mothers in just a few years and I just got so excited for all of them.  They also talked a lot about how they are preparing to make and keep sacred covenants in the temple and I wondered if they really understood what that meant.  I was thinking about when I was in YW and I don't know if I really realized how magnificent that was.  But I'm so grateful for all the young womens program because even though I may not have realized, it really did prepare me for the temple and my mission.  For the rest of conference, the main theme I noticed was about the family and centering your home on Christ and the priesthood.  I am just so grateful to have grown up in a home that really was centered on Christ and to have a father who was a worthy priesthood holder.  Thanks Daddy :)

Oh my goodness, so on Friday, I just had a really bad day.  I was just getting super overwhelmed with everything and I just felt like I wasn't good enough to teach or anything.  Haha but it was kinda funny because our whole room was feeling the same way so that night when we were all praying, you could just hear sniffing coming from everyone.  But it's all good because ever since then, I've had some of the best days here!  With conference and our lessons, it's just been so happy!  On Saturday after conference, we were in our classroom and all of the sudden, I just got really happy all of the sudden and clasped my hands together and inhaled super happily (is that a word?) like a 6 year old girl and everyone was just like uh why are you so happy?  And I was just like, I don't know, I just am!!!!!  Anyway.  I'm just a happy person.  Except on Friday.

It was the BEST!  On Sunday, there was a million people at temple walk and I was photo bombing like mad.  I seriously think I was in like 89 pictures.  It was amazing.

Okay, so my top retainer is cracking.  I think it should be fine?  I don't know.  But if it's not too much trouble, maybe you could get a new one made?  If you don't have time or whatever, it's fine.  But I just hope it lasts till I get home.  Maybe I'm grinding in my sleep?  Who knows.

I haven't found anyone else going to Ecuador.  Sorry.  Oh except Vocal Point came and one of them went to my mission so I talked to him about it!  Haha but everyone else going there is in Peru...

I didn't make the connection that Elder Sorenson was Dr. Sorenson's son.  I knew he was Kurt and Wendie'e nephew though.  But he's gone already.

We have 95 empty toilet paper rolls!!!!  Hahaha I don't even know how we started collecting them but it's seriously amazing.  We line them up across the tops of our closets and it's like the crenelations on a castle.  Basically we're really cool.  Ummm they don't have any germs, Mommy.  They're completely sterile!  That's like saying unused toilet paper has germs on it!

That's so funny Julie Carrillo is related to Hma Rawlinson!  I told her that and she was like, oh she's cut my hair before!  And I was like me too!  It was precious.

My shoes aren't splitting.  They're giving me callouses on the back of my heels and those are splitting.  Get it?  The shoes wouldn't split if you tried to saw through them.  But they don't hurt anymore so they're fine.  The back of my heels look pretty hideous but it's fine.  I've seen a lot of people with the same shoes as me and every time, I think, woof those are hideous.  And then I look down and see them on my feet.  It's pretty sad.  But I'm past caring.

They finally fixed our toilets after being clogged for a week!  So the bathroom doesn't smell like a farm anymore!  Happy.

My district doesn't have their visas and will most likely be reassigned.  I'm thinking we'll get our travel plans at the end of this week?  I'll let you know.

That's exciting for Dallin!  Tell him to write me.  Same with Cameron.

Spanish is coming along.  The main thing I'm trying to work on is cutting out the word "um" while looking at the ceiling.  It's pretty bad during lessons.  But i'm working on it!!

If you send me a box, do not put in any treats.  We seriously have a million boxes of cinnamon rolls, cadbury eggs, reeses, and everything else you can possibly imagine.  So send like celery or something.  I would say send string cheese or smoothies but that's not really possible.  But that's what I'm craving.  I'm just not positive if the chicken is real.  I hope so but sometimes you just wonder.  Oh we did have chicken cordon bleu though which was actually good.  We've had some good meals but very few.  And the "vegetables" they serve with the meals are just nast.  I don't think those are real either.  But you wanna know what's real that they serve???????  The chocolate chip cookies!!!!!!!!!  Ohhhh man.  You don't even know.


Anyway, I think that's about it.  Thanks so much to everyone for all your prayers, letters, love, and support!  I'm so grateful to be a part of this sacred work of the Lord!

Love, Hermana Bytheway