June 14 - Week 3

I hope you have a good Father's Day!

Turns out, there are a couple things I need to repent of. One, go listen to Sestra Brandie Frampton's new album. It's called Departure and you can get it on iTunes. Second, I am supposed to tell all my friends and family about dearelder.com. Go check it out. We get mail after lunch and after dinner.

Speaking of which, we were eating and my district leader said "by the way, you have a letter." I almost jumped over the table to him I was so excited. Then he left. No worries, we met up later and I was able to get not a letter but a package! Who on earth could have sent me a package? I don't get mail or packages. That's my companions job. Haha Anyways, I opened it and it was as if salvation came in a box. There were gym shorts (so I could stop stealing Sestra H's), THE water bottle (hallelujah), hi-chews (I'm slowly winning over the natives), and goldfish (which somehow quickly disappeared), and words of encouragement. I was so happy!

I've been so inexplicably happy here! I love my companion! I think she loves me back... Just kidding, we are both a good team. We love each other very much. We went on our first exchange which turned into a double exchange and we decided to never do that again unless we absolutely had to. It was awful.

I've also experienced what has been my most stressful hour at the MTC thus far. It's called CRT. I wanted to roll over and die! That's when we talk to volunteers as themselves in hrvatski or serbski. I couldn't understand ANYTHING! I couldn't understand when my teachers were talking to me, when my companion was talking, or what the girl was saying. We gave a short lesson (which our teacher sat in on) and I just sat there. "Ja sam Sestra Farnsworth. Kako ste?" Yep. It's slow work here. At the end I did understand when she said something about how even if we don't have something grammar and we don't something the words we have the spirit, we used the scripture’s, and we could understand her. To which my companion replied "Mislite da radzumjemo." which translates to "You think we understand." I understand that sentence and started laughing really hard. 10 minutes after I was just fine with life and happy to be alive and excited for next week. (Which might not happen because there are rumors of a mission president training and apostles and broohaha). My companion and I really work together well.

We've had the fire alarm go off at least 5 times since we came here. Yesterday the fire alarm went off during breakfast. Then I saw Bro Moss! It was pretty cool. Then last night my building (with the classroom) smelled like meat or smoke or hickory. Later we found out there was a fire a mile or two north of here. The fire alarm did not go off.

Tuesday was the first ever MTC devotional to take place in the Marriott. Two or three more weeks until the world wide training. It's called "Work of Salvation" and one of our teachers told us Elder Nelson said "it will be the missionary meeting of the stoljece."  He also said not to quote him on that so I'm not sure if he was making it up. You'll be able to watch it online. There's has been rumors that a big announcement will be made.

I gave a prayer in relief society. Turns out that makes you an instant MTC celebrity. People have been asking Sestra H and I if we were the ones who gave the prayer. Sister Anne Clegg was the speaker. I liked it. I didn’t get to meet her though.

I've been learning a lot about the gospel since coming here. I have also learned a lot about the role of missionary. The two kind of go hand in hand. One of the big "ah-ha" moments this week was when I realized that missionaries are not salesmen. We are a bunch of little kids who can barely put a sentence together and who painfully share their testimonies. The only reason why anyone would be a missionary is because they know the church is true and because they love the people so much they want to share what we have found.

I have finally made my way through the Cyrillic alphebet. We haven't learned in class but one of the teachers always writes in Cyrillic. Slow work, but I see miracles every day. I love it!

Funny story about the language. I keep mixing  up words, and sometimes I make them up. That's normal for learning a language, right? So during companionship prayer, I meant to say "zahvlana smo za priliku bili ovdjie" which means "we are thankful for the opportunity to be hear" but instead I said "zahvlanan smo za priliku bili ubljeni." Which means "We are thankful for the opportunity to be killed." I corrected myself kind of midway and hoped that Sestra H didn't notice. She's brilliant with the language. Of course she noticed. We laughed through the rest of our weekly planning. At least I can kind of explain the Veliki Otpad (Great Apostasy).

If I could get pictures of my family to show to my roommates, district, zone, random missionary in the hallway, but mostly my investigators I would be happy.

Laughing and praying all the way,

Sestra Farnsworth

P.S.

After my email last week, I had an adventure in the laundry room. Every item of clothing I own, excpet for a couple shirts and a couple skirts, is now PINK.

P.P.S

My camera went on an exchange and it came back with some strange pictures. One of them is a Bulgarian teacher. One of them is Elder Goose's notes (in two different kinds of Cyrillic and english). And one is my classroom. 13 desks. The most we have had in the room is 13 missionaries and 3 teachers. Kako ste kaze "sardines"? (How do you say "sardines"?)

Oh, another scripture which could work as my mission scripture is Alma 7:11-13. Especially 13. Bye!