Hey!
So I'm finally having my first P-Day
here, and it's all pretty crazy. It feels like I've been here for months. Time
just goes so slowly here... But it's also super crazy that I leave here in
about 4 days now. We report to the MTC travel office at 5:00 a.m. on Tuesday to
leave for Tacoma. Our flight doesn't leave until 8:30, but we have to get up
bright and early to get there on time. We'll show up in Washington at about
9:30, because of the time difference. I thought it was a 1 hour flight at first,
but that didn't seem right, but then one of the other elders here reminded me of
the time zone thing. Flying seems so weird that way.
Anyway, classes here are crazy. We have them twice a day, 3 hours at a
time. So they're long and ridiculous and boring and all that stuff. I really
have learned a ton though, and have had a bunch of spiritual experinces. On the
third night here, we gave a bunch of the sisters here blessings, and that was a
really great experience. On Sunday we got to see the outside world and walk to
the temple, so that was super nice, especially since I got a chance to get some
pictures taken. It is the weirdest thing to go out and see Provo, because it
feels like that's my home still, but I'm just stuck in the MTC still. The
weirdest part is being able to see Heritage Halls from the track inside the
gym. And probably the service assignment that we did on Tuesday too, which was
cleaning the bathrooms. We went into the cleaning closet, and it was all of the
same chemicals and supplies that we used in the JSB. That made me so
happy.
On Tuesday we had a devotional, and Elder M. Russell Ballard was the
speaker. You never know who the speaker is going to be until right before the
meeting actually starts. There's almost always a general authority, but it's
supposed to be quite rare to have a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, so that
was a really cool experience. Our district showed up like an hour and a half
early to get good seats. It gets super crowded there. The choir's opening hymn
was Consider the Lilies, so that made me think of you (Mom that is. I just
realized that I haven't really directed this to anyone yet, and there are
probably going to be several people reading this). It was a really pretty
arrangement. Elder Ballard's talk was a lot like a pep talk for all of us, and
it was really sweet, because it felt so much more personal than when he speaks
in General Conference. He talked a lot about how we already know pretty much
everything that we need to go out and teach. We mostly just need to know how to
teach it in a clear and organized manner, and with the spirit. He was also
teaching about how the Lord trusts young people, and that he qualifies those
that he calls, so it was a bunch of really good stuff to hear, especially since
my companion and I have been teaching really hard investigators lately.
The way that we practice teaching here is through role play. And I've tried
using that in all sorts of settings before, and I've always thought it was kind
of stupid, but it's for real here. I feel so much better practiced because of
it. The way that it works is we usually try teaching our lesson in our
companion studies, and then we teach it to our progressing investigator, who is
really our teacher pretending to be someone else that they actually know who
isn't a member of the church. Our investigator is Amy, and honestly, she isn't
that interested in the gospel, and so it's hard to teach her. But we still love
Amy very much. Always.
The sad part about emailing you is that you don't get any of my stickers.
So sad. I gave one of the sisters in my district a sheet of Disney princess
stickers today so that she could put them on her letters to her neice. So those
have definitely come in handy. Plus I've been putting them on my letters and
stuff, and that is seriously the best part of writing letters right now.
Well, I'm about out of time on the computer, and I forgot to bring your
mail letter with me, so sorry if there was stuff in there that I didn't respond
to that I should have. I'm doing great down here, and I hope you're doing well
up there too! I miss you all and love you so much!
Love,
Elder Prue
