Email Letter

This timer realy drives me nuts---I already started to write you a letter by hand, so I'm sorry if I accidentally repeat stuff, I'm trying to only say things once so as not to be Hermana Broken-Record. Anyway... One thing I know I wrote in my letter but that I first wanted to say here is THANKS FOR THE COOKIES GRANDMA! That was totally amazing of you to send those to me. My companions apprecited them too of course, it's so wonderful to have a little stash of goodies all to ourselves!

I know I complained about the food before, and I still maintain that it's not 'awesome' but it's good enough that I've gained a tinsy bit of weight since I got here... In order to reverse this strange side affect of displacement I started actually playing SPORTS!

Can you believe it?! It's crazy stuff. I play basketball, and I am not the most terrible player. It's a bit weird because of the whole 'no-physical-contact-between-Elders-and-Sisters' rule. Basically, hermanas have to be guarded by other hermanas. In Basketball, Hermana Thomas and I are the only ones interested in playing, so we always have to be on opposit teams so we can guard each other. The Elders are a lot of fun to play with. Anyway, I only mention this because I sent you some pictures in your hand-written letter this week, and you might notice an ace bandage around my ankle.

What happened was--I went to take a shot and I did that cute little jumping in the air thing that yuo do when your aiming for the basket and then I came down right on top of poor Hermana Thomas' foot. She was fine, just doing her job trying to keep me from making the shot, but I rolled right off on her foot and my ankle made that great 'ichy-CRACK' sound that ankles make when you hurt them. I just rolled it, and they made me buy an ankle-brace that I need to wear whenever I'm at Gym now.

Whatever. I made the shot! So it was... worth it? That's weird, since when do I care about being competative? Anyway. We won, and no daddy, that wasn't the ONLY shot I made either. I was doing quite well thank you very much.

Everybody tells this exact story. I don't know what it is about the MTC gym, but everybody hurts their ankles. My companion Hermana Gurney did this exact thing last week when she was playing volley-ball. There's an Elder in my zone who did this exact thing in basketball but her tore his ACL and had to get surgery. We call him Crutchy. He plays the Indian Love Flute and has to stay in the MTC for an extra two months because of the injury.

I'm being careful though! Don't think I'm not being careful. Now that I've got the brace I'm fine, and we started playing volley-ball which has less of a violent history at the MTC, than say... Basketball or Four Sqaure (Four square is suicide).

Anyway, this isn't just supposed to be a stupid story. My favourite new word is Perserverar (which I may have spelled wrong in spite of it being my fav). Our whole theme here has been "Go big or go home,". A little silly maybe, but that's what happens when you get a lot of men together. Everything is a sports analogy. I know this is goign to be really hard, but I was called to serve this mission, and I'm going to stick it out and do my best, even if I come home exhasted and wearing ankle-braces.

I don't have much time but I wanted to talk a little about my teachers. (Mi Maestros) Everyone has been asking how I'm doing with the Spanish, and I've got to admit, I feel like it's too soon to really tell whether I'm progressing like I should be. I'm definately learning. That's for sure... But I figured if I told you about my teachers, you might get a good feel for my education here, and be assured that I'm in good hands.

My two teachers are Hermano Anthony and Hermano Prestwich. They are both awesome and VERY different. Hermano Anthony served a state-side Spanish speaking mission. He's very intense when it comes to learning the language; his whole method of teaching is pretty much shove us out of the nest and elt us hit the ground fifty-billion times before we finally fly. he likes to spring random pratice on us which is REALLY good. He sets up lots of meetings with fake investigators too, which is a really incredibly thing that I'll talk about more in my other letter. Anyway, he's got great stories and he's all for siking us up to serve. He's been back for about three years and is married.

Hermano Prestwich on the other hand is way laid back. He just got home from his mission over the summer, and he served in the same mission as my good friend Andy Moyes! In fact, he told me that he remeberes Andy a little, which was cool because everyone was throwing names at him for ages and he was always like 'No, I don't know that guy,' and then I finally asked about Andy and he was like "Yes!" which was so cool. He served in Mexico and still has the accent to prove it.

Then, we've had a couple of subs. My fav so far was Hermano Richardson, he's a BYU football player and WAY intense when it comes to pretty much... everything. He's a real big man with a very deep voice. He gets really into telling his stories, and Ijust don't know if I can stress the voice enough! As Hermana Gurney said "I'm pretty sure that's what God's voice sounds like. If Hermano Richardson said 'Part the Red Sea, now.' I think I would do it." That pretty much explains it.

He sounds a bit like Till Lindeman actually--that's my lame segway into asking for more music on my Ipod--NOT Rammstien though, I'm not going to bother asking for that, but there's a nightwish song called The Sleeping Sun, that's I'd really love to have while I'm out here. It's gorgeous and totally appropriate.

Anyway, he sounds like Till when he rolls his RRRrrs.

Also, I'm an expert R-roller now. I can't wait to show you.

Anyway, my teachers are SO amazing. They're all such wonderful spiritual people, they really motivate us in addition to making sure we're learning the language and the lessons. I'm really lucky to have them!

I RAN INTO LAUREN! But you know that already, I just wanted to say it! That was such a thrill to see her! I was so excited, I did a little screaming thingy and jumped around on my injured ankle. I'm really excited for her to come here, it's such a wonderful experience. Once you get over the intitual shock and home-sickness, the MTC is really amazing!

I'm totally running out of time now, I've got to go finish my landuary!

I Love you guys all so, so much, and there's a lot more I want to say but it'll have to wait until my hand-written letter!

MWAH! Hermana Lillywhite