July 28, 2011

Hola!!!

     One week down, 7 more to go (in the MTC at least). I will leave the MTC on September 19! Things have been going well! Everyday I think I get more tired though. Sleeping has been ok, except I don't fall asleep right at 10:30 even though I am definitely tired, so I am not getting the full 8 hrs sleep, so getting up is a little challenging (not as much as usual though, I am blessed:) The other day I slept in 20 minutes and then found out that is a NO NO. And I want to be obedient so no more of that. The only thing that worries me is that yesterday my throat started hurting and my body was feeling sore, like it does before I get sick :0 but I tried to go to bed a little early (like 5 minutes early) and took some excedrin PM to help me sleep. And I feel much better today!

     The only time I've cried so far in the MTC was this past Sunday. It was Pioneer Day and we watched Music and the Spoken Word. SO GOOD. The music plus the poignant video was more than I could take. And just the plight of the pioneers reminded me remotely of our situation as missionaries. And then the rest of the day we talked about pioneers, so it was an emotional day, but it was good! (If you missed that go back and watch it!)

     We are also getting to know our district better. 8 elders 4 hermanas. Me and my comanion played sand volleyball with our elders during gym the other day. I was nervous because I am terrible at volleyball but they invited us to play and we wanted to get to know them better. It was fun:) I hit the ball maybe 3 times, but at least I could serve! The elders in my district are so awesome! Seriously:) The Zone Leaders for my zone are also so awesome. Elders Shirley and Roper. Elder Roper is blonde and always has the happiest smile on his face...always. I love him. Elder Shirley is kind of quiet, from ID, but has a special place in my heart. I have gotten to spend more time with them this week because a new district joined our zone on Wednesday!!! 5 elders and 5 hermanas. Since I am the Coordinating Sister for my zone (its like the zone leader of the sisters) I welcomed them and told them about all the important rules with the zone leaders. I love this assignment. My roommates and I made the hermanas beds and wrote them nice welcome notes so that they would feel good about coming to the MTC. It is funny, here at the MTC a day feels like a week. And a week is like a year....what i mean by that is not that a week feels like a year, but that when you've been to the MTC for, say, 6 weeks, it's like you are 5 years older than someone who has been there for 1 week:)

     I really love my Branch Presidency too (even though we have to have a 3-5 minute talk prepared every Sunday - in spanish - because they call people up randomly to speak in Sacrament Mtg!!! AHHH!). President Stone, when he met with me, told me that we (he and I) would get along famously:) and that I was the type of missionary that my mission president is going to wish he had more of:) That was really nice of him and made me feel good:) My teachers are cool too, Hermano Ridge and Hermano Irizarry. I am currently slightly mad at them though for making us teach them in Spanish when we don't really know any, but I know it is for a reason, and that I'll be thanking them in 8 weeks:) We had a substitue teacher yesterday though, Hermano Jimenez. If I was going to have an MTC crush it would be HIM. He is a BYU student, from Mexico and he is awesome. He taught us some things that blew my mind! And made me want to be so much better than I am!! It was sllightly overwhelming, but EXTREMELY motivating.

     The only other exciting thing I have time to write about is on Monday night (2am to be exact) the fire alarm in our building went off (aparently it was an old alarm that freaked out) so all of us hermanas were out in the parking lot at 2am in our pjs for only about 12 minutes, but we also sat in ants and some girls got the sprinklers turned on on them. It was a crazy night and those 12 minutes of sleep lost were tough! That was the morning I slept in. Oh no. 48 Seconds!! I love you all! And I love the Gospel. I'll write more soon!

Love Diane (Hermana Bowns)