MTC - Week 5 (Final Week!)

Hi Mom, Dad, Taylor and Cami!

I hope all is well. I am so jealous that you guys are in Puerto Rico right now... good thing I'll be able to one-up that with Fiji in a few days! Very excited to get out of the MTC at this point.

Not very excited to hear that the 49ers lost. I hate the Seahawks, and I hope Peyton just flat out embarrasses them. Go Broncos.

Preparations to leave are kind of picking up. Today is my one day to pack all my bags, and then to mail home everything I don't need. Unfortunately I think I brought a lot of things I won't end up needing, so I'll probably send a lot of packages home. That's okay though, just don't be too excited when you open a box and it's full of sweaters or something boring like that. (He obviously only has summer clothes for Kiribati, but had to take a lot of warm clothes to the MTC to survive the last 5 weeks of cold he will see for 2 years!)

Officially, I leave on Monday! Just 3 days, counting today even (considering I got up at 5:30 today to do laundry, and it's only 6:05 now, I think today deserves to be counted still). We're all very excited and very nervous. We were walking behind these two sisters in the hallway who were totally animatedly speaking and being loud and funny and such, but then they turned to us and said something at us. Turns out they were from Kiribati, and I didn't catch a word. Oops. If people talk slow for me when I get there then it'll be easier. Otherwise, I'm essentially done for. 

But really, I do feel like I'm getting a good handle on the language. We teach lessons every day here at the MTC, sometimes twice a day, and this whole week all of the lessons I've taught have been close to 40 minutes long. I'm really good with church vocabulary. The vernacular of everyday conversation isn't as strong though. I think I can confidently discuss animals, days of the week, the months of the year, numbers through 100, and then also describe food as delicious or awful. That, plus teaching lessons, and I think I'll be fine. (We totally cracked up at this!)

I got the calling card in a package you sent yesterday! It had sheets, my shoes, and a flashlight as well. Thanks so much! And thank you to Campbell for a little note. That was very nice. I heard from Mom and Dad about your story at Holicong. Sorry to hear you were sick, that's never fun. Hopefully you won't be sick for a long time now!

 A big thank you to Aunt Trish and family! They sent me a box of Krispy Kreme donuts, and they were delicious.

 

This was a really good week for devotionals. We had some great speakers. Sister Sheri Dew gave our Sunday devotional. She talked about focusing on what matters, and being able to discern what we need to do right now, in this moment, instead of being overwhelmed by everything that we could do. It was excellent. Then, on Sundays after the live speaker we get to go watch a taped general authority film. We picked one by Elder Holland called "Missions are Forever." It's not a conference talk, but it was a taped MTC devotional from about 6 years ago. He talked about how much he loved his mission, and he dared every missionary to love their mission as much as he did. He also talked about how important it is that we do everything we can while we're missionaries to be the best we can. I wish I could send you the link, but for some reason I can't find it. Maybe Dad has some magical Bishop powers that will let him find it? Who knows. Our Tuesday Devotional was by Bishop Gerald Causse, the 1st counselor in the presiding bishopric (the guy from conference with the French accent who told the story from Les Mis). He was awesome. Him and his wife talked a lot about love, and why we're on a mission (which turned out to mostly be the same topic). Anyways, I'm feeling very happy, and I think I can make it to the islands at this point. Very exciting. I'll write more this afternoon, we have to go finish laundry!

Love you all!

Here's a picture of this morning's early laundry adventure. I'm cold and tired in this shot. Yup.

(Have I mentioned that he is terrible about taking pictures?  He realized he didn't have any to send me and so decided to take one quickly before getting online.  Sigh.  I hope he is inspired when he gets to the islands.  At least he is in the picture... I'm always happy to see his face!)