Spring!!

Dearest Friends and Family!!!!

It is Spring time at the MTC!!! I love all this sunshine!! It has been so beautiful with all the flowers and trees here! Last Tuesday we had the BEST devotional EVER!! Elder Glen L. Pace came and spoke about how we are all children of God. It was such a powerful talk. I have never felt the spirit so strong or for so long. It was amazing! I think that is one of my favorite parts of the MTC, is constantly having my testimony strengthened. He talked about how the Lord hasn't given us a "to-do list." He just said He has a mighty work for us to do and that our work here isn't finished. And that I don't ever want to slack off. On Wednesday we had our first gym day out on the field. It was such a beautiful day and so fun to finally get outside! I wasn't quite sure if I could run by myself, because my companions wanted to play sandvolleyball. But I found a new running buddy! Her name is Sister Lauren Hooker! She is from Logan, UT and is so cute! Definitely an angel that was sent into my life, and not just to be my running buddy. We run monday, wednesdays and fridays, about 3-3.5 miles. It's so fun! Then on thursdays and saturdays I play sand volleyball. It's so fun too! Me and my companions got all the elders hooked on playing it too so it's always fun! They give me a hard time about running and not playing with them, but it's fun. This is Saturday we taught at the TRC again. For our task we had to speak in Thai for about 15 minutes with our "investigator". We had to pretend to go pick him up from his house and see if he was ready to go to church, then walk to the bus, and ride the bus to church. It was so funny. It went pretty good...I just laughed most of the time. He would say something in Thai about 4 times, and then just laugh and say nevermind. Then we would try saying something to him in Thai and he would just give us a blank face and I would just laugh. But we are learning lots! We even sang from the script hymn book twice yesterday! It was interesting but fun! The language really is such a totally new experience. Everything in my life up until now I have tried learning all by myself. Whether it was in school, or learning the piano, or learning german, everything, I just have relied on my own knowledge and dedication to do it. But here, I can't do that. I can't rely on my own knowledge. I have to learn with my heart and the spirit has to teach me. It is a very humbling experience. And I love it! Sunday was so great! They are by far my favorite day! Not only because we get ice cream, but because I love Relief Society! The speaker was Sister Clayton, and she talked about 3 things that we can control to have the spirit with us.

1-Our thoughts and attitude. We have to look for the positive. Our missions will be hard. Things will go wrong. But I will make the best of every obsticle!

2-How we handle culture shock. She talked about how it's normal to be home wick and to miss things from our life at home. But she talked about how in 18 months it is going to be so hard to leave the people we are serving. So she advised us to just serve the people and love them and everything will be ok

3-How we work out the tensions between companions. I'm very grateful I have such great comps because seriously we haven't had any issues yet!

Then Sunday we had such a great fireside!! I forget his name...but it was so great!! Yesterday we had another great day and today, P-DAY!! It's so sad tho, because the Cambodian missionaries that we have gotten pretty tight with are leaving today. There is a solo sister and I'm gonna miss her! She is so cute! And all the elders are so cute and funny! It's funny because when I came to the MTC, I didn't think it would be hard to say goodbye. But it is really sad having to say goodbye to those missionaries! Plus that first group of English missionaries we got leave today too. I can't believe how fast 3 weeks went by! This morning I finally talked my companions into going to the early morning aerobic classes!! Today was yoga!! It was so much fun! I really feel like a million bucks! Well thank you so much for all your love and support! I wish I could write more, but just know that I LOVE being a missionary!! I'm so HAPPY!!!!! I love serving the Lord and growing closer to Him than I ever thought possible. The church is so true!!! Take care!! Loves!!!

Sidtee Cheebee!!