Okay last Thursday I took so long writing the mass email that I barely had any time to reply to personal emails, so hopefully this won't be as long but I have lots to talk about haha. Oh and I figured out how to upload pictures but I have TONS to make up for last week so you might get lots of emails of just pictures.

Also, I just made a list of things I wanted to talk about in the email so it's kinda going to be all over the place.

SO…

More friends I've seen since I've been here: Elder (Kenny) Roberts and Elder (Chris) Glenn! I saw Chris on his 2nd day at the MTC and gave him a handshake (since we aren't allowed to hug Elders) and he said I was his first Sister/Hermana handshake haha. It was fun to see them.

Last Thursday we went to main campus to eat lunch and it is SO much better than the food here at West Campus. They have so many more options and better food in general. The food here at West is no bueno. Only sometimes is there a good meal being served. That probably explains why I've lost almost 10 pounds...

We also went to the temple on Thursday which was AWESOME. I love the temple so much and it was so awesome to be in there with a bunch of missionaries. You could feel the spirit so strongly it was so cool. Afterwards we went and got burgers from Burger Supreme in Brigham's Landing and we got Jamba Juice! They were playing music in Jamba and we all didn't even know what to do because we hadn't heart that kind of music in so long and we were all trying not to dance along haha.

Okay so during personal study the other day, I was feeling a little down so I was studying and looking up scriptures for comfort. I came across John 14 and John 16:33 in the Bible. You should read them, they are really good and made me feel a lot better. Also, Philippians 4:13: "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me"

On August 2nd I broke down and cried for the first time since being here. I was just sitting there in the classroom while we were all just chillin and one of the Elders asked me what was wrong and I just lost it and felt so pathetic. But then they were all trying to comfort me and Elder Olsen got the whole district together so we could sing I Know That My Redeemer Lives to make me feel better since it's my favorite hymn. My district is awesome.

Some of our favorite Elders in our zone left on Monday though so that was really sad :( But Me, Hermana Sellers, Elder Gray and Elder Best are all going to hangout when we get back from our missions at BYU so that will be awesome.

Also, me and Hermana Sellers decided we should room together back at BYU and we have a list of all the stuff we need to do that she never did freshman year! It's gonna be awesome, I love her so much. We have "pillow talk" every night and we call it "Conversación de Almohada" sometimes we get so carried away talking that we're up over an hour past lights out, oops! But we are seriously like the same person so we relate on everything and always have great stuff to talk about.

So Sunday was fast Sunday, and we couldn't eat until 4:30 which is hard when you have to wake up at 6! So on Saturday night a bunch of the Elders in our Zone came over to the outside of our apartment and brought us TONS of snacks and candy and stuff for our "last supper" before fast Sunday haha it was awesome.

Me and Hermana Sellers have gotten so close with the next "oldest" district in our zone, all the Elders are so fun. Since District A left on Monday, we got a new district in our zone yesterday! We haven't gotten to meet them yet but it is a district of all Elders so me and Hermanas Sellers, Peterson, and Duran are still the only girls in our district (: The Elders said they were happy about us because they wanted to be selfish with us haha.

In Sacrament on Sunday, since it was fast and testimony meeting I got up and bore my testimony (in SPANISH, since our sacrament meetings are held in all Spanish). I was the only Hermana to get up and one of the only people from my district to get up as well. Then I had to say the closing prayer also in Spanish. It felt so nice to bear my testimony though. Ahhh I love the gospel.

On Sunday night after devotional they always show a variety of church movies or recorded general conference talks we can choose from, so a bunch of us from my Zone went and watched the Joseph Smith movie. I've seen it before but this time it really touched me. It is SO good. It really makes you appreciate the early members of the church because they were soo persecuted and abused by everyone but they paved the way for the happiness that we have now in the church. I am so grateful for Joseph Smith and all those Saints and their sacrifices and faith in following Christ.

Now we have 2 investigators that we're teaching at the same time (once again, in Spanish) so that's more difficult but it's great! Hermana Sellers and me are really improving with our Spanish and our teaching abilities. Also, we started doing TRC which is where we go and talk to members of the church and teach them little lessons, like visiting or home teaching. That is in Spanish too (pretty much everything is here) but it was SO fun. Hermana Sellers and me got to teach these 2 super cute old men (Allie you would have loved them) and they were the sweetest things ever. One of them gave us little cards with the Articles of Faith in Spanish and a printed out page of all his favorite scriptures! We had super good conversations with both of them. Our whole district was pumped when we came back and talked about TRC because everyone had such good experiences!

On Tuesday me, Hermana Sellers, Elder Olsen and Elder Estes had to go to the Mexican Consulate in Salt Lake with 12 other Elders and 2 other Hermanas from the West campus that are also going to places in Mexico. We had to leave at 10 am to take the bus to the Frontrunner. We had to wait for like half an hour for the Frontrunner then we were on that for an hour. We made a new friend, Elder Hayes (who is super awesome and cute and a country boy that was raised on a farm; Kaylee I told him he should meet you hahaha) and we all just chatted about life for the whole time we were on the Frontrunner. Then we had to get off that and get on the Trax for 15ish minutes to take us to Salt Lake. Then we had to walk 3 blocks to get to the Consulate (through the ghetto of Salt Lake) and we got to experience what it feels like to be out in the real world as missionaries. When we got there all they did was take our pictures and fingerprints to finish up our Visas. Then we had to wait there forever for everything to be approved before we could go. We met this senior couple who is getting ready to serve their mission in Mexico City!

So anyways then we had to get on the Trax, get on the Frontrunner, then wait for the bus back to the MTC. On the Frontrunner on the way back me, Hermana Sellers and Elders Olsen, Estes, and Hayes were all talking about embarrassing stories and weirdest kiss stories and the best/worst way we got asked to school dances. It was hilarious haha it was nice to just be able to goof around.

Oh and shout out to my Mom, Grandma, and Deanne Larson for being the only people to send me Dear Elder letters :( Except Izzy said that she couldn't send one because she didn't know my unit number so maybe that could have been someone else's problem to. My unit # is 860 and my mission is MEX-PUBN. My Estimated departure date is SEP01. If it works please please please send me messages on DearElder.com because I love getting them! And when we check the mail every day it's like an unspoken competition within our district who can get the most letters/packages haha. 

Anyways I hope all of you are doing fantastic! I miss and love you all so so much but don't worry about me, I'm doing awesome here! Loving (almost) every minute of it (:

Once again, I LOVE YOU ALL. Time is going by so fast here and I'll be home before I know it.

Ciao, amigos (:

My district in our classroom which is in an apartment at Raintree Apartments.

Hermana Petersen and Me.

My Zone at the MTC.

Some Elders that are from Washington also.

Since we can't put our arms around the Elders this is me Hermana Sellers, Elder Gray and Elder Best's classic "pretend" arms around pose (you put your arm around yourself behind your back haha) 

Oh my gosh I have soo much to write about and don't even know where to start! I only have an hour to email and I have a lot more emails than I thought I would that I have to reply to so hopefully I can get everything in, and I'm SO sorry if you emailed me and I didn't have time to get back to you this week. 

Okay so let me tell you about my first day:

Well first off when you get dropped off at the curb of the MTC and they grab your bags, there was no time for me to be sad because my host started bringing me all around the front of main campus to get everything I need. After that was done, I had to get on a bus to go over to West Campus (where all the missionaries going Spanish speaking live and have classes and everything). While I was sitting on the bus waiting to leave I felt super overwhelmed and sad and nervous but then when the bus got to West Campus as soon as I got off the bus I saw my good friend from BYU Elder (Spencer) Bradham!! I was so happy to see him oh my gosh. He said he was waiting for me to get there because he knew I was coming in that day and him and my host were fighting over who got to help me with my bags and take me to my apartment/classroom. He ended up showing me where my classroom is and everything and sat there with me and the 3 other Elders that were already in there and talked to me which really helped me not be as nervous.

So finally my whole district, which consists of 6 companionships (2 sister companionships, 4 elder companionships), got there and I got to meet my companion! Her name is Hermana Sellers and I love her so much oh my gosh. We instantly became the best of friends and we get along so well and laugh about everything. We are seriously the same person it's so crazy. Also, a sister who I met on facebook, Hermana Peterson, ended up being in my district and we were so happy! Me, Hermana Sellers, Hermana Peterson, and Hermana Duran all live in the same apartment and are the only Sisters in our whole district and our whole zone (which has 36 Elders and us 4 Sisters)!! So we get a lot of attention which is nice(:

I love my district so much, they are awesome! For all the non Mormon people, my district is who I spend pretty much all day every day with and have class, study, etc. with. And my zone is who we also spend a lot of time with, and our zone is made up of 4 districts. I was seriously so blessed. I'm pretty sure my zone has all the funniest missionaries in it, we have soo much fun! Also, me and Hermana Sellers are pretty much obsessed with these two Elders in our zone hahaha they are so cute and they're awesome to hangout with. It's so hard not to crush on people here, especially with the super strict "no flirting, no hugging the opposite sex, no being alone with the opposite sex, etc." rules. Last night me and Hermana Sellers were talking about how much we miss hugs from guys because it's just not the same as hugging a girl.

Oh, another random thing: so incase you didn't know, there are also strict rules about staying with your Companion. You have to be within sight and sound of them at all times (except if you're in the bathroom/shower). So it's a good thing I love Hermana Sellers so much!

Anyways back to my first day haha; We started learning Spanish right away and I'm so surprised at how much I understand of what my teacher says (my teacher is AWESOME by the way. We all love Hermano Whittaker). He talks in Spanish 90% of the time and I almost always know what he's saying. Remembering how to actually speak Spanish is the difficult part.

After we had a little bit of class time we had to go to this welcome meeting with all the other new missionaries on West campus and right as I walked in they asked me to say the closing prayer in front of everyone, typical haha. Afterwards all the leaders shook my hand and asked about my relationship to Henry B Eyring (it's crazy, everyone I meet asked me if/how I'm related. Sometimes people I have never really talked to in my zone and stuff will be like "hey Hermana Eyring I heard you're related to President Eyring" so it gives me a bit of celebrity status here (; ).

After the meeting thing we got to go back to our apartments and unpack. It took me SO long to unpack. I felt so bad because Hermana Sellers was done so quickly and it took me forever. Mom, I really should have paid more attention to where you packed things in my suitcase. Lesson learned!

Also, I already had huge blisters on my feet after the first day and it hurt so bad to walk. Me and Hermana Sellers were struggling so much because we both could barely walk AND we got lost trying to find our apartment/class AND it started raining while we were walking around aimlessly. Somehow we were still laughing the whole time though haha. Overall my first day was super good.

Now for a bunch of random things I want to talk about:

WOW, the Gift of Tongues is soo real. 2 days after we got into the MTC, we had to start teaching our first investigator. IN ALL SPANISH. We were all so scared and me and Hermana Sellers volunteered to go first. We said a prayer before we went in and started teaching that we would be blessed with the gift of tongues and be able to understand our investigator and speak to him. I don't even know what happened but while we were in there I could understand everything he was saying and I would just open my mouth and start saying random things to answer his questions. Afterwards Hermana Sellers was freaking out telling everyone in our district how awesome it was haha. Everything I said was a blur but our investigator understood all of it and it was crazy. It was the coolest thing.

Okay let me just talk about how much I LOVE my district. Oh my gosh! They make me so happy. I still haven't cried at all being here from being sad (only from feeling the Spirit haha). We all got so close so fast and we have so much fun together. Sometimes we get super off track and get a little bit in trouble but it's worth it. Also, all the Elders in our Zone have been in the MTC longer than we have so they all took us under their wing and come and talk to us/hangout with us all the time. They are all hilarious! We eat every meal with most of the people from our district and we all laugh so hard and it's so fun.

I love the MTC!! Everyone is SO nice here. And everyone says hi to each other whether they know each other or not. Whenever me and Hermana Sellers walk past a group of Elders they all always say "Hola Hermanas!" and talk to us a little bit and it's so great. Once again, we love the attention of being some of the few sister missionaries on West Campus.

So on Sunday everyone from West Campus got to go over to main campus to go to the Sunday devotional. And guess who I saw there... SISTER (MADDIE) MEHR!!! One of my roommates from BYU! We were so happy to see each other we hugged like 10 times haha. I didn't have my camera with me so I don't have the picture we took but she does so when she emails it to me I'll send it! So far here I've seen Elder Bradham, Elder Fowers, Elder Romney, Elder Preece, Elder Kropelnicki, Hermana Gull, Elder Stubbs, Sister Mehr, Elder Schroedter, and a few more that I can't think of right now. I didn't realize how many friends I had at the MTC! Also I've made TONS of new ones. It's so awesome and I'm going to be so sad to leave. 

Well that's all I can think of for now and I have very limited time left for emailing since this was so long haha. I'm trying to attach pictures but it's taking forever so I'll probably send another email in a minute with all the pictures. I have some quality ones on my camera hahaha.

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH AND MISS YOU LIKE CRAZY. I've told Hermana Sellers about so many of you and I'm so excited to show her all the pictures I picked out to bring once my mom *cough cough* sends them to me(:

I hope you all are doing awesome.

Adios, Buenos Dias (: