Love from the MTC

Hallo mijn geliefde gezin. :)

This week has been one of my happiest weeks here at the MTC! It has
been filled with so many tender mercies from the Lord. I have been
blessed in so many ways and I am so grateful for the wonderful
experiences I am having. Thanks to everyone for all the letters and
dearelders. John and Brittney- I am SO sorry I forgot to mention you
last week! Yes, I have been getting your dearelders and they always
make me smile. I am happy to hear things are going so well. I was
actually bragging about you John to one of our elders the other day.
Oh and I met an elder who was in your district. Well, he's a teacher
now. I can't remember his name but he said that you should know him.
He's from Denmark, blond hair? Haha sorry I'll try and remember his
name next week. Thanks to everyone else. I got a lot of random
letters from people I this week and they all made me so happy! I am
going to try really hard to write everyone back.

Oh my goodness where to begin? This week has been the week of
language. I guess I'll start with last Thursday. Thursday morning
was a bit discouraging because we had to start preparing to teach the
full first lesson in Nederlands, something we have not done before.
It was SO hard to try and translate everything we wanted to say. We
are definitely having to learn how to simplify everything. It got a
little frustrating, but as always, great things started happening. We
played a way fun game in class to help us learn more words. It was
like Taboo but in Dutch. That was so helpful and a lot of fun because
it was different from normal studying. Then in the afternoon, Elder
Seamen, Frahm, Hawkley and Sister Pierson and I had an amazing
language study session. I don't think I can even really explain why
it was so great. I think it was because we all were helping each
other and just laughing over stupid words and figuring out how to say
things that would help us teach the lesson. Seriously, I don't think
I have ever had that much fun studying before. We're trying to do
that more often now just because it helped us all so much. I love my
district. A lot. :)

Friday was our first lesson completely in Nederlands!!! I can
honestly say it was one of the most terrifying things ever. My legs
were shaking like crazy! We taught it to our progressing
investigator, Al. Sister Pierson and I prayed so hard that we would
have the spirit with us and that our tongues would be loosed so that
we could get our message across. So we went in there and before I
knew it 30 minutes had gone by! And guess what? We actually did it!
I owe everything completely to the Spirit because I know a lot of the
things I said I had not planned on saying. It was a real testimony to
me that if we do all we can to prepare the Lord really will step in
and help carry the message into the heart of the investigator. My
understanding is way better than my ability to speak. During the
lesson I could for the most part understand everything that Al said.
A lot of that, if not all of it, was probably because of the Spirit
though. Oh goodness, it was such a good experience. I felt on cloud
9 after. Literally, it was amazing. Still terrifying though. We got
him and his family to commit to come to church this Sunday though,
which is very exciting! We're teaching him again this Friday too.

Saturday we had our first English fast! English fast is exactly what
it sounds like, you can't speak any English. It wasn't an all day
fast, we only did it from 1:00-6:00. It felt really long though and
it was very hard. Haha it helped me realize how much I can't say and
how much I still need to learn. That's a good thing though. I think
that was the most quiet I have ever been my whole time here. ;)
Sunday was an amazing day as always. Sundays and Tuesdays are the
best in my opinion. The older Dutch district left on Monday so Sunday
was their last day. We went up to the temple and all took pictures
with the Netherlands flag and then had fun just taking a bunch of
random pictures. I'm sending some home today. The other Dutchies
have been such great examples to our district and I'm so happy to have
gotten to meet all of them. It was way sad to see Sister Reber and
Garvin leave, but it's not too sad because we'll definitely get to see
each other again. Monday morning we got up at 5:45 to walk them all
to the travel office. It was a bittersweet goodbye, but they were all
so excited it was hard to be sad. The "battle cry" for our zone is
"Give them Heaven!" haha instead of "Give them...well...you know." So
we all shouted that as they left. Sister Garvin has actually been
temporarily reassigned because her Visa didn't come. She's going to
SLC south for a bit while she waits. She's a great example of having
faith in the Lord though because she didn't seem upset at all. I
really really hope my FBI clearance comes soon! Even though I know if
it doesn't everything will still work out great.

Monday afternoon we had a great experience in the TRC. We taught the
Plan of Salvation to this really old couple. They are famous for being
one of the hardest couples to teach actually because they ask crazy
deep questions that no real investigator would probably ask. Anyways,
the husband speaks Nederlands and so we did all the intro and stuff in
that but then the lesson was just in English. It was such a powerful
lesson! We were both really nervous going into it because we hadn't
really planned too much. Once again though the Lord completely
blessed us and put the words right into our mouths. When we talked
about the Atonement the spirit literally rushed in the room. I could
feel it! It was amazing. We both bore our testimonies and committed
them to baptism! Haha I really really wished they were real
investigators! All I know is I LOVE teaching this gospel. Especially
the Plan of Salvation. It is such a happy thing to talk about.

Time is almost up so just some other random things. We have 4 new
sisters moving into our room today. They're not Dutch sisters though,
we actually don't know anything about them. Should be fun though, I'm
excited to meet them. There are a lot of funny dutch words that sound
really similar but mean the different things. It is VERY important
that you get them right. Haha some examples: just like the best two
years says "maagd" means virgin and "macht" means power. When you say
them they sound just about the same! Or "vergezellen" which means
accompany and "vergeselen" which means to whip. Haha so you can
either say "The Spirit will accompany you" or "The Spirit will whip
you." Hahahahaha.

Anyways, everything really is going to well. I don;t think my emails
do justice to how happy I am. I love being a missionary. I love
seeing the Senior couples! I can't wait to serve another mission with
my husband. Haha hopefully more than one. Scriptures on my mind
lately: D&C 24:12, 2 Tim 2:3, Nephi 17:50-51. That's the kind of
missionary I want to be. The church is true! The power of the
atonement is so real and the Spirit is the most important thing for us
to have in our lives. I love this gospel and the person that it makes
me. I know that the Lord has so much more planned for me than I even
realize. Sorry for having to cut short. I love you all! Doi! :)