Well Hellllllllllllloooooooooooooo!
I seriously cannot believe I'm doing this right now! My first email home, AH! I don't even know where to start........haha
Well,
first off. The MTC is everything that people said it would be: crazy,
fun, spiritual, frustrating, exciting, exhauting, tearful, fearful and
great! There have already been ups and downs, but it's teaching me to
trust in the Lord and I am starting to understand how this is all going
to work for me! The food here is just like what I was eating at EFY, so
I'm kind of already used to it! Sestra Compare and I are just realizing
how much we're going to need to pace ourselves because we feel like we
are eating all the time. Not good. We have gym time almost every day and
we're making sure we get a good sweat in, don't worry Mom. :)
Second, I LOVE SESTRA COMPARE! Thank you for sending
the pictures in the package, especially the one of her and I. I love it!
I am so grateful everyday that we are companions. We are very close
already and I think we're just going to get closer from here! She is
from Vermont and was studying International Relations at BYU. She's
SUPER smart and has been studying French for the past 8 years. It's
funny because in Croatian you are supposed to roll your R's, but in
French you say them in your throat which sounds just like the Croatian
H. When we talk to each other I get confused because I can't figure out
the spelling of the word she is saying, because she is using the wrong
pronunciation. hahaha We laugh a lot! None of her family are members and
I'm just blown away that she is here serving the Lord. She's such an
example to me!
Third: Croatian. Well, I almost jumped out of my window
the other day because of this subject, but don't worry, it's okay.
hahaha The language is FACINATING! It makes a lot of sense becuase each
letter in the alphabet makes the same sound all the time, no matter
where it comes in the word. I'm struggling mostly with retaining words
and being able to speak them correctly. I can speak, but I have to think
about it for a LONG time before I say it. I can tell this is going to
be a big challenge for me here at the MTC, but I'm going to work my
hardest and put my burdens on the Lord and speak Croatian! Oh, one
smalllllllll detail........................
Fourth: Our District and class. Coming into the MTC I
had heard so many stories about funny things that happen in class, the
Elders in your district are crazy, yaddah yaddah. Well, mine is a little
different. Sestra Compare and I are the only people learning Croatian
in the whole MTC, therefore we have our own class! It's just the two of
us with our two teachers. hahaha We've been a little intimidated up to
this point because there's no room for goofing off and we have to answer
every question! At the same time, we're lucky becuase it's kind of like
personal tutoring. We're still learning the best ways for us to study
and learn the language in our free time, but we'll get it soon enough!
We have two other Elders that are going to our same mission, but they
are speaking Slovene and are in their own class as well. The four of us
make up our district! They're nice guys. One is a two-year convert from
Texas, Elder Benson. He and I actually Facebooked a little before we got
here. The other Elder is from Olympus high school (ABBY) and is named
Elder Burdette.
Fifth: Spiritual stuff. To be honest, the first few
days I didn't feel like I had a good scripture study because I was so
overwhelmed with the language. We had 7 hours of class in a day,
pounding our brains with grammar and vocab that I wasn't sure if I was
going on a mission or working for the CIA! In the past few days, there
have definitely been some definite times where I felt the spirit.
The first was when we taught our first investigator,
Maja. We had to teach her in Croatian and it was on Friday. Yeah, two
days after we got here! We had pretty much written a script down and
read it to her, but then forgot to study how to make another
appointment! The end of the lesson turned into charades with us trying
to depict that we wanted to come back as soon as she had time to see us.
Ugh. what a mess! Today we're teaching her again, so I'll let you know
how it goes!
Wow, time is going fast!
Mom,
thank you for the package. It was so nice to have mail! Also, I got a
bunch of letters my second day here from DearElder which was SO
AWESOME!!!!! I feel so loved. I was struggling pretty badly in day after
that and reading all those letters again definitely helped me through!
There is an Elder in our Zone that doesn't get much
mail, his name is Elder Yee. I'll find out his address and mail it to
you! He's a convert and after he was on his mission for a week, his
parents disowned him and told him never to come back. He's another big
example to me. What a trooper!
Hvala for writing! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for the thoughts, prayer and letters.
You're the best!
Love,
Sestra Giles
P.S: I'm trying to attach pictures, but I can't figure it out! Sorry. :( I'll try to get some to you soon!) Love you!!!!!
hahah I TOTALLLY know what she means by always eating!! It's true! We would sit in the class room and no more than 4 hours would pass and we'd be eating again! After just sitting all day! And we're talking full fledged meals! Sometimes you just have to say no to all the food and have some fruit or a small salad.
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