I can already feel the fire of the mission in me

Mamita!! 

Oh the MTC!!  Yep, definitely not the easiest thing I've ever done in my life.  Every day feels like five!  The second day I felt like crying a lot.  I was just so tired and overwhelmed.  Also, Spanish is so hard.

My companion is Hermana Fonseca.  She is amazing.  She's a Latin.  She's from Utah, but her parents are Colombian.  She's the most fluent in our district.  I love her!!  She likes Regina, Ingrid, Mika, Sara!!  We are like the same person!!  She is very outgoing and has helped me so much with my Spanish.  You see, I can understand everything that is going on, I just can't speak because I don't have gospel vocab.  I'm learning lots every day, but it is frustrating.  I know I just need to put myself back in Mexico and forget the fear.

There are only four white kids in my district out of ten.  There are 6 sisters and 4 elders.  So I'm on the bottom of the Spanish barrel, but I feel like this class is challenging my Spanish, whereas in the lower classes I would already know everything.  So it's hard, but it's good.

I leave for Chile on the 25 of Feb.  Not this Monday but next.  We leave at 4 in the morning!!  Ahh.  It's going to be a long day.  Another girl in my district is going to Chile Santiago North and we are flying together.  My companion is also going to Chile but not Santiago.  Also, we have confirmed David Archuleta is not in my mission.  I think they move him around, because my companion used to work here and they said he started out in the south part of Chile, now he's in Santiago South, and they don't send any American girls to his mission, hahaha!

So the hardest part right not for me is class.  Spanish and gospel are in two different parts of my brain, so I am constantly switching back and forth then translating, then looking up words.  It's exhausting.  It still doesn't feel like I am a missionary.  I've seen Jackson twice and it has been so good!  It's just a little piece of familiarity in this sea of unfamiliar things.

I love my district, though sometimes they get off task.  We have lots of fun.  We always eat together and play volleyball together at gym time.  I think I earned the elders respect when I owned in volleyball!  They are all Latinos so they are used to playing with their feet not their hands.  It's great.  Also there is an elder in my zone going to Kennewick!!  I can't remember his name, but he's going Spanish so you probably won't see him.

One of our teachers is from Puebla Mexico, so I love hearing her speak.  Our other teacher served in the Dominican republic, and he is great!!  He makes class fun.  Ahh, tonight I have 6 hours of class back to back because it was only a half p-day.  I'm gonna die.  But I got to practice the piano today and that was so great.  Also thanks for the package. Haha, the balloon fish was great.  And thanks so much to Amy for the cookies! We have the earliest dinner so we are always starving!!

Ahh, I really don't know what to write.  So much has happened.  Let me tell you about elder M.  He's in my zone and really struggling with Spanish.  He spoke it when he was little, but then once he got into school, he stopped and they never spoke it at home.  So he feels so out of place in the advanced class, plus he is a convert of only two years.

Yesterday during zone teaching my companion and I joined with two companionship's of elders to do language practice.  We just paired up and practiced teaching basic principles of the gospel, and the ones who could speak better Spanish would help us. We rotated every five minutes.  It was so helpful working with other Spanish speakers.  Well, I got to work with Elder M, and right off the bat I could tell he was struggling more than me.  His companion is not too great at following the rules and they just got called to zone leader.  So he is so overwhelmed and I could tell he was having a hard time.  As a sister, there is not much I can do to help him, but I just told him some tricks I use to learn Spanish.  He is scared to talk because he thinks everyone is judging him.  I just told him when I was in Mexico I felt the same way, until I realized that no one cares.  I told him that when he talks to someone who doesn't speak English well, he doesn't judge them.  Well, the same is true of the people in our zone.  I told him a few other things about learning Spanish, like that he shouldn't worry about saying anything right.  So I think that helped.  My companion also helped him. Today he seemed a lot better.  I think his biggest problem is just getting over the fear.  It's the hardest part about learning a language.  I'm still going through it.  But it felt so good to help him, and just let him know that he is not alone, and I am in the same boat.

Lets see, what else?  I can't believe I'm only going to be here for 12 days!! It's so so so crazy!  But I can already feel the fire of the mission in me.  Like I just love my companion, and I've only know her three days.  I feel like I've known her forever.  I know the Lord has helped me to love her as He would, as well as my zone. Like I barely know these people and I just love them like they were my family.

This is going to be the hardest thing I've ever done. I can already tell.  But the Lord has already blessed me so so so so so so much!!  I'm so excited to finally get into Chile where the real work will begin.  Sorry for my grammar.  I tried not to backspace.  I love you all. Got to go!!

 

Hermana Ostler 

This picture was sent to me by Jackson.  He has lunch with Saydi while
she's in the MTC because he is a teacher there.