Emily's First Letter

Yay! I'm finally emailing! Thursdays are my p-days and this morning we went to the temple and we just get to relax for most the day! The first couple of days at the mtc were soo hard! But once we got to sunday things have definitely gotten a lot easier. I LOVE the mtc so much! My district is the best and my companion is awesome. There are six elders and 4 hermanas in my district including myself. We laugh all the time and we even cry together. We are so close already and I know that each of us was divinely put with each other. Sundays are the best! First all the sister missionaries watch the spoken word on a broadcast thing and listen to music for a hald hour (one of my favorite things here) also Emily Rice plays in the orchestra so it is cool to see her. Then we have relief society, then we eat lunch and go to sacrament meeting which is moslty in spanish. Then we have the temple walk and go to the fireside that evening and those are awesome because like 15 minutes before the firesides start, all the missionaries sing a couple church songs together and it is so powerful! I had to stop singing last time because I was crying haha

I still hate waking up so early in the morning but the hardest thing for me is getting ready for the day in 30 minutes! I absolutely love gym time because they have a good gym here surprisingly. There is a huge gym where you can play volleyball and basketball and there is a track you can run on (ten laps equal a mile) is kinda small ha there is also a free weight gym that i love with a ton of bikes and elipticals and those big exercise balls.. anyway i basically love that and get to work out everyday!

Our first investigator's name was cesar and yesterday was our last lesson with him! We got him to commit to be baptized! yay! The teachers here pretend to be real investigators from when they served their missions and they pretend to have the same doubts and questions and try to make the situation as real as possible. We teach our lessons in spanish and it's amazing how many things I can say. Taking spanish at Byu has definitely helped me here and I'm so glad i did that! I can understand most of what cesar says but whenever i don't know what he is saying, my companion knows which is awesome. before coming here I didn't know any gospel words and now I know so many already! It's crazy how much we learn here. On the first day we were taught how to pray in spanish and then the second day we were taught how to bear our testimonies. i have realized the importance in prayer lately because it seriously helps us to have strength throughout the day. There are a lot of things that i need help with and i know i cannot do them all by myself but i know that the lord will help me in my weaknesses to make me a stronger person. This can only happen through having faith in the Lord that he will help and guide us and answer our prayers.

Okay so I think i am for real lactose intolerant because i got a really bad tummy ache alst friday and saturday where I just wanted to cry and couldn't focus on anything. Saturday night when our teacher was here she told me to go to my room and sleep which was sooo amazing and i finally got a good night sleep from being so tired. I noticed I started eating a lot more cereal than before I came here so I stopped using the the fat free milk and found the soy milk. My tummy has stopped hurting! Yay!

The best way to send me letters is at dearelder.com. This way i can get your letters throughout the week and will be able to read it as many times as I want and I can have an idea of what to say before i get on my email. i am timed and only get 30 minutes to email. I love getting letters and appreciate every one who has already sent me letters. Oh, dearelder is FREE! so it's way easy. Thank you mom for the cinnamon rolls! They were so good and also helped my tummy have a break from the cafeteria food which is good but doesn't really sit well in my tummy:)

 

I love you all so much and miss hearing from you whenever i call (Cause i can't anymore) so pleaaaase write!

Con mucho amor, Hermana Stapley