So today marks my fourth week here in the MTC! It's weird to think that I've been gone for an entire month! It's hard to say what's new, because every day feels very similar. I eat a lot, sit for 3 hours in a class, study, eat some more, sit some more, and eat again. That's pretty much the summary. We had two Elders in our district leave yesterday for a transfer to the Columbia MTC, so we were sad to see them go. It's amazing how close you can get to people, and it was a blessing to have them in our district for a month. Now we have an all sisters district! We love being around each other and learning the ropes together. I will say that I like the other sisters more than I like my companion, but that's probably because I'm with her literally 24/7 (and because she annoys me).
Our district has become famous for our gym time activities! For the most part, we're all pretty athletic, and during gym we hold 'classes' in the living room and kitchen in our apartment. Sometimes I'll lead in stretching, yoga, or pilates, another sister is into strengthening and muscle toning, and this cute, tiny little gymnast leads the hardest kickboxing class! I'm sure we look ridiculous going hard core with blue grass hymns pumping in the background, but we love it. Since we're not in Main campus, we have to get creative. Yesterday we had to turn other sisters in our zone away because we didn't have enough room.
The MTC does feel like school in some aspects. We have grammar lessons, assessments, book work, and online language programs all for Spanish. During our 'Sunday Walk' time, we decided to watch Mormon Messages in our classroom because who wants to walk around in 5 degree weather? But one of the videos was in Spanish and was by people living Argentina. We can understand our teachers' clear, precise Spanish easily, but listening to someone speak 'real' Spanish is like listening to a different language! Well someone said 'don't read the subtitles, only if you really need to!' And at the end of the video, everyone was either smiling or laughing because we understood the video!! Parts were a little jumbled, but we understood 'real' Spanish :) Speaking it is a completely different matter... I know a lot of Spanish, but it's difficult to recall everything, and then I have to talk around myself at times if I don't know a specific word. As the days go on, though, I'm finding that I don't have to translate as much in my head when I speak and I can just talk.
Something cool that happened for our Sunday devotional was that the BYU men's Chorus came to preform for us! They are really excellent, and their CD 'Set Apart' is one we listen to on the computer during study time. I was thinking about C.J. the whole time and how great he would be in that choir if he decides to go to BYU. Or any choir, really.
Last Wednesday we took 'family' pictures as a district! We can go to Brigham's Landing on P-days and there's a Fed-Ex over there, so being the cute missionaries that we are, we decided to make a Christmas Card :) I'll be sending one to Nana and Papa, Gram, and Grandpa, and one back home so you can see how adorable we all are.
C.J. keeps sending me Patriots updates, Giorgi wrote me a 2 sentence letter pertaining to a lotion malfunction, Mom continues to give me updates on topics both serious and silly, I got Christmas cards from the grandparents, a Christmas package and card from the Bird family, and almost daily letters from Manda and Paulo :) And someone just barely handed me a package slip!! Thanks to all of you for continuing to take care of me. I wish I could call you up right after I receive things every night to express my gratitude, but weekly updates and snail mail are all I can do. But please know how grateful I am to go through mail from you every night.
Christmas here should be excellent. Tuesday devo is on Christmas Eve, so we should be getting one of the 12, and Wednesday we're told we should be getting 2 apostles. It's like the 12 days of Christmas, Mormon style!! So don't worry about me! This will probably be the best Christmas I could have. I'll have about 20 minutes of e-mail time next Wednesday, just because there are so many of us here, but if I don't send out an update for next week, Merry Christmas!!
I realize that I sort of strayed from missionary code and you all thought you were clear from a spiritual message from Sister Smith! SORRY!! I can't help it! I'll just leave you with a brief testimony. I love the simple, yet fundamental truths of the gospel. These truths are the foundation of our church and are doctrine revealed to us by prophets and seers. I know that through the Holy Spirit we can receive revelation from our Heavenly Father. Something I've been focusing on a lot is my personal relationship with my Savior, Jesus Christ. Of all the things that go wrong in our lives, of all of the sadness, hurt, and evils in the world, it does not change my relationship with my Savior. I love that we are all promised Salvation. And it in no way means a perfect, easy life. It means that through enduring to the end, we are promised everything our Father in Heaven has, even eternal life and eternal joy. A new motto that I've picked up is "No me importa. Jesucristo vive." Something goes wrong, it doesn't matter. Jesus Christ lives. I know that He lives, and I know that through Him our journey though this is SO much better!! We're promised "incomprehensible joy" if we build our foundation on Christ, the Redeemer of the world. -Alma 28 :8 I love my Savior and this time of year which reminds us to turn outward and think of others, not our selves and to abandon the natural man which is in all of us.
Love you all!
Hermana Smith
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