MTC Letter #4

Hello all!!

I am can't believe it is p-day and I get to email you again. Time flies!! I wanted to thank you for all the letters and packages. They were wonderful. Mom I love the angel reminder you sent me, It is beautiful. Also I am completely healthy and well :) I wanted to tell you all about my week and schedule at the MTC I realized I forgot to and I also assumed that everyone already knows what we do. So ann thank you for reminding me.

Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays are the same schedule I wake up get ready and am eating breakfast by 7:30. Then I have class from 8-11. Then comes an hour of personal study and lunch. Then from 1-2:10 I have language study. Class again from 2:15-5:15. Dinner ends at 6pm. From 6:10-7 I have gym. My companion and I go play volleyball with my zone at the sand pit outside. Then I have 30 minutes to prepare and we have TALL (technology assisted language learning) for an hour till 8:35. TALL is on the computers and it helps with pronunciation and learning new gospel related vocab. Then I have additional study from 8:35-9, planning from 9-9:30, and then I prepare for bed and lights out by 10:30

Tuesdays are service days I get a sack breakfast, have personal study in the morning, clean the bathrooms (usually), and have gym all before lunch at 12:15. Then it follows with language study, class, dinner, and a MTC devotional that is always amazing. After the devotional districts go back to their classroom to review the devotional and share what they liked about the talk.

THursdays are p-day so I have a sack breakfast, do laundry, write letters, study before noon. THen my companion go eat lunch at the temple cafeteria. THe food is soo good there!! Then we go through a temple session, afterwards we have another hour almost to write letters, nap, do what we need to prepare. P-day ends at 5:15 when we go to dinner. We have class from 6-9 and planing after.

Saturdays follow MWF usually but gym is earlier followed by a workshop at 4pm before dinner. Then I have class from 6-9 and planning.

Class is so much fun. THe teachers do a good job breaking things up so we don't fall asleep. Usually 1 hour language study, 1hour teaching progressive investigators/companionship study if you are not teacing, and 1 hour spiritual lessions. I have 2 teachers Fratello Acerson and Sorella Fairbanks. S. Fairbanks usually teaches in the morning but they switch a little bit. She is hilarisous. She always is pulling faces, and has the funniest laugh. She is a tiny thing because she had her appendicitus was in the hospital and on leave for 20 days and came back to specifically teach us because 28 new missionaries were coming in. Fratello Acerson is new and got hired because of the influx in Italian missionaries. His father was MP over the Rome mission in his teenage years and both he and his sister have gone on missions back to Italy. He went a little earlier of course because his father was a mision president so he is just now 21 after being home a year. He also is super sweet ahd hilarious but he tries to make our investigators real. We can "call" our investigators when we need to or "call" the bishop, MP, memmbers, ect. Sometimes we will show up to appt and he won't be there, or the investigators father will be. He will throw crazy questions at us like investigators do. He said that if he doesm't feel taught or loved he will drop us as missionaries:) He tries to make it as real as possible and it is so much fun!!! We even had a mock sunday school this past saturday because my companion and I investigator Alex and another investigator were coming to church. We did not knwo it was going to happen but he came in and called on 2 missionaries and said "You are teaching a sunday school lesson, prepare" They are both such good teachers and I feel very blessed to have both of them.

Everyone here at the MTC is awesome. It is wonderful to get to know so many people from different places. We are good friends with the people going Greek speaking. All the elders and sisters going Greek speaking are either German, British, and one scottish sister. It is because of Greeks requirement to only have european missionaries but it is cool. 1 of the elders is from Leeds England, another from Sheffield England. They were best friends growing up now they are companions going to the same mission. THere also is a sister from Preston, England :) There are also 2 italian missionaries here. Elder Cena going to San Diego from Torino, and Sister Di Carlo from Puglia going to Texas?. Funny thing one of the members in my branch presidency knew Elder Cena's father on his mission in the 70's. His father was a newly baptized and young branch president!! The world is so small. But more than that I am so excited that the church is strong enough in that country that generations are being raised in the church and serving missions.

We taught at the TRC this monday (every monday) and we had a wonderful lesson, we were challenged not to bring our notes so we didn't and the lesson was beautiful

I would like to bear my testimony in Italian because I realized i have not emailled any italian to you before:

So che Gesù Cristo è il nostro Salvatore. Gesù Cristo è venuto sulla terra per soffrire per i nostri peccati e dolori. Lui è morto per noi ma lui vive, e verrà ancora. Perché vive, lui capisce tutti cosi nelle nostre vite. E vuole che preghiamo e chiedere per il perdono e pace. So che Dio è il nostro padre celeste e ci ama.  So che Dio e Gesù Cristo sono apparsi a Joseph Smith e che Joseph smith era un esempio per noi di come pregare con un cuore sincero. Joseph smith era un profeta di Dio e ha tradotto il Libro di MOrmon mediante la forza e direzione di Dio. Il libro di Mormon è la parola di Dio e nelle quelle pagine possiamo ricevere tutte risposte alle sue domande.

Letty, I saw Elder Neifert the one going to Paraguay this tuesday as Devotional. I talked with him and told him I would say hi to you and Richard for him.

Love Sorella Preston