Letter #2

HOLA!!

Oh my gosh I have been here 10 days. It literally feels like forever because I am learning SO SO much!

Ok before I begin, seriously THANK YOU everyone for all of the emails and letters, and dear elders and packages. They make my entire day and what most people dont realize is, missionaries LOVE to hear about anything going on in the real world and in all of your lives even if they seem boring to you. Trust me, after a week and a half away of classes and studying, nothing seems boring to me anymore! So keep writing! I love you all!

Anyways this week was fantastic. Like so so good. Its weird because so many missionaries (RM's and missionaries still here at the MTC) are all like "dont worry, you just have to get through the MTC and then you will be fine." Well guess what? They are not living right. The MTC is awesome and I am loving my life here. 

Funny though as I'm talking about loving life so much..... this morning was PD day and sooooo of course we had to wake up at 5:30 in the freaking morning to clean........ TOILETS!!! WOOOO!!! 

not.

As we were beginning to clean toilets, I soon realized that my companion did not know how to clean toilets because she has grown up with a maid her entire life. hahaha I was dying it was hilarious trying to teach her how to clean a toilet. And because I have had the opportunity of cleaning toilets pretty much my entire life I let her clean all of the elder's toilets because I thought she could use the experience haha ;) 

Mom- heres your moment. Thanks for teaching me to clean. You da best.

Well on that note my companion Hermana Ramirez is awesome. We really clicked this week and are seriously best friends. God really knows who to pair with who because we are definitely not the "average missionary girls" and so its awesome to have someone who gets me and someone who will quote movies with me and sing Lil Wayne or Drake songs with me. Seriously our district thinks we are crazy.

BUT... we had interviews with our zone leaders and they said, Hermana Wells, you and Hermana Ramirez are always happy and laughing and that is such a good thing to have in the mission field.

Seriously she keeps me sane. We literally laugh all the time and I am so happy to be with her even though my patience has been tried a couple of times but hey shes making me a better person.

Ok so lets talk about my teachers here while at the mtc.

Hermano Labron. From Argentina, went on a mission to Chile. He taught us for about 2 days  and then pretty much peaced out and when on a family vaca with his wife and kid for literally a week and a half.

So.. we haven't have a teacher most of the time which has probably been one of the hardest things about the MTC because um hello I can't teach myself spanish. But whatever its all good.

Hermano Dolbien. 21 years old. From Utah went on a mission to El Salvador. Really attractive. For some odd reason we all can't speak spanish as well  and we seem to forget things more and be more flustered around him. I wonder why...

Seriously the MTC should only hire married or ugly people.

But like I said before in my last email, he gives the best lessons so eh, he can stay I guess.

Oh but remember him because I have MANY funny storied about him.

Ok well on for the funny stuff that has happened to me while at the MTC.

So our apartment is usually a mess because we are always so rushed and stressed trying to get ready in the morning. WELL we received a notice that the branch president and his wife were coming over that night to meet and visit with us.

Shoot. They cannot see our apartment like this!!

So being the good district leader I decided to tell everyone just to shove all of the clothes and hair dryers and things in the closets.

Remember the movie the Best 2 Years where the elder says the president is coming over so the other elder freaks out and hurries and cleans the place?

Well it was a perfect  reenactment of that. But hey closets are awesome. It worked!! The brach president came over and was happy with us and our apartment looked clean. 

Well.... 

The next day the mean Provo apartment people decided to do clean checks. And so they opened our closets. And so that night when we came home we got a nice big fat notice saying FAILED. 

Whoops. Next time people.

Me and Hermana Ramirez were laughing and some other girl in our district was really mad and she was like "This is NOT funny!!!" 

Whoa...ok. calm down there. Put some things into perspective, ok??

It really was funny.

But dont worry as of 2 hours ago, our apartment is sparkling.

So I guess you guys can now tell that I am pretty good at having a good sense of humor and laughing at myself which is SERIOUSLY so important on a mission because crap happens and there is nothing you can do about it but laugh. And crap happens to me ALL the time and I am still a happy camper so I guess it works. Want some examples? Lemme tell ya.

1. Morning time. Super rushed. Wearing a nice black shirt. I was brushing my teeth when all of a sudden a glob the size of Mt. Rushmore falls on my shirt. Great. So I tried to put water and get the stain out....but it never came out and I didn't have time to change. So yes I walked around all day proudly wearing a VERY noticeable stained black shirt. Its all good.... except for the few weird glances and comments.... ya ya I know my shirt is stained. Thanks.

2. So my water bottle might have leaked in my bag getting EVERYTHING soaked. Well it got my spanish book soaked as well. Too bad it didn't completely ruin it because I hate that thing haha. Well Hermano Dolbien (the attractive one) saw my book and was like "What the heck did you do to this thing??" And I was like uh well...." and then I awkwardly explained what happened. And then he laughed and was like haha dang your one of those people" ........

thanks.

BUT he did show me his scriptures because the SAME things happened to him so he pretty much just dissed himself when he was dissing me.

3. Another Dolbien story. Seriously everything embarrassing that happens to me happens when he is around. Gahhh I love my life..... So we have these chair desks things. And if you put to much books on top of the desk part the whole desk will fall over. Well I had some big books on my desk but the desk was doing just fine. I go to my desk to take a book off and then I walk away and the ENTIRE DESK falls over and makes a HUGE crashing sound because it crashed into a wall and my books go EVERYWHERE and Dolbien just looks at me like "oh my gosh you are a mess" hahahaha it was hilarious. Kinda. 

Spreading laughter and happiness wherever I go I tell ya!

Ok so those were the funny/ embarrassing times. 

Now for the hard stuff. Its true missions are hard. Spanish is hard. Studying ALL day is hard.

Last Saturday night was my worst night here. We had just taught an investigator and I couldn't understand anything. I couldn't say anything. The more frustrated I got the more I felt the spirit leave me and let me tell ya, the gift of tongues is real people. I can only speak Spanish now because the Spirit is with me. But that night I was angry with myself and I couldn't do it. The lesson went terribly. The investigator wouldn't pray for us which was our goal. Me and my companion cried after the lesson (we NEVER cry) and it was hard. I literally felt so stupid and worthless. But guess what? I got through that night. And I learned so many important things. Things like having patience with yourself and learning that when you are down helping others seriously eases your burden. And things like Satan really puts thoughts in your head. Christ doesn't expect me to be perfect. I heard the best quote talking about how God sets a bar and a standard for each of us and our situation. We do not have the authority to live under that bar but we definitely DO NOT have the authority to live above it either. As long as we are trying our best, God is proud and pleased. So that was a good lesson. I no longer am hard on myself. I try SO hard- don't get me wrong but I am not hard on myself. I am learning to be patient with my flaws and I am learning to see my strengths and what I have instead of all the things I lack.

What a blessing. 

After that day, the week was awesome. We have these people called TRC teachers and they hop from district to distrcit just helping out. Hermano Wright came and talked to us about how to get our investigator to pray. He kept asking us "well why do you need to pray?" Well of course the sunday school answers came out. We pray to talk to God. To get blessings. blah blah blah. Well he kept asking us WHY? And to be honest, I didn;t know why. And so all week we've searched the scriptures and prayed about the question why do we pray. And guess what? We found it. I learned that the reason we pray is to align our will with Gods. Thats it. I have been praying wrong my entire life and because of that I have lived my life thinking my prayers were never asnwered or that God didn't love me. BUT HE DOES LOVE ME. AND HE DOES LISTEN AND ANSWER PRAYERS. My will was just never aligned with His and I never tried to see things from HIS point of view. My prayers are very much different now and the spirit I feel is different. I no longer ask for things in my life to happen but I am now trying to align what I want with what God wants. That is how you get through trials. Once I learned that we taught our investigator AGAIN about prayer. The lesson went totally different. THE SPIRIT was so STRONG. I bore my testimony about Bethany getting cancer and how at first I felt that God had abandoned me. But he didn't. I wasn't understanding that he had a different plan for me and for my sister. I cannot even describe the spirit that I felt. I had an impression to ask our investigator to pray which was weird because we wernt going to have her pray until the end but I asked her anyways and guess what? She prayed. Didn't even hesitate. And it was the MOST BEAUTIFUL prayer ever.

The spirit does amazing things. It changes people. My spanish is coming because of the Spirit. The other night we had a different TRC teacher and he bore his testimony about the power of the gift of tongues. We have only been here 10 days and already I am thinking Spanish in my head and sometimes when I write in my journal I insert spanish phrases and words completely by accident.

Now, spanish is HARD. And I STRUGGLE at it like everyone else. But this gospel is TRUE. There is no other way I could be speaking this language as well as I am if it wern't for the gift of tongues.

That is what I love about my mission. I love how I feel all the time. I am happy. I am at peace with my life. God is real and he is constantly there helping and watching over me. I know exactly what it feels like to have the Spirit verses not having it. I LOVE missionary work. Walking away from our lesson where we got our investigator to pray was the best feeling ever. It over rules the hard times. I cannot even express how much I love this gospel. I testify that it is true. This gospel changes people. The power of the atonement taught with TRUE doctrine changes people's attitudes and behaviors. I have seen it. Seriously I can't wait for Christian and Bethany (if she wants too) go on missions. It truly is the best time of a persons life. Every single night when I write in my journal I start out with " I AM EXHAUSTED, but I AM SO HAPPY. And its true. Its hard work. I go to sleep tireder than the night before but I wake up and I am ready to work. Gahhh this is the best.

Line of the Week:

(Ok so we are teaching a TRC teacher because our investigator couldn't come that day. We were told that he was moving to Ohio and he was nervous because he didn't have a job and didn't know what to do with his life and so we thought hey, lets teach him about faith! That will help him!)

Us- Hey! How are you doing? (in spanish of course)

Hermano Christofferson- really good!

Us- we heard you're moving to Ohio. Are you nervous about that?

Hmo. C.- Nope. Not at all.

Us- uhh ok. Well we are going to talk to you about faith

Hmo. C- I have lots of that already.

Us.......................... uhhhhh ok well thats what we are STILL going to talk to you about because we literally don't know how to say anything else other than what we already have down on our notes.....

awkward.

Oh and one more story hahahaha

Ok so last night we studied Spniash literally all day and by 9:00 I had the BIGGEST headache and was pretty much done with life.

Teacher- OK now for the last half an hour we are going to read El Libro de Mormon outloud and then translate it into English!

Please no. 

Oh goodness please no.

But we did and somehow I survived that excruciating session of translating huge annoying words into English. I got by by just nodding my head and pretending like I was understanding what was going on.

haha. Missions are great people. I love  each and every one of you so so much. Miracles DO and ARE happening. I see them everyday. 

Love, 

Hermana Wells

P.S. One of my teachers was telling me about the ferocious dogs in Mexico that chase you. He said do you run fast?? And I said, Yeah I'm pretty confident in my running ability. He then said, well the secret to escaping the mean dogs is to run faster than your companion.

hahahahaha. dying. Great life advise. I will definitely remember that one!

P.P.S. I do have pics but....the computer here sucks and soooo if you don't get pics today then hopefully next week! LOVE YA

 This is how I feel at the end of the day.

 Just conjugating those verbs.

We got out Visas! I now have a straight way ticket to Mexico. I'm pumped!