MTC - Week Three

So I’m going to apologize in advance for the randomness of this email or at least the order everything will be said. Throughout the week I make a bulleted list of what I want to email about and then I come into the labs and type like a speed demon. Sorry everyone has ditched ya'll for other Thanksgiving plans! But it seems like you're doing okay anyways :)  Just bummed I can't be there for it and even more jealous that Bryan will be there and have Thanksgiving with you all instead of me AND that he gets to make my salad! Someone’s got to do it some I’m glad he's got that job :)  So far, all we know about our Thanksgiving plans is that we won't have to sit inside all day for classes but that we will be doing a large service project and have a "Thanksgiving lunch". Seeing as the food isn't treating us (the Sisters) very well, we're not too excited. Speaking of the food - All the Sisters in my district have been having unbelievable pains and gas problems. Yes, laugh all you want Andre, Michael, and Bryan but it’s not funny! It’s to the point that most of us can't eat cause our stomachs hurt, or someone is throwing up bunches in the night. Luckily, one of the sisters brought tums so we've been eating those most obligingly.

    Yesterday we got to hear from Linda Burton from the General Relief Society Board. She spoke to us about how to deal or manage with a day of occasional discouragement. The first point she made was to rely on the scriptures and hymns for strength. It made me think of all the times I have felt most home-sick at school I’d play songs or children’s hymns that made me think of good times with the family. I've also asked Bryan to sing to me in the past and that has helped. I know that hymns are a true strength to us when we remember them and I seemed to have forgotten that. Probably because they don't let us listen to music here... Anyways, after relief society we stayed to hear the "Dress and Grooming" lecture. OH MY GOODNESS!!! I couldn't believe some of the things they were saying, I just had to laugh and write them down. I like rules people, you all know that, but this was just to the point of ridiculousness so I had to laugh it off. The lady speaking to us said, "Some Sisters like to pull out the most flamboyant things and wear them. So don't do that, okay, check. Next, “Put blush on so we're not washed out. The Brethren have asked us to put some color or blush on our faces!" Excuse me, what?! God made me beautiful, I’m not going to paint my face, and maybe if we didn't sit in classrooms for 30 hours a day we wouldn't be so pasty!!! Dad, it just made me think of you, how you always say if God wanted us to have pierced ears he would have put holes in our ears, well by golly gosh he would have put blush on my face too if he wanted it! Okay, I’ll get off my soap-box now :) 

    Sister Noyes and I have been trying to get our hands on a piece of music so that she can sing and I’ll accompany her. Well on our way to the music library, this man stopped me and asked, " Do you know where you're going?" I told him that I was just headed into the Music library and pointed to where it was. He said, "Oh okay, you looked like you had no idea." I'm not sure what my faced looked like but i seem to be running around the MTC with utter confusion on my face :) Hopefully he wasn't talking as if I was spiritually lost. 

   Bruder Hill and Bruder Pederson are our teachers for the time we are here and for the first couple investigators they play them. Well sister Noyes and I are teaching Ming from Vietnam, played by Bruder Pederson, and Peter, played by Bruder Hill. Ming is funny because he talks with an oriental accent but in German so all his German is really choppy and short. Peter is frustrating at the moment. He is a philosopher and doesn't believe God answers prayers because as a child he was raised in the Orthodox Church and his parents made him pray and he didn't find it helpful. The last lesson we couldn't get past the first point, so hopefully we'll be able to teach him more effectively tonight.

   I told you that we've had a snoring problem. Well the other night I woke up to shooshing whoever was snoring in our room and rolling over. Then Dieter F. Uchtdorf told me that our plane dropped 50,000 feet on our way to Germany and that’s why our flight was so rough. I have the strangest things run through my head at night....

   So the Elders in our district told me that they are having a competition to see who can gain the most weight. I was trying to think like a boy and asked, "The most muscle weight?" and they said no, just whatever weight to see who can be the heaviest when they leave here. One Elder also told me that the Sisters needed to eat more fiber to get all that crap out of us, speaking of the food and gas problem. Yes, I am on missions with silly boys sometimes. Michael, all the sisters are trying to patient and understanding. In the fireside last night, Brother Heaton, Provo MTC director, asked the Elders who’s built a fort out of all the spare bunk bed parts. A bunch of Elders raised their hands! It was just too funny. Before the fireside started me, Sister Noyes, Sister Hatch, and Sister Smart were sitting waiting for it to begin. This older man came up to us and asked if we were with the elders next to us. We said, “No”.  And he said,” Good, follow me”. And moved us to the front row. Pretty nifty! Maybe that will happen when a general authority comes to speak.

   The district that was here before us just left this morning for Germany. The missionaries headed to Frankfurt were the only ones flying through Atlanta. The two going to Berlin were going to fly to Detroit, Amsterdam, and then Berlin. We'll see what plans we have when we get to go.

  HOLY MOLY!! I only got two minutes left!!! AHHHH!

   I love you all! Thanks for all your love and support, sorry the mail takes so long to get to you! Just know that I’m thinking of you and Love you :)

-Ariel Nell