Week two - Dr. Pepper, bee stings and other MTC stories!

 Ah! its week two! I made it to Sunday! It's been a week and a half! Hallelujah! :) Only 4 1/2 more weeks! That's not too bad. :) So wow I have so much to write about this week! 

first off... THANK YOU to everyone that is loving the heck out of me via letters and packages and dear elders and prayers. I cant tell you how much it means to me. Every day I have gotten sweet advice and comfort from someone and it just gets me through the hard times! Ah, I can never thank all of you enough. And mom! those cinnamon rolls are amazing. I almost cried. Oh and the cupcakes. and the nutella. especially the nutella. I eat that stuff by the crackerful and it makes me happy. :) Oh and Abby, Sister Adams, left on Tuesday for her mission and she gave me all the food her boyfriend, Dallan, gave her! Oh my gosh. I had a huge box full of food. Dr. Pepper namely. I love Abby and I love her for giving me Dr. Pepper. It was such a blessing having her here the first few days. I knew I could always go to her to get a hug or a smile!

Basically, the MTC is amazing. I AM SO BLESSED TO HAVE BEEN SENT HERE. I know we were switched to the Provo MTC for a reason-- actually many reasons! And I am loving it! First reason... the World Wide "Work of Salvation" broadcast this Sunday that I get to attend! I think it is at 4! We tried to join the choir for it but it is too full! but still! I will be at the Marriott Center on Sunday with the Prophet and all the Apostles. I just cant wait! It will be a spiritual feast!  Oh and another thing about this week... all the new mission presidents are here training! Meaning MY new mission president is here! We are trying to find President Ruiz and I am determined to find him and shake his hand! 

Token MTC map picture!

So lets go all the way back to Sunday... Fathers Day! Happy belated Fathers Day Daddy! I love you! So grateful for your support and example over the years! :) We started church off with "Music and the Spoken Word" and it was a special on Fathers Day. Wow, want to make 2,000 girls home sick? Do this! Congrats MTC. There was seriously not a dry eye in the room! It was so amazing though. We then had the opportunity to hear from Sister Neill F. Marriott! She is the new 2nd counselor of the... young womens presidency? She is hilarious! She told us her conversion story and inspired us to be bold and happy. :)

 Okay so on Saturday our district changed! We lost an elder to the beginner class and gained 3 more! So now we are a whopping 13 person district! It's huge. We all have to fit into this eensy room. Ha! It's funny! We have gotten very close... haha. We had to move around a bit so the sisters weren't too close to the elders, go figure, but now we have this amazing view of Squaw Peak out the window. It's gorgeous to watch the sun set on that peak every day! So our new elders are: Elder Montgomery, Goodman and Kreuger. Elder Kreuger is going to our mission in Guatemala so we swap stories about what we have heard for Guatemala all the time! ha! something about spiders as big as my head... I just try to ignore it! 

Our P-day temple trip

But really our district is so close! We are all friends and we love playing beach volleyball together on Mondays and Thursdays during gym time! We aren't allowed to dive... but I sometimes fall in the direction of the ball and I think thats fine! ;) It is so incredible to put our feet in the sand! Oh my goodness it's a blessing and leaving the MTC is pretty cool too :) The other day we were walking back and I felt something on my neck so I swiped it away and BAM... bee sting! or wasp bite I'm not sure. But it was my first one ever! And I think my district could tell... I kinda freaked out. ;)

In terms of Spanish... I love this language! I am just so grateful to have the opportunity to learn it, then speak it with people! I sat next to some sisters going to Russia the other day and my heart started like palpitating for them! That alphabet is ridiculous! And they just read it like its no big deal! Let's just say the gift of tongues is real, and it is here at the MTC! It is crazy how much the curriculum here helps. We memorize these amazing sentences in like 3 minutes! And its just great! I feel like I'm really making progress. I'm just so grateful I studied Spanish so much before I got here, because I keep seeing sisters that are just starting and they look so stressed! I feel like im just prancing around the MTC like Hola! Esta Bien! Este Evangelio es verdadero! (because it is, you know)  :) Hermana Webster told us that she heard a quote from a prophet that if you read the Book of Mormon in your mission language out loud (I may have just added the out loud part I'm not sure) then by the time you finish it you will be fluent!!!! So I'm taking that challenge and having faith that it will come true for me. I read it out loud while I ELLIPTICAL during gym time. It's a little awkward with other people around me but who cares! I'm going to be fluent in... 600 pages! Rock on.

Haha the food is still normal. I'm not sure if I'll ever step on a scale till I get home. we just eat so much! but we workout! Haha Hermana Pister taught us some yoga the other day.... I'm so good, not!  This picture is our tree pose. hahaha.

So there is a hymn in the Spanish hymnbook that doesn't exist in English. It is himno 88 and it is called: Placentero Nos es trabajar. One of our teachers told us the story about it. The author Andres C. Gonzales was a member of the church in Mexico at a time of Mormon/ religious persecution. He was in jail because of his beliefs. He wrote this song when he knew he was going to die. If you read the words, translate them, you can't help but feel his incredible testimony. He died for his beliefs. The last verse is especially powerful. Adios, o adios. He knows he is going to die. Ah I just cant get over it. It is an amazing song. I think we will sing it in sacrament meeting as a district. 

So Hermana Pister was sick last night :( Before we left class, early so she could sleep, the elders asked her if she wanted a blessing and she said yes. So then all 10 of our elders gave her a blessing. It was incredible to see her surrounded by all ten of them! Ah they are so great. A little immature sometimes but they will be incredible missionaries! :)

We taught our investigator, Analis, four times this past week! What an amazing experience! She wants to get baptized! She has such great faith! (and I know she is fake but it was amazing.) Surprise! We can speak Spanish! It is just amazing to see what the Spirit can do. And surprise, surprise, our investigator turned out to be.... our teacher! We knew it! Ah, but I don't even care! She is the sweetest lady I have ever met! Hermana Kitto. I seriously love her! She always hugs us and kisses our cheeks! Hugs here at the MTC are a dime a dozen. I love hugs. LOVE them. Haha even the elders do hugs! They hug each other and it's hilarious.

Oh Jilly! I told a story about you with my investigator! Haha except I got some words a little mixed up. I was trying to tell the story about when you got locked in the bathroom at the hardware store with grandpa and you didn't know what to do so you said a prayer.... except it turned into "she got lost in a bathroom"... uhm... what? Yeah I'm working on my vocab now. My investigator was like... oh uh okay. hahaha. classic. Oh and sweet Jillian! Your talk was incredible. Thank you for sending it to me :) Miss you baby girl!

 Wow this place is just incredible. I cant describe how grateful I am to be here. I miss all of you so much so please write me letters and such. Those are just the best!

Love you all to the moon and back!

Love,

Hermana Moore :)

p.s. I got my district to call me Hermana Mas! Success!

FIRST DAYS IN THE MTC!!!

HOLA HOLA HOLA! wait, is this real right now? YES. it is! ahhhh! okay I don't even know where to start! So I am here at the MTC and it is my first p day! I have only been here for 2 days but alas, its p day. and hallelujah it is! So I'll just do a detailed description of the past few days. So Wednesday after Tim dropped me off (love you brother :)).

Being dropped off at the MTC! 

I was whisked away by my sweet host and I got my tags and such! I was like tagged, like knighted or something, by this sweet woman. I almost started crying! I love my tag!!!!! best two names to have on my chest, mine and my Savior's!:) Oh and then the best part of the day... first person i saw with my tag on was... SISTER ABBY ADAMS!!!! best day ever. We were literally crying. It was such a comfort and definitely a tender mercy.

Sister Abby Adams and I

 So I was able to drop my stuff off, then up to the fifth floor of my classroom building and BAM! SPANISH! DISTRICT! GOSPEL! woah, sorry for the caps. hahaha. but really it was amazing! My teachers rock! Hermano Kent and Hermana Wadsworth? or went worth... or something.. haha. So we were all like spanish-y with each other. Oh and I met my district! I love them!!!

My District

Oh I havent even mentioned mis companeras yet! I am in a trio! I am with Hermana Pister (pronounced like easter) and Hermana Webster! Sweet sweet girls! Hermana Pister is from Oregon and she rocks at spanish! literally fluent! Hermana Webster is from Washington state and is just the sweetest! I love them! Being in a trio rocks so far! We are the trynamic trio :)

The Trynamic Trio!!

So anyways my district. There are 7 elders and us three hermanas. All of our elders just graduated from high school, they are all 18! and all but one are from happy valley, usa! haha so that is fun. :) They kind of kept their distance from us at first, intimidated? Who knows... but now we are all becoming friends. :) So what else... oh the infamous food of the MTC... its alright. I definitely have had my fair share of heart burn. buuuuutttt. I work out now so I can eat whatever I want! yeah! Seriously though I run! We have gym time everyday so we run around a track and memorize things. Like we memorized "our purpose" in English and Spanish yesterday! So that makes the time go by faster! so nice! We have lots of workshops here at the MTC, especially the first week apparently. :) The first night here we had a workshop where we as a group taught people. Okay this was the hardest thing ever. truly, I felt like a failure! the investigators were so difficult. I was at the point of like, you don't want us here so we can leave. That was hard. I felt pretty discouraged. But then the next morning we had a "people and your purpose" workshop where basically I left super encouraged and in love with this work!!!! :) It was all about loving the heck out of your investigators. Each is a child of God! truly! I am so excited to get out and meet my peoples!! And love their guts out :) Yesterday we had our first long class time thing. 4 hours! But I loved it! Something about the Gospel and Spanish. It just rocks! :) The best combination ever! We prayed, discussed and testified in spanish! yay!  After I email we get to go to the temple! I need it so I am excited! :) P-days are nice because its chill and we get to do what we want. As long as what we want is laundry, email, eat, and study. Haha but I snuck in a nap! which I needed, because I havent been sleeping the best here. It's all good soon enough I'll be so tired that my body will force itself to sleep... right? :) So the MTC is just a great place. Everyone and their companion says hi to you all the time. Or hola in my case. :) I have seen so many people I know!

Writing letters to my Fam!

I had the best breakfast yesterday... blueberry muffin tops cereal. its real. I promise. Haha everyone keeps telling us not to drink the orange juice, whatever that means. I think its a joke but I'm too afraid to test it. They have like 4 different kinds though! So I'll probably try it soon! more about p days... we woke up at 5:40 this morning, instead of the usual 6:30, to do service. yay! We clean windows around the MTC from 6:05-7 on 

p-days. So that is hilarious. Now every time I see a window I'm like "don't touch it!" since I clean them. But I'm pretty sure they have people cleaning them everyday. With all the missionaries here, almost 4000, and not very many service opportunities, I'm sure there is repetition! Speaking of numbers... the day I came in, Wednesday, there were 800 other missionaries that came in that day. WOW! and in our introductional devotional there was an entire row of missionaries from Japan! They are so cute, I love seeing them around campus. They dont speak any English! I guess we are the closest MTC to them! Oh so I was saying how I have seen so many friends here! i see alot of people from colorado, like Elder Langford (junior haha)! and then alot of people from school. I love seeing sisters because then I can hug them. im loving hugs lately, i take all the ones i can get! haha I instituted companionship hug and its great. We do it every night after companionship prayer. :) Oh by the way, I was made senior companion! haha don't be so impressed, he chose it based on who was the earliest last name in the alphabet. So thanks mom and dad for the last name:) but I like it. I'll be senior for two weeks and then we switch! so I'll try not to get power hungry :) I love being here you guys. so much. this church is so true. and the atonement will cover anything you ever will need it to. I want all of you to know that the Lord loves YOU. and it is never to late to join, or rejoin, the fold of Christ. I encourage all of you to read the scriptures as often as you can! I am in Alma 8 right now and I love it! Alma and Amulek are such rockstar missionaries! :) 

Love, Erica