Hello all!

Good morning! I sent a snail mail letter the other day, so hopefully you will get there soon but I ended up having time in between laundry loads to write a quick e-mail. The MTC is amazing and my companions are awesome. I only have a half P-day today because it is the first week, but starting next week, my P-day will be on Fridays and I will get to go to the temple and do everything that day.

I started telling you about the MTC and my compainions in the snail mail letter, so I won't repeat those right now. But I will tell you about yesterday a little bit. It was kind of nerve-wrecking. We had to teach a lesson to an investigator in Spanish and it was only our third day on the field. We tried our best to find words that we could remember to describe, but so many words just escaped my mind because I was so nervous about the language. I think it is good that I am having to learn Spanish on my mission because if I just had to teach in English I'd probably be extremely prideful and confident in myself and my knowledge, but now I am learning to be humble because I'm back at a place where I feel like I don't understand or know much once again. However, I know that as I diligently practice Spanish with my companions and pray and study as much as possible, the language will start to come to me poco a poco.

Anyway, the lesson with Carlos went alright and there were times when we could tell he could feel the Spirit but there were other times that we were looking for the words, so we were looking at our notes and prach my gospel et cetera and we lost his attention at those times. He was all checking his phone and everything several times. But it is okay, it was a learning experience. When we walked back to our room and were a little disappointed, the substitute teacher that day told us stories of him learning the language on his mission and that helped a lot. But he told us this quote that I loved so much. The question was why is it sometimes so hard when we are serving a mission--I mean we are doing what the Lord wants us to do, so shouldn't it be easy?! Well, one of the presidency's response was something like how can we expect to cal ourselves disciples of Jesus Christ without having to go through even just a small portion of what the Lord went through at Gethsemane? That makes so much sense and so I welcome the hard times right now. I know that the mighty oak never became such without having to overcome years of strong winds and seasons of terrible winters. I know that these experiences are making me stronger and others keep telling us that the language will come. I like how he also told us that the bad times will outnumber the good times on the mission but the good times will outweigh the bad times by far.

Let's see what else... I love the MTC so much. In practically every classroom and orientation I've gone to the Spirit of the Lord just keeps on touching me so strongly. This place really is where I need to be to become the person the Lord wants me to be. I love my companions, roommates (who are like mothers to us! though one will be leaving next week and so the other will become a solo sister). I love my district and my zone so much. The zone leader is such a goof ball!! I love the time we get every day to exercise. It always come right at the perfect moment too-- just when our brain really needs a break! We have sister-only gym classes that my companions and I so far have always woken up to attend extra early in the mornings and during normal gym time we've tried out lots of different things to do like we played volleyball one day, ran laps and used the cardio equipment and I stretched for a while the next day. I think today we might try a different weight lifting room because a different sister told us about these core or arm or whatever video you can request for them to put on etc. Anyway it is wonderful. I also love the teacher we have, Brother Evans. He speaks almost entirely in Spanish to us, but the way he uses gestures really helps us understand. He is very nice. I definitely can't wait to be able to go to the Provo temple next week! I know it will be wonderful and I am so excited to be able to do it! I also can''t wait for Sunday night and Tuesday night devotionals because I've heard that they are amazing. Everyone keeps telling us how we just need to get past the first few days at the MTC and then it is a bit easier. Whether or not that is true, I am sure as I work on my spanish and memorizing more word and phrases it wil come to me little by little.

I love you all and can't wait to hear from you. I'm glad you liked the letters I wrote for you. I love that I wrote you all letters and that you all snuck letters into my bag too. It is almost like we were on the same wavelength lol! Anyway, it is time to go change a load of laundry now and so I will write to you again next Friday hopefully! Love ya and may the spirit be with you!!

Love, Hermana Whitney Whetten