Email #2

Nyob Zoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bah, I miss you guys so much!

First off, all the birthday gifts were so perfect. The picture of the cat - classic :) And we all ate the cake. It was honestly just what I needed, so Thank You so much! It's so weird that I'm twenty now, no longer a teen!

 

Well I'm kind of in shock it's already the end of the second week. Time here is FLYING! Lot's of people asked, so here is a general idea of my usual day...

 

• 6:30 - 7:20 - Get up and sprint to the showers so I can beat the line
• 7:20 - 8:00 - Breakfast
• 8:00 - 8:30 - Study time until...
• 8:30 - 9:00 - Go get ready for...
• 9:00 - 9:50 - GYM! until...
• 9:50 - 10:10 - Sprint back to the residence halls to again beat the people to the shower.
• 10:10 - 11:00 - Personal Study, meaning it's just me uninteruppted. All this studying is all done in the same classroom.
• 11:00 - 12:00 - Companion Study!
• 12:00 - 12:40 - Lunch!!!!
• 12:40 - 1:00 - Go check the mail / chill with the Vietnamese Elders and Sisters
• 1:00 - 2:00 - Appointment with investigator. We go to a room where we meet with an 'investigator' we are working with. All in Hmong. No pressure, eh?
• 2:00 - 4:00 - Classroom Instruction, usually done in English focusing on Gospel principles
• 4:00 - 5:00 - Language Study just with my companions
• 5:00 - 5:40 - Dinner!!!!!
• 5:40 - 6:00 - Go check mail again and probably throw some extra studying in.
• 6:00 - 7:00 - Another appointment with a different investigator, again only in Hmong.
• 7:00 - 9:00 - Language Instruction with a teacher.
• 9:00 - 9:30 - Daily planning session with my companions.
• 9:30 - 10:15 - Personal Time (In which is usually just more studying)
• 10:15 - 10:30 - Quite Time (aka we are just in our Residence Hall rooms getting ready to go to bed
• 10:30 - LIGHTS OUT! Usually I'm asleep within 10 minutes, which is pretty good considering there is no Harry Potter to turn on to fall asleep to :)

Yeah so obviously it's Pretty Busy. I love it though. There is something so rewarding about putting 150% of your effort into something and collapsing when you literally fall into bed. It is so rewarding. Especially considering it is the work of the Lord!

Sadly, Sunday's are usually even busier than this. We get up even earlier, around 6:00, so that I can go to branch leadership meetings and then I have even more leadership training meetings through out the day! Sunday is probably the most busy day, which was kind of shocking the first week.

 

Today, Tuesday, is my P-day. Still pretty crazy because I'm trying to CRAM as much in as I can! Went to breakfast, did some additional studying, laundry, and I just got back from doing a session in the Provo Temple. It's great, we just literally walk across the street. It's such a blessing to be able to go.

 

The language is coming. It's similiar to English in it's structure, but words are often flipped which is pretty confusing. One of the hardest things is retraining my tongue! You have to point it and move it in weird ways to say these crazy words, but it's really fun though! I LOVE THE LANGUAGE AND THE PEOPLE SO MUCH ALREADY! I honestly am SOO excited for when I'm finally out in the field. I know this is the mission that I'm supposed to serve, and that I have unknowingly being prepared by the Lord for it my whole life.

 

Everyone said that if I could just make it to the first Sunday, I'd survive. I feel really good though! Obviously it is stressful, but what I've learned to compartmentalize (is that a real word) my priorities. For instance, I used to stress out about these teaching appointments with investigators all day leading up to them. Now I've learned that if as a companionship we maticulously plan our time and plan when we are going to be studying for each appointment, I can just not worry about it and have fun!

 

Speaking of fun, Gym is a life saver. I've already been dubbed the runner by everyone because there is a little track above the gym and I just run laps and laps and laps. I love it! It takes 10 laps to do a mile, so I'll run around like 60 times. Kind of monotonous, but I love being able to keep my milage up while I'm here. And some days we go outside and I just run around the huge field they have. XC for life!!

 

My companions and I are getting along really well! I'm definitely rubbing off on them, they have started unintentionally speaking in Indian accents - Mission accomplished. They think I'm crazy sometimes, but that's alright.

 

Soooooooooo in case you were wondering, I requested the cinnamon because we did the cinnamon challenge in our room.... got to still have fun, right?

And speaking of challenges, there is another challenge here called the 'colomn-challenge.' It's so gross. So in the lunch room there are these huge colomns of cereal, and people will eat a whole colomn as a district or something. It's so funny because there all all sort of these weird 'MTC' things here. Like there is a tree in the middle of the MTC that smells like Cream Soda!

I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH! My time is about to run about, but just know that I am literally praying for you guys all the time. I know the Lord will always provide. And I'm SOOOOO excited for when I get to see you guys again and speak my crazy Hmong to you guys!!!!!

GOD SPEED!

Es Daws Doane