WEEK 6

Barev amen vok!

How are you this fine, sunshiny day? I am wonderful! The MTC is a wonderful place. This week has been really good, and really short! It is amazing how fast the time flies. I think I say that every week, but seriously! I only have 4 weeks left here! They say that in the MTC the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days. It is so true! every day is so long that by the end of it I can't remember what happened at the beginning of it, and then all the days all mush together because they are all so similar. It is surreal. Well, before I really get started I just wanted to remind you that I love you SO much and I have you in my prayers. I try not to think about home too much during the day, but every once in a while someone will pop into my head and I will smile, and at night when I pray I take time to reflect on each of you and wonder what you're doing and how you're doing. You are all my support and my constants. I love you. Keep doing what is right and the Lord will continue to bless you. I can already see the Lord blessing our family and I know it will continue and I am so grateful for it.

Alright, so the only day from this last week that really sticks out is Tuesday. On Tuesday I got to leave the MTC again and walk over to the clinic across the street for my pysical therapy for my knee. By the way, they think that I have some issues with the cartilage under my patella, so it is still causing my some discomfort, but I am doing things to fix it now so PLEASE keep my little (right) knee in your prayers. I am not letting something so silly put a damper on my missionary service or slow it down! Anyway, it was SO nice out that day and sunny and then just being in the outside world was great. I was on such a high from it. And in the therapy I got to take a nap while I had a hot pack on my knee, and at the end I had electrical stimulation on my leg. Have any of you had that before?! It is the weirdest/coolest thing ever! My foot was all twitching all over the place and it felt so weird. I went back to the MTC doctor yesterday and now he wants to send me to some sports med doctor in Orem who trains athletes... I feel like they are making such a big deal of this, but I want it fixed so I will just keep going along with it. Anyway, so Tuesday night we had a devotional from Elder Gong of the Seventy. He was so wonderful and his talk was based off of "Be of Good Cheer" so that lit up my life a little bit more. It is days that Tuesday that keep me sane and happy to be here. They make up for the frustrating days... which i really don't have very many of either actually. I just like where I am and what I am doing.

Oh I almost forgot. I also asked my favourite Elders, Elder Peterson and Elder Poulsen to give me a blessing before I went for my therapy. It was apparent that they haven't given many blessings, but if was SO cool to feel the priesthood working through them. I am grateful that there are men (even if they are very young men) who are willing and worthy to hold the priesthood and the reponsibilities that go with it. I love those two elders so much. I love all of my district. We are so close now and I am already looking forward to when we are all home from our missions and I can hug them and be friends with them in the real world! That being said, I am already dreading the time when I will be done my mission. It is crazy, but the thought of going home ever and not being a missionary already terrifies and saddens me. I am going to give this my ABSOLUTE all so that when I do get home my only saddness will be because I am done, and not because I didn't do my best.

So yesterday I had a bit of a less great day. It wasn't bad, but I was tired and just blah. And I also had my interview with my teacher Brother Dixon (we have interviews every week). I was in there and expressing my frustrations with myself because I feel like now I am just plateauing with the language. And I hate that! I want to keep progressing at a rapid pace so that when I get there I will be on top of the world. So I was asking what I can do and he said "yeah... you pretty much just need to go to the country" and I was like "but I'm not ready!" and he said "yeah you are. You'd be fine". BAH! Crazy! But it was nice to hear that. That doesn't mean Im gonna stop working hard, and that I won't try to work harder, because I want to be more than just fine when I get there. I want to get started right away and have nothing holding me back. But it was still so encouraging to hear. I still have lots to work on though. That was pretty apparent at TRC last night. I need to just practice more and also improve my accent. But Its so exciting when I am talking to the investigators and I understand what they are saying and respond to their questions in this language that sounded SOOOOO foreign to me just 6 weeks ago. Well... and still does when they speak at a fast pace, but I'll get there.

Alright eem untaneekuh, yes shat seeroom em dzez! yev yes shnorawkawl em zder hamar!
(I love you lots and I am thankful for you!)

Love,
Sister Smith