Love you!!!! (week 2)

Querido familia, 

I've been playing this game with a few Elders in my district, where if we make eye contact during class, meals, study, or devotionals (pretty much anytime of the day really)  We attack each other with fake weapons.  Ninja stars, hand guns, blow darts, bows and arrows.  Haha, it's great. We get really bored.  

Remember that investigator I talked about in my last letter? Well, turns out he was playing us- because on Friday when we showed up to class- he was standing there in suit and tie- and he's now our teacher!!!!!  His name in Hermano Byers, and he's the most amazing teacher I've ever had in my life.  He has so much passion for the work, and you can tell he has so much love for everyone in our district.  There was a few trust issues for an hour or two, and I still want to call him  Felix- but he has been such a blessing in helping me become the missionary I want to be.  

Right now we are teaching 2 progressing investigators every day, and on Mondays we do TRC (which is like FHE of home teaching to members who speak Spanish) for two 20 minute sessions.  It's really cool.  On Monday we were teaching an RM who speaks Spanish, just talking about God, and how he blesses families and I felt impressed to share an experience and I started bawling.  It was the first time I've cried since I've been here, but the spirit was so strong- and it went great.  I couldn't really talk after that, so Hermana Hererra had to take over.  Haha, to bad for her!  Hermana Herrera and I were preparing for a lesson for one of our investigators, and wrote out an outline on a board in one of the smaller rooms in our classroom, and then ended up teaching the lesson in there. The whole time during our lesson- the investigator was staring above our heads, and we didn't realize that it was because our plan was literally written right behind us!  We didn't even end up following it because of promptings, so he probly thinks we are dopes!!!

The MTC is literally the most surreal experience in the entire world.  No matter how many times it's described, a perfect picture can't be painted.  It's such a weird place. It's full of a bunch of people wearing skirts and ties all day, teaching things they only know the surface of in a language they don't know, to a bunch of people they don't know (but love unexplainably) with a bunch of people they don't know, away from all the people they do know (and love explainably).  The days feel like weeks, and the weeks feel like days.  Everything kinda blends together, because most days are the same.  Study, pray, eat, pray, work out, pray, study, pray, study, pray, service, pray, pray, study.  It's kind of like spiritual Disneyland.  I'm SOOO happy, all the time.  The holy ghost is constantly with me- so much that when I don't feel it is when I notice a change.  When I doubt myself, or start singing something that isn't Mo-Tab (chiste) (chiste=joke).  It's amazing how not having the spirit with you for even 5 minutes makes you want to snap right back.  

It's crazy all the stuff I can now do. I can testify, pray, teach and preach and work like missionaries do.    I've been here for 2 weeks and I can teach a 30 minute lesson on the plan of salvation, or the restoration- entirely in spanish. I can recite the first vision, or invite people to baptism the really long way.  I can do essentially any lesson with a 5 minute warning, while it won't be the best, and my spanish needs a lot of work- the spirit is there, and it is the real teacher.  The biggest thing I've learned other humbling yourself before the Lord, is the power of prayer and the holy ghost.  We don't teach investigators, we simply help them invite the spirit into their lives, so they learn for themselves.  And no one can gain testimony without prayer, and revelation from the Holy Ghost. 

I feel like there were a lot of things I didn't know coming in here.  Like, how P-day is only a P-most-of-day because it ends at 6.  And then we have to go to class and study our brains out, or teach investigators.  On P-days, we get to go to the temple- WHICH IS AMAZING!!!  Last Thursday, Grandpa Thompson's step-sister (sister young?) gave me my proxy name.  She was really sweet.  We also get to leave campus and get half-off Jamba.  So, if anyone wants cheap smoothies, dress up like a missionary and hit up Brigham's Landing.  

Also, they make us wear our garments when we work out- it feels...... no bueno.  I guess more sweating is good though.  My companion did soccer all of high school, so we actually do stuff.  Weights and upside down sit ups and ellipticals.  On P-days we run.  I can actually see my muscles now.  It's cray.  I didn't know that I had any!  And I'm totally not getting fat, I've actually had to go down a belt loop!   

I see Elder Scott all the time.

Con amor,

Hermana Shumway