9-02-2011

Well well well!  T-minus 3-ish days and I will be in Argentina!! Wow how the time has flown... I can't believe it's really here!  Well here are just a few quick experiences from my last week here en el CCM and the next time you will all hear from me I'll be 16 hours of flight and 10 hours of driving time away!

 

AWKWARDS INCOMODOS Y CHISTES

• saying bye to people here... especially our male teachers who can't give us hugs. Hahaha. It's always like "*handshake* well.. thanks for everything. The last 2 months of being with you every minute of every day were fun! K bye!"   With the Elders it's like "*hugs* keep in touch man!  Yeah write me!  See you after the mish! Good luck with everything!" etc.... oh it's so fun being an Hermana sometimes :)
• pictures with our teachers, district, and other missionaries.  They would be cute and totally normal if there wasn't a foot of space in between us and them in every picture... haha!
• there is this redhead elder here who makes it a point to talk to me and my comp. every time he sees us.  He literally follows us and makes a comment that is totally unecessary.  For example today the cafeteria is totally crowded and I'm making my way over to make a peanut butter and jam sandwich because I don't want to wait in line, and I see him so I immediately turn my head the other way to avoid contact, and he follows me and calls out 'what are you looking for sister?' and ok I feel bad because I might have had a little bit of a tone in my voice but really... what am I looking for?? what else would be doing wandering around the cafeteria?  So I reply 'um... food!' and he goes 'looks like you might have to wait in line for awhile today!' by this time I am like 10 feet away because I never stopped walking and I just call back 'no I'm just making a sandwich' without looking back at him.  These kind of instances happen literally every day.  The other day my comp and I were looking for a computer lab for TALL time (where we study language on the computers) and he is clear down the hall from us and sees us and starts walking towards us as we're walking away and says 'do you want help sisters? what are you looking for?' hahaha really? what does it look like we're looking for? and how exactly do you plan on helping us? he said something like 'there are more labs on the other side'.  We both look at each other thinking 'yeah... we know.... we've been here for 8 weeks and we use those labs everyday.' hahaha. Ok I guess I'm not portraying it well enough but I wish you could all see it... it is really funny we just laugh at it all the time.  I'm sure he is a very kind young man... :)  I think he's just a little desperate to talk to some girls sometimes so he goes about doing it in a very... creepy way..  Anyway.....

AWESOMES

• we got to host this week and last week since we're so old here at the MTC now :) and I got to host my friend Rachelle McGrath from my ward this last year!  It was perfect I walked up right as she walked up and we were so excited.  It was definitely fun getting to see her and take her around to get her room and books and everything on her first day!
• guess who came for our devotional this week! Yes... none other than Jeffrey R. Holland. Holy. Moly.  First of all... we have been here for 2 months, and no one from the 12 had spoken yet.  So it was about time!  He came on our very last devotional... perfect timing!  The other cool thing is that during lunch that day President Brown (the mtc president) came around and gave random people 3x5 cards and asked them to think of a good question to ask our speaker tonight and turn them in to his secretary.  So we got one, and one of the hermanas came up with a question, so I re-worded it and wrote it down and handed it in.  Elder Holland only chose I think 5 out of the 47 he received to respond to.. and guess who's he chose first! Yep. Ours. :) So cool.  After he spoke there was a duet, a girl sang and another girl did the song in sign language, and then they both did sign language while the one girl still sang.  It was SO incredible.  The spirit was so strong.  That whole night was so incredible... I have never felt the spirit so strongly before like I did that night.  I felt so happy, but so at peace.  I know what I'm doing is right and I know that this is Christ's church.  It was such an incredible joyous peaceful feeling that couldn't come from something false.  One of the best nights by far.  Incredible. :) A few things Elder Holland shared in his talk were these things:  The best ways to invite the spirit into your life (in his experience) are "diving, delving, and pouring into the words--the scriptures. Immersing yourself"... earnest and honest prayer... learning how to REALLY pray, and making sure that you don't lose it.  In other words making sure that you don't do anything that will invite it to leave.   He said the best advice he has received in his life are" 1) to go on a mission.  2) to marry as directly and honestly as you can... not on a time table but to the right person.  But also not to drift towards eternity.. to be proactive and to find it.  He said 'most of the blessing you will want in life will come through marriage". and 3) get as much education as you can.  And then he said that the greatest gift you can give the Savior is your HEART.   After the devotional we always have a district meeting and talk about our thoughts... Brother McDonald in our branch presidency shared this story about Jeffrey R. Holland.  He said when he was first called into the 12 he said in an interview that he always held the 12 in such high esteem and then he got called to be one and said 'I'm not that man'.. how he wasn't up to par with them.  He said he then had 2 options... he could either drop the expectation he had of them, or he could 'change the man'.  Often we are put in places where we never thought we would be, yet we don't feel like we are as good as those we have seen in that position before.  We can either drop our expectation, or become that person.  Obviously, we need to 'change the man'.  It is possible to be as perfect as you want!

 

Ok... well that short thought turned into a rather long thought... sorry about that, haha.  But I will leave you all with that!  Soon I will be in Argentina... actually sharing the restored gospel with real people!  I am so excited to have this incredible calling, to stand in Christ's place and do what he would do.  It is a high bar to reach but it is possible and I'm working towards it constantly.  It's not easy, pero es vale la pena!  Sé que este Evangelo is verdadero, y es real.  Estoy TAN animada ir a Argentina en tres dias... sé que es donde necesito estar exactamente.  Cada dia encontro mas razónes por que este Evangelio es verdadero.  Mi testimonio es estando fortalecido cada dia, y estoy tan agredecida por este increíble oportunidad servir una misión.  No hay otra lugar en el mundo debo estar.  Muchos gracias por todos de su apoyo... estoy tan agradecida por todos de ustedes y les amo todo muchíssimo!  Hasta la proxima semana... en Argentina!!   :) CIAO!

 

Con amor,  Hermana Hunt