MTC Week 6

Dear Family,

I'm glad to hear from everyone, especially with winter break and Christmas happening. I hope you got my letter saying that I was able to hear from Elder Bednar on Christmas eve and Elder Holland on Christmas morning. Their testimonies of the Savior were the best Christmas present one could ask for.

Christmas was amazing. Though I missed being with you family, the MTC made it very special. We watched Mr. Kreuger's Christmas and ate kettle corn, and 1500 missionaries play called to serve on the chimes as we followed the bouncing ball on a hugeeee screen, and listened to Sister Brienholt (wife of 2nd counselor in Mission Presidency) tell us Christmas stories.

We taught in Espanol in the Teaching Appointment this past Saturday. This next Saturday we have to "be shopping in a department" while we make a contact. It will be interesting but these fun situations allow us to learn vocabulary other than just church words like "priesthood" and "Sunday School." The more we practice our lessons the better our Spanish sounds.

My district is talking in complete Spanish until the end of the MTC. It is hard a lot of the times and we find ourselves forgetting and so it is good to have the support of 10 other people to remind you to say it in Spanish.

Something really funny happened just the other day. Because of winter break (most of the student teachers are home) we had Hermano Rojas (who, by the way, recognized me from the Marriott School) as a substitute. Elder Johnson, in our class, asked him how to say "Gosh!" en Espanol. He threw out several suggestions but couldn't decide on one being very good. Hermana Hepner chimed in "Hee! Hee!" She said it probably a dozen times. Hermano Rojas said he had never heard that before but "whatever floats your boat." She then added like "Ay Carrumba!... it says it in the dictionary." I then realized she was doing a Spanish pronunciation of "Gee." Like "Gee Golly,"- the English definition for "Ay Carrumba." She felt pretty silly and soon the whole class was rolling on the floor laughing as they realized what she had done. I was crying because I was laughing so hard. Our teacher had to leave the room because he couldn't compose himself. The zone leaders came by to see if everything was ok because it sounded like we were all bawling about something. It made for a very good laugh.

Sunday night's devotional was Brother Allen who is the managing director of some department of Church Public Media Communications. He was a Comms Adv. major at BYU- (shout out to Miriam). Anyways, he produced several of the Church's Homefront spots with clever taglines. One was a little boy with huge glasses that seemed very embarrassed and put down by his other classmates. As he hung his head when the band instructor made him put his glasses on, he caught the eye of a little girl. A few seconds later she smiled back at him and you could see her huge chunky braces. Us missionaries love little bits of romance wherever we find it. (Legacy, The Joseph Smith Movie, Testaments- you name it). Anyways, the tag line for that commercial was "It's not who you aren't, its who you are and being yourself is being great."

As we heard the general primary president Cheryl C. Lant in Relief Society this Sunday talk about Individual worth, this goes hand in hand. The Lord's love for us is perfect. Our Heavenly Father wants our happiness and if we don't have love for ourselves first, it is difficult to feel His presence and the blessings we receive so frequently from Him. As I see sooo many different people going to soo many different places, I truly see the love that the Lord has for even people in the Congo. The elders in the classroom right below us are going there. This gospel is so important and provides so much joy that everyone needs to hear it feel that love of our Heavenly Father. This is why I am so excited to go.

My departure date is January 28th and it is less than a month now. I hope you can find ways to demonstrate this love in your service to others at school, at the airport, at the hospital, at McDonalds.

I love each of you.

Your missionary,

Camille