Rebekah's First Letter From the MTC

It appears that Rebekah's P-day is Friday while she is in Provo, but we are late getting this out because she didn't have her list of emails with her, and it got a little lost.  But it's here now!

Everyone is so friendly here, you get "Hi sister, welcome to the MTC" about 20 billion times on your first day.It's so weird that I'm "Sister Temp" now. It's hard to not introduce myself as my first name. Oh, and on my first day, there was this musical number that an elder played on the piano and it was an arrangement of "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" and it was SO beautiful. I want it. It really brought in the Spirit. I'm so glad that I love church music, otherwise this transition away from all the music I normally listen to would be infinitely more difficult.

This whole MTC experience has been COMPLETELY overwhelming. From the second you get here, you go, go, go, go, eat, go, go, sleep. Since the days are so packed it seriously feel like I've been here for weeks. Every day feels like another week. Like there is no time for anything. You wake up and have like no time to get ready and you have absolutely no free time all day and then you get like half an hour at night to get ready and prepare for the next day and write in your journal and do everything else before lights out at 10:30. I haven't even had time to unpack so I've been living out of my suitcases and it's stressing me out because I just want to organize everything but even if I did have time, there's no where to organize my stuff because I have 5 other roommates in our super tiny room that was made for 4 people. One of the hardest things for me is not being able to sleep when you want. I want to sleep ALL DAY because it's so exhausting but you can't. And then I realized that I won't be able to sleep in later than 6:30 for 18 more months. It's only been 2 days and I'm dying. The thing that used to get me through each week is knowing that I get to sleep in on the weekend. But I'm sure I'll manage. Hopefully. 

I heard from some people that the food here is super good but I also heard from others that it's disgusting. All I can say about that is yes. Hahaha really, some of it is delicious and then other food . . . not so much.

My companion is awesome. Her name is Sister Ella Johnson and she's a soccer player for BYU so maybe you've heard of her. Plus she's 5'10. One of her first questions for me was "How tall are you?" But she's so cool, I was afraid it would be awkward but she's so awesome, within the first hour of meeting her she said something super sarcastic and I thought heyyy we're gonna get along just fine. And we do, she's so smart and spiritual and fun to be around. Everyone keeps saying how having a companion 24/7 is one of the hardest things because you're not used to alllllways being with someone but honestly it's one of my favorite parts; I know I couldn't do like any of this on my own. I hate being alone and the fact that someone is stuck with me and I can always depend on? Awesome. 

Everyone in my district is so cool. There are 4 companionships, 2 elder ones and 2 sister ones. One of the elder companionships is also going to Omaha like me and Sister Johnson so it'll be cool to still see them. The other 2 companionships are both going to Kentucky, so not that different. All of the sisters went to at least one year of college at BYU so that's kind of intimidating since I literally just became eligible to serve 4 days ago. They're all super smart and talk about how much they like chemistry and a bunch of other stuff and they also all have boyfriends back home that they keep talking about and about how they've pretty much all decided with their boyfriends that they should get married after their missions, so that's fun for me to listen to all the time. But they're all super nice and I really feel the Spirit when I'm with them. The elders here are generally closer to my level, fresh out of high school. They're so funny, I love being with my district. I hope it's this easy to get along with everyone out in the mission field.

I already feel blessed with being able to talk more easily. I don't feel awkward trying to talk to my companion, it feels like we've been friends forever. I even raised my hand during a big class with like 50 other missionaries and I made a comment and I barely even felt like I was gonna pass out.

Quote of the Week! I decided I was gonna send a quote each week, either something I learn here, or something I had written down before I got here, or whatever pops in my head. So you can take it to heart, or think about it all week and try to apply it, or completely ignore it, I don't care.

"Peace is not the absence of trials, but the presence of Christ."

So there you go. Happy Friday! 

~Sister Temp