Rebekah's Second and Last Letter From the MTC

Alright. I have no idea where to start. 

SO. The sleep thing is definitely not getting easier. It used to be that I would fall asleep right when I got in bed but lately I can't fall asleep till midnight, mostly because I can't stop yawning! It's like the most ridiculous problem ever, I yawn like every 5 minutes throughout the day and then I get in bed and I yawn even more, like really, every 2 minutes and because I keep yawning, I can't fall asleep. Which is just lovely. And it's definitely not getting easier to get out of bed in the morning but I'm managing. All the sisters in my room have the same problem of not getting to sleep early enough, which is very obvious if you listen to us. We can't stop laughing at the stupidest things, and it's really bad. And the 5 flights of stairs we have to climb to get to our classroom isn't helping. One day we were both so out of it and we went upstairs and went to our classroom but the door was locked and we were like "What is going oooon?" but then we realized we had only gone to the 4th floor. It was so bad, we both need more sleep. The stairs are so exhausting. We go back up and down and up and down and Sister Johnson calculated it one day and figured out that in one day we climbed an average of 48 flights of stairs a day. Just going up, not including going down. So yeah, I'm gonna be so in shape. Gym time is great, just because it's something to do to keep me awake. Sister Johnson runs too much for me but I find other stuff to do. Like sleep. Haha not really, but I wish.

The food is still iffy. The things that look really good usually aren't. They had these things that kinda looked like those little buffalo chicken bites that I like but then they tasted kinda like hot dogs. So that was gross. And the chocolate pudding is nasty. And other stuff just tastes like disappointment. But we had steak one night and it was either amazing or i had just lowered my standards quite a bit and it was only decent. But either way I enjoyed it. They have wraps that are pretty good and make me feel healthy before I go and eat like 5 cookies and an ice cream bar. 

I've already become known to my district as Sister Temp, the shorter one who is obsessed with food and sweets, is completely directionally challenged, always uses every hand sanitizer dispenser (they have them like at every single doorway and I don't know, they're just fun to use), and has never seen snow fall before. Oh yeah, I SAW SNOW. I mean there were clumps of snow on the ground when I got here but then I saw snow actually falling from the sky in real life. it was so cool. I was jumping around and I got so excited and Sister Johnson was just laughing at me and taking pictures. Which you'll get. Someday. Oh and apparently throwing snowballs in Provo is illegal? Like it's a misdemeanor or something. So that's sad. Also, you can't chew gum as a missionary, which I did not know. 

Oh and they all call me a rabbit. We were going around at dinner saying what animal each missionary was and someone said I was a rabbit and they all immediately agreed because I talk quietly and I'm so white and Sister Johnson also says it's because I'm "cute and snuggly."  

I left my shampoo in the shower on the first day and lost it. Which wasn't that surprising. But don't worry, it showed up 2 days later so I'm good. And I'm really developing a true appreciation for google and I wish I still had it because I never realized how ofter I just look stuff up. So appreciate it. 

Sunday was pretty cool, it was still super busy but it also felt more peaceful. I can really feel the spirit in musical numbers, they're my favorite. They have everyone prepare a talk on a certain topic and then they just call on a random missionary right at the beginning of sacrament to come up and give theirs. I was stressed at first but then I laughed when I realized the talk would only be like 3-4 minutes. Which is nothing after preparing a farewell talk.

I keep looking around and I'm like whoa all these people are missionaries. And then I look down and realize that I have a name tag too. It's so weird. And when you're a missionary you mostly have to study for your investigators. You don't get to study for yourself and your own spiritual nourishment, which I really miss. I mean, you can make time for it, but then you don't have as much time to be studying for your investigators which is really important. 

David A. Bednar does a really good cookie monster impression. I think I heard from someone that the talk we watched on Sunday wasn't available online but I really hope it is. I think it's called Characteristics of Christ. So really try to find it and watch it because it's so good. 

We got to go to the temple this morning so we had to wake up even earlier than usual to get there by 7 but it was really cool. I don't know how much I like the Provo temple though. It kinda looks like a giant awful cake. But the view is so pretty, it's like surrounded by mountains and today they were covered in snow and it was so beautiful.

Okay I should probably tell you about my district, because they're like a major part of the mission experience. You seriously become a family with these people, I can't believe I've only known them for less than 2 weeks.So my companion is Sister Johnson and she's the best. She is seriously the perfect companion for me. God probably knew I couldn't handle having a challenging companion for my first companion which is great. We get along so perfectly. I feel like I've known her for forever and like we're best friends. I feel totally comfortable around her. We all decided that she was either a deer or a moose. And she knows Jon Schmidt! He was her home teacher! I'm so jealous. And she also told me that our mission president is getting released this summer but she knows our new mission president and that he actually went to her farewell. So she's got pretty good connections. 

The other 2 sisters in our district are both going to Louisville Kentucky, Sister Hannah and Sister Rickords. They are both extreme extroverts and talk alllllllll the time. Sometimes they're a bit too much for me and Sister Johnson but we still love them. Sister Hannah goes to BYUI and is super friendly and obsessed with jewelry and Sister Rickords goes to BYU and she's a trained classical singer and loves to sign. She said that when she got set apart, her stake president told her that she would get to work with deaf people and she's really excited about that.

Elder Langston and Elder Duncan are also going to Louisville. Elder Langston we all unanimously agreed is an adorable little bear cub but he hates being called cute all the time so he put on the list of rules for our district that the word "cute" is banned. But it's so hard for all of the girls to not call him that. He kind of looks like Logan all grown up with slightly darker skin cuz he has the big forehead and the kinda pouty lips. He has the best laugh. He's like super smart and he's always explaining stuff and then he'll tell a joke that's really not that funny but his laugh makes everyone else laugh. I wish I could describe it. And then Elder Duncan seemed super quiet at first and he kind of has one of those faces that makes him seem aloof but he's not after you've known him for a few days. Now he's always talking to us about random things. 

Elder Clark and Elder Lindgren are both going to Omaha with me and Sister Johnson so I hope we still all get to see each other. Elder Clark is our district leader and he likes rock music mostly. He hates country and he insulted me for liking Skillet but we both agree that Three Days Grace is great, so he's not that bad. He has that sense of humor where if you don't know him it seems like he hates you. But once you figure him out then it's hilarious. We did a role play where I was an investigator and he was the missionary and we had a conversation that was so sarcastic but we were both talking like we were completely serious. We discussed how he lives in the Atlantic Ocean because it's nicer than the Pacific and we also discussed how baptists sacrifice their converts. So that was great, I love that kind of sense of humor. Elder Lindgren has pretty much the exact same sense of humor and I think it's so funny how the 4 of us going to Nebraska all have it. People will be so weirded out if they overhear our conversations. Elder Lindgren immediately appointed himself as the class clown. He'll tell these long stories and go on for like 5 minutes and then you realize that nothing he's said is true so none of our teachers believe anything he says anymore. On Sunday he and Elder Clark fasted and then that night he shared this story about how he had wanted to go home cuz he barely even has a testimony but he fasted and then when we watched that video by Bednar everything just made sense and he felt the Spirit and while he was talking the Spirit was just so strong and it was really cool. 

There are so many missionaries from Mesa here. I keep seeing Courtney Williams everywhere and a ton of other kids from Mountain View too. Oh, and on the Tuesday night devotional, Elder Russell M. Nelson showed up! So that was cool to see him.Our teachers are pretty cool; one of them, Sister Iglezia, always says "the church is true, the book is blue, and I love you!" which I think is pretty cute. In class we mostly talk about how to be an effective missionary and we do a lot of role-plays and go over the lessons in Preach My Gospel. And we also have these investigators that volunteer to come and get taught here at the MTC. But they're not always investigators. Sometimes they're members or recent converts but they all make up stories and you have no idea if they're actual investigators or not. The one we've been meeting for a while is Chad. He's very logical and asks hard questions that Sister Johnson and I have a hard time answering but I like teaching him because he talks a lot and says what he's thinking. The other one we have, Michelle, is so hard to teach. She's like me where she's really quiet and will mostly say yes, no, or I don't know, to anything you say. She doesn't even really believe in God and she doesn't believe in Christ at all and we're not really getting anywhere with her. 

We leave on Wednesday morning and we have to be ready by 3:35 AM. So basically I get no sleep that night. We're going to the Salt Lake Airport and then Minneapolis and then Omaha so hopefully there will be a lot of time to sleep. We'll get to Omaha at about 3. And then my next P-day will actually be P-day so you won't hear from me till the next Monday. I hope I wrote enough this week and I hope I got it all.

Quote of the week, and I think President Monson said this: Stick to your task till it sticks to you; beginners are many, but enders are few.

~Sister Temp