Day 7, Provo Utah MTC

Dear Loved Ones,

    Oh my goodness I am shaking because I am so excited that I finally got to read your e-mails and that I am finally getting to write you back.  My P-days are on Tuesdays, and Hermana Merrill's are on Fridays, which is why she has already written home. 

   What to say?  The MTC is very very hard work but awesome.  Everything worked out fine at the airport, and Thomas and Megan picked me up right away.  Megan was very sweet and excited for me--they took me out to Zuppas for my last meal which was delicious.  When I got to the MTC, I was so glad to see Aunt Diana.  She got to put on my name tag, which was awesome!!!  She gave me a bug hug.  It felt great to finally have a name tag that said "Hermana McClune" on it.  She walked me through as far as she could, and then another Sister escorted me to my room.

  

   Then I went to meet my class, or district, and my companion.  She is a total stud.  Her name is Hermana Easter and she is from Sandy, Utah.  She actually lived in the building right next to me at college, we just didn't know each other.  We would have been super close though.   She is blonde, cute, and about 5'4" so we look great together ha ha.  She has a lot of spunk and is enthusiastic.  I really appreciate her hard work and desire to learn.  We help to push each other and help each other grow.  The other 2 sisters in my district are Hermana Pickett and Herman Klein.  We all get along great, which is good because all of us are going to Alabama!  As for the Elders, there are 4 in our district (district is just away of organizing us.  all the districts belong to a Zone.  Our zone is Zone 1, and we all speak Spanish.  There are about 5 districts in it). The Elders are great, although is had definitely taken some work to break their shell.  They were all super quiet at first, but now we can't get them to stop talking.  Elder Smith from Holiday Utah just graduated last week from High school.  He is companions with Elder Lee from Virginia who went to BYU-Idaho for a year.  Elder Hurren is actually from Alabama and has a way cool accent-he is at Mississippi State for mechanical engineering.  His companion, Elder Rodrigez, played soccer at Salt Lake community college this past year.  They are all going to New Mexico for their missions.  Us sisters sort of feel like they are our little brothers, it is fun. 

   I've seen a lot of people I know here.  Hermana Merrill is in the room right next to me in our dorms!  I make sure to say goodnight every night.  I have also seen Sister Bang (my roommate), Elder Law (from Moses Lake), Elder Bonney, Elder Black Hurst and several other Elders from college.  It is cool to see us all here doing this together, ready to go out to so many different places in the world.

  

  Sunday, Father's Day, we were pretty homesick and sad.  I know for me, it was my worst day by far.  Not terrible, but hard.  I really missed you guys.  The other sisters felt pretty similar, so we asked our Elders to give us each a priesthood blessing of comfort.  I felt very blessed that even though I wasn't at home so that Dad could give me a blessing, that I could receive the same comfort here from my Heavenly Father through worthy priesthood holders.  It was a neat experience.

  So as far as the language goes, it is very difficult to write this e-mail because Spanish is stuck in my head.  When people talk, I translate what they say and my journal entries are a mix of Spanglish-it's quite confusing.  I have a strong testimony of the Gift of Tongues.  Dad, thank you for praying for me to learn the language, your prayers are definitely being answered.  In school, I struggled so much to understand and communicate.  Here, I know I am receiving a lot of divine help because it is coming. I understand just about everything, or close to it, and I am able to effectively communicate what I need too.  They haven't even really taught as a whole bunch of Spanish yet that I don't already know, so much as have just thrown us into using our Spanish.  

   They set up scenarios here with "investigators" for us to teach to practice for the real thing.  So far we have had three lessons with "Elisa".  We were scared, but even though it takes a while to talk and think of how to say things, I can say just about everything I need to-or rather the Holy Ghost helps me to say it.  Our first lessons went well and we just shared about Faith with her, and got to know her so that she knows that we cared.  The next lessons we taught the first discussion about The Restoration.  Last night's lesson was about The Plan of Salvation.  Each lessons vocabulary is more difficult to explain, and I am not very familiar with yet. Last night I stuttered a lot and it was very difficult to explain.  We did it though, and she understood.  It was a very neat experience because even though I was really struggling to talk, the spirit was talking very strong.  As I bore my testimony, the room filled with that familiar feeling.  It was a good lesson for me to learn that the Lord will provide away for me to communicate.  I can only offer my best-which right now is very broken Spanish.  If I give everything I have, to the Lord, he will bless me with the strength and the knowledge I need.  His spirit will speak louder than any of the words I can say.

  I am very blessed.  It was probably the hardest thing I have ever had to do was to leave.  I love and miss you all so much.  I hope you all know how grateful I am, I don't think I can express that enough.  I told my Branch President though that it was so hard to leave because I am so stinkin' blessed, so I really don't have anything to complain about.  This isn't easy work, but I know that it is what I need to be doing now, and that it is the most important work I can do at this time. I also know that it will be worth it.  I love my Heavenly Father, he has given me so much.  I can't express it.  The people in Alabama, and all over the world are his children, but many of them do not know of the Atonement or God's plan for them.  I hope to share that with them.  I know that the gospel is true, and that through the Atonement I can return to my loving Heavenly Father.

   Adios mis amigos,

   Te quiero mucho,

    Hermana McClune.