Hei Hei!
I'm just going to
start from the beginning because these past two days have been so busy and I go
to bed exhausted every day but it's a good exhausted! So after you guys
dropped me off, I talked about the host that took me to my room and that I
would only be here for 3 weeks. The travel service lady is supposed to be
contacting me at the end of this week or at the very beginning of next to tell
me if President Hill is ready for me to come since it is an off transfer. I
will let you know when I figure that out! Immediately after I got here I
met my District and I'm in the district with other missionaries that are
advanced in their mission language. I'm the only sister in my district
because I'm the only sister missionary that is going to Norway that already
knows the language..that being said I don't have a companion. I'm what
they call a "solo" sister which means that I just have to be with
another sister missionary or two elders so my district takes good care of
me! They're all like my older brothers and we have a lot of fun in our
classes! I do have two roommates that are sort of like companions but we
usually have a completely different schedules, so sometimes I only see them in
the morning and then when we go back to our residency hall at the end of the
day. Their names are Sister Casalino (going to Milan Italy) and Sister
Rupper (going to Paris France) they are so sweet and super nice and we all get
along pretty well! My district is 6 other elders and myself. Elder
Janotti is from Brazil and is going to Morristown New Jersey and speaking
Portuguese..He is one of the Zone Leaders. Elder Aybar is from the
Dominican Republic and is going to Morristown New Jersey and is speaking Spanish..He
is also one of our Zone Leaders. Elder Periera is from Brazil and is
going to Nampa Idaho and is speaking English. Elder Kempener is from
Germany and is going to Salt Lake City East and speaking English and he is our
district leader. Elder Escalera is from Puerto Rico and is going to San
Antonio Texas and speaking Spanish and then Elder Hunt is from Samoa and is
going to Alaska to speak Samoan! I didn't even know they have people who
spoke Samoan up there! There's a little bit of a language barrier between
us all but it's not too bad! I'm the only American in there and my branch
is filled with people who already know their languages too...I'm the only
blonde in the branch! So that's fun! Anyway, so I met them the
first day and then we had an orientation for all the new missionaries, and we
sang Called to Serve and it was AMAZING! It was awesome sitting in a room
full of missionaries and singing that song! Our MTC President and his
wife introduced themselves and then gave a couple of short messages. Later that
evening we went to a class called People and Your Purpose and it is a class of
missionaries (probably 40) where we had 3 investigators come in and we taught
them as a class and that was my favorite part of the day! It was
awesome! I was sitting with two other sister missionaries that had
adopted me for the day before I got my solo sticker! The next morning we
had class with our teacher Sister Blain about weekly planning and then we went
to a workshop about our purpose and it was a really good class! The key
to inviting people to Christ is to love them and if you love them then the
Spirit works through you! After lunch we had our 3 hour class and we had
to prepare a lesson for our investigator (Teacher Role Play) Diane. Since
I am a solo sister, I have to teach by myself the whole time I'm at the MTC,
which stresses me out a little, but it'll make me a better teacher in the long
run! I'm learning all the Preach My Gospel lessons in English and then
it's up to me to learn them in Norwegian since I already know the
language...that's how this whole advanced language system works. I asked
if I could do role play so that I could teach in Norwegian in a little bit and
they said they would work on finding one for me. Anyway, so I did personal
study, companion study (by myself) and then planned this lesson and so we met
our investigator and got to teach her for 10 minutes...tonight is the full
lesson. So I went in and started talking and then I got talking about my
lesson and my mind went blank. I couldn't remember what I was going to
say, where to start, and then I just focused on how my whole purpose was to
invite her to Christ and I could feel Heavenly Father's love for her...and as
soon as I started thinking about that the Spirit took control over the
conversation and words starting flowing faster than I even had time to
think! The Spirit is amazing and you truly cannot teach without it!
At dinner that day I met two senior missionary couples and one couple had a
sister and her husband that are missionaries in Bergen and then the other
couple, he served his mission in Norway and served with President Hill!
He wrote down a note that he wanted me to give them when I got there and people
to say hi to if I saw them! Then I met my Branch Presidency later in the
evening and all the Branch Presidency's wives gave me hugs and told me how
excited they were that I was here! The Lord truly knows about each little
need, even if you are unaware of them yourself. I was assigned to be the
Online Coordinator and I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to be coordinating
quite yet but I'll figure it out! I'm supposed to be training new
districts on online rules and what to do during P-Days when writing
e-mails. Anyway...funny stories! So Elder Hunt (Samoa) thinks that
my last name is too common because you can use it in sentences so he decided to
call me Sister Alofa (Love in Samoan) so that is what he refers to me as!
I now respond to Sister Love and Sister Alofa! Also, because I'm a solo
sister I don't have a companion… so when my name was just on the board by
itself he says, "Um..Sister Love's companion is the Spirit!" So the
Spirit got written next to my name and as soon as I was done teaching he said,
"Did your companion help you?" Oh, and Elder Pereira folded a
heart out of paper to represent that there was a Sister Love in the
District. Also, earlier in class yesterday we were singing "Lord, I
would Follow Thee" and one of the words is beacon and as soon as we sang
it all the elder were laughing so when the song was over I said, "You were
all thinking about bacon huh?" and everyone just erupted into
laughter! It was pretty funny!
So far today Sister
Rupper and I went and exercised in the gym on the bikes and ellipticals because
Sister Casalino had to visit the Italian consulate today! So now we're
waiting for our laundry to be done! I love it here and it's truly
impossible to be anything but happy at the MTC! OH! I also saw
Elder Dalton (Miranda's friend) the first day and we were in the same class
when we taught the investigators as a group and I saw Elder Fisher basically
every day during meal time!
Love you all so much
and miss you!!!
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