WEEK 1 -- It's Gonna be Legen...WAIT FOR IT

Hola mi familia y amigos!

So first of all my p-days here at the MTC is on Saturday. So you get to hear about my first 4 days here! I will try to tell you everything I can, so it may be kind of long...

So after my family dropped me off I had a host missionary take me pretty much around the entire MTC campus to pick up a bunch of stuff. First we went to go pick up a packet with our name tags, MTC card, room key, etc. After that she took to go get my spanish materials. Which was a HUGE  heavy bag full of spanish learning materials, gospel teaching books that help you teach in spanish, and a bunch of stuff like that. We then went to my room/dorm to drop off my luggage. Then we went straight to the classroom.

On my first day of class my teacher immediately greeted me in spanish. I think I would have been able to understand her better if I wasn't already so overwhelmed with everything that had happened in the morning! So she took me to a computer room to watch some videos and take a survey about the MTC. By the time I was done pretty much everyone in our class was back and we started doing get to know you stuff. Oh! And I also met my companion! Her name is Hermana Mickelson, and she's from Oklahoma!  She's going to the Washington Federal Way Mission speaking Spanish. She is super awesome and we get a long very well. Not to mention she loves "How I Met Your Mother" and "Friends"!!!!! Haven't found out about "Just Go With It" yet but, don't worry I will definitely bring it up some time.

So our first class was a little rough but we finally got through it. One of our teacher's is Hermana Thomas (we haven't met our other teacher yet) and she is super cute a way nice! And mom, she served her mission in Guatemala! First day of class we just kind of talked about simple rules, and things that are important. It's a lot of learning all the time here so your brain gets a little fried. But you also learn sooooooo much really fast. Our classes are also really long, usually 3 hrs. at a time. So after our first hour class, we got to eat dinner, which was like fried steak and vegetables (Kailee's favorite). It was actually surprisingly good! I was afraid I wasn't really going to like or have an appetite for it but the food here is really good. After dinner we had this sort of orientation thing called "People and your Purpose."started with our teacher talking to us about different teaching things, and stuff like that. Then they had some missionaries come out to teach an investigator. Our instructor paused that, and then let us know that (this was in a large group of about 30 people) these were real investigators and we were about to started asking them questions and teaching them! I guess I was just a little shocked because I didn't think they would have us, first day missionaries, teach real investigators on our first day! Just a little crazy. But they definitely have you learn by doing, which is good for me because that's how I learn best! So that thing was just kind of an eye opener that they really trust us young people of the church to teach these investigators, no matter how much experience we have.

So after that we went back to our classroom to meet our Zone leaders and our Sister training leaders. They are super awesome and the seem really chill! They told us all of the in's and outs of the MTC and gave us a tour of the entire campus. So that was super nice. After that we pretty much just went to bed at 10:30.

So the next day (Thursday) me and my companion went to this exercise class they have just for sisters, because both of us want to stay in shape, and hopefully not gain weight. Haha. but that morning it was yoga, which was super nice and relaxing after our overwhelming day the day before. After that can you guess what we did next? We went to class! Our first 3 hour block of class we did some computer stuff about teaching and learning about personal/companion/language study. So after that we had a small break and went to Part 2 of People and your purpose. Which we kind of just learned more about our purpose during that. After lunch we went to more class! On Thursday our teacher was Hermano Woodbury, however he's not our regular teacher, he was just substituting for our teacher that isn't here this week. He was a great teacher though! He was really good at making sure we the pronunciations and the accents of the words correctly. The spanish the second day went really well! I feel like I can understand our teacher most of the time (of course they're talking some what slow), and coming up with sentences and things to say is getting better and better.

After lots of class we finally got to meet the branch presidency that night! Our president is President Swenson and Hermana Swenson, and I don't remember the other counselors names, but they are all super sweet and funny too! They met with our district that night and we really got to know each other better. We each got up (including the presidency) and told a little bit about ourselves, and we all had the opportunity to share why were serving a mission, and a brief testimony. After that I think our district really grew closer to each other, and we all know that we are here for the good reasons. They also called our district leader, Elder Johnson! He's also going to Mesa! There's also another Elder in my district going to Mesa (Elder Jensen) and he's from kaysville and he graduated from Davis in 2015! We never new each other before but it's cool we're going to the same mission! We like to call ourselves the Kaysville Clan! haha! So I am the only Sister in my district going to Mesa, and I haven't met any other sisters in other districts going there. But maybe Someone else will come later going to my mission! Anyway, we also got to meet with a member of the branch presidency, to make sure we're doing alright. And just so you all know I am doing just fine!

So the next day was fairly similar but a few things were different. Days here are reeeeeeeeaalllllyyy long, so it kind of feels like I've already been here for weeks, but it's only been 3-4 days! But on Friday we had to teach our first lesson in Spanish to an "investigator." It was kind of scary because we don't exactly know the language incredibly well yet, so we just kind of had to memorize and write down phrases and questions to ask Marcos (the invesitgator). It kind of caught us off gaurd, but we did our best and he said we could meet with him again today (Saturday)! So something must of gone right. With the language you kind of get a little frustrated with yourself, because you feel like you been learning it for a while, but we haven't even been here a whole week. So I kind of have to just keep reminding myself that, and don't get down on myself. But the language really is coming back to me from when I was little.

On this day we finally got gym time which felt really good! It was kind of a long tiring day though because we had about 6 hrs. of personal/companion/language study on our own without a teacher. So sometimes its a little hard to stay focused. But our district discovered last night that when we're all a little brain dead, it really helps to sing a few hymns to help us all calm down a bit. Just want to say that i absolutely LOVE everyone in our district! We all encourage each other and laugh at each other, and we've all really become each other's family here at the MTC.

I'm really enjoying my time here, and I have been so lead by the spirit! This truly is an incredible place and I am learning so so so so so much!

If I have time Iater I will send a few pictures! And I get to go to the temple today with my district! Sooo excited for that! But I would love to here more from you guys! I really loved the letters you gave me when I was leaving, and the dear elder letters I got! Thanks so much! I love you all!

Con Amor,

Hermana Brown

DARY!!!!!!

p.s the computers here a little weird so if there's a lot of typo's it's not my fault!

Me and My companion! You can't tell, but it was snowing when we took this!

Our entire district! from left to right: Back Row: Elder Lutes, Elder Rudder, Elder Eskelson, Elder Jensen (from kaysville, going to my same mission!), Elder Hoffman, Elder Johnson (district leader, also going to my mission!). Front row: Me, Hermana Mickelson, Hermana Mitchell, Hermana Rigby 

We both like to wear socks and sandals on p-day!