I don't even know where to start! So much has happened since Wednesday. I'll just touch on a few key points.
I got to the MTC an hour early than my scheduled time so after they take you to your room and you get your books (like seriously a million books on learning Spanish. And Spanish scriptures. Hopefully they don't add too much weight to my luggage when I leave here) the host takes you to your classroom. I was the only one there and I had to pretend I knew what my teacher was saying because it was all in Spanish. But it was okish. Then my companion came and it's Hermana Harris, who was in my London Study abroad and one of my Spanish classes. So that was way excited. And she is so stinking awesome. I'm so glad she's my companuion. We work really well together. The other Hermanas in our district, Hermana Seely and Hermana Duchene are also fabulous. When Hermana Harris leaves for the Peru MTC in 3 weeks, I'll be a tri-companionship with H. Seely and H. Duchene. The Elders are slowly warming up to us. Apparently, we 21 year old sisters are pretty scary or something.
Thursday was our first real day here and it was a long one. We seriously do so much that by the end of the day I have a hard time remembering what I did that morning. I mean I was probably just as busy while I was at school, but since I pretty much sat around for two months in between, it feels like I've never been busier in my whole life. But anyways, that day started out kind of hard because I missed everyone and my Spanish stinks so things were hard. But we did this activity that really helped me remember that everything I'm doing here isn't for me but for the people I will get to teach in New York. So I'm trying my hardest to not be selfish and think about how hard things are or how tired I am and just focus on the people I'll get to help later on.
We taught our first lesson on Friday, which was terrifying. My classes are all in Spanish and we had to teach our lesson all in Spanish so I basically had no idea what I was doing. But Hermano Salvatierra (our investigator) was super cool and I think that for the first time ever teaching in Spanish, Hermana Harris and I did pretty well. We teach our second lesson with H. Salvatierra later today and I think that one will be even better. My favorite part of the first lesson was (besides the presence of the Spirit, of course) when we asked H. Salvatierra to start reading the BOM and he asked us how much it cost. We had no idea how to say that it was free so we just repeated "No dinero, no dinero" a million times. And also when I said "El Libro de Mormon" except that I said Mormon like a total gringo so I just sounded like a dummy.
Hermana Harris and I have made it a goal to start speaking more Spanish. Yesterday, we spoke only Spanish for all of lunch and gym time. It was hard but I think it really helped us improve our Spanish and be better prepared for classtime. I'm so glad I get to serve a mission in Spanish, but I am a little jealous at the English missionaries because they definitely have it 10 times easier. Although I'm sure the Russian missionaries feel the same way about us Spanish missionaries.
Well things have been great! I can't say that I have too many super awesome stories because I really haven't been here too long. But on Monday, we start our regular schedule for the rest of the time we're at the MTC so things will start becoming more familiar to me and I will be teaching more investgators (who by the way, at least right now, aren't real investigators. Which is a very good thing because they would never convert from the little amount we can currently teach them. But we are supposed to treat them as real investigators.) I have seen a ton of people I know here, including freshman boys I had as a peer mentor and Sister Tara Pearce and Sister Audrey Heaton which has been really fun.
I also just wanted to let you guys know that it's still ok to love me while I'm on my mission and to write me letters. I haven't recieved any yet and it's a bummer in the summer each night when the district leader hands them out and I'm the only one without one... =[ But don't take this as a guilt trip or anything.
I love you all and thank you so much for your support while I'm out here!
Love,
Hermana Parkin
