Hermana Freeze : Week 3

The struggle is real. Spanish is a big slap in the face all day long.
I love it and hate it. What an adventure the MTC is! Prepare yourself
this is a long email but like your welcome to skip to the end. I'll
still love you. So here was my week.

Tuesday our devotional speaker was Neil L. Anderson. And he gave an
amazing talk about sacrifice, opposition, adversary, and deliverance.
He testified a lot about the power of our savior and it gave me great
motivation to press on.

Wednesday's are always the hardest days. You feel so tired because you
just spent the day before learning nothing. It's like the day you come
home from vacation and you like need a vacation from your vacation.
This Wednesday Hermana Soe got super sick. So typically in the
mornings we spend the first 30 min planing our day. Then the next
three hours is devoted to
personal study (where you study for the needs of the people you teach.
Most the time we study about prayer and the Holy Ghost to try and
invite people to develop a relationship with their Heavenly Father)
companion study ( where you share what you studied and then plan how
it can be used to help those you teach )
and language study ( where you are "suppose to" learn everything you
might need to say today in Spanish. Which is impossible. ). Since
Hermana Soe was sick she basically took a nap during this time and we
didn't really get anything done. We had to teach Gracela a single
mother with one son, who works as a maid. The lesson was terrible.
Worst lesson we have ever taught. We know it's because of the lack of
preparation too. We couldn't say like anything we needed to in Spanish
and our lesson was all over the place but we testified of prayer and
invited her to pray. We walked out of that lesson completely laughing.
It's the first bad lesson we have had and we just thought hey now we
can only go up.

Thursday hit and Hermana Soe was not doing good at all. I let her
sleep in. While she slept I did 2 hours of duolingo, read 3 conference
talks and tried to listen to the Book of Mormon in Spanish but I fell
asleep. So I guess it was nice cause I got a nap out of it too. She
woke up and was feeling much etter so we went to class and Hermana Soe
received a package. It completely made her day. My parents sent her
cookies and she shared with the whole class. She just lit up when she
got mail it was the sweetest thing to see! (She is from New Zealand
and it takes years to send mail from there to here) Spanish is coming
for me. Super slow and grammatically incorrect but it's still there.
I'm getting better at speaking Spanish straight from my mind instead
of reading it. So there's that.

Friday was good. We stated with service. We had to clean all the sinks
and mirrors in the girls dorm. Basically just wiping hair out of the
sink for an hour. Gross. While we were cleaning I found myself getting
annoyed. You know when you like clean something or like are given a
job and you do it but then someone goes and does it right behind you?
And your like dude come on like I already did that, or like seriously
it wasn't good enough for you, or please just do it your self why do I
even bother. Well my companion was cleaning behind me and it like made
me super annoyed and I knew it was stupid for me to be annoyed so I
like tried not to be but it totally bothered me. And then basically
the rest of the day was terrible. All because of my negative thoughts
In the morning. Im telling you if you let Satan in your mind even just
a little he will make you so unhappy. He made me feel so dumb. So I
encourage all of you to watch your thoughts this week. You think that
they don't effect you but they do. Your thoughts determine your
attitude. Try and be positive and give people the benefit of the
doubt. The day turned around when we were teaching Gracela. We were
teaching about prayer and I felt this super strong prompting to like
skip to the end of our lesson and it was amazing. Probably the most
amazing lesson we have ever had. She felt the love of our Heavenly
Father and agreed to start to pray ever day and look for Christ in her
life. Hard thing was she asked me what the difference between the Holy
Ghost and an angel and you think we'll that's not a super hard
question but like in Spanish it was impossible.

Saturday
I hate how words in Spanish have genders. I don't get it and I hate it
and it sucks.
That afternoon Hermana Jess had a breakdown with Spanish. So we took
like 30 min just trying to help her out. It's hard because one of us
breaks down like everyday and you just feel for that person so much
cause this is so hard and you feel like you've learned nothing. But
every 3 hours is a new class and you pick yourself up and start again.

Sunday
Fast Sunday! The lord is miraculous! I was able to fast for like a
full 20 hours without getting light headed or sick or anything which
is a miracle. I fasted for strength to learn the language and for one
of our investigators. He has cancer and so I fasted for him to get
better. Fasting brings a strong spirit for the day. We had mission
conference that was so inspired and uplifting. I can't even begin to
tell you all that I learned. Then we had a point in the day where we
had like 40 min of just free study time. We have a little bit of
tension in our class but nothing like the other zone. Anyways we were
given an assignment to write down 25 talents we have by Monday. Which
is hard. It seriously is like the most difficult assignment we have
been given. So I had this promoting that we should help each other out
with the assignment. we went around the room and to each person we
discussed the good talents we see in the. What a neat experience to
see our class bond. We are closer then ever because when you can see
the good in someone your less likely to get mad at them. Great great
day. Oh and guess what mom one of my talents they said was great
dental hygiene lol. Thought you would be proud. Then on the very first
day Hermana Jess saw this statue of two missionaries on bikes and she
said one day I'm gonna get on the back of that bike. Well Sunday was
that day. Our Sunday night film got out super early and it was dark
enough but light enough to take the photo. It was hilarious. In a
skirt Hermana Jess climbed up onto bik behind the statue of the elder.
Basically was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. But the best
part of the day was ... Well side note. Hermana Soe is Tongan and
basically can make friends with anyone who is brown in like 2 seconds.
So she makes friends with all these people and they all give her food.
So Sunday night she walks in with a bag of scoops and queso. Yes
that's right my favorite. So I couldn't resist I ate half the bag and
just sat in my bed with the most delicious snack.

Monday
Yesterday I hit the halfway Mark in the MTC. I am leaving for costa
Rica in 20 days. Wow that came fast. Monday we went to teach Jose but
he was in the hospital because of his cancer. In stead of teaching
they had us email him a lesson. In Spanish. Like a whole lesson. In
Spanish. Over email. Did I mention all in Spanish. Oh my gosh it was
hard. You want to say so much and you just can't. :( we did meet his
wife who is so cute and amazing. Seriously such a nice lady. And then
Hermano Mace's class hit. He asked the French speaking sister in our
district hoe many words of French she says every day. She said 20 so
he told us WE CAN ONLY SPEAK 20 ENGLISH WORDS ALL DAY. some elder said
"what really but that's not a lot" and he put 7 Tally's under his
name. So basically we get one English word an hour. So that's been
brutal. There is nothing more frustrating then not being able to
express your thoughts. Thank goodness I got a package from my family
filled with my favorite Carmel apple and lots of warm clothes. Biggest
blessing ever was getting to wear pants to bed last night. I was so
warm. However while doing the pre work for the last class of the day I
got super overwhelmed and had a breakdown. I curled into a ball in my
XXL skirt I happen to own and just cried the other Hermana helped and
I said a prayer asking for comfort and I felt a lot better. Then I ate
the entire Carmel Apple in my package. Right then and there. The whole
thing. In like 5 min and honestly I felt a lot better. The magic of
sugar.
Then I got to read my letter from Sam and my family and another
blessing was that everyone was gone. I was able to read my letters and
cry all to myself (which never happens in the MTC cause alone time
doesn't exist) so they was a tender mercy for me and you know I felt a
lot better.

Sorry for the obnoxiously long letter this week. The iPads let you
cheat and I can write my letter in notes and copy and paste it to mail
so it doesn't count as Internet time! So once I get to Costa Rica my
letters will be so much shorter! Oh speaking of iPads I've learned
this week that since my district is in the pilot program no other
group of missionaries gets the same schedule as us. It's completely
unique. And our teachers teachings are completely unique as well. They
are trying lessons that have never been done before. Like this week we
got to plan what we are going to be taught for the next week. We got
to pick our entire schedule for class next week. Hermano mace said we
are 1 of only 20 other districts in the world that gets to do that.
Crazy super neat. I'm excited. I honestly love it. We do get
interviewed a lot on how we are learning Spanish and we take all these
assessments that make you feel like crap. Other then that it's super
fun.

I love love love you guys! Thanks for all the mail and packages! Your
day can't be bad when you get something I'm the mail! And the support
from you guys means a lot you can feel your home cheering you on here
it's really neat. A special experience I will never forget.

I read this in the temple this morning and thought I would share.

1 Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you whom I love, and whom I love I
also chasten that their sins may be forgiven, for with the
chastisement I prepare a way for their deliverance in all things out
of temptation, and I have loved you

Remember he loves you. He humbles you because he loves you. And he
will always prepare a way for deliverance because he loves us.

Have a great week!

Hermana Freeze

Halloween! Thanks for the cookies mom