week dos!

Hola Familia!

 

Okee, I have about 16 minutes to write, so we will see how much I can get on this here e-mail.

I am in the process of developing some pictures.. I can't send pictures via e-mail unless I had a usb cord, which I do not. And the picture developer was broken for like a week... but just so you all know. SOME ARE COMING! :)

 

Okay so that is way great that you found a T.A. check! Hallelujah! (speaking of which, I got to hear the MOTAB sing that song on Christmas. It was a Christmas Miracle!)

I haven't even thought about my car! Yikes. Thank you Dad for turning it on every few days! Very kind of you.

 

Christmas evening we had another fireside and then watched Mr. Krugers Christmas. Oh, Mr. Kruger... and the little girl Clarissa... AWEEEeeeee. If you haven't seen it, watch it. Stat. Before December runs out!

 

So Brother Stephen Allen came and spoke to us Christmas evening. He told us a pretty funny story of a time that he was at a drinking fountain in a church and this young boy came up to the smaller drinking fountain. Just as he came to take a drink, Brother Allen let his fountain stop, which made the water pressure of the little boys more powerful therefore squirting him in the face. (We've all done it. jajaja). Then he was like.. don't worry this story has a moral! The moral was that he was pushing this young boys buttons. And that we can not let Satan push our buttons. It was an interesting fireside. Very relaxed. He had someone stand up and start reading Alma 26. I think if verse 27 it says: and when their hearts were depressed and they were about to turn back, they were then comforted. He talked about how we all get discouraged, and all feel like turning back at times, but as we press forward and lean on the Lord, that we will be comforted. He was like.. I need a volunteer. Right as he said that I looked up, and he was like: YOU! Sister, that just looked up. Come here! I was like... oh my gosh. He wants me to get up and talk to 2,100 missionaries.. *heart pounding out of chest* yikes. Then he was like.. you in the green sweater. Sigh of releif! I was wearing a read sweater! haha... but he had her row get up and share something that they have given up. One kid was like: my bed. pfffff. And was completely serious about it. Then the other lame one: I gave up my job at Chic Fillet. Serious?? jaja. That was funny.

Then at the end he talked about how he served his mission in Guatemala and how he would always watch the international flights leave, and him and his companion would put their hands over their hearts when they saw the american flags on the plane's wings. And how his companion would snicker at him and say, "Elder, when you are on your way home, we probably won't even use plane's any more." Anyways. After two years had gone by, and as he was in the plane he says he remembers looking down on the valley that he remembered looking up at the plane, and offered a prayer to Heavenly Father. He asked if his mission was acceptable to him. When he closed the prayer a very comforting feeling came to him and the thought -- You've served me well, Elder.

Then I thought of the song, "I wonder when He comes agian". The primary song. One of my favorites. The very last line in that song says, You've served me well my little child, come into my arms to stay.

A mission is a lot like our time here on earth. We leave our home, our parents, we go and teach, and learn, and grow, and my time is up..................................... boo.

 

Okay, Love you family!!!!!!!!!!

Te Amo, Hermana Anna

Christmas in the MTC part II

Silly Elders...haha

 

okay SO Elder Bednar. OOOooooh, it was a great talk.

 

He based his talk around Mosiah 3:19

about putting off the natural man.

When the natural man turns in, and thinks about only himself, then that is when Christ turns out.

He talked about how our testimonies are not enough, but that we need to be converted unto the Lord. To be converted unto him means to be consistant in doing of what I know to be right.

 

I wish I could type more on his talk. Every five seconds the computer is freezing, so I'll have to write out in more detail and then put a STAMP on it, and SNAIL mail it to you.

 

I love you all so much! Hop you had a very Merry Christmas!!!

 

Love, Hermana Anna

Christmas in the MTC part I

Querido Familia!!!

 

You are all AMAZING!!! I have been a very spoiled missionary, that is for sure. So, it is Christmas here at the MTC, and they told us to come e-mail family. So lucky you, you get to have 2 E-MAILS this week!!! YAYAYAY!

 

So last night was Christmas Eve. We went about our normal day until the evening. We had a Christmas Fireside and had a live nativity while reading Luke 2. That was awesome. It included lovely musical numbers, and then one of the MTC presidents grand daughters played Silent Night on her violin. It was beautiful. I could have listened to her all night long. **side note** hna. Agua's and I rented out a violin yesterday after eating a quick lunch. It was SO fun! Too bad the MTC only has 1 violin, otherwise we would probably come up with some sort of duet to do... but oh well :) Still fun to get out the violin.

Afer the Fireside we got a special treat and got to watch The Christmas Carol (not the Muppetts, but almost just as good!) Haha we were sitting around a few asian sisters, and then also some new Elders from Mexico. When Jacob Marley appered on the screen, all of the Asian Sisters were getting pretty scared and covering up their faces! Then the Elders from Mexico were taunting it on by getting close to their ears and saying.. OOOOooooOOOoooooo! hahahahahaha, Hna Aguas and I laughed pretty hard over that.

 

Another funny story:

So we are all pretty new with the whole espanol thing. But one elder in my district seems to struggle with it more. Anywyas, he was giving a closing prayer yesterday and this is how it went:

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for this.

Thank you for that.

Feliz Navidad

Amen.

Bless his good Christian soul. I think he meant to say bless us to have a good Christmas, but instead just wished God a Merry Christmas. Which I guess He deserves to have a Merry Christmas too. :) hahahah, that was awesome.

 

This morning we woke up, I waited in line for a shower.. Then we came in our room and Hna. Baker sang us a Christmas song that her family sings every Christmas. Pretty funny song. Then we all opened up PRESENTS!! Oh, it was a fun morning.

Then we went to our Chritmas Sacrament Devotional. Guess who spoke?!?! I totally called it.

DAVID A. BEDNAR!

Oh man, it was AMAZING! I was surprised as how funny he was. In the middle of his talk he quoted cookie monster - complete with the impersonation of him.....

 

shoot. looks like i'm getting kicked off for a minute. I'll send more of what he spoke about soon............

LOVE YOU!

week 1!

HOLA FAMILIA!!!!

You all are so wonderful! I have gotten a TON of letters and packages. The Birthday packages ROCKED! Erin, thank you for the "style guide". It will come in handy. I LOVED the foto album, and the earings!! Ooooooh, you guys know me well. vaNIElla squared cupcakes? I could not of asked for a better birthday! Also: I taught the Hermana's in my room the -- "Why were you born so beautiful, why were you born at all?" song. (they sang to me this morn :D)

So the first week at the MTC has been amazing! Remember how nervous I was to find out who my companion was? Well, after I went through the little line where they take your picture, and give you your name tags and such, I looked down at who my companion was, and seriously started flipping out! KAITLYN WATERS!!!! So awesome. I went to high school with her, and we both played the violin together in orchestra. We have so much fun together. We laugh a lot... probably too much :) My favorite was the other night when Hermana Baker (our coordinating sister) recieved a package from her family. It just had a list of things she can be thankful for and I was like.. "You know what I'm thankful for?? I'm thankful that I even have knees, so I can get on them to pray...... Some people don't have knees and have to get down on their nubbs to pray." Hahahaha, oh man. I think we are going to make a quote wall for our room.

There are 4 sisters in our Branch. Hermana Baker y Hermana Butt... yes, Butt. Then Me and Hermana Waters AKA Hermana Aguas. Hna. Baker y Butt are going to Chile and then Hermana Waters is going to Arizona. There is one Elder in our District also going to Dallas. Elder Henze. He is pretty hilarious. Our District Leader likes to be in charge..... We call him Zacharias. :) Then All of the other Elders in the District are very fun. All of the companionships work extremely well together. They all have strengths and weaknesses that help eachother out in different areas. My teacher went to Argentina on his mission, so insead of saying "Como se llama", he says "Como se SHama" which can get a little confusing at times, but He is awesome too. Hermano Parke is his nombre.

The YW in our ward sent me this cute paper tree and ornaments with little messages on all of them. It was fun to hang on the wall and decorate. And then Hermana Baker had some Christmas lights so we strung them on our little paper tree. So cute! Oh, and I cut out a few snowflakes to add to our decor as well.

So the food is very good. The wraps I probably eat every day. Key ingredients include (but are not limited to):

-feta

-cinamon almonds

-y sprouts

If you are really wondering about how it is, then you can read Jeramiah 4:19

Espanol is pretty neat. I am surprised of how much I already know. I know how to meet someone, how to pray, how to testify, and that is about it. I memorized "Our Purpose" en espanol, and the baptism prayer (habiciendo sido commicionado de Jesucristo....(having been commisioned of Jesus Christ)) Still have a LONG way to go though. Hermana Waters and I have an investigator named Fernando. He speaks ONLY espanol. It is interesting to see how teaching him works. I think I will be teaching more people of who I am, rather than what I know. I don't speak spanish, but He does.

Sunday's we have temple walks! It is the BEST! We would normally go to the temple for a session on P-day's, but the temple is closed for a couple of weeks for cleaning/christmas. Kind of bummed about that, but that is fine. This way I can just take a nap--because naps make the world go round. Love.

I am very excited for Christmas. I hear that the MOTAB choir is coming to sing to us a few times. That should be sweet. There is also rumor going around that on New Years Day the First Presidency is coming to celebrate the 50th birthday of the MTC. How flipping SWEEEET will that be?!?! I wil definitely let you know!

Okay, I am out of time. I love you all sOOoooooOOOOoooOOooo much!!! Hope you all have an amazing Christmas.

I am very grateful that I get to spend Christmas in the MTC and that all of my focus will be on what Christmas is truly about.

I was thinking about how I would feel if I was Mary, and if I was to hold the Savior in my arms. How I would feel. So don't forget to think about Him on Christmas. I love you all again. MUCHOS GRACIAS!!

Hermana Anna

Address'

***Notice***

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< right over therr

my MTC address, and my Mission Home address (as opposed to appants (erin)).

Love y'all SOOooo much!

and thank you to all that came to the farewell yesterday.

I have amazing support from friends, and family!

xoxoxo,

the future hermana :)

Believe It or Not

love it.

listings

things i won't miss while i am away:
-cleaning up after my family
-watching poopy movies
-crazy sleep patterns
-worrying about what to wear

things i am going to miss while on my mission:
-family
-watching awesome movies (the hunger games)
-awesome friends
-smooOOOoooching!
-blogging
-tweeting
-coming home lazily
-reading all of your lovely thoughts
-going on hawt dates
-reading whatever i want
-listening to all of my music
-wearing upsexy clothing!!
-isolation

things i will still be able to do on my mission:
-swoOOOOoon over beautiful men. my heart will just be locked is all.
-be my most spastic self
-to hum whitney houston/reo speedwagon/hall n oats/etc.
-dream
-get giddy
-tell awesomely stupid jokes
-cry
-be creative

things that i wish will go away, but will not:
-plucking my eye brows
-shaving my legs
-flossing
-ugly days
-dilemmas
-mean people

things that will NEVER leave me:
-The Gospel of Jesus Christ
-agency. my power to choose.
-the knowledge that i have

mishun foto

Thanks to Jalene!

She always does such a fantastic job!

Seriously, if you need pictures done... go to her!!!

p.s. I leave in 7 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dear Santa,

I just really wanted to thank you for making an exception to come early to my house this year!

I think you know how much I love the Christmas Season --  and I feel like it is getting surpassed with all of this missionary preparation stuff. It's kind of crazy at my house, so sorry if we aren't more on top of things with leaving out milk and cookies and such, but I sure will try!

Things that I might a appreciate (are not limited to, but include):

- cute hair accessories (I probably won't want to mess with my hair in Texas)

- maybe some tights (I'll be in the mtc during the freezing winter months)

- I could always use another skirt!

There. Now you have some ideas, Santa! LOVE YOU!

p.s. Yes, I did notice that my song didn't upload. poopy.

Love One Another

check out my new favorite song:

and after I bought it...

found out that part of it is in SPANISH!

love it!

Yesterday was my last day at the office.

I was fine all day.

until Dr. C gave me a card.

it read:

Thanks for being such a wonderful employee and a better person.
Please keep working hard for the BEST employer, with the BEST job description.
-Steve

and then I lost it.

the whole way home,
i sobbed.

You grow to love the people you work with.
They become your second family.
And I LOVE my second family. I sure will miss them.

I report to the mtc in exactly 11 days.
so crazy to me.

Its a strange feeling. a nervous/excited/anxious feeling.
but I can't wait!

My good friend, kara, just wrote me a letter. She makes me laugh. She said to think of being in the mtc as being at Hogwarts. She knows me well... comparing things pertaining to church to HP! Love her (she is on her mission in Houston... poor soul.(; )

Dallas is better