FAMILY! Ia or ana
So I have so much to say. I don't even know where to start. I don't even know what is happening anymore. It is like the MTC is a giant time warp or long and hard and spiritual days. But it is great. I don't know what is wrong with me but I all of a sudden became an emotional person here. The spirit here is so strong, I can't even believe it. We joke around that you could read the phone book in the MTC and still feel the spirit. So, thanks for the letter mom, and I love the picture of Madeline you sent.
When I return home I am going to watch all of the Madeline episodes in french, just because I can.
So, the first day I walked into class and the teacher Soeur Buswell started talking to me in French and I was like, um... what? There are 12 people in my district going to Tahiti, and 2 zones for a total of 21 people going to Tahiti. It is still so funny when we tell people in the MTC where we are going.
Tahitians are legends here because we stay at the MTC the longest. 11 weeks is soooo long, but I am going to need all of that preparation for Tahiti. I am the only one in my district that doesn't speak French or didn't learn French in high school or college or something, so that is fun. Sometimes I want to cry, but I just have to tell myself the gift of tongues is real and that if I try my hardest the Lord will bless. Right now we are teaching an "investigator" (he is acting) from Tahiti, and giving him the lessons IN FRENCH. I usually just sit there and try to read a scripture or quote from Preach my gospel because I don't really know how to form my own sentences yet, except that reading scriptures is even nearly impossible because I have no idea how to pronounce everything. Our investigator Vetea Teochoari just laughs at me when I speak. I think I am probably saying something insulting. For example, the difference between saying la foi and le foi, only a slight sound change is either "the faith" or "the liver", so I may have told Vetea to have liver in Jesus Christ. I am not sure, but I do have faith.
On a positive note, I can say prayers in French and I can share my testimony. Those are pretty essential right?
Tell Marisa thank you for the doughnuts. They were delicious and my district was very happy to have some Krispy Kreme. Food here is allright. Mostly I eat oatmeal, pineapple, cantaloupe, yogurt, salads, and chicken. It is a little strange, but I don't even have time to think about what I am eating. All of us sisters in our zone going to Tahiti are scared of getting fat and there are no scales here, so we made a promise to each other to say something if it looked like we were growing. We have exercise every day and I am usually the Pilates woman, because I know a lot of weird and painful workouts. It is really fun, and we are going to have a goal to run a 5k by the 6 week period.
On Sunday, our sacrament meeting is in French, and each week the Branch President Mangum randomly selects 2 people to give a talk at the beginning of the meeting, so we all have to prepare a talk the week before. I was like, um... I don't even know how to pronounce anything in French let along give a talk, but luckily I didn't get called. Sundays are really the greatest, and I listened to the most incredible talk. Elder Bednar gave a talk a while ago on the character of Christ, and it was one of the most life changing talks I have every heard. Basically Elder Bednar noted how Christ always turns out in love and charity towards others at times where the natural man would turn in and feel selfishness and pity. Think of how much better we would be as people if we reached out to serve whenever we had trials in our lives. I am working on that. Sometimes I get frustrated (all of the time) or sad, where I just want to be all grumpy and distant, but instead I try to be optimistic and look for the needs of others. It is really helpful and I encourage you to do so as well.
More news is that we went to San Francisco on Monday! I don't think dad was working but I was in delta airport. We got called by the French embassy to get our visas in California, so we woke up at 1: 45 am, and left to get a flight there at 5: 30 am, then returned the same day at like 7 pm. It was rough and there is no time to nap here, so we are all just really tired. There is no time to make up sleep. It is kind of dumb because our eating schedule is breakfast at 6: 30 ( when normal missionaries wake up), so we always wake up at 5: 50 or so. But San Fran was great. On the airplane I talked with the Elders and I ate airplane snacks. I was sad they didn't have Biscoff cookies on Delta that day, but I got pretzels instead. In San Fran we went and ate breakfast at Boudin, a bakery thing, and it was delicious. I had a fruit and yogurt parfait and everyone else had croissants We gave a lot of pass along cards away, and I invited our bus driver guy to read the Book of Mormon. One sister even got the number and name of a security guard to give to the missionaries serving in that area. It was a great and tiring day. Well, I miss home a lot, but I see people here I know all of the time so that helps. I have probably hugged Katie Wiser a hundred times.
So basically you don't have to send me anymore clothes, I already have more than everyone else. Marisa if you are reading this than thank you so much for all of the sewing you did. I love my skirts and thank you thank you I love you. Also I would appreciate it if you would give me Marisa's address so I can write letters to Ashley or Marisa or whomever. I hope everyone is doing well! Tell brandon and Matthew and Troy to dear elder me, then I get the letter that day. Well I am loving the gospel and I still love Tahiti. I pray for you guys. Also thank you Karey for dear eldering me, and thank you for your letters! I love you all!
Nana,
Soeur Kimball
No comments:
Post a Comment