Hola Familia!
Sorry if the e-mails don't have paragraph breaks, apparently those aren't allowed here. Mom requested an example of my daily schedule. Well, here goes... you asked for it. 5:45 am, wake up and go to early-morning Sister exercise classes. Get back at 6:30. Shower and get dressed. Class at 7. Breakfast at 7:45. After breakfast, gym (I just LOVE to run on a nice, full stomach!). Then back to class until 12:30. Lunch. Class until 5:30. Dinner. Class until 9. Plan. Go home. Sleep. Repeat. Unless it's P-Day or Sunday. Those are a little different, and I really appreciate the change.
I'll take this time to answer some questions. Mom, Sister Clark is a regular missionary here. She's going to Chile and she would have left this week if not for the earthquake. Every Zone has a Sister missionary set apart as the "coordinating sister." I haven't auditioned for a musical number yet. I still need to find an accompianist. We're getting two new districts in our zone tomorrow, so hopefully one of them plays the piano.
Also, Mom, you forgot to send my hymnal! So get on that :)
Last week's Devotional was Elder Jay Jensen (of the presidency of the seventy). It was a really great talk. One thing he said that really stood out to me was "Proof does not convert others, the Spirit does." Very powerful, because I feel like sometimes I like to have (and give) proof. It must be that crazy engineer inside of me. But it is important to remember that the Spirit is everything, and we need to have the Spirit to teach. Also, I lied about the names of the speakers at the Fireside last Sunday. They were Elder and Sister BEECHER, not Beeson. So make sure I haven't given any false information to Melissa's parents.
The Fireside speaker this week was Stephen Allen, who is in charge of the missionary department. It was a good talk. He taught about the importance of acting like a representative of Christ at all times. The main message was "DON'T BE STUPID!" Wise words... Also, Ann Dibb came to Relief Society (President Monson's daughter). She taught a great lesson about standing up for what you believe in. She brought in two girls from her ward and had us give them advice about how to survive high school.
And of COURSE I have a funny story for you this week. With the Elders in our zone, we don't have a single day without something ridiculous and hilarious happening. This particular story is about our investigator, "Frank". First you must know that Frank is not real. Hermana Seegmiller and I wanted to practice teaching a lesson, so we went to an empty room and taught Frank. We were getting to the end of the lesson and Hermana Seegmiller was bearing her testimony to him and two Elders walked into the room. They said, "Uh... hey... what are you doing?" Hermana Seegmiller replied, "Testifying to Frank, of course! We were teaching him a lesson, but he wouldn't read any scriptures or ask any questions or ANYTHING." Elders: "Oh, of course. Well, Frank, sorry to interrupt!" It was awkward and funny. Probably funnier if you were there... I guess most of my stories end up being like that. Now whenever we see those Elders, the ask us how Frank is doing. They were delighted to hear that he was baptized this week and his wife (Francis) is getting baptized this week! Yeah... so that's Frank... Great investigator.
I have survived two weeks in the MTC. I'm pretty much a pro at this now. Only 30 more years to go! Or 6 weeks, but sometimes it seems like 30 years. But that's okay, I know it will fly by and I will miss it. Tell Uncle David I still haven't gained any weight. Tell everyone to send me letters and cookies and cards and... pancakes. Ok don't tell anyone to send me pancakes. But I always love to get letters and I am greedy so I want more!
Every day I run into more people I know. This week I saw a Sister from my freshman ward (Sister Mallory Hales) and an Elder who played on my frisbee team this past fall at BYU (Elder Nick Farrer). But anyway, send more letters and thanks to everyone who has sent letters so far! I love you all! In the words of Hermano Dallon: The Book is blue, the Church is true, Go Cougars!
Love,
Hermana LaPray