Week 2

This week was crazy. I did cry once last week, but I managed not to cry this week. I was proud of myself. My Spanish is coming along slowly, but I've learned a ton. Before I left, I couldn't even translate the message my friend Vilas Bell wrote me before I left for the MTC. "Yo tengo su alma."

"I have your soul." hahahaha 

But I'm understanding a lot more and speaking more in lessons and such. Me and my companions teach one or sometimes two of three fake investigators almost every day. Hermana Naegle typically dominates the conversations because she took three years of Spanish, but Hermana Chapman and I have been putting it all together from scratch. But it's amazing to see how far we've come since the first week. We still have a tendency to be pretty hard on ourselves, though. But we just have to step back and remember that we've only been here for two weeks. But seriously, by day four I was like, "I’m not learning anything! Gaaaah! I need to be fluent!" Yeah, I overcame that thought real quickly. I got kind of a pep talk/smack down from one of my maestros, Hermano Ceballos, because I wasn't having any patience with myself. 

Anyways, this last week was pretty much the same as last week as far as classes and study goes. Me and the guys in my district are in the same stinky classroom for about 12 hours every day. Not all in a row, though. We get ten minute breaks every hour or we'd probably go crazy from all of the study.

I love the schedule, though. I love having things to do constantly. I think the thing that stresses me out most is having to write a five minute talk in Spanish for every Sunday because El Presidente doesn't announce who is speaking until after the Sacrament is passed. It feels very Hunger Games to me. And the resounding sigh of relief that passes over those who didn't get picked is hilarious. 

I've had lots of awesome things happen this week. For one thing, I sang a special musical number in front of the entire MTC and since then, people have been asking me to sing. Especially the Latinos. They can't get enough! So I sing all the time, even if I'm just humming a little tune. It's very therapeutic for me and it's a great way to invite the Spirit. Today one of my Maestros, Hermano Cañas, said, "Use your gift in the field. It's a powerful tool and it invites the Spirit so quickly. So just sing." 

Another experience I had is that I actually managed to steal the ball from a Brazilian elder in soccer today. Seriously, there is nothing more humbling than playing soccer with freaking Brazilians. They make the Gringos look like big awkward giraffes whereas the Latinos are speedy little spiders. So stealing the ball was a pretty huge accomplishment for me. Hahahaha!

One other thing is that I was listening to one of my other teachers giving an example lesson to a fake investigator, and I actually understood EVERYTHING he was saying in Spanish. And I mean EVERYTHING. I felt the Spirit so strongly as I listened to his message, and I received a much-needed boost of confidence.

Anyways, I'm out of time, but I love my district, I LOVE this work, and I'm so grateful every day for this amazing opportunity to be out here.

LOVE YOU!!!!

Hermana Natalie Darley