Wake up Mom! Hello Mom!

MOMMY! DADDY!
I LOVE YOU!
HELLO

Thursdays are P-day (preparation day) and so in the morning we wake up at 5am to do laundry before everybody else, and write letters. Then we write letters while our laundry is going. Then we go back and hang everything up and stuff. Our zone meets at 8am and then we go EAT BREAKFAST AT THE TEMPLE (I've never done that before, I'm so excited), and then do our session. This way, we will have a good solid 5-6 hours to nap, sleep, snooze, write letters, work out, and veg-out. So if you write back soon, I will write you AGAIN in a few hours after the temple. :) We have lessons to teach tonight though so there will be a lot of preparation happening during those hours of free-time too. :)

This place is AMAZING. Going on a mission is seriously the best decision of my life. I love my district. My spanish teacher is an angel from heaven. GUESS WHAT? I have already taught 4 whole lessons in Spanish! CAN YOU EVEN BELIEVE THAT!?! It is seriously a miracle. I can pray, share my testimony, and teach solid lessons already. The Spirit is so strong here. It's everywhere. :)

Let me answer a few of your questions: :)

So, because of the influx of people, they are transforming buildings into places to sleep. It helps that we are here for a shorter amount of time. I live on the first floor (which is basically the basement because of how they construct buildings here in Utah) which used to be classrooms. They transformed the whole first and second floors of the residence hall into more rooms to fit us, so all of our stuff is nice and new. :) There are a TON of people here, but I don't feel like everything is too crowded. At lunch it gets crowded but I feel like that would be normal and expected, given the circumstances.

My companions name is Hermana Hall and she is from Idaho Falls, ID. She's really nice. We are SUPER DIFFERENT, but we have been getting along super well!

My district is awesome! There are 6 Elders and 6 Sisters, and we are the first district in our Zone to have 50/50 Elders and Sisters. The closest they've gotten before was 60/40.

I'm playing the piano for our Zone leaders musical number this Sunday! Who would've ever thought that I could do that!?! Surprise! Props to consecrating talents! WOOT WOOT!

I've met so many amazing people here. It's amazing how so many people from so many different backgrounds, and walks of life can come together and work towards one central goal: Inviting others to come unto Christ. :)

I have learned that I have been blessed with a flexible spirit. The MTC is so fun. The rules are easy to follow. Especially when you can understand the reasons behind them. Oh- Sister Missionaries can wear TOMS! THIS IS THE HAPPIEST NEWS I'VE EVER HEARD! I have legit blisters from all of my shoes, even the super nice ones from Modern Shoes. However, they are getting better, so don't worry! But I would love some Toms eventually. ;)

I love you more than words. Seriously, you two are awesome. I love this work. I'm a changed woman just from this past week. If I were to come home tomorrow, you would already see a changed girl. Don't worry though, you won't see me for another 18 months! :) Just sayin!

I do make my bed. I don't know what has come over me, but I make my bed and keep my area super clean in the classroom. Just because I want to. INSANITY! Love it.

I have been sleeping better. Those first few nights were just odd adjusting to everything and my mind was constantly racing! But things are starting to get better. I'm sooooo excited to take a nap when I get home after this. I love the quilt and pillow case you made for me, Mom. All of the Hermanas in my district (we live with our district) like it so much. For real. I snuggle up in it every night and think of you :) It's so soft. Oh Bessie! FOCUS HERMANA! Clearly, I'm ready for a nap. :)

I do get everyone's DearElder.com letters every day. I love them. Honest to goodness we FEED OFF OF MAIL! One Elder just got his first letter from his Mom in the mail yesterday and besides her, no-one has written to him. I would fall over and DIE! Yes- I got your care package. LOVE IT! The white shirt from K-mart is ABSOLUTELY PERFECT and I love it, thank you SO MUCH! When I opened it and pulled out that shirt I about had a cow. (Sandi: You wouldn't believe the difficult time we had finding her a plain white button-down blouse to go under cardigans) It fits so well. Who would've thunk...K-Mart?

Spanish is insane. I love it. It makes me frown upon English. I almost wrote Ingles just now. My bad. I'm already forgetting words in English. Our whole district speaks Spanglish to each other LOL! So, here at the MTC when you learn a new language, the teachers, church, EVERYTHING you do is in that language. So you are expected to SYL! -or- Speak Your Language! For us it's HSI, -or- Habla Su Idioma :) The whole thing behind that is to speak everything you know, and then if you don't know a word we just say it in English and look it up later. It works! I'm diggin it! I think of Grandma Dodge, and Grandpa Dodge, like, every day here. :)

The Provo Temple is PRETTY! And the temple food in the morning is GOOD. I had an omlet, hash browns, orange juice, and water. Holy Comida! It was nice to eat hash browns after a week of eating super duper healthy. Except for the day when they had BYU MINT BROWNIES. Oh Bessie...that brownie was good. Totally worth it. Anyway...LOL...life is so fantastic here.

Oh oh oh oh! Funny Story:

We were all standing up in our classroom and I opened the door as another Elder was trying to close it behind him (because he didn't know I was leaving the room too) so when Elder Barkdull let go of his end, mine flew back and hit me in the side of the head. HARD. No worries though, I'm okay! It was actually HILARIOUS! I didn't cry, don't worry, we all know I have this super weird way of laughing my butt off when I get hurt like that. When I'm sick...I whine, but when I actually get HURT, I laugh. So it was funny. I held an ice water bottle to my head for a couple of minutes. But for real... after all my medical-ish training/background I am HONESTLY SUPER surprised I don't have a concussion right now. That door should have knocked me OUT. I'm cracking up right now as I am writing this. Oh man. Funny looks are being sent my direction. That's ok. Hah!

Well...I have to go. My time is up for this week. Keep the letters coming. I love you all so much.

Hermana Dodge