Written by Sister Justyce Oliphant, currently training at the Provo Missionary Training Center of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When her training is finished, Justyce will travel to the Mexico Tuxtla-Gutierrez Mission, speaking Spanish.
Hola mi familia y mi amigos! (Hello my family and my friends!)
That's about the only Spanish I really know...okay, not really, but I can type faster in English :) Can you believe it has already been two weeks? I really do feel like time is flying by here at the CCM (MTC in Espanol). My days are all mushing together.
So, Sacrament Meeting is at 8 a.m. Our Branch President will randomly call on two missionaries to speak each week, so we always have to have a 3-5 minute talk prepared, in Spanish, on an assigned topic. It's "fun" haha. You know how much I LOVE speaking... not! ;) I'm getting better though. I sang in Sacrament meeting last week! It was awesome because I didn't have to give a talk!! ;)
Dad asked about our kitchen from my pictures. No, we don't use it. We are never in our apartment. We only keep water bottles in the fridge! Oh, and if we ever get any snacks (cookies, etc.), we stock pile them in the cupboards :) I do miss making my own food. Sometimes the food here is quite interesting. But I'm pretty brave and try new things. For example, a few days ago they served some kind of fish. We called it the Christmas fish because it had red and green seasonings. Elder Anderson, our zone leader, was scared to try it. I really hate fish, but I was one of the only people to actually try it. I cut a piece and put it in my mouth and had to work so hard to not throw up!! BUT, I didn't show how grossed out I was and swallowed it, and all the Elders cheered for me!! Then they made fun of Elder A because a Hermana (Sister) tried it and he wouldn't...so he did, and I really thought he was going to throw up all over me. The moral of that story is, even if there is nasty fish in Mexico, I think I will survive. :)
Monday night I ran into Mom-mom (Hannah's grandma)!! She works here at the MTC (Missionary Training Center). It was so good to get a motherly hug from someone familiar!! I hope I bump into her again before I leave.
I also ran into Sara Barlocker from Paradigm. We were up at the main campus and went inside to have lunch there after going to the temple. So that was pretty cool! Her hair is cut short like Liz Rowley's!
OH!! So we take a bus up to the temple, and this morning Hermana Taylor and I almost missed the bus... we had to run to our apartment to drop off our clean clothes. LUCKILY, our zone was nice and asked the bus driver to wait for us, and we ran SO fast and made it back in time. I got my exercise for today! Just kidding. We will be playing volleyball later today also! That is something we do when we are stressed or need a time out. We go play sports, or run, or do wall sits in our class room. It really helps calm us down!
The temple was so awesome, as always!! Sister Park asked them if she could use the Korean translation (Korean is her first language!). So we all got to watch the old video. Her parents are actually the ones who did the translation for the Korean headsets, so that was pretty cool for her to be able to hear her parents' voices!
It's starting to get very cold. I have been layering outfits everyday- wearing tights, a sweater, and my big jacket. It's super cold when walking to class at 7 in the morning, and when walking home after class at 9:30 at night! We have gym every day (usually it is at 6:40 a.m.), so that is always really cold! Especially because I was planning for Mexico and didn't bring sweats or a sweatshirt. I'll go and buy some from the MTC book store, probably tonight, and then send them home at the end of my MTC stay! :)
Learning Spanish has been quite rough for me. I don't know why it's been hard, but I just have been struggling. We have had a few teachers talk about just opening your mouth and trying to say anything, trying to express our feelings, and relying on the Lord to help us know the words to say. Well, yesterday we taught two different investigators, and I just kept silently praying that my knowledge would be enough. I was so amazed by how much I was able to communicate! And then today when we were at the main campus, there was an investigator there (who wasn't a teacher pretending to be an investigator - she really isn't a member of the church). She was asking us questions and we were able to talk to her. We actually sat down and had a lesson with her, and we all had the opportunity to share our testimonies. AND we mostly did it in Spanish! It was really neat. The gift of tongues is really working in me!
I am so happy that I am here at the MTC. I learn new things every single day! I love this church. I know it is true.
Yo sey que la iglesia es verdadero. yo sey que Dios amor mi. yo sey que mi familia amor mi y yo amo mi familia. yo sey que Dios ayuda mi con Español y mi testimonio es fuerzo. yo sey que la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los santos de los ültimos Días es verdadero. En el Nombre de Jesucristo, Amen.
I hope mi Español wasn´t too terrible so you could read my testimony! I love you all!! Give hugs around. Tell Grandma and Grandpa on both sides I love them! I enjoyed reading about The Oliphants and seeing Grandma smiling! I got Grandma and Grandpa Frost´s Dear Elder letter, but I haven´t had time to write back yet. I will!
Keep the letters coming! I love them!! I love you all!!
Love,
Hermana Oliphant
Sister Oliphant's First Week at the MTC
Another Week Bites the Dust
