Hola amigos!

Hola amigos!

What a week this has been. I am halfway there! 3 weeks in, 3 weeks to go in the MTC!

I am spending mucho tiempo en la classe and it is hard to concentrate for 10 hours a day. Whoa. But it is so cool and so rewarding!! Espanol is coming a lot easier and a lot faster than before, and yesterday I was told by a native speaker that while I do not know all of the words, I speak really well and I have perfect pronunciation. So that was a nice like confidence booster. I gave a talk solamente en Espanol on Sunday. That was scary! Thankfully it was only a 5 minute talk, but all in Spanish is hard! But it went so well! The topic was baptism, so thankfully it was an easier topic :) 

Sunday walks are a beautiful thing you guys. Going outside the MTC walls and into the open air feels incredible. Also, going to the temple every week is so wonderful. If you haven't gone to the temple in a while, either for baptisms of for endowment sessions, go do it this week! You will be so blessed. 

I am seeing all sorts of tender mercies in my life here at the MTC. This has been a really hard experience with everything and with my anxiety. I am being so watched over and am gaining a testimony on how the Lord hears and answers my prayers and sends angels to help me out. I kid you not, I have the whole MTC watching out for me. I have my branch presidency (the Shallenbergers), the district presidency (particularly President Oswald), which is a higher up presidency, and the highest of all, the MTC president and his wife. His wife, Sister Burgess is so sweet and will stop any conversation to come say hi to me and check in if she sees me anywhere at the MTC. I am being so watched over.

The MTC is like an oasis! It is so nice. The sun is shining, there is green everywhere! Trees, bushes, flowers, all over. It is so beautiful. Now that it isn't raining, we do some studying and some classes outside in the wonderful fresh air. It is perfect. 

The other district leaves this week. How sad! But we get a new district on Wednesday. It is a district of only 6 elders, which will be weird to have the 5 of us as the only Hermanas. But it is okay :) We as a district are really starting to grow close together. It is fun to see all of our relationships grow. 

Elder D. Todd Christofferson came to our Tuesday night devotional. He was so inspirational! He talked about specific questions that missionaries have asked him in the past and he answered them at this conference. It was broadcast all over the world to the other MTCs and I was in the choir, which means I might have been on TV! :) Elder Christofferson echoed Elder Holland last week in the comment "open your mouth" which I thought was cool. We must need to open our mouths! But my favorite was "quitting will not make you feel better. Stopping is not a solution. Just keep going, keep pushing. Endure to the end with enthusiasm." I love it! Not just endure to the end, but go with enthusiasm. What inspiration! 

I challenge you to read D&C 122 and focus on what the Lord says to Joseph after all the worst case scenarios. Read, if possible, "Making it Through the Middle" by Emily Freeman. It is such an inspiring book.

Yo se que Jesucristo vive! Yo se que la Iglesia es verdadero. Yo se que necesito ser un misionera. Yo se que Dios escuche nuestro orars y quiere a dar respuestas. En el nombre de Jesucristo, Amen.

Hermana Gregory