Week three from Whitney

Hallo Family!

Week three has been completed! Woot gemacht! This week has been rather interesting, because we're teaching every day auf deutsch and as of this week we have two investigators (played by teachers) for us to teach, so that's been fun. Michael is still requiring patience because I'm not used to people not really "taking my word for it" if you know what I mean. When I promise people (and I mean it) that they can know any sort of truth concerning religion through sincere and heartfelt prayer, I forget sometimes that it sounds much easier for someone like me who has always known God loves us, versuses those who may not even believe in a God. So Geduld! That's where it's at! William, our new investigator is awesome! He actually reads from the book of Mormon and has already started to pray, sort of rekindling old love for God, so he's progressing which makes us happy. He seemed really bitter about the world, but he prayed for a new job (he was a bus driver) and by the next appt. he had an interview, which made him excited for more! So yeah. I thought our teacher said that to be nice to us, but our teachers said that the investigators they portray were people they actually taught, whether they were baptized or not, and whatever the investigators say, they really said to these teachers, so they really try to make it as real as possible!

We also finally got to go to the TRC, which wasn't as scary as everyone makes it out to be! I guess it's because there's a camera and the teacher monitors you, but the teacher that watched us is Michael and so it didn't seem as daunting. Plus we just shared a simple message to a person acting as a member, so there wasn't any weird questions to worry about; it was just like how the missionaries come and visit us--only we get candy instead of a great meal.

I also want to say thanks for passing on the DearElder thing to everyone, I got three of them this week and it made me super happy! I was able to reply to them and they'll hopefully get those soon.

This week has been hard on our Dritt, not because we don't get along, but because Sis. Pingree might potentially go home because of an absiss (sorry dad, spelling!) on her cheek from a wisdom teeth surgery. It keeps coming back and the doctors aren't sure what to do, and if she doesn't get better, they might send her home so it doesn't give her pain on the field. Our little district doesn't want her to go, and SHE definitely doesn't want to go. The MTC doctor said that if she doesn't progress by this week then she might go home, so yesterday our district had a fast for her, which was pretty powerful. Everyone wanted to fast so that...if for some reason she has to go that at least she'll be healed and won't have to worry about it anymore. It's insane that I've known her for 3 weeks and our district has known each other for three weeks and we have such a killer-awesome bond between us. It's incredible.

Something more upbeat this week--they have these extra workout classes for the Sisters, like pilates or yoga or aerobics, and I kid you not, we all volunteered ourselves to try the kickboxing class at 6:00AM!!! So that was an early start to the day for sure, but we all wanted a little extra workout to combat all the...eh..."wonderful" MTC food. So yeah, pretty fun stuff. We're probably going to go on Fridays until we leave!

Another funny thing that might amuse you, especially mom: I guess I still out of random say things out of the blue in a British accent, and Elder Dolben in my district is actually British from Scarborough, or some small town. Well yesterday he was like, "Why do you always says stuff in my accent!?" And I laughed and just said that I do it for fun, 'cause I'm a dweeb at times, but I hardly noticed it at all, but apparantly he though I was doing it to tease him. We ALL tease him, because of all the other ways we call things like "rubbish" and "biscuit" and other nonesense. But I asked him how I was doing on the accent and he was like, "Better than everyone else in the district, but not really!" So apparantly I'm not as good as I thought! He was very quiet when we started out and now he sounds like an old British man, asking us why we say silly things and starts calling us funny names. But it doesn't really have any affect on us because of the accent. He half jokes w/ us all the time w/ that serious European face, meine gute. So yeah, fun times!

German is becoming easier, because we're trying to speak it more often. I sometimes will be explaining something to my investigator and I have this split-second out-of-body type experience where I realize that deutsch is coming out and I hope it makes sense! Usually the personal pronouns like "his, hers" don't match the subject or the word order is NOT in order, but I know what I'm saying and I always ask if they're following! But as my teachers tell us, that we can already talk and give lessons and we're only 1/3 of the way there, so imagine what'll happen when I leave! My Mitarbeiterinen sometimes ask me why I keep saying certain words and I realize that they're actually dansk, so yeah, that I guess is still a bit natural, too! It's just the little words like, "skal" or "igen" that I used to say a lot and now I have to rewire the brain a bit still. I'm still writing some missionary friends in Odense so I get some practice from writing!

As for everything else, you can imagine that it's pretty much rinse and repeat! Work, study, eat, study, study, pray, and it goes on and on, w/ an occasional daily shower here and there! Next week, some more districts are leaving for Deustchland and I'll miss them a lot, especially the sisters because they're so fun and amazing! It was funny after one particularly long day and wanting to just dunk Michael in the baptismal font already (but not really!), we all opened our closets, and the other girls from the zone jumped out and I just about punched one in the face! It was really funny though. They got their flight plans a week before they depart, so I'll be able to tell you the deets about a week before I go, too! Be prepared for an über early call!

And just to mention, I'm not sure if I've already had, but church here is awesome because we get great speakers for RS, like last week we had the General Primary President and yesterday we had Sis. Eubeck from the RS General Board who gave a bold, and awesome talk. Plus all the sisters in the MTC meet together, so that's fun! I actually saw Mary, or Hermana Blackburn, my freshman year roomie this week, she just reported! And another one will be reporting in a few days, spændende! Anyway, our actual Sacrament Mtg is held in auf deutsch, even the talks. We all have to prepare a talk and then after we have Sacrament, the Branch President tells us who'll speak and they just go up and share. I haven't done it yet, but once the others leave, there'll only be two districts, and my Dritt will be the only sisters, and so our chances will increase for sure!

I hope I've said everything needed to be said. I sure love you guys and I hope everything's going grand at home. It's a new week, and I'm sure it'll be an adventure, or as much as an adventure it can be @ the MTC!

LOVE YOU!
Whit