The Chamber of Secrets has been opened...

Hello.
Notes from this week: Nothing. Haha. Just kidding. It was just another week of the same. You know how the MTC is: Class for 9 hours, volleyball, teaching investigators, attempting to learn Spanish... The usual. But now, it's a little different. Because.... It's OUR LAST WEEK HERE! Holy crap. We only have 5 more days here in the good ole CCM. (I literally have NO IDEA how that translates. I just say it because it's Spanish.)

Our daily grind

We no longer have our TRC investigator, but we did get two NEW investigators: Our classmates. Hma. Nakken and I are teaching Hma. Flores and Elder Brady. We all get to be investigators. It's kind of weird. I don't exactly know how to do it... Not to mention my Spanish isn't really the best so... But it's fun to teach our classmates. Our goal is to (Nacho voice) baPTIZE by Saturday so we're working like crazy.

We also taught over Skype this week and that was weird. Not to mention it was when I was still kind of sick so my voice was gone. Haha. But the lady we taught was really nice. They're member lessons so they're like, home teaching lessons. And we get to teach natives. The TRC people try to get people from the country you'll be serving in but that didn't work out this week. So we taught a lady from Mexico. It was really cool.

Sunday's Temple Walk: The Sisters

I don't know if Mum posted anything about my travel situation but alas. I got my travel plans this last Friday and I'm headed to Argentina next week!! Crazy. It's going to be so much fun. But also, I'm pretty nervous. One of our teachers told us this story the other day about how when he first got to his mission, he couldn't communicate with his companion. WHAT?? Yeah. He freaked me out a bit. But I'll be okay. I'm not in this alone. I never have been. Anyway. Travel. We leave the MTC, fly out of SLC to Atlanta. We have a layover in Atlanta and then the real fun begins... 12 HOUR FLIGHT TO ARGENTINA BABY!! You can bet your sweet boots I'm spending that time becoming fluent in Spanish. Haha. Or finishing the Book of Mormon. Which is the COOLEST by the way. Everyone likes to cut arms off in that book. It's crazy.

We had a great lesson this week with Hmo. Lloyd. He was teaching us about being creative with our lessons so our investigators don't get bored, (like Juan...) so he demonstrated. We did that one lesson where you have to guide someone through a maze of chairs and desks and stuff but only one person is the voice of the spirit. So, it was Elder Brassanini's birthday the day we did this. (I don't remember. I'm sorry.) So he got to be the lucky one who was blindfolded. The rest of us got to be Satan. Only Elder Balmas was the true voice of the spirit. Everyone trusts Hmo. Lloyd because he's so amazing but he only led Elder Brasspanini to sniff a garbage can. That was pretty funny. He eventually figured out that Elder Balmas was the spirit and he found the chocolate at the end of the line. But it was probably a pretty funny sight to behold. And we all had to whisper so we probably just looked like a bunch of crazies speaking parseltongue to a blindfolded Brassanono.

Two Jen/Janessas

Okay. There's not much else to say for this week. It's my last time writing from the MTC so next time, I'll be writing from ARGENTINA!! Crazy! The pics from this week are from our Temple walk on Sunday. There's another Jenessa in the zone!! Only, she spells her name Janessa so it's not as good. Also, Elder Fuga and Elder Balmas switched jackets and that was pretty funny. Fuga's a 300 lb. Tongan football player and Balmas is tiny.

Elder Fuga & Elder Balmas

Alright. Until next time, good bye friends. The next time you hear from me, I'll be on another continent!

Regards,
Hermana Hein

Potato, Puhtaytuh

Buenas.

Elder Bennett, from my district, is from Virginia (Vurgeeenyaa) and he pronounces potato like puhtaytuh. I can't handle it. THERE'S AN 'O' on the end. HELLLOOO!! So we argued about it for a sec. Anyway. This week has, hey! Been the same. So much class. So much Spanish. So many. Some days I can't handle it. The other day, we were trying to learn indirect and direct object pronouns and I almost stabbed myself in the face with my pencil. Though I'm pretty sure our teacher wants to do that anyway so I'll have to get in line. Ha ha. Just kidding. It's crazy to think about language so differently. I grew up speaking English. So I don't think about subjunctives or progressive tense or anything like that because I already do it all. Is any of this making sense? No. Okay. That's fine.

Me, Hermana Nakken & Hermana Barker

The oldest district left on Monday. It was an all Elder's district and they were crazy. It's kind of a bummer. There was one Elder in that district who got sick and had to stay behind. I'm so sad for him. Poor kid. So, He's flying by himself to Mexico on Monday. The pics from this week are from our temple walk on Sunday. We took loads of selfies with the Elders from the district that left. Also, me looking like hobo on P-day. My favorite look.

Elders Olsen & Davis, Hermanas Ballard, Hein & Nakken

Group Fun

This week has been a roller coaster of emotions. Some of our lessons have been really bad. And it's really frustrating to try to teach the gospel in a language that's not my own. We'll get questions and I know how I'd answer in English but I can't..... Because I have to speak in Spanish. So we'll come out of the lessons feeling so inadequate. It sucks. But then we go to class and since we have the coolest teacher in the whole MTC, we come right back up. Hmo. Lloyd is straight up the coolest person I've ever met.

My District + some others

This week, we had a lesson about visions. Not necessarily like Lehi or Joseph Smith visions, but like, what our personal visions were. How we envisioned ourselves after our missions. How our missions would change us. I don't know how to describe this but it was amazing. No matter how terrible I'm feeling about myself, Hmo. Lloyd always brings me right back up. So anyway, some of us share what our 'visions' are and he says, "Those are great. Now think bigger. All of you have the capacity to be what you want and more if you trust in the Lord." Whew. That guy... I can't. Then we got real personal. We all schooched our desks into a tight circle and shared how we had been helped by the others in the room. It was super cool. This is not even going to sound as cool as it was. I'm just on a spiritual high after every class with Hmo. Lloyd.

P-Day Wardrobe

So... It's MTC Hump Day! I've been here three weeks!! And I only have three weeks left!! I don't even know what has happened these past 3 weeks. But it freaks me out that I'll be heading OUT OF THE COUNTRY in 3 weeks! I don't know enough Spanish to do anything!! WHAT IS EVEN GOING TO HAPPEN??? It'll be fine. But it's crazy. There's not much that happened this week that was super entertaining. Oh. Elder Fredrickson, from the district right above us, got hit in the face with the volleyball during gym and Hma. Nakken was laughing so hard she fell over. We're terrible people. But it was.... pppppprrreettttyy funny.

Okay. I'm out. Enjoy your week everyone!
Hermana Hein