Week 1, Kind Of.....

I am SO grateful to everyone who wrote to me! Your words of encouragement, experiences, and things to make me laugh have seriously made me so happy. I only have an hour total to read and reply, so I will try to respond to some of you, and answer some of your questions on this post! (Also, I forgot to return 2 DVDs to Family Video before I left... They are probably in the basement... And they probably have late fees...)

So, p-days alternate here, Tuesdays and Fridays. So I will be able to write again on Tuesday, and then not again until Friday of

the next week. It´s because the Latin Americans only stay for 2 weeks, and their transfers are every other Tuesday.

I LOVE the Lani Americans! They are seriously all so sweet. Last night I gave a spiritual thought and they all told me how well I did and how good my Spanish was. They were lying, obviously. But it was so nice!

The weather here is pretty nice. Especially compared to Ohio, from what I´ve heard! It´s usually around 65 or 70, pretty cloudy, and rains for a little bit everyday. The food is always delicious. We eat a lot of rice. And I'm trying to be more missionary appropriate in my language, so I will not tell you all how weird my poops have been.

I LOVE my district. There are 6 sisters total, and 3 elders. It´s a little unusual to have that many sisters, but it is so much fun. I love all of the North American missionaries here. We have so much fun. And our teachers are really great. My Spanish is coming along, slowly but surely, and they help a great deal.

My companion is Hermana Santeco. She is from Hawaii, and she is a super sweetheart. She is a little more reserved than I am, but she is coming out of her shell now. I think she feels more comfortable around me now. I tell her like everyday that I'm going to marry her brother, so we can be together for eternity. She does not like that. I´m not sure if she just doesn´t want me to marry her brother, or if she doesn´t want to be with me for eternity...

So, being away from home is a LOT harder than I thought it would be. I was able to keep myself together pretty well until the first Saturday. I just randomly thought about home and started bawling. Saturday morning and Saturday night... and Sunday morning. I was a serious mess. But the sisters were all SO sweet to me.  One sister suggested a priesthood blessing, which was exactly what I needed. Our district leader, Elder G. gave me a priesthood blessing on Sunday after sacrament, and it brought me so much peace. And then, on Monday night, President Dyer called me into his office. It was probably a combination of the blessing, and president Dyer being super in-tune with The Spirit, but he could sense that I had been having a hard time. He let me call my mom, just to talk. I felt kind of silly and weak for needing that, but Heavenly Father knew it was EXACTLY what I needed.

I am so grateful to be here. I KNOW this church is true, and that God knows each and every one of us, and knows just what we need and when we need it.

I am excited to get out of the MTC and into Bolivia! I want to teach and love the people! But I should probably get a little bit better grasp on Spanish first...

I can´t wait to hear from everyone on Tuesday! I really do appreciate the e-mails from everyone. I love you all!