5 March 2009

Mom and Dad, will you post this on the blog?
Dear everyone:

Life is good, I'm feeling much more well-adjusted than the last time I wrote. I think I was a little freaked out because everyone said MTC life starts to feel normal after the first three days, and for me it didn't happen for at least a week. But now I feel really normal (well, relatively normal).

I don't think I've told you much about my companion or the people from my district, so I think I'll do that because they are really fun people. My companion is Sister Mortimer, from Holladay. She is really fun. Extremely blunt. In a good way. :) In my district there is one other companionship of sisters- Sister Jones from Sydney, Australia and Sister Laulu, who is from Hawaii. Sister Jones is going to Calgary, Canada and Sister Laulu is going to Little Rock, Arkansas. We have two other elders going to Little Rock and two other sets of elders going to Calgary. Sister Mortimer and I are the only ones going to Connecticut. As far as I know we're the only sisters at the MTC going to Connecticut right now. We've met a bunch of elders from other districts going to our mission, but no other sisters.

The first week and a half that we were here, we shared a room with four Spanish-speaking sisters who were loud and crazy. :) Now they have all left except Hermana Fifita, who is delayed because of health problems. She's one of my favorite people ever. She's Tongan and grew up in Long Beach. We call her Sister Fajita. In our room there is also Hermana Lee and two new sisters who are going to Pennsylvania. So our room is now a little less loud and crazy. I don't know how people can stay here for twelve weeks! My hat is off to them.

So, friends and roomies...I keep running into people here that I knew at USU and
Viewmont. The other day I ran into Kamille Lau from USU. Lucine Emrazian is in a
threesome with one of the sisters I share a room with. I saw Amanda Beutler twice this week- I didn't even know she was going on a mission! She's going to Germany. I've seen Steph Shoell a bunch of times here. Whitney Bills is one of my MTC teachers. I've also seen Niccol Hahn a couple of times...I swear there's more people, I'll remember them as soon as I'm done writing this.

We had a Large Group Meeting presentation on goals and key indicators and I LOVED it and it made so much sense. Maybe it was just the stats nerd in me. Somehow it just rang true. Numbers are only important insofar as they represent souls...but key indicators help you know how to improve so you can bring MORE souls!

I have found some interesting referrals in the Referral Center. But I'm a dork and
somehow I never manage to set up a time to call them back. I always just end up referring them to the missionaries in their area, when I could call them back and teach them over the phone. I worry about this because I don't think the RC referrals get taken very seriously out there. Most of the calls I have done are in the South or in New York. Lots of old ladies calling in wanting a free Bible. The other day I was talking to a Baptist lady in Louisiana and she seemed to be really enjoying talking to me until I mentioned the Book of Mormon. Then she said something like, "Well, it's been nice talking to you but I have some...uh...business I have to take care of..." I was really sad for a little while, now I'm learning to laugh at it. :) People tell me working in the Referral Center is a lot like tracting, so hopefully I can get used to the rejection part of it.

Anyway, my time is up. Love you all. I fly out Monday morning at 8 AM. I'll make sure and write on my first P-day out in the field, whenever that is. Pray for me that I don't get buried in the snow out there. :)

-Sister Monson