Week...I don't remember‏                    Saturday, March 29, 2014

 Hola Everybody!!

You know...I never know what to say in these things....Oh I know!! I can just give you the silent treatment like you all gave me this week!! I almost cried because I didn't get any dear elders!!...Okay, you know I didn't cry, but uh...I'd be okay with it if you decided to send me más cartas y más packages. 

Lets see..this week...I learned a lot. As usual. My companions and I are getting along really well. 

Everyone in the district has a love-hate relationship with me because I'm...really obedient. Not that they're DISobedient, but they find excuses to bend the rules, sometimes. But when we're in class and focused it's pretty cool to see how much they can have spirit. 

But we then went to Tuesday Devo. We have devotional every Tuesday and Sunday. Usually Tuesday is someone of the Seventy and Sunday is someone from the MTC or something.
Anyway, Elder Stanley G. Ellis of the Seventy Spoke and gave so many good points. 

At first he talked about how Nephi was such a good example and a good brother, and YET things still went so wrong for him!!! Like, He had disobedient brothers, his gold was stolen, he was chased away by Laban, His brothers tried to beat him, AND he had to kill someone, and other stuff. So, WHY? Because God wanted a better Nephi. And Nephi needed to know what Nephi could do. 
And my other favorite point was "Be hard on yourself but lenient with everybody else." And while there's a happy medium where you can advise and be an example, you just have to let other people make their own choices. And one more really good point:

"When you do 1st things 1st, 2nd things get thrown in.
When you do 2nd things 1st, you lose both the 1st AND 2nd things."

Anyway, I have to go do laundry, but I should be able to come back and say more. Maybe by then you will have seen the email and reply, or something.

-Hermana Daniels

(Letter Continued)…..

Have fun at Jason's. Tell everyone "Hola" for me and happy birthday to Grandma, Olivia and Niki...I might have forgotten their birthdays...

Oh and thank-you, Lane!! Everyone in my district loved the magnets!! 

 

You remember how much we love our teachers? Well this week, Brother McPherson - the boss of the teachers - said that we were the most distinguished district he's ever worked with! Uh...hahahaha thanks...I think. And the other night Hermana Hudson was teaching us Spanish and she turned to me and accidentally said, "Hermana McDaniels will you..." because I guess she used to have a companion with that name? Anyway, apparently that's my new name! lovely. Anyway, in regards to the teachers, I have another favor to ask... :) We are going to give them gifts right before we leave. I would love you forever if you could print out 12(yes twelve) wallet size, color, pictures of Mexico. Just on regular paper...and send them to me...pretty please? Let me know in a dearelder or something if you can do that... 

You want to know something else kinda weird/funny? I told you about the newest district with another 5 girls, right? Well, the other district is the only one with elders and they're leaving on Monday, so we won't have any elders for at least a week, and it could be longer. But it will be over conference weekend, so it might just work out! Too many girls...too much...just...no. 

I can't think of anything else to say...thanks for everything!! Have a fantastic semana!! 

-Hermana Daniels

This week we learned about how we can actually do stuff for our investigators...like...personal stuff. And so we made a picture about faith for Loliña. We’re all so proud of it!!

Also, there´s us with the big map. Finally. 

One of the sisters in my district got some sparkling cider in a package, so we had a "party" for to celebrate our third week out on Wednesday. 

Be Jealous. 

 

Hola Familia y Amigos or whoever reads this

Your timing couldn't have been better. Just before we went to email, the sister-training leader (girl version of district leader because there's only girls in ours), told me I got a package!

So. THANK-YOU!! I'm a...not gonna eat the goji berries. Especially since they're the ones from China!? What? Yeah...I'll enjoy them... :)

And you're going to really not like me for this, but I needed 8 1/2 size. I said 8 because every OTHER shoe I've ever bought was size 8. So, I may send them back...I may deal with it.
Thanks for the music and food and all of the chap-stick :D And the letters :) And the pictures

So, this week, though. Gosh, I can't believe I've already been here for almost 3 weeks. I feel like I've been here 3 days, except forever at the same time. 

Oh, random. Last week I forgot to mention that I went to get my visa!! Really, soon right? But another girl in my district and I went to SLC on the trax to the Mexico something something place. It was weird. Being out of the MTC. In the real world. That was last week's adventure. And on the way back we sat across from a pilot who flies Delta planes and served his mission in Germany and told us a lot of stories. 

The funny story for this week: I'm coming home early because I got proposed to by a teacher who just got married. Just Kidding. Joke. Una Broma. 

We have a lot teachers. Hermano Monroe is one of them and we were all talking about role playing and discussing how Spanish doesn't need to get in the way when teaching and inviting. And so to give an example he gets down on one knee front of me with a Book of Mormon in his hand and I knew he was only going to ask me to read it as if I was an investigator, but man, the way he was...it was just hilarious!! So, he's kneeling in front of me for about 15 seconds and he's like ,"I know what your thinking"...and we all just start cracking up. It was kind of a "you had to be there" moment. But really. I kind of needed it.
 

Anyway...I can't think of any other stories. Just the same as always. Up and down emotionally every day. We go another district of JUST 5 girls. Ha! good times. I can't remember what I've written about and what I haven't. Have I told how much I don't like the food? It's fine. But eating on main campus ever once in a while is like a treat because there are SO many choices and the cookies are soft and you think I'm joking, but the west campus cafeteria is tiny in comparison. It's kind of like getting left overs every day. And the rice isn't that great, but that's irrelevant. 

Thank-you for all the dear elders! I forgot to thank Heidi (thank-you Heidi!) for the one in the first week. I did NOT think I would get one! And I left them all at the apartment so any question you have...may not get answered. Lo Siento. Also, my camera's at the apartment. Lo siento. You may get pictures later. If you’re lucky!

I guess that's all for this week. I hope everyone is doing well! That's great about Alan's job! (I'm guessing that means Robin's not going to redecorate the house?) Kinda stinks it's so far away. Eh...ARE they going to accept it? I hope SUI keeps progressing. That way you can keep sending me packages without going broke! HAHA
Matthew, what'd you do to your leg?

Greg: You should stop being so lazy and just do school. I'm gonna guess that it was Heidi's idea that you write a dear elder? But it was good to hear from you :D 

Have a great week, people!! 

Love you all!! Try not to miss me too much

Love,
Hermana Daniels

So much to say. Not enough words. Or time.‏                March 15, 2014

Dear Family,

I did get all of the dearelder letters and it's fantastic :) Keep 'em coming. Buuuut you do know that I can't reply to you until Saturday, right? 

So. My schedule? 

We get up at 6:00ish, breakfast is at 7:00 and we have to be in class AT 7:30am! whoohoo. then we have personal, companionship, and language study for 3 1/2 hours. Then we have exercise for an hour. Then Lunch. Then back to the classroom for 3 more hours!! Then language study...I think. Then dinner then BACK to class for 3 more hours!!! and THEN back the apartment for sleep. 

But the teachers here are pretty amazing - even if I was not happy with them the first 3 days because they would not stop speaking Spanish. Ever. But it's getting better. My district got lucky, and got the teacher that's over all the other teachers in the building, which means he's really good! The only thing is that people have to come observe because he's their instructor and so we always have people WATCHING us! But his name is Hermano McPherson and he reminds me a lot of Jared. There's another teacher named Hermano Snyder. He's so good, but so scary. He has these eyes that will stare into your soul. But I have to look back into them because It's like CAN'T back down. And he reminds a lot of Jon Weiss. And then there's Hermana Larsen and Hermana Thomas. They're both really nice and helpful. 

And then we have this investigator. Sometimes they have legitimate investigators, but right now we just have teachers as investigators. So, we had this "investigator" named Santiago who's name is ACTUALLY Hermano Tidwell. And last night Hermano Tidwell basically told us how "Santiago" felt. No pressure. And since today was p-day and it was the end of the day everybody was going nuts and I was frustrated because nobody wanted to listen. Such is life, I suppose. 

Yes, we go to the temple every Saturday. Today we did a session, and wow I had no idea it was so big! Actually Brigham City is just small. We take the bus up there. 

The food? It's not bad. Just cafeteria food. And everybody has gas for the first week because our stomachs are not used to it. pretty AWESOEM!! AHAHA But we went to main campus yesterday for my companion because she needed to see a doctor and we ate there and the main MTC gets SOOO Much more options!! Our cafeteria is smaller. It sort of looks like a giant trailer from the outside. And if you see white bubbles on google maps - those are the gyms!! 

Wow...sold the car, eh? Lovely. I can't think of anything else to say. Life's pretty great!!
Tell Annese to email/mail/dearelder me :)

Love,
Hermana Daniels

P.S. Mom, you're gonna hate me for this. I would REALLY love it if you could send me some stuff....like...
My small scripture bag that's brown on the inside and has flowers on the outside.
Those black slip-on shoes that look like "TOMS" but are from wal-mart. And you could buy me some more from Walmart. The blue kind. size 8.... :) :) :)

But I know you packed away so...I could live without them...
And I would love delicious food :) Like...Pistachios and beef jerky and not goji berries... :)
And Pringles and caramel popcorn.