The secret gym

Sent 12/16/11

Ok, so funny story. A couple nights ago, one of the districts were telling us about this new gym at the MTC underneath the mail room that had all sorts of sweet new machines, with TV's and they would be doing P90X and such too. I thought they were soo funny to be coming up with this story, thinking I would believe after being here for a couple weeks already and so I just played along, thinking they were being funny. I even asked them if the "subway cart" was down there too(elders make up a myth about a traveling subway cart around the MTC for the new elders). Anyways, the next day for gym, the other hermanas in our room asked if we wanted to go to the new gym too. I thought it was funny again and told them I thought they were kidding. They kept on trying to convince me it was real and I still didn't believe them. They kept on going on about it, how there's these cool rowing machines where you can race against eachother and other ridiculous stuff. They kept on insisting it was real and so I figured I might as well let them play out their joke to the max and follow them there or just see for myself if it was real. We were walking and everyone was still going to the regular gym and so I still thought it was a lie. I even made a deal with them that if it was real, I would have to jump up and down 5 times and yell, yippee!! over and over! So when we got right in front of the building with the mail room, we saw other elders in gym clothes walking behind the building, and I started to realize this gym might be real. Still sounds ridiculously fake, right? So we walk around the building, go up to this random door, swipe our card, go down these stairs and then all of a sudden there's a sign on a door that says "missionary gym here". I started freaking out and laughing histerically when I realized this thing was REAL!! we walked down there and walked into a room full of ellipticals, bicycles, rowing machines, mats, free weights, benches and TV's on the wall showing the Joseph Smith story. This place was REAL!! I couldn't believe my eyes!!! It was only the 2nd day it was open and so not many people knew about it yet. I just thought it would have been advertised to us better. But anyways, it's sweet. It's like not even reality, haha.

Oh and about gym, I found a girl to play basketball with!! I got to play in 3 on 3 games for 2 days in a row. She's going to puerto rico and actually leaves this Monday, but it was fun to play with her while she was here! She was pretty good, played more of a post position. It was just way fun to play again. And.... still maintained my status :). 

As for the rest of the MTC, it's been Awesome! I've really been able to feel the spirit here. I really do believe it's so much easier to feel the spirit here. This last week, we had Elaine S. Dalton come and speak to us for our devotional. The spirit in that room was so strong. It really is pretty cool to hear all of the missionaries singing. That fireside, overall, was such a neat experience. It made me just so grateful that I'm here. It was such a good reminder that I am supposed to be on a mission RIGHT NOW! The spirit testified so strong to me that there are certain people waiting to have me come teach them and that the Lord is preparing them right now. She talked a lot about following the promptings of the Holy Ghost no matter what it tells you to do and to not hesitate doing it. It really confirmed to me also the reason I think why I got the answer to go on a mission right now instead of after another semester or year or school or something. Our mission calls are not random, they are inspired. Oh and I got to get a hug from here after it was over :)

As with the Spanish language, it is coming quite along. Sometimes, at the end of the days, I feel like I didn't get much successfull spanish studying in, but yet I feel like I'm improving every day in our spanish. It's soo cool! I know the Lord is helping me SOO much. This last week, we taught our lessons without any notes. We just took our scriptures in and let the spirit guide us as to what to say. It's always so cool when in the middle of the lesson, I'll say words I've never said before and somehow they turn out to be the correct or close to correct translation. I know I could not do all of this on my own.

I'm also starting to realize how much I am going to learn about myself while on this mission. I have to learn to forget myself completely and serve others. I need to serve and love my companion and study for my investigators instead of for my own benefit; and I know that by completely forgetting myself, I will actually come to find myself. It's a tricky, but humbling and rewarding process.

I hope all of you are loving this Christmas season! One thing I've been trying to focus on is asking for spiritual gifts that Heavenly Father could give me. Or just think of gifts you could give your Heavenly Father. And no... you don't have to kill anything to give it to him :), haha. Well, I'm super grateful I get to spend Christmas in the MTC this year. I think it will help a lot with helping me to remember the real meaning of Christmas. Well I hope all is going well with the family!! and I'm going to get some pictures printed today, so I can hopefully get them to you guys by Christmas! LOVE YOU!!!!!