First letter!

Hola!

The MTC is so great, I absolutely LOVE it! Right now I have my first P-day...well kinda of a mini-P-day because it's only about two hours long. I am very excited to have a chance to email you though because I can type a lot faster than I can hand write letters. Here I am on only my fourth day, but I have been learning so much. Yesterday was kind of a hard day because my companion, Hermana McWhorter got switched to another district. Since her Spanish is already very good, she skipped a whole level and moved up to advanced. She now is scheduled to leave in two weeks! Her visa will most likely not be done so she will probably get assigned state side. It is very crazy how quickly we bonded in just the two days that we were together. I am expecially grateful that I got along with my first companion so well because not all of my companionships will be like that.

I am now in a trio with the other hermanas in my district. Their names are Hermana Baker (the one I met before the MTC) who is also going to Bahia Blanca, &  Hermana Griffin who is going to Denver Colorado Spanish speaking. Hermana Baker has a very contagious laugh and is quite enjoyable to be around. Hermana Griffin is from Canada so she always says funny things like "beg" instead of bag, or "washroom" instead of "bathroom." We get a pretty big kick out of it.  Our companionship has been great so far. I was worried at first to be in a trio, but it has been good!

Yesterday we taught our first investigator, Jorge, and it had to all be in Spanish! AH! But it actually went really well. I am really proud of us! It was definitely our first time and we have a long ways to go, but we felt the spirit! We said a prayer before and I really think that made all the difference. There were many times when we would ask a question and then we would only understand some of what he said so we wouldn't really know how to respond! Or we'd be speaking en Espanol and we would "hit a wall" because we wouldn't know how to say a certain word. We kinda had to play charades with him to get our point across, but I think he knew what we were trying to say. At one point I was supposed to teach him how to pray and then say a prayer as an example...only I forgot to teach him how to pray other than the fact that I told him to close his eyes! haha My companions & I laughed about that for quite awhile afterward. It's crazy to think that in a few weeks I will be able to truly carry a conversation. I now know how to pray in Spanish and testify in Spanish, and it has only been four days! I can already feel the gift of tongues working in my life. I have made so much progress, it is unreal!

We have a great teacher and a great district. I will be the junior companion for the first half of my stay at the MTC, and then probably senior companion for the next half. There are now three hermanas in our district, and six elders. I think the elders are a little intimidated by us since we are older so we are trying to get to know them better. Life as a missionary is awesome, but it is non-stop. It's funny how much joy we get from the simple things like laying on the ground for a minute at the end of the day, or on P-days when we have longer than five minutes to take a shower.  :)  From all of the studying and workshops I've realized that I am here to learn how to speak Spanish  for my future investigators, not for myself. :)

I'm sorry this is short, but my time is up. Thank you for your letters! Te amo!

-Hermana Vawdrey