MTC Week 2 - Journal

Tuesday June 7th

Today was... interresant... (interesting). Our Zone calls it... Magic Tuesday. It might be slightly TMI so don't read the next sentence if you don't want to know. All of the people going to Belgium/Netherlands have to get a stool sample, hahaha. So all of the Suriname missionaries learning Dutch with us laughed at us. Our district went to the health clinic giggling because we knew what we had to do. Elder Ruegger just laughed at us as the nurse gave us the instructions. Then I found out that we had to get blood drawn. I started to panic because I'm not afraid of needles or vaccines but I am absolutely terrified by VEINS. I was like nearly in tears and so embarrassed and Elder Ruegger was like "do you need water?" and I was like "no but I need to go first!!" I sort of demanded going first when she came back because I was already woozy from the thought of it. I've never gotten my blood drawn. My Collega came with me and I was basically crying and the nurse was super nice and it pretty much wasn't that bad and I overreacted, but I still got really woozy and had to lie down for a little bit which really helped me calm down. Haha... Also, the stool sample wasn't super horrible. I have the instructions still in my journal, because that's heel belangrijk (very important) :) 

We had our third lesson with Joyce today and it went okay. I kind of just read from a script because my vocab is still so limited. She's so adorable though. 

Also, today Elder Bednar came!!!! IT WAS AMAZING. We sang in the choir for this song that he wrote, and his grandchildren were there and it was just a really special experience. He spoke about how the Lord came one by one to the people of Americas, and that is how he views each of us. One by one. And as missionaries we will go out two by two to help the one by one. It was really awesome. After the devotional I felt really good. Also, my dad and mom wrote to me through dear Elder! I loved hearing from them.

Wednesday June 8th

Today was pretty good. About 100 new missionaries came in today. (When I came in it was closer to 400... this upcoming Wednesday I believe is supposed to 100ish again but the week after that is supposed to be 700!!!! LIKE WHAT? (or it's this Wednesday...) Apparently when the age change occurred, like 1000 were coming in at a week. It was severely overcrowded).  Every time my collega and I saw the new missionaries, we said in our heads (not to them because that would be mean) "hmm... this day is going to suck for you..." The first day is the worst. We get to host the new missionaries this next Wednesday though!! It's going to be so fun! I will tell them that if their first few days is really hard, to just wait until the next week. It gets so much better after P-Day. I also can't believe that I've been here for a full week. The days feel very long but also very quick? Like efficient. It goes by faster when you are more efficient and really value your study time. We studied a lot but we all get distracted pretty easily too... Unfortunately we're literally stuck in the same classroom for like 12 hours... Lunch was good today. It's like a hit and miss. It was "indian food" and the naan was terrible and crunchy but I was still happy with it because lately it's been gross. I study a lot during exercise time while I'm on the elliptical or the bike or running around the track. 

At dinner, I got super sick though and almost threw up while we were planning our lesson. Not sure where that came from but it was really horrible and unpleasant. So while I was feeling sick we still had to teach Joyce. That lesson wasn't that good for me and I didn't really say much. I hope that I do better tomorrow. We are all getting along really well though as a district I think. No one is grumpy anymore and I ADORE my zusters!! They are all so funny. Like you need to hear the things Zuster De Moors says. And also Zuster Leman. 

Thursday June 9th

I can't believe that I've been here for 9 days! I'm starting to really adjust. I have felt really happy all day. Today I got some more study flash cards and they are way more helpful than my notebook. I have these handy dandy note things that I attach to my key card. I will show a picture of them. Also, I sort of feel like I'm never leaving here, like that's totally fake and there's no such place as the Netherlands or Belgium and I'm not going to go there... this Dutch learning is just for fun. Today Brother Klippel taught more about sentence structure and that was super helpful. Finally! Also, we taught Joyce today about Adam and Eve and I did AWESOME (for someone with limited vocab...) Like I had to answer some question that I hadn't preplanned for and I think I did fine for someone who can barely understand the question. She was like "why was eating the forbidden fruit a good thing then?" (in dutch of course) and I was like "uh.... adam and Eve haved two choices (all of this said in horrible grammer of course) they choose one... " Something like that. It was tough because I knew what I wanted to say but not how to say it in Dutch. It was also partly Nederangles, which is what we call speaking a mix of nederlands and English. Nederangles. 

Also, today we studied outside because it was just so beautiful and the Huns in our zone found this baby bird that couldn't fly! And they carried it around and we found teeny tiny worms and fed it to him. It was so cute! I also got two letters today, one from Cameron and the other from mom! I was so happy! Also, the food here didn't make me sick today! 

Friday June 10th

Today was so good! I felt really positive. I'm getting along really well with Zuster Leman. We have a lot of differing opinions but for some reason we really get along. We joke around a lot and have a ton of the same humor. Zij denkt dat (I'm) grapig! (She thinks I'm funny!) I think that she is too! The language is coming... I'm trying my best and it's far easier than Japanese. It's the easiest language in our zone. The Huns and Turks and Albanians have SUCH difficult languages... And whenever we see the Finnish missionaries I just think "oh man... best luck and prayers to you..." We got accidentally distracted multiple times today, unfortunately. About Prizzly Bears. And Sea Cows. 

Also, apparently yesterday was our last time teaching Joyce! We only have one teacher, Brother Klippel, while most districts have two, so usually in the evening we don't have a teacher when we're supposed to technically have one. This evening the teacher from the other district was supposed to come but someone else came too... JOYCE. She's our teacher now! We were like "WHAT THE HECK". Her name is Sister Hansen and she got off of her mission three months ago. Also... our teacher, brother Klippel, is now going to be our onderzoeker (investigator). And that's scary for me because that's embarrassing to fail at Dutch while teaching your dutch teacher. Ik ben bang. But I think our lesson is sounding pretty good so far. Also, Zuster Leman and Zuster De Moors are the most hilarious people I have ever met. They are so funny. Also, I got a letter from Aunt Donetta today and that was really awesome. I also got one from mom too. I love getting Dear Elders. We all do. 

Saturday June 11th

IT RAINED TODAY. Today wasn't super amazing but I vastly appreciated the rain. Also the T-Shirt we ordered came in. I LOVE IT. It has our map and flags on it. Today was longer than usual though. Not much really different happened today. The Huns leave for Hungary on monday! So crazy!! We did service this morning too, involving setting up chairs and cleaning chalkboards. Also, Zuster Leman tried to draw a cartoon of Elder Dvorak. He crumpled it up and threw it away, LOL. Her art was not appreciated. 

Sunday June 12th

Vaandagg was my second Zondagg here!! YAY. Only four more Sundays here in the MTC. We got up early and had cereal for breakfast. It was the only option. Zuster De Moors was very disappointed because she brought her blender and there wasn't much fruit.... Yes Zuster De Moors brought a blender. And a juicer. And 100 pens. and a ukelele. And this african instrument. She also doesn't have everything she actually needs though. It's pretty funny. The Huns leave tomorrow! So in sacrament meeting they sang Come Thou Fount in Hungarian and Dorny Nover played the violin. It was beautiful. Singing in sacrament meeting is pretty fun because we all sing in our new languages so it sounds pretty strange but awesome. 

Monday June 13th

I have loved getting the Dear Elder letters! They are the best! They really lift my spirits at the end of the day and I love it. Today is PDAY!!! HAPPINESS!! Also, the Huns left at 4 in the morning and their flight was 17 hours long!!! Including layovers I assume. Our zone is a lot smaller now though, since eight of them have left. The new Hungarians come this Wednesday though. We are getting FIFTEEN new Huns! Our zone is already pretty big. I'm so excited!