MTC Week 1 - Journal

June 1st

Today Sea-Tac was not busy at all which was such a relief! It was literally faster than the time when Claire and I went through the John Wayne Airport to come home. I found a bunch of other missionaries boarding on the plane and that was awesome to meet a bunch of them. An Elder from Olympia is serving in my same mission which is so awesome! When we got to the MTC, we were rushed around a ton, and I had like no time to eat my lunch. But I was still early... After putting our luggage away we were rushed straight to whatever classes we had. For me that's Language study. I was brought straight to the Dutch classroom, and I was the first one there. Brother Klippel, our Dutch teacher, starts talking to me in Dutch immediately and I'm like "AGHH" I was there a whole hour before another Dutch missionary showed up but it was fine because the Dutch Teacher was pretty cool and I could ask lots of questions. There are two elders in my district, Elder Rueger and Elder Dvorak, and three other sisters, Zuster Leman (who's from Idaho and is my Companion) Zuster Smith (who's from Utah) and Zuster Smith, whose from around Atlanta, Georgia). The first day was REALLY hard though. It was really fun learning the language right away but we were so busy for the whole first day that I was exhausted and emotional. We met the rest of our Zone, which includes the other Dutch District, and the Albanians, Turks, and Hungarians. There is an Elder and a Sister from England and a Brother from New Zealand, so they both have super awesome accents. They are all here for nine weeks while we're only here for six. I was so excited to sleep though... 

June 2nd 

Today I was still really tired but the day was better than yesterday. It really did feel so long though. This morning honestly feels like days ago. Last night I didn't sleep very great. I tried to be talkative in all my classes when I would have usually been silent. We got to write to our parents briefly too which was so great. We also had Classroom Instruction for like three hours. I love this language so much and it so cool how much I have already learned!! We are teaching our first 'investigator' tomorrow. I feel like everyone is catching on a lot faster than me, which is really intimidating. Three of them have taken German in high school which helps but also doesn't. They're experienced in the sentence structure but a lot of the words are really close to German words but pronounced totally differently so that's hard for them to relearn. This day has been so long though, and I was so excited to sleep. Waking up at 6:00-6:30 has been difficult. 

June 3rd 

Today was good and bad. Waking up was hard and I was way more tired than usual. The food here also isn't the greatest... I am not a big fan of it... Classroom instruction is really fun but I feel like I'm falling behind. Exercise time was not fun, it was really hot and my whole zone wanted to play volleyball (the sport that I am so bad at... haha) so I watched them play it outside. Hopefully my companion will be okay with going to the gym next time. It's been really hot here, like 90's. And I do not like the heat haha! It feels really nice in the evening though. I learned that Zuster De Moors is an acting major! Pretty cool. In the evening we did our first lesson for Joyce. It went pretty good for someone who has only been learning for three days. Also, I got a Dear Elder letter that evening which really made me feel good. It was from Sister Barnard and I loved it. 

June 4th 

Today is so tiring! Ik ben heel moe! (I am very tired!) Last night I felt like I had only been asleep for a few seconds. Zuster Leman and Zuster Smith both accidentally erased their swipe cards because of the magnets on our nametags, so they can't get into the buildings!! Which is kind of funny. We'll fix it on Monday, which is our P-Day. Dat is heel grapig! (That is very funny!) There is still a lot to know in our language, but I did a lot better today. We had an extra-long day and I ran around the indoor track for our exercise time, which also wore me out more. I can't wait until P-Day... I was so tired that I could barely learn anything, haha. 

June 5th (Sunday) 

What the British girl in my zone said is true! Just wait until Sunday and everything will get better. It's so true. I had a hard day but by the evening it was truly amazing. I am on a spiritual high. It was fast Sunday so I was EXHAUSTED and it was 90 degrees. And at the MTC they do a 24 hour fast. I was also feeling kind of sick and I was extra homesick today as well. Then we went on a temple walk after our church activities. (We all sing in our learning languages, which is really awesome to listen to. There's a mix of Dutch, Hungarian, Albanian, and Turkish!) The walk was pretty but it was 90 degrees.... I was questioning my testimony and why I was here and if I could really even do this it all for a whole year and a half. Because this is SO hard. But I got my answer this evening. After dinner, we had a devotional. I wasn't really looking forward to that. Then I found out when we walked in that it was Sherri L Dew! YES. She got stuck in really bad traffic and we all prayed for her to get here and she did! Then she jokingly told us for us to pray for a husband for her, which was so funny. Sherri L Dew talked about how we can ask questions to God, and to be a spiritual seeker. It was really cool. Then after that we got watch a 'movie' which is not a movie... It's an old recorded talk. We chose Character of Christ by Elder Bednar and it was SO GOOD. I LOVED IT. Seriously changed my life. (Also Bednar is coming next Tuesday!!) He talked about how Christ always turns outward when the natural man would turn inward. We need to stop worshiping ourselves and help others instead. If you focus on finding yourself, you won't find it. If you lose yourself in the Lord's work, you'll find it... but you won't have been looking for it. Afterwards I realized that the mission field is hard, but it's not about me and this is all preparation to help others in the Netherlands. I can't do it alone but God will help me when I rely on him. It was honestly amazing and exactly what I needed to hear right then. It was really awesome that it was targeted to missionaries too. 

June 6th 

Today is P-Day! YAY! We went to the temple this morning and it was nice and peaceful. It was a good experience, and we took pictures. And now I am writing this! This is what I looked forward to the most.