Family! 

Oh my goodness I am so excited to be emailing you right now you have no idea. I have to type quick so I hope I get everything in that I want to say and I am sorry if my punctuation is horrible  but oh well ha I have bigger things to worry about. Real quick before I say anything else... will you forward this email to Dad? I forgot to bring the little post it you sent me that has his email address on it. Tell him I will make sure I know it for next week! Gosh where do I even start? The MTC is packed with millions of experiences already. They keep you pretty busy here, but it's wonderful because it helps to keep me focused and to not think too hard about how crazy it is that I am actually serving a mission. I love love love it here. You won't feel the Spirit stronger anywhere else except for the temple. My day consists of getting up early which hasn't been too bad, it has actually felt pretty good to get 8 hours of sleep in compared to my usual 4 or 5 and we have about 30 minutes to get ready so I've learned to not take my sweet time doing my hair and make up. We rush to breakfast and then book it to meetings, 3 hour long classes, devotionals, firesides, etc. We have already began teaching "investigators". We have a few. One investigator's name is Armando and another investigator, that I love so much, is named Victoria. We get to visit with her tomorrow and I can't wait. She is this cute little 15 year old black girl from Tulsa, Oklahoma, who is so teachable. Our first meeting with her was yesterday and the spirit was SO strong oh my goodness. I have learned that the Spirit is vital to teaching too because if the Spirit isn't present, you just really have no idea how to present the message and your lessons tend to go in circles. I love teaching about Christ and our loving Heavenly Father. I think some of my favorite things to testify of are that we have a loving Heavenly Father and Savior and that families can be together forever. I also enjoy teaching about Joseph Smith, the Spirit is so thick when you talk about him and his experience with our God and restoring the gospel. I have a long way to go as far as feeling comfortable in my teaching skills and whether I am making sense or not but when you have the Spirit it doesn't matter. Friends come with ease hahaha I'm not kidding you make a million friends in the MTC. Everyone is so nice here and happy (most of the time). You just say hi to sisters or elders and end up talking for awhile and connecting and becoming instant friends. It's great! It has only been 5 days and I feel like I have known the people in my district forever. We have all become so close, especially all the sisters that I room with. My companion, Sister Johnson, is awesome. She is from Bountiful. Her and I get along pretty well and we have great unity while we teach so I can't complain. She is so laid back. I love it but it can also be hard because at times I feel like we could be getting more out of studying and planning our lessons and doing more to have the Spirit. It's not just her fault but mine too. We can be bad for each other sometimes because we are so mellow but we are working on it! Her and I room with Sister Austin and Sister Park. They are both so different but so fun and cute. Sister Austin loves animation and loves learning languages. Boise is her mission and she is English speaking but she reads a Book of Mormon that is in Japanese every night or something like that? I have no idea. She will sometimes blurt out words in French or German or Mandarin Chinese or just about anything that I can't even understand ha but it's cool she teaches me words but I forget them in like 1 minute. She laughs at my jokes though and my goofy personality so I love her. Sister Park is just the sweetest little thing who is so friendly to everyone. She talks a lot which is wonderful because I can talk a lot too, but a lot of chatty girls with some pretty great things to talk about is not the best thing all the time. Especially when you don't end up going to sleep until midnight. Obedience is so huge! Before I came I thought being obedient was going to be a piece of cake. As far as following the mission rules... I can do that but abiding by the schedule and doing what you are supposed to be doing at the time you are scheduled to be doing it is pretty difficult! It is easy to get distracted and start talking about funny memories or your favorite movies or boys haha stuff like that. It is so easy to forget your purpose as a missionary. But I am learning and striving to be my best and get the most out of my days at the MTC and it is becoming much easier. I can really feel the Lord blessing me. I don't feel homesick although I do miss you all so much and I pray for you daily. I miss squeezing cute little Sadie Lady. My testimony has grown tremendously and I just feel closer to my Savior. It's the best and I am so grateful to have this experience. It is so fun! (hint hint Makenzie... the MTC is fun!) Don't get me wrong, it is a bumpy ride and one minute you feel like crying and giving up because you aren't feeling the Spirit or you just don't know how you will hold up for a year and a half but in my experience, when I am feeling that way, the Lord has quickly blessed me with a feeling of comfort, or an inspired teacher who says just the right thing in class to get me back on track, or a wonderful devotional that reminds me how important this work is and that this really is the true gospel. The amazing times easily make up for the challenging times. Oh my gosh so the other day while I was in class I was reading a scripture out loud to everyone in Alma 22:15-18 about Lamoni. I was about to finish the last verse and as I was reading it I accidentally said prostate and then quickly quickly corrected myself! The word was prostrate! Oh everyone was laughing so hard, and I was dying laughing so hard and my face was bright red. Things like that happen to me all the time I swear.  I have seen Drew here at the MTC, that was really fun :) And I have also seen Eleanor, Mitchell's friend, she is the cutest. Thank you to everyone who has sent me emails and the couple of packages that I have received. Logan, Isaac, and Sadie... I LOVED GETTING DONUTS FROM YOU! It wasn't even about the donuts haha even though Krispy Kreme is the bomb but I just loved that it was from my siblings. I was sharing them with everyone and telling everyone how blessed I am to have the coolest family in the world. Thank you for all the encouraging words and prayers. I am so sorry I can't write everyone back at the moment, I am trying to get the hang of having limited time. But, it is all so appreciated, truly! It is the best thing to get an email or letter or package. I know even more now than I ever did before that this is the true gospel and that it can bring us so much joy and comfort. I love you all so much and I just want to say that I am so excited to be serving a mission. I am going to try and see if I can get some pictures uploaded onto this computer but if not I will make sure to send some next week when I am in SPOKANE! Crazy! I love you and miss you and I hope you have the best week.

 

Love,

Sister Rogers. That feels weird still ha