Søster Esplin

First things first, I have a week and a half until I am on a plane headed to the land of the Danes.  I'm honestly soooo excited and soooo terrified all at the same time.  But mostly excited.  We get our flight plans  tomorrow , so I'll let you know the details of it next week!!  This week was crazy, as all weeks in the MTC are.  My week started kinda down when I got super stressed about the language, differing opinions of those close to me, and just the gravity of missionary work in general.  That all changed when a sister in my district handed me a talk by Lawrence E. Corbridge called "The Fourth Missionary."  It changed my whole perspective on not only my mission, but my entire life.  I encourage you all to read it, but set aside a few hours because that talk/devo? is a good 24 pages long.  ABSOLUTELY WORTH THE READ.  It helped my see that I'm here because I chose to be here.  No one is forcing me to go on a mission, it...

On Sunday I got to play my flute in sacrament meeting!! It was SO nice.  I can't believe how much I have missed playing it.  It was so absolutely incredible.  I really hope that I brought the Spirit in and touched the hearts of those in my branch. On Sunday we also had a devotional with the one and only Donny Osmond which was entertaining to say the least.  He focused a lot on not taking your mission too seriously and just having fun.  It was a little unconventional, but I actually think that it was good to hear that.  Sometimes the missionaries here get a little too carried away with how solemn missions are.  They are very very important, but I don't believe that the Lord wants us to go about his work without smiles on our faces.   Speaking of smiles, yesterday was quite the happy day!  My district was specially chosen to guide some private tours of the new MTC buildings.  It was so fun!  I was expecting the tour to be a norm...

Here are the happenings of this week:  Last P-Day we found out at lunch that we had to move residence halls ALL THE WAY ACROSS CAMPUS before dinner, and still go to the temple for 3 and a half hours.  So my companions and I packed up all of our stuff in about 30min and just hauled it all to our new (but actually WAY older) residence hall.  I'm convinced that our new hall is haunted by the souls of missionaries in the 50's. Anyway, THAT was a struggle but now we don't have to move again (hopefully).   So I realize that I totally forgot to talk about our "investigators" last week!  Our very first one was named Johan.  He is tall and blond and VERY Danish (turns out that he isn't actually Danish surprise surprise, but his mom is so I was half right).  After we taught him for a week they told us that he moved to California. But moments after that announcement he strides right into our classroom because he is ACTUALLY our new teacher!  His real...

The MTC is absolutely insane.  You are so so so busy, and yet you kinda have all of the time in the world.  I'm going to tell you what a typical day is like: First I get up right exactly at 6:30 (still dragging myself out of bed, but it's getting better), get dressed and whatever, and then have daily planning with my 2 companions.  After, we go eat breakfast at the cafeteria, and I consistently eat 2 hard boiled eggs and a bowl of oatmeal (don't worry, I'm not a new person, it's just the only edible thing to eat at the cafeteria and if I put enough brown sugar on top I can't taste its grossness). After breakfast we go exercise in the gym for an hour.  This is actually may be my favorite part of the day (WHAT??) It is SO nice to get a break from language and spiritualness so I just eat it up.  I try to run for half the time on the track, and then me and Sister Day (in my district) have found this new form of fun in playing basketball hahaha.  I honestly ne...

So I'm still alive!  Hahaha, BARELY, but still breathing.  It has been absolutely CRAZY.  I feel like I'm trying to drink out of a fire hydrant with a coffee straw.  I have just been so incredibly busy that I can't even believe it. I have like 2 min to write you, but my P-day's are Thursday's , and I get an hour to email then.  I'm in a trio with  Sister  Funk and  Sister  Sanford and it's so fun! It's really great to get different perspective on lesson planning and stuff.  I said my first prayer in Danish today and that was super exciting! I totally butchered it and it was super short, but I did it.  Reading Mormons Bog and the English Book of Mormon side by side before my mish was a fantastic idea, because I recognize a little of what my teachers are saying (the classes are like 4 hours a day and all immersive).  I'm glad the pictures are working and I'll send more soon!  I'm in a room with 5 other girls (so 6 total)....