Week 2 at the MTC!!!

well, well, well. Look who survived another week at the MTC-- THIS GIRL!

And let me tell you, it's been a little rough. Basically I've been getting little to no sleep most nights, so I went and saw the doctor about it and he hooked me up with some meds. People are just loud and scream/giggle all night long, and since my room is right next to the bathroom, I hear EVERYONE blow-drying their hair until 11:30pm or at 5am. It's straining my brain.

Sunday after the devotional, an elder approached me and asked if I was going to Russia. (I wrote his name down but left the notebook in my classroom). Turns out he had met mom and heather at the doctor's! So yeah! Good, exciting stuff. Keep it up :) Also, I saw Sis King at the temple last week, and she pretty much started bawling. It was really tender, and she told me how proud she was of me. And of course she mentioned the GIGANTIC box of food on it's way (courtesy of mom and dad) in front of the elders (I was going to keep it a surprise), but they were super excited. Some of the elders get more DearElders than I do, so keep those coming! Also, keep the packages coming because they're literally going crazy over the amount of stuff that gets sent to me ;)

Also, mom and dad, the elders LOVE YOU. seriously. some of the meals are so intolerable that even 19-year-old boys won't eat them. The chocolate covered raisins disappeared pretty quick as did the fruit mix/trail mix. They also LOVED the bread. Holy cow. and my teachers did too. Everyone wolfed it down in a matter of seconds it seemed like. Keep an eye out for SEVERAL thank you notes in the mail from the elders in my district. They love you. For reals. :)

The MTC is a different world. Time flows real funny here, and I'm struggling to remember what's even happened this week besides class, class, and more class. Sundays are the worst because we literally sit all day long. We study from 7-7:30 in our classroom, then have lunch then study some more. The sisters watch music and the spoken word at 9:30 then have relief society from 10-11. When I entered the MTC there were 1297 sister missionaries. I'm sure the number has increased. The day I entered the MTC (june 5th), 900 missionaries entered, which is an MTC record. The days are SO LONG. I'll be talking to sister smith and mention something that happened yesterday, and she'll say "Sister, that was this morning". It's really funny.

Oh, and I saw a Magre boy! Whoever is teaching french at the mtc. He looks so different now, so I don't know his first name. but he took a picture of me to send to you. did you get it? If so, post it on the blog (assuming it looks cute and whatever). And if you could send me 4x6 photos of the family in numerous activities that would be great. I brought photos, but not as many as I would like. And if anyone else wants to send me pictures, that's always appreciated. :)

I really like teaching the investigators here. It makes me more excited to get out to the field. I just really like getting to know people, so it's great. I understand about 95% of what's going on, and the other 5%, I can easily guess about. Sister Smith still struggles with the language A LOT, but she's getting better at understanding.

I'm so glad I came on a mission. It's been so much harder than I expected. The devotional speaker Sunday asked everyone to stand up who thought that a mission was harder than they expected. I stood up. It IS really hard. Wow. But I can already sense that I've grown so much in the 2 weeks here. It makes me excited, and really scared, for the even greater trials that will be ahead of me in the field. But they're turning me into exactly the person I want to be!

This last week has been pretty discouraging, I'm not going to lie. It's just been tough for some reason, but the last couple of days I've been uplifted a little more. What with that Elder hitting on me pretty bad and having no sleep, it's been super tough to have patience at all. But I've succeeded. Thankfully I love everyone in my district, and I've had a decent amount of quality food to be munching on, so I've been super happy about all of that. And the pills to help me sleep seem to be working, at least a little bit. I'm trying them out for another couple days, and we'll see what happens from there.

Dad, the charges on the card at the bookstore were for more flashcards an a missionary tag clip for winter coats. The other charges from yesterday were from getting the covers of my preach my gospels laminated at the copy center and also getting my patriarchal blessing shrunk down and laminated. I will be getting some other things laminated today, so just be aware. You're great! And I love you!

Mom, the most annoying thing here is not being called to repentance all the time(which you said we would be) but being lectured on modesty ALL THE TIME. Seriously. It just makes me want to be a rebel, but I won't . I just don't understand why others do'nt abide by the rules. Anywho, every Sister has been ordered to wear a slip EVERY DAY under skirts. so please send me one white slip and one black slip. The ones they have here are gross and feel like spandex tennis skirts, so please send me a nice silky ones. That would be great.

I will either try to send a shorter email later today, or I'll just send a hand-written note in the mail. Time is running out :)

love you lots!
expect pictures later!!

Love, cecpa brown