May 8 Email

guess who's back! back again!

ha. I dont even know that song, only that line. or two lines. whatever. anywho. Guess who just met the Dominican Republic Ambassador and his son, Carlos, jr? THIS GIRL! or..sister!! ha. Yeah, my teacher is amazing and they were giving him a tour of the mtc and we were the "chosen ones". (*toy story reference, anyone?*) It was pretttty crazy. lots of guns and burgers. lol, jk. no guns. or burgers. Now I don't know why I was so excited.. haha. so that just happened and we met Richard Hinckley, Gordon B. Hinckley's son! he was nice. so they just asked us who we were and where we were from, then sat in class with us for 5 min while f. lapretre spoke french to us and acted like we knew everything he was saying. we went over the lesson last night. :) so that's what went down literally 30 min ago. I wore my suit jacket and they took a few photgraphs of us so it may be in the church news, im not sure.

so next wednesday I'm going to san fransisco to get my visa for france!! we have to all go out there to get a finger print or something stupid but hey, I get outta the mtc for a whole day!! Not that the mtc is bad, but being in any consolidated place for over 2 weeks is a little crazy, and I've been here for at least 20 days...cabin fever! (*yeahh!*) lol. umm..yeah so I just got that letter. Me and most of my district is going out there. ahhhhhh my district is AWESOME. I love them. even the annoying, negative ones because they can be really fun and positive sometimes! i think out of all of the districts in my branch (the french speakers), we are the most united. we seriously are crazy. literally. insane. ;-) nah, we just have cabin fever sometimes, i think. pour l'example:

yesterday night we got mail. sounds regular, right? not in our classroom. we were first joking about how we would ask carlos jr for a burger or tell him we're his biggest fan, then we began (we mainly being the elders with me adding in and sis harris just shaking her head and at times laughing) saying that the ambassador would walk in and we are sacrificing our smallest elder (who is coincidentally also the only foreigner-he's canadian. yep, lots of canada jokes. lol) and begin chanting "the field is white and ready to harvest!". I said we should chant it en francais. lol. this is what we do for fun. and when our brains begin feeling like they're mush. I can't spell any english words very well anymore, so sorry to people I write handwritten letters to. i can't get french yet I'm losing my english! blah. anyway! so after we finish joking about that and chanting and circling the canadian and elder call and elder gruber, we (btw, this is mainly alll done by the elders. I just laugh and join in, and sis harris joined in on the chanting and circling thing also) began making up some weird song that the guys had already started, which circles around "saturday night" to a made up tune. It's a little on the broadway side..anyway, so elder call, our d.l stands on a chair and begins tossing letters to people while chanting and yeah..people in our hall were standing in the door recording us.. hahaha. oh geez.

So I love our elders. as weird as they are..I think they're hilarious. 90% of the time.

So french is going alright! I have learned sooo much in the past 20 days! seriously! We can give lessons en francais without notes and I don't have to flip out and study every sentence that i want to say; I just think about it and know the jist of what I want to say and learn the verbs! geeez lou-eez the gift of tongues is realllll. oh yeah, over a week ago sis roney woke up early and heard me reciting "our purpose" en francais in my sleep!! lol. yeah, I study hard. So hard I take it into my dreams, apparently. I love french; It's so beautiful! It's hard sometimes, but I just try to relate it to english and the way it's laid out majority of the time, then I begin understanding it.

My teachers are great! Frere LaPretre is a get-down-to-business sort of guy who works the crap out of us until we are almost in tears..then builds us up. well..he's not as hard on the sisters most of the time, but he expects more out of us than we do, so we get pushed pretty far. I love it, though. It's weird. Even though at times I fall on my face and feel like dying, I realize that I learned more than I would have if I hadn't of done that. C'est tres interresant(e?)! Our other teacher, Brother Wilcox, is from Colorado/California and is totally chill. I mean, he still expects us to learn and work hard, but he's a LOT easier on us. It's funny how it balances out so well. We are probably..no, we are the best district in the branch. that sounds cocky, but I'm just trying to give you an idea of how hard we work and how hard the push us. and I'm not that good, either, we just have been pushed since the beginning. It's hard!! hard like I try to wake up extra early to study BEFORE personal study!!! It's ridiculous.

Dad-I miss you, too! Things are going great here, as you may have read, and I'm doing really well. As long as I don't think about not being home for a while I am totally fine, plus I've been gone from home for long periods of time before so I guess it just hasn't hit me or something. some of these poor elders have never been away from home before so they get homesick. It's sad. so I'm doing great, don't worry about me. I'm saying that even though I know you still will because you're my dad. :) and regarding the sunglasses? hmm..well I would like sunglasses because we walk up to the temple twice a week and it's super bright, but my sunglasses aren't the best and they have scratches on the lenses so just leave em there. Thanks, though! oh, and another way of saying bye in french is "a bientot!" which means "see you later!", or the classic "au revoir" which means "bye!"

Ant- I LOVE the weather!! it just makes my day!! And I laughed so hard when you were like, speaking of babies,... in your dearelder. lol. so good. Oh and btw, funny you should bring up eric in your letter. On saturday evening, I don't know why, I began thinking about him and played "come, come ye saints" a million times on lds.org during our french computer thing. I got this super good feeling and just began writing in my journal and bore my testimony and I will again, that I know that eric is in an amazing place is so incredibly happy. The plan of Salvation is real; God loves us so He has a plan to bring us happiness, that's why we also call it the plan of Happiness!! I can't wait to go out and let people know how they can be happy and why they're here on earth. I dont know what I would do without the Church. My teacher, frere lapretre was kind of athiest before he joined the church, and so he is one tf the "investigators" we teach and he acts the way he did before he joined the church. he was investigating for 3 years. yeahhhh. so it's hard and he asks a LOT of questions and it's sooo hard. But I've learned from this that you're not teaching lessons, you're teaching people with lives and with family, with concerns and emotions that you can't just teach from a book and expect them to follow along. it's crazy how much I learn from each "lesson" with him.

Mom- (and dad), thanks so much for the cupcakes!! My roommates say thanks, also! we had a party last night with them and it was fun. and I'm so sorry to hear about grandma! Is she doing better? I'll keep her in my prayers and tell others too, also.

Court-send me pictures of your baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ben-thanks for the postcard! It was wonderful. :) send me more about you!!

shelb- wtw (what the what)?! why no talk? :( I feel excluded.

claire- I got both of your dearelders and I'm soooooooooo excited for you/super jealous that you and aud will be in the mtc together!!!! I sent you a letter to singapore last week, so..i have no clue when you should be getting it. lol.

aud white-write me!!!!!!!! I haven't heard from you! no bueno!!! yes, that was spanish. i'm reaching out.

mads- i miss you and your strange humor that corresponds with mine.

nancy!!- thanks so much for the postcard! I love it!! c'est tres beau!!!!! I have it on the ceiling of my bunkbed along with ben's postcard. :)

AND TO EVERYONE ELSE: I love letters. any kind. dear elders come the same day, so that is seriously great. I love hearing from everyone!!!!!! so please!!!!! It makes me super happy at the end of a long day hittin the books.

The church is true. I am so proud to be on a mission and have the ability to preach the gospel to those in search of the truth. How important it is for us to recognize who we are, what we're here for, and where we're going. I love knowing the Truth and having the gospel in my life. We all can invite others to come unto Christ, you don't need a nametag (though it helps). Faith in Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, recieving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. This is my purpose; to teach these things to others and help them return to our Heavenly Father. I LOVE THISSSSS.

Love you all and pray for you at every meal and every morning and night.

Love with all my heart,

devano (soeur gardner)