hey everyone so guess what?!?!

 

This is the last email im gonna be sending the from the MTC! this is monumental!!! im so stinkin excited.  2 more days and im on my way to Argentina 3 more days and i will be there. im so excited to be there but i am not excited for the whole traveling thing.... im am not a traveler.. but so I am so so glad that i am a light packer. my companion hermana jones has been trying to pack for like 3 days and she is 20 lbs over in weight and like 10 in her carryon!!! and i dont think im gonna have that problem I made sure i was under enough to get some books in there and then im out of a lot of the heavy stuff like shampoo and body wash so taht will free up more space... and i dont have much stuff for a carry on so i can totally fit any extra in there thank goodness!!! but it is funny to watch hermana jones try and figure it out.  I am really sad that i am not gonna see my companions after 8 am monday though!!! it stinks that we are going to different missions (but i keep telling them they will fit in my suitcases!!!)  haha

 

Soooo this week was pretty much AMAZING!!!! i couldnt have picked a better week to leave the MTC on! at the devotional on tuesday we had Elder Christofferson come!!! and it was a pretty much amazing night and then thursday was thanksgiving and let me tell you they know how to do thanksgiving here.  The food was actually pretty decent which was exciting (my moms thanksgiving dinner is better but it still was pretty good for MTC food)  and we had a devotional in the morning and Elder Russel M. Nelson came and talked to us!!! So 2 Apostles this week!!! how cool is that.  I think the coolest part of the devotionals was tuesday when Elder Christofferson came in it was right before the last prelude hymn (we sing A LOT here)  and so we stood up and we stayed standing while singing I Know that My Redeemer Lives!  i mean wow! being able to stand in front of an apostle of God and sing that it was pretty amazing.  But anyway after dinner on thursday (well lunch and they gave us sack lunches for dinner)  we did a service project.  we had a little humanitarian presentation before where they told us about all the humanitarian stuff the church was doing and that was pretty cool to see. and then we made injury kits (4000 of them but my table of 30 only made 160 but with all the missionaries it added up to 4000)  that they are going to send to the Sudan so the people down there can help take care of themselves.  It was not so exciting to pull off one piece of gauze and pass it down to the next person pulling off one piece of gauze... but the missionaries were all singing hymns and laughing and talking and taking pictures it was a lot of fun. nad it was just great to spend thanksgiving helping other people.  Ill tell you what Elders can be really annoying sometimes but they they have a lot of energy nad a lot of them have wonderfully strong testimonies.. The Elders in my district are so amazing i am constantly looking at them and saying wow. that is so cool.  But then after the service project and our sack lunch dinner they had a little program with some thanksgiving songs and musical numbers and Sister Nally (in the MTC presidencys wives...) did a little play with the missionaries dressing some up like pilgrims and turkeys and indians and it was kinda cute.  Then we watched 17 Miracles!!! it was such a good movie!!! I love it and they gave us popcorn which was a big treat. i dont know if you guys think this is as cool as it was but it was really great and a big change from the normal here at the MTC

 

oh and thanks Relief Society for your package!!! i really appreciate it!  It made my day and im sending a better thank you note i promise i just dont have a lot of time emailing

 

Les Quiero!!

Hermana Applegate

hey everyone!!!

 

Just another week here at the MTC! they all sorta just run together so there isnt anything really new.  but i did see an old friend of mine from back in BYU Lisa Corrigan!!!! She teaches here on the floor below my classroom!  It was really good to be able to see her. :)  and then at TRC we taught one of hermano talatainas friends i dont remember her name but she was really nice and we got HUGS!!!!!  I dont think people really realize how precious hugs are until you cant get hugs from like anybody when you need one. Everyday after class (twice a day) our teachers hug the guys but since we are sisters we cant get hugs so we get hugs from everyone we can. thats just a little informational story for you all to know.  but then right after TRC we got rushed over to another building for someother thing which is not normal at all!!! we got to practice asking questions and listening to answers. They had people who were interviewing for acting jobs here at the MTC (who knew the MTC had acting jobs?)  and we got to interview them in spanish. but it was really hard because we could only ask them questions we couldnt respond at all. which is hard and they were all native speakers (at least the ones i talked to were) so i couldnt understand most of what they were saying. which makes it even harder to ask good questions. one girl was getting pretty frusterated with me...  but it was a great practice. 

 

So this week is our consecration week which means we are only talking in spanish which is really difficult sometimes so it doesnt really happen.  especially when we are having comp inventory and you cant get your point across in spanish so you just say it in english. it actually happens more than it should at least for me because i really dont like talking to people who cant speak spanish in spanish i just kinda think thats rude. and our roommates dont speak spanish. well one does but thats just what she learned over the summer. i actually think shes better at spanish then i am... but my spanish has been quite improved since then and it is pretty decent (i.e. i can communicate in another language and understand eople who speak really slow with baby words)  and praying in Espanol is getting more and more fluid.  So thats about all the exciting stuff weve got going on here.  oh and they are tightening security here which is weird... were a bunch of missionaries. but now all the doors are locked and so we have to get out our id cards and swipe them to get into the building which we always forget so we end up standing out in the freezing cold for a few minutes. its been pretty cold lately (maybe thats just cause im always in a skirt... but whatever) its cold and it makes it a little more annoying to have to unlock the doors all the time.  and we arent supposed to hold open door for people we dont know and make them unlock it themselves... weird....

 

anyways! i love yall! Te quiero! (Les quiero?)

 

hermana applegate

Hey Everybody!

 

This was actually a pretty good week! i've learned lots and lots and probably too much to share with y'all because it takes up all my time. i only get 30 min to email.  But this week I really worked with my companions to teach in unity because we are having a lot of problems teaching in unity just because our teaching styles are different and its tricky to figure out a way that works for everyone. :) but i love my companions to death and we have grown sooooo much closer because of it. I think after we taught one day we were in our room waiting for the Elders to come back and we ended up hugging like we do alot because we dont get very many hugs here.... its kinda annoying. our teachers will hug all of the elders, but because we are sisters they cant hug us... howd all the sister teachers end up with the all elder districts in our zone?!?! really?!  but so anyway we were hugging and the elders walked in and were like uh.... and then they left and waited outside until we were done.  it was kinda funny. 

 

So we got new roommates this week! its actually kinda sad.  I loved!!!! the sisters we shared a room with before.  Hermana Matte, Hermana Poulson, and Hermana Brightenstein (i think i spelled that wrong...)  were amazing! and so much fun! and they were spanish speaking so we learned a lot from them.  But they headed out this week and i know they are doing great being out in the field.  but on Wednesday we got some new girls. They are all english speaking though so i never know if i should just speak spanish cause im supposed to speak my language or if i should speak english for their benefit.  They seem really nice though although i am a little bitter about the fact that they get to leave before i do and i have been here a lot longer?!?! whats up with that? oh right... theyre not learning a new language.

 

But so i have gotten really friendly since ive been here.  Its really weird and out of character for me... but I talk to EVERYONE. i swear. i say hello to the girls brushing their teeth with me. or there have been a couple times ive been in the shower and ill start singing and the person in the shower next to mine will start singing with me and then we will start talking and i will have no idea who it is but we will have a great conversation.  Can you say out of the ordinary?! at least for me. but everyone here is so nice.  oh funny story about one of my new roomies!!! haha so everyone who is new here gets a little orange dot on their nametag to say that theyre new nad everyone says hi to them as they are walking around their first day.  But so I made a point to smile at this really cute girl in red that was walking around and then she ended up being my roommate!!!! it was crazy!!!! But she has the cutest purple luggage. it was pretty cool.

 

Haha so on Sunday nights we watch films after the fireside. They usually have one of the big ones playing like the Joseph Smith Movie or the Testaments or Legacy in the gym. and this week it was The Testaments and I LOVED it!!! Okay so i have to say my favorite part was when Christ came (of course) and he was looking out over the crowd  and he looks straight at Jacob (the main character who took awhile to decide the church was true) and you could just see in his eyes the Love he had for Jacob and for that people and it was remarkable to me that in that time when everyone was vying for his attention, Christ took the time to look straight at one person who needed to feel his love nad know that he loves him.  And it is a great testimony to me that Christ knows and loves each and everyone of us. He loves us so much that he will take the time to look you straight in the eyes when he is wrapped up in eveything else to convey that love.  He has done this multiple times.  He took the time to seek out the woman who touched the hem of his robe.  he took the time to bless each and every child and there were probably a lot.

 

Yo soy me Salvador vive.  yo soy Dios es nuestros (nosotros?) Padre Celestial y nos ama.  Yo soy la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias (I cant get my accent button to work right sorry)  es verdadera. Yo soy Jesucristo es nuestros Salvador y Redentor.  Yo soy misionario trabajar es importante... okay i need to work on grammar more but it is a work in progress!

 

Les Quiero!!!