Week 3 MTC

precious shot of me and my bestie! she's amazing, i LOVE her

So it's week 3, and i basically feel like an MTC pro. When the newbies came in this week, we were all over it. Giving them advice and telling them which foods make you constipated. It was awesome, I felt so cool. But really a huge nerd at the same time! Thanks to everyone who keeps writing/deareldering me and sending emails! It's so great to hear from everyone. Special shout out to Aunt Camille because she is THE BEST at sending me dear elders and having mamaquel and grandpa and uncle carlos write in them. I pretty much cry from all of them. I will write back this week for sure! Thanks also to Carlita& Eliza for writing me! 

temple walks on Sunday with me, my kasama, Sis Burt, and Sis Seastrand. We have issues going to bed on time because we have a good 2 hour laughing fit every night

Primos! (Elder Gerken Mortensen)

Funny story of the week- I saw Elder Gerkin (my second cousin) Well actually, he saw me. And shouted: Sister Gaspar! I think you're my cousin...It was hilarious. Me and the girls started cracking up. So that was pretty cool. His spanish is getting there. It's so great to see someone you kinda know. And cool to know we are here together! I also ran into Dex's friend Tyler Erickson and like 3 other people from Lone Mountain stake. I remembered  them from mission prep. I don't think any of them knew me...but i definitely was excited to see them! I also ran into Dex, or Elder Edwards, i guess! He's been on the west campus (5 blocks away) but he was here on friday for orientation since he leaves next week. So I got up to leave my table from dinner and he was right there! So crazy! I didn't think I'd see him. Kinda funny, cause you shake hands and awkwardly stand by each other for a picture. While both of our districts were cracking up! I guess his district has heard as much about me as mine has heard about him. Anyway, it was really good to talk with him for a minute, and have my kasama meet him! 

With Elder Edwards; I'm mid-laugh but whatever, it's cute

this is how we feel about the food here!

This language is crazy! We have been learning grammar and sentence structure finally. I feel like I can now wrap my brain around it all. And me and my kasama are definitely trying to learn it as best as we can. Spanish is so helpful but really makes it difficult sometimes. I feel like when I am trying to speak another language, my brain flips the switch to spanish. Because spanish and Tagalog are to similar, i switch them all the time! In my lessons with investigators its especially hilarious. My poor kasama is like ummm what are you saying? we don't know all the Tagalog filler words yet, and I use spanish ones. But practice practice practice is all I do! And it's a really pretty language, I am learning to love it. It's so fun to be able to have conversations in different languages! There are a lot of kids in my district who speak fluent German and French, so it gets pretty crazy pretty fast. 

Our lessons with our 2 investigators are going really well. So amazing how you feel the Spirit in every lesson with a simple testimony. I've been thinking about that a lot lateley. Especially when the language it tough. Your testimony is the most important thing you will learn in the MTC, and that's what ultimately brings the Spirit into a lesson. I love teaching. Being here has reminded me of that so much! 

Cool story of the week- So we had our devotional on Tuesday be broadcasted to 5 other MTCs. We all knew someone important was coming, but they don't tell you until they walk in. So Elder Neil L. Andersen walks in and everyone gasps! We were SO excited to have an apostle speak to us. The devos are held in the Mariott Center which is a huge basketball stadium thing. So I was pretty close, but still in the stands. I sang with the choir. I know, I know...but my kasama has an incredible voice! And I am totally adopting this geeky utah singing thing. I'm not into musicals yet, but it's pretty bad. Sorry dad. There are just an unreasonably high number of talented singers in my district, so they've been teaching me a lot. So we sang in the number, you could totally see me on screen! Then Elder Andersen gave an amazing talk. His talk was called: Love and Sacrifice. He talked all about how we love what we sacrifice, and sacrifice for what we love. Total puzzle, but it's really interesting to think about. He made a lot of promises to us about our missions. One of them was that if we gave our entire heart to the Lord while doing his work, He won't be disappointed in us. No matter how many people we convert, or how our mission went. He also said this, which is my new favorite quote, "Love is the most powerful emotion eternally available to us." His testimony of Christ is what really stayed with me. He witnessed of Him and His atoning sacrifice. To hear that from him was incredible. I felt the Spirit testify to me that I knew that too. And I felt to much love for the Savior, and so grateful for the Atonement. 

it poured on our way back from devotional on tuesday! thank goodness I was wearing a shade

When the devotional was over, security came and told the MTC prez that there was a huge rainstorm outside. So we had to stay in and sing hymns. And that if we all stayed in our seats, Elder Andersen would come shake some hands. So i was like SO excited. But I wasn't in the front section with chairs on the floor so i assumed he wouldn't come over. But then he walked up the stadium stairs and totally came to my section! He shook the hand of me and my kasama! And he shook the hands of about 20 of the Sisters. It was crazy! I felt like he was staring into my soul, so intimidating but so cool at the same time. I could just feel how powerful his authority was. And he looked pleased. He was so happy to meet some missionaries. I felt so lucky I go to shake his hand and get to feel that special Spirit that comes with being an apostle of The Lord.
mahal po kayo,

sister gaspar de alba