Day 2

Hola familia! <-?

So my Branch Presidency is giving us an extra day to write emails to you just so you can know we're alive. : ) And I love it here! It's been crazy with the schedule, but it's way better than I imagined.

But first I need to make sure I tell you what we're supposed to in this email--while we're here in the MTC, the best way to get mail (email and hard copies) to us is though dearelder.com. When you send us emails through that site, they will print out the emails which are delivered twice a day. The "snail mail" is notoriously slow here, so if you want to stay traditional I might not get any letters while I'm here at all. So use that site until the 14th, please. : )

I mentioned that it's better than I imagined. Specifically, learning how to teach. Yesterday we didn't really open up Preach My Gospel (which, by the way, I wish I knew better but is way more useful than I'd ever though). Instead we got to pile into rooms and watch "investigators" and real investigators and their missionaries during a lesson, and then the group had to start trying to teach. That was a real mouthful. But what I mainly learned then and what was so amazing to me was how important the Spirit is as we teach. As a large group of brand-new missionaries, we were sorely tempted to shoot questions at the poor people, and only when we took the time to get to know them and share experiences did any progress occur. 

I should also talk about my district, too. So my companion is Sister McConkie from Bountiful, Utah, and she and I get along really well. She was actually just assigned to be the Sister Training Leader for our district, and I'd had a hunch that it would be her since she's so well-prepared and confident. We've started preparing a lesson for an "investigator" and it's going really well. I hope I'll get to have her as my companion when I'm out in the field.

Pop, I just had to put in a special shoutout to you for being able to last several weeks in the MTC. I've barely been here for 24 hours but I already feel SO GRATEFUL that I'm speaking English and don't have to trudge through hours and hours of language study. You must have had to work so hard! So good job. : )

Brother Freestone warned us about length and I think that was a good idea, because if I don't stop now I'll probably never be able to quit, so I just want to close by saying that I know I'm doing the right thing and, strangely enough, I've never felt closer to you all than these last two days. I love you, I love the Gospel, and I promise to work hard. <3

Love,

Sister Finlinson