WEEK #5 - I have no concept of time anymore

Um have I seriously been a missionary for a whole MONTH?!?!?! What the. Today is my one month mark! I can't believe how much I have changed in just one month. Like my title says, I no longer know what day of the week it is. Unless it is Sunday, Tuesday, or Wednesday because those are all special days. Sundays: church, a really good activity called Go and Do where we spend time on our own reading in the scriptures centered around different topics, and of course, the devotional. Tuesday: another amazing devotional where an important figure in our church comes and gives a talk. Wednesday: PDAYYYYY aka prep day where I can talk to my family, do my laundry, and most importantly go to the temple!!

One of the 30 goofy pics I have

P.S Two emails for today bc I didn't have time to send this last week

Also I totally forgot to mention but in our room, there are two other sister missionaries. Their names are Sister Rivera and Sister Villacres. They are both from Ecuador and going somewhere in the states (I totally forgot where they are going - my bad). The cool thing about them is that they are actually learning English. They are pretty good, but in the beginning we had to communicate mainly through google translate. As they have gone to classes, like me with Slovene, they have gotten better and better. We have the funniest conversations. Here are some of my favorite quotes from them:

"Me and English have a toxic relationship" - Sis Rivera

"Why English why" - Sis Villacres

"Who was your first love?" - Sis Rivera (said completely out of nowhere at 10:23 pm)

"That boy is horrible. If I see him, I will kick him hard." - Sis Rivera

"Mahtters?" - Sis Villacres "No, it is pronounced 'maaaatters'. With an aaaaa" - Me "Ohhhh okay yeah, mahtters?" - Sis Villacres 

"The food hurt me" - Sis Rivera

"I love Shrek so much. I had a dream that he was kidnapped! When I woke up I am so sad. I almost cry!" - Sis Villacres

There are many many more that I forgot to write down, but this will become a weekly event until they leave. 

Wednesday 2/9:

Temple time!!!! My district and I went to the temple in the morning and it was so beautiful. 

Temple time with district!!

The weather was SO amazing! It felt like spring!!! Yayyyy!! I got to call my family today!! It was so good to hear from them. 

Call with fam 

I did laundry and worked out as well. I'm pretty sure we played volleyball. I forgot to write down what I did today which is sad. I just know that it was a good day today. 

Thursday 2/10:

A boy I knew from my hometown in Monticello arrived today. I'm not sure where he is going, but I made sure to say hi. I don't think he recognized me though which was sad. At breakfast, I ripped an apple apart with my fingers. I felt very cool tbh. 

The apple I ripped apart 

Morning class was with Sestra Kralj today. We learned how to tell time. She tested us on how well we knew how to count by making us count in Slovene as we went from the first floor all the way to our classroom on the sixth floor. Apparently there are 147 steps. We also started learning cases! I honestly have no idea how to explain what cases are. I honestly don't know. I just know I like learning the case endings because the sentences come together like a puzzle. Yesterday Sestra Voigt left something at the temple and so we were allowed to leave the MTC to go get it. Usually you aren't allowed to leave the MTC unless you are going to the temple on your p-day or leaving for your mission haha. We took pictures to celebrate our wonderful moment of freedom. 

Freedooommmm

On my way to night class, I saw one of my dear friends from Massachusetts, Maddy Winder (now Bennett because she is MARRIED - WHAT). When I first saw her I literally could not believe it was her. It was so good to see and hug her. In our night class we had Brat Kunzler. He taught us a bunch of random things. I can't remember exactly what but it was fun. There are times when Brat Kunzler will just sit there and look at Sestra Voigt and I. I think it's because he is trying to figure out what to do with us haha. It is the funniest thing ever. Overall, today was a great day. 

Maddy <3

Friday 2/11:

Today was pretty good! Slightly overwhelming and I felt a little down but IT IS OKAY. We played volleyball again which was lovely. Then we had tutoring. Sestra Voigt and I tried to speak only in Slovene for TWO HOURS. It was so funny. I don't think we have ever talked less than during these two hours. We kept taking forever to piece together our sentences and then would end up forgetting what we originally wanted to say. We did learn a couple new words though!

idiot - idiot (pronounced ee dee yoht) - came up when I couldn't figure out how to word something so I grabbed a dictionary and found this lovely word to call myself haha

so so - tako tako (pronounced like taco taco) we checked this phrase with Sestra Kralj and apparently "so so" is not a Slovene phrase :( big bummer

cute - ljubek (pronounced lyuu behk) 

stop - čakaj (pronounced cha kai) 

A casual mid-class bloody nose

Sestra Tuckett taught our night class. I cried in class when Sestra Voigt shared the story of Enoch in Moses 6:31-32. God asks Enoch to talk and guide the people which is a very big task. This is what Enoch says back:

31. And when Enoch had heard these words, he bowed himself to the earth, before the Lord, and spake before the Lord, saying: Why is it that I have found favor in thy sight, and am but a lad, and all the people hate me; for I am slow of speech; wherefore am I thy servant?

I certainly relate to the "I am slow of speech" thing. We had been asked to recite something that we needed to have memorized and I still hadn't gotten it down. I felt very stupid, or as we say in Slovene like an idiot hahaha. It was so frustrating to have tried to memorize this paragraph for such a long time, yet still not have it down. I truly felt like Enoch. "Why have you asked me to learn such a hard language? I am not that great at memorizing and am slow of speech." But this is God's reply to Enoch:
32. And the Lord said unto Enoch: Go forth and do as I have commanded thee, and no man shall pierce thee. Open thy mouth, and it shall be filled, and I will give thee utterance, for all flesh is in my hands, and I will do as seemeth me good.

I know that I am not alone. I know that when I put forth my best effort, God will magnify it beyond anything I would ever be capable of alone. I know that God will help me as I put forth my effort into learning Slovene. It is not an easy language. Life is not easy and it is not meant to be. I know that we can do hard things through God's comforting and guiding hands. 

On a different note, I have had this hair wrap thing this entire mtc time and have yet to figure it out. I don't even know how to explain it, but it is really nice because you just put your hair in it, do a little twist, put the loop around the button, and boom you're good. Except I can't figure out how to do that. Thankfully the wonderful Croatian sisters helped me. I was so proud and happy, hence the celebratory picture.

My head wrap thingy that I finally mastered

Unfortunately, I was immediately graced with the presence of a bloody nose :( but don't worry, my Aunt Mishaun gave me great advice on how to prevent them and vaseline is being amazoned my way. 

3 seconds later... 

Saturday 2/12:

Morning class with Sestra Kralj. I totally can't remember what we did. I met up with Keldon again for lunch. We laughed for a solid 6 minutes straight about the most random things. I just remember sitting across from him with tears in my eyes from laughing so hard thinking about how grateful I am for him and my family. It is such a tender mercy to have him around. 

Keldon at lunch 

Then we had class with Brat Kunzler. I also don't remember what we did. I really need to get better at writing down what I learn every day haha. 

Sunday 2/13:

Forgot to write stuff down for this day too which sucks. I just know that today was filled to the brim with spiritual thoughts and moments!! The weather was absolutely beautiful today. We also crammed 23 people into the elevator, breaking our previous record of 20. We stayed up later tonight to write cute Valentine's day letters to stick on the doors of the girls in our district.

23 people in the elevator 

Monday 2/14: 

VALENTINES DAY!!!

Today was a pretty fun day! My brother came and surprised me in the middle of class with a bag of treats and some heart stickers. In our family we have a tradition where our parents will put stickers on our faces. I don't know how or why it started but we've kept it going. 

Valentine's tradition

Sestra Voigt and I messed around and did a fun photo shoot. I have at least 30 pictures on my phone of various poses and funny faces. The Croatian sisters got us back with the Valentines notes by sticking hearts with cute messages on our door.

Hearts on the door ft. Sis Rivera doing situps in the background 

 We did forgot we had a lesson 45 mins before it was supposed to start so we had to run straight from the gym, changed, run to the store, buy a Book of Mormon to give to our friend, run to the building all of our study material was in, run to the building our lesson was in, and plan our lesson in less than 15 minutes. It ended up being one of the best lessons we have ever given. 

Tuesday 2/15:

I didn't write anything down for today and I don't have any pictures so I have next to no recollection of what we did today :( I do know based on my class notes we learned how to say countries in Slovene. We also had a big devotional tonight! The coolest thing about this was that choir was reinstated now that covid numbers have gone down, so nearly my whole district and I sang in it. We sang Lead, Kindly Light.

Highlights:

- I finally confronted an Elder in my district for never saying hi or waving back to me - turns out he just had absolutely no clue I was there - he said he will make sure to acknowledge me every time - this became a funny inside joke between my district where we say hi and wave obnoxiously to each other. 

- I have gotten hit in the face by a volleyball twice and both times it helped us get the point so I am slowly becoming more and more like Scott Sterling (for context go to YouTube and search Scott Sterling Studio C - there's a soccer and volleyball version)

- I walked directly into the "bathroom closed for cleaning" sign and fell