WEEK #6 - Sneg!

 Holy moly - I feel like I get busier and busier every week. P.S Today we will actually get two emails haha. I am the worst at having time to send emails.

This week has FLOWN by! I have one month minus one day until I leave (I don't want to do the actual math). It was sorta rough but also really good. ALSO! QUICK PREFACE: I can no longer send or respond to messages on FaceBook Messenger while at the MTC. :( I can definitely read to and respond to emails though.

Wednesday 2/16:

Temple!!! Very cold today! Talked to my fam, which was so nice. Today was filled with running around to the gym, laundry room, store, temple, room, computer lab, and more. I had so many things to do - hence the missing email. 

Thursday 2/17:

We did A LOT today. Morning class with Sestra Kralj. The supervisor came in during our class (yes the same one that was part of my mental downfall two weeks prior) and I had to teach him a lesson in Slovene. It actually went so well. I am so stoked and proud of myself. I also know that none of this would have gone as well without God being by my side and helping me the whole time. We learned more time related things like the names of the days and months. Overall, a super fun class. Every Monday and Tuesday old groups of missionaries leave and every Wednesday a new batch comes. Today we met two Elders that looked almost exactly like Ferris Bueller and another Elder that looks like Will Smith! Played vball today like always. We had our second lesson with Kaden (the lesson fully in Slovene). It went very well! I am still slightly frustrated by how much I wanted to say but couldn't. Night class was so much fun. It was with Brat Kunzler. He is such a fun character. We were all in a funky mood where there would be random moments of silence and then one of us would just start bursting out in laughter. He had a goal to only talk to us in Slovene besides to tell us what something meant. If we guessed what he said wrong he would look so offended hahaha. We went outside for an hour and a half to practice memorizing sentences. Out of nowhere he announced that he was going to walk one way around the building and we would walk around the other. When we met up, we had to pretend like we didn't know him and teach him a lesson about the Book of Mormon. Basically we had no time to prepare. When we started approaching him, he started laughing sooooo hard. Apparently Sestra Voigt and I looked so funny because we were huddled together from the cold and looked absolutely terrified. He said that if anyone saw us in Slovenia they would think we were crazy. So funny. We redid our approach and the lesson went great. Great day overall!

Friday 2/18:

I woke up so groggy today. Not the vibe. Morning class with Brat Kunzler again. We taught him another lesson on a different topic. It went okay but it is still so frustrating when you have so much to say but don't know how. Vball! Gave a spiritual thought by myself in Slovene to Sestra Voigt and Sestra Tuckett during our night class. It is so cool to see how much I am improving every day. We gave another lesson to Sestra Tuckett later on and I was totally not feeling it but as soon as the lesson started, I just started talking in Slovene. It was like when you jumpstart a car or turn on a light - an instantaneous switch. 

Saturday 2/19:

Buckle up - today was rough. 

Today I had a really bad moment in class. I broke down (like broke down) because I was stressed and feeling inadequate with my Slovene. We had to teach an entire specific lesson in 5 minutes, 3 minutes, and 1 minute with phrases we have memorized and other ones we just know. It was very scary and intimidating because I was not confident in my ability to recall those memorized phrases, especially not under time pressure. I couldn't focus on anything else but "I don't think I can do it. I'm not going to be able to say anything. etc" I totally broke down and was crying and sobbing like crazy. Definitely not one of my top ten mtc moments. Sestra Voigt and Sestra Kralj both comforted me and gave me so much hope and peace. We ended up ditching that part of the lesson and walked to a mural in the building. We took time to just reflect and be with ourselves for a moment as we thought about God and our role in this life. I was able to find a lot of peace through reading the scriptures. God asks a lot of us sometimes and has high expectations, but I know that He is with us every step of the way. Sestra Kralj did give us stickers which made me feel a lot better too haha. Played vball with a random group of people. Did not get hit in the head today! Did language study outside today because the weather was so beautiful. Night class with Brat Kunzler - I was in the weirdest mood today. We worked on memorization by going up and down the stairs. My legs are going to be absolutely jacked by the end of the mtc. Super fun. I had a check-in with Natalie again!! So good to talk to her! We bonded over what we are struggling with haha. After this I went to the Croatian room and we talked about forgiveness and how you forgive someone who keeps hurting you. We talked way past our bedtime but it was such a beautiful and spiritual time. 

Sunday 2/20:

Really good day! I totally felt God's presence. The focus of every meeting today was about who God is again and how He talks to us. Breakfast was very funny. Elder Doxford (one of the Dutch elders) ate with us today. We attempted to take jumping pictures but it was not successful in the slightest. Our Go and Do experience was very good. I focused more on Who God is by writing everything the scriptures, talks, and personal experiences say about Him. Very very spiritual to me. Choir practice today! We started to sing a new song - Nearer My God to Thee. It was so powerful to see how many people showed up. Great fireside too!

Monday 2/21:

Woke up to snow!! Sneg is snow in Slovene (hence the title). Fun day today! We learned about food in our morning class with Sestra Kralj.

Some examples: 

Banana - banana

Cheese - sir

Honey - med

Before lunch we had snowball fight #1. Unfortunately I got hit in the face. When Sestra Voigt and I started our studies, our room was literal i c e!!! Hence the photo with the two jackets, two scarves, and one hat. There were some sweet Spanish sisters nearby that attempted to help us roll our r's haha. I may not be perfect at it but it's getting better!! Night class with Brat Kunzler. As always taught him another lesson. This one was about Jesus Christ's Atonement. This one wasn't bad but of course still frustrating to not be able to fully express myself. At night we stayed up very late talking to the Croatian sisters and the Polish sister. We talked about what they were struggling with and just had a good cry session. 

Tuesday 2/22:

It is 2/22/2022 on a TWOsday day!!! What an iconic day. 

Class with Brat Kunzler. We worked on a bunch of random stuff like a lesson, cased pronouns, and more. Had vball and did not get hit in the face. After gym the Russian missionaries told us they got an email from the travel office, meaning they got their reassignments!! One by one each of them opened it and read it to the crowd of people. It was such a cool moment. Every single missionary was assigned somewhere in England. We had Leeds, Birmingham, Manchester, London, and more. So cool. We also had two go to Scotland as well. We were told we had to move rooms today which sucks because I feel like I finally unpacked completely. We don't have to move in completely until tomorrow but I still wish we had more time. The rest of the day we hung out with the Russians in our district. Sister Cragun (one of the Russian sisters) and I spoke in Australian accents the entire rest of the day. So fun. We also had choir which was soooooo powerful. We performed Nearer my God to Thee for the devotional. It was a pretty great day overall!

Highlights:

- Sestra Voigt put her credit card in the money slot and it started eating her card

- I've gotten hit in the face almost every single day whenever I play volleyball

- One of the elders in our district drank ranch 

Reminder, if you ever want to contact me, email me back here! I can no longer respond or send messages on FaceBook messenger while I am at the MTC. I will let you know if anything else changes. I can't contact anyone through Whatsapp because I don't really have a phone number yet. I also don't have access to Instagram or anything else. I can read the messages any day, but I can't respond until my pday (Wednesday). You can also send me a letter or even a package (I love snacks btw)! That would totally make my day!! Just make sure it gets here before March 22nd! 

My address is:

2005 900 E

ADR-North, BOX #74

Provo, Utah 84602

United States 

Pictures:

1. The Croatian sisters caught us taking a nap during our comp study and took this - I can't 

2. Our attempted jumping picture

3. Our district + one of the Dutch Elders (Elder Doxford third on the top left) + the other Dutch Elder photoshopped in (Elder Smith - you can guess where he is) 

4. Post Natalie Debrief

5. Roomies + Natalie's comp Sister Glorious 

6. BEAUTIFUL SUNSET 

7. Temple time :)  

8. The Slovenian flag was up!! You can barely see it bc no wind

9. R rolling training  

10. SNEG!!!!!

11. Sneg pt. 2

12. Bundled up from how cold it is in our room

13. Sestra Voigt caught a candid of how I say my evening prayers every night hahahaha