WEEK #9! Last Week MTC?!?!?!?!?!

 Is this seriously my last week in the mtc?! This week has kind of been a whirlwind not going to lie!

 Sestra King and I panicking over our last week - fun fact she had to write this backwards for it to reflect correctly in the picture

Wednesday 3/9:

Pdayyy. As always temple was amazing. Natalie went at the same time as me so we were able to just sit together and be in our own little bubble of home. I will say this in every single email but it is such a blessing to have her here. I love her so much. P.S to all of my other roommates from college I love you all so much too. On the way back from the temple I got to PET A DOG!!! So exciting. 

Tradition post temple selfie with Sestra Wendt 

Then I did laundry and wrote a bunch of emails. It is so good to get emails from friends and relatives so if you have time send me a quick email! Gym was really fun! In the beginning we played a round of horse. My comp betrayed me and got me out. Later I joined a random group of elders who were playing volleyball so it was just two on two for the longest time. Class with sestra kralj for tonight! We taught her a lesson, did grammar stuff and talked about weather which was super fun. Today I also got to say goodbye to a bunch of missionaries who are leaving to go into their missions. I know they will do SO amazing!!

Thursday 3/10:

The coolest thing ever happened. I had a dream and I was literally dreaming IN SLOVENE! Every time I spoke in my dream it was in Slovene. I vibe with that. The rest of the day was mediocre. Sestra Voigt and I got snacks from the creamery. I got two cheese sticks, vanilla and chocolate pudding, a drink, and gummy worms. That was kind of a bad decision because everything was lukewarm and did not fill me with joy. 

Me with all of my lukewarm snacks :(

Later on Sestra Voigt and I ran to the cafeteria to practice with Natalie and her comp Sister Glorious for our musical number on Sunday. We are singing I Know That My Redeemer Lives/I Feel My Savior’s Love. 

Mid choir selfie with Sister Moon, Sister Cragun in the background, and Sestra Voigt's hand 

Class was SO FUN! Brat Kunzler was teaching which is always a party BUT  we were combined with the Croatian missionaries! We did a bunch of random stuff.

Friday 3/11:

Class with Brat Kunzler. I don't really remember what else happened besides Sestra Voigt and I taught one of the missionaries who just got home from Slovenia. The lesson went pretty good. All of the Ukrainian missionaries got their reassignments today! Elder Wendel, Natalie, Sister Wakefield, and Sister Penfold are all going to Poland!!! So freaking cool. They will still be able to touch the lives of the Ukrainians because of how many refugees are in Poland. Gym was so fun. Barely anyone was there but we played volleyball 3 on 3 with a random group of people. They all had only been there for two days (newbies lol) and as we played we taught them a bunch of funny words to say like [svaka čas - good job, smrt - death, spet - again, ne dobro - not good, joj - just an expression like wow, mislim da - I think that, etc] Sestra voigt and I went on an approved split so she could help Sister Moon (the German sister in our room) teach a lesson in German. I hung out with the Croatian sisters. We went to every single mural in t4 and took pictures of them which was so beautiful. A pretty chill day overall. 

The Croatian sisters and I in front of the beautiful chandelier in t4

I took some snazzy pictures with the Croatian sisters and their fancy camera 

Saturday 3/12:

Pretty good day today! Morning class was with Sestra Kralj. We did some grammar work with numbers. Numbers in Slovene are really hard but IT'S OKAY! I CAN DO IT! The weather was SO nice today. Sestra Voigt and I just soaked in the sun for thirty minutes. It was so good but then we actually had to go work so we went back inside.

Sun baskers!!!! 

Dinner was so really fun. I kept seeing people I knew and talked to them for forever. I only had time to eat an apple. So nutritious. Night class with Brat Kunzler wooooooo! We literally spent almost the entire class doing a grammar review. We needed a lot of help haha. After class we went back to the dorms and it was an absolute party. Sister Moon and I did a face mask and then randomly just started arm wrestling. I won. We laughed so hard and just had a grand old time. Sister Moon also attempted to massage all of the knots out of my back. It was not very successful. I was squirming all over the place and laughing like a maniac.

Late night selfie with Sister Moon and Sister Barney

Sunday 3/13:

Today was a good day! I didn't write down anything in my journal whoops. 

We sung our song in church today! It was so beautiful. 

Beautiful sunrise on Sunday

Beautiful sunrise on Sunday ft. me

We had a bunch of meetings all throughout the day which were all centered around Jesus Christ, who He is, His Atonement, and how we can see Him in our life more. So amazing. Later at night Sister Barney (other German sister in our room) and I made key chains while talking about our lives and whatnot. We ended up talking about our life stories late into the night. It was so amazing to get to know her more. Sister Moon and Sestra Voigt joined the conversation later on so it was a big group therapy session hahaha. 

Monday 3/14:

Not a bad day! I saw Keldon while we were waiting for class to start. We hung out and chatted until we both had to leave. The message he left on the board was a little hard to translate hahaha. Even Brat Kunzler was having a hard time figuring out what he said. Regardless, I love getting all of his messages. I am going to miss having my brother so close when I leave. 

Keldon's sweet note 

Morning class with Brat Kunzler was kind of heavy ngl. We taught a specific lesson in slovene and honestly it went really rough. After the lesson he told us that during this lesson, he felt the same way as when we taught 5 weeks ago (aka not good at all). It was pretty rough to hear that especially with us leaving so soon. I was already struggling with fears of inadequacies. But you know what it is okay but we can only go up from there. The rest of the class was not a vibe. We were learning a really hard grammar concept and I could not wrap my head around it. The Croatian sisters walked by when we were learning that and apparently according to sister mefford we looked so sad, hopeless, and like we wanted to die haha. She was not wrong

Mirror selfie!

At lunch my district and I had a really intense discussion about how long we thought we could survive if we were in the Hunger Games. I said maybe top ten Elder Galloway said he would either die immediately or top 5. Elder Wendel said that if the other elders killed the sisters he would be fine because he didn’t think he could ever kill a sister (that was comforting to know that given the chance that Elder Wendel and I are in the Hunger Games together he will not kill me). I can't remember what everyone else said about the Hunger Games thing.

Also while I was in the middle of my hunger games spiel, I looked up and keldon was standing right in front of me. What in the world. That was the weirdest experience for me to look up and casually see my brother right there in the lunch room haha. Apparently it is one of the last days at the mtc for his class so he went and ate lunch with them. Super sweet.

Keldon sighting

It was such a nice day out. We went to the travel office and tried to find out anything about travel plans. Nothing yet. Class with Sestra Kralj. I almost cried because she talked about having a last class soon together. I can't remember what else happened. When we got back to the dorms Sestra Voigt and I talked in Slovene about the most random things.

Tuesday 3/15:

Today was actually a really great day! 

Breakfast was super chill! I snuck myself some fruity pebbles (my fav cereal) from the gluten free area. It made me very happy. It still doesn’t taste as good as the original but hey I’ll take what I can get. 

FRUITY PEBBLESSSSSS WOOOO

We went to class and sestra tuckett taught it. I almost started crying in class again when she mentioned that this was the last Tuesday we would have as a class. Also I have noticed that I automatically start translating things in my head which is really cool but also weird how I just do it without thinking anymore. Class was very very good today. We had a really cool guest come in to talk to us today. Her name is Ann Madsen and she was one of the people that helped bring the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints back to the Yugoslavik area - Slovenia included. She is 89 and will be 90 in September. She is such a powerful woman. She spoke all about missionary work and gave us loads of advice. She also shared some really cool experiences she had in her life and at one point she made me cry because I could feel the Holy Ghost with me. I could feel that the words and the things she was testifying of were true. So cool. 

Ann Madsen and the Croatian missionaries <3

Night class with Croatian missionaries 

Another really really cool thing that happened after this class was we all opened up our emails and boom FLIGHT PLANS AHHHHH!! it is coming and it is coming up fast!! I cried after opening it because I was so excited haha. 

I will leave next Monday. I will give more details later. I have no clue how time zones are working out and how the math adds up but I am pretty sure overall travel time is at least 30 hours? Please don’t fact check me on that. Regardless, it is a very long time. We went to the mtc store really fast and Sister Moon and Sister Barney were there. We literally spent a whole 45 minutes trying on all of the different dresses and cackling. All of the dresses either look insanely good and were also insanely expensive or they were too short or just looked so wrong. It was hilarious. I love our German sisters.

Sestra Voigt and I waiting for everyone to come to dinner

I stabbed myself with my toothpick and now have a hole in my hand. After gym, we hurried and prepared for our last lesson with Kaden!!! I was pretty nervous about the lesson but also pretty chill because I knew this was the last one and I probably will never see him again. The lesson ended up going so freaking well - so good. I felt so comfortable the entire time. The ENTIRE TIME. It was so amazing - of course my slovene wasn’t perfect and casing went straight out the window but it was so cool - I was also able to understand so much of what he said. After the lesson he asked if we had any questions for him and so we just switched into english and talked a lot about a bunch of stuff. It was so cool to talk to him. He gave us some sweet advice about missionary work and told us our slovene was really good. He also walked down with us and it was so crazy to see him smiling and laughing and just being himself and whatnot. He is so chill when he is not in his Slovene persona haha. We ran to dinner and ate pretty fast so we could go to choir on time. I HAVE NO TIME TO FINISH THIS EMAIL UGH.

Quote of the week:

"One of the German sisters genuinely thinks you're Australian. She has not heard your real voice." - Sister Moon

Highlights:

- I was told by Elder Galloway that my eyes usually seem like they peer directly into his soul and have the power to set him on fire but today they just look like they are peering straight into his soul and can see exactly who he is but can’t do anything about it - I don’t  know how I feel about that haha

- We failed our room inspection on Saturday

Our failed room inspection - notice how only my area failed everything 

- When they insected our room on Tuesday, we failed in EVEN MORE - I don't even know how 

This email is very very rushed. I'm sorry!! Also because I am going to be in Slovenia the next time I send out my email, send me any advice you have!!!! It can be about missionary work, how to deal with mean people, how to teach, etc. Whatever you want! That would be so amazing!!

I love you all so much and can't wait to send you my next email from Slovenia!!!!!!!

<3 Sestra LaRose