My Dear Familia: (y amigos)
This email is incredibly jumpy-everywherey, so prepare yourselves.
So I kind of had this idea that the MTC was going to be like General Conference every day. Inspiring messages, intense language classes, and hours of Seminary-like discussions with your district. It's kind of more like, work. Study. Prepare lessons. Speak spanish. Teach lessons. Learn teaching techniques. Work. Missionary work. I get it now. And because the work is so demanding, it's easy to become discouraged here. My first few days here were not the greatest. Lots of things so readily come to mind like, "I can't work this hard" "I'll never learn spanish" "I can't focus" "I'm not feeling the spirit" "I miss pre mission life". It took a few devotionals and Elder Bednar's "Character of Christ" talk before I realized that this work isn't about me. And when it becomes about me, it becomes hard, discouraging, impossible, and a little ridiculous. So I have to "forget myself and go to work". And as soon as I was able to do that, (I still have to remind myself a lot) it becomes infinitely better.
I don't even know where to start. It feels like I've been here forever. I've already forgotten what it's like to be called by my first name. :) And I don't really remember what I've already told you, (I can hardly remember my first name anymore) but I guess I'll just...write some stuff.
All the missionaries here teach a lesson on their third day. It's a thing. So our teacher pretended to be the investigator, and we had to knock on the door, get to know him, and teach him. Me and my companion Hermana Bonner were extremely nervous. Being in a district full of fluent Spanish speakers is a great way to learn spanish, and also a great way to be reminded every hour how much spanish you really don't know. Yet.
The lesson went terribly. We hardly made any sense, we were nervous, we jumped around from one thing to another, but we did it. And it was great. We felt so good afterward. Yes, the language was shakey, but we bore our testimonies, we offered heartfelt prayers, we followed the spirit, and we did it. And that's what everyone tells us here. Teaching lessons isn't about the lesson, the language, or our comfort. It's about walking in with the spirit, and saying the things God puts into your heart so that the investigator can feel the spirit. And when we met with our next "investigator," and applied these things, the meeting went much better.
The progression here is incredible, which is probably why everyone says "the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days". Every day you learn so much, and you don't even think about how much you're learning and progressing until you remember that a week has already past. It's a little weird.
Our district is great. We're trying to figure out how to get these cameras working, so I can show you picutres, but the computers aren't letting us hook them up, so we'll see. But we all get along and have a great time, which is a big help during our short time here. Me, my companion, and one of the Elders, Elder White, are all going to Mendoza. Besides us two are going to Portland Oregan, two to Texas...somewhere, one to Ventura California, and one to Chile Concepcion. Pretty exciting.
Oh, almost forgot. Thanks for all the prayers for my visa, because it came! I got my travel plans! I leave next week on August 11. We'll fly from Salt Lake and get to Georgia at around 5 where we'll have a four hour layover. And guess what that means? I get to call you all! So we'll see how it works when i get there i guess, but you should expect a call somewhere between 5 and 9 PM on August 11. At nine we hop on another plane and arrive in Buenos Aires around 8 the following morning. Yum. I'm so excited. I've learned so much here at the MTC, and the spirit of God's work is here every day, but I can't wait to get out into the field.
I guess that's all. Thanks for the letters, emails, prayers, and love. The church is true, and this work is real. Hopefully you'll hear from me on Monday!
Hermana Cannon
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