The week

Family! 
First off, I am so grateful for all of your letters! Keep them coming because I love to read them. 

I can't believe it has already been a week in the MTC. I sincerely feel like were I to go home right now, you all would not recognize me. It's amazing how much you can grow and change in just a week. 

So, I'm going to tell you all about my district because of course they are who I am spending the majority of my time with.
First off, my companion's name is Sister Byers. She's from Utah, Heber city to be exact and is a convert to the church. So, it's super great because she, if anybody, can relate to any investigator we talk to simply because she is one. 

Second, (possibly my favorite, but don't tell anyone) is sister Mejia. She is also from Colorado, but Alamosa. She is fantastic. She is just as much of a dork as I am so we go along great. 

Sister Mejia's companion is Sister Jarvis who is from Washington. She loves to draw.

Finally, Sister Thomson and Sister Wright, who are both awesome in their own rights. (get it? Rights. Wright. Haha. So clever). Anyway, Sister Wright is from California and Sister Thomson is also from Utah but I forget where. 

So, that is the district. There are also 6 elders in our district, and I do not remember where any of them are from.

Oh, before I go on, I want all of you to know that you do not have to worry, one of the elders, Elder Hammond (I think I spelled that right) also loves Doctor Who, so I have someone to talk to about that. A couple nights ago someone was saying how they can't wear bow ties so Elder Hammond said, "That's because they don't think bow ties are cool." So I looked at him and did that finger pointing combined with that "eh!! I know what you're saying!" noise you make when you know what someone is saying, and he pointed and did it back and it was a lovely shared experience. 

One of the elders, Elder Searle, reminds me SO much of Andrew. He was really quiet at first but the first time he actually started to talking to us it made me think of him and then I wanted to hug him really bad, because it was Andrew! But not really, but I wanted to, but then I didn't, because we all know that is not allowed.

One of the teachers went for a fist bump the first day because of our shared status of BYU students (though I guess technically I am not now). But don't worry, it didn't happen.

Due to our not being able to do anything but a handshake, We made up a secret handshake for our district with the elders where we 'go for a high five' but miss, then 'go for a fist bump' but miss and then we do a handshake. Though Elder Linford and I had done one where we were going for a handshake but it was just so powerful our hands flew off and so then we brought our strength down and did an actual handshake. Because man, we don't know how powerful we are. However, we weren't sure if that was 100% allowed so we have the other one. I don't know why I explained all of that to you guys, but there you go.

Anyway, to the serious stuff. This is way harder than I thought it would be. I don't know quite what I was expecting, but it definitely wasn't this. I feel inadequate a lot of the time because I don't know so much of this doctrine. Which makes me not know how to present it. It's making me have to think about why I believe it's true over just having this feeling that it is. I guess that's what it's about though, being converted and not just having a testimony.

We did this exercise the other day of acting as if you were going up to someone on the street and giving them the book of Mormon and in 2-4 minutes having them see why they would want to read it and how they could first gain a testimony (the 2 minute version) and then be converted (the 4 minute version), and I didn't know how to do it. I didn't know how to put across something in 2-4 minutes that took me months to accept. I know that I can relate to a lot of people having been inactive for so long and coming back, but I don't know how to share that. It's hard, but I know this is what I need to do right now. I know that Heavenly Father knows that I can accomplish this, because that is what he put me here for. There was a reason I got a no so many times when I prayed about it, there was a reason that the yes came when it did. 

Also, I can't for the life of me figure out how to get the pictures loaded from my camera so that may have to wait a bit until we are no longer in the MTC (since we leave Tuesday and Pday is Wednesday. And then you can see my wonderful district and zone and all of these great people I am with, because they are really great. If you are worried about me, don't be, there are so many people here that help us with everything.

I had a blessing from Elder Phillips last night, and it was incredible. I didn't tell him a thing about what was wrong, just asked for a blessing of comfort, and in it he addressed so many things I was having problems with. One that particularly stood out was something about 'the dark cloud keeping me from reaching those things I need to see being lifted'. It was said much more eloquently, but it was along those lines. 

Jen, I know you thought it was weird how much Andrew had changed, but I completely understand now. Also, congratulations on the DECA (?) competition! I miss the waffles already. 

Ah, that's another hard part. Being SO close to campus but not being able to do anything.

Oh, I also ran into Tim here! He was cleaning one of the buildings and yelled "Sister Hunter!" And since I am terrible I couldn't tell if it was him or Aaron, which in reality would not have made sense because why would Aaron have been here? But yes. It was awesome.

Oh, and we also had the ambassador from the Czech Republic speak to us our very first day here. Apparently he's not a member but he was being shown around by the whatever you call it president and they had him give an impromptu mini speech to us and he said he selfishly wished we were all going to his country. It was really cool. 

Also! Mom, I'm going to be calling probably about 6 in the morning because our flight is at 7:10. I talked to our branch president or whatever that is called and he said he would check in to it but doesn't know for sure. So, I don't really know if the go phone thing is okay. He said he doesn't see why not but will check. If it is I may see if I could give him your email and he can email you? I don't know. I might just end up buying a bunch of phone cards. 

Allison, I will be sending your luggage weight like Andrew did. They said they would call you to pick it up so that should work.  

Love, 

Sister Amy (Pond) Hunter