Wow, if you happen to see Emily anytime, tell her congrats for me! That is really exciting! I see a lot of Japanese speaking people in my building so it's exciting to hear that she'll be learning Japanese as well. Good luck to her!

I have been here for 4 weeks. FOUR! What the what? In 2 weeks I will be on my way to Chile. So bizarre. I should be getting my travel plans this Friday, so I will be able to tell you when I leave and when I can call from the airport next week. Supposedly the flight is 14 hours. Yeah, I'm not looking forward to that at all. There's an elder on the same floor as me who is also going to Concepcion, except he was supposed to leave 2 weeks ago (I hope I haven't told you this story already) but when he got to the airport he realized he'd lost his passport. He has no idea where it is. So he's currently waiting for a new passport. He keeps getting bumped around from companion to companion. And he's already fluent so it's not like he has more Spanish to learn. He's supposed to leave by Saturday though.

Also speaking of this Elder (His name is Elder R by the way) at dinner the other night we were talking about Mexican food and he mentioned quesadillas. So I said ques-a-dil-las, like I would say it at home, and he busted up laughing. We laughed for a couple minutes, but we didn't know why it was so funny. I guess when you're in the MTC, which is devoid of any normal humor, you resort to laughing at things like that. We also laugh at gospel-related jokes that would not be funny in any other context. That's what happens when you live in the MTC for this long.

Yesterday was one of the most terrifying days of my life (which I'm sure will be trumped by my first day in the field). We had TRC again, which is when we have the opportunity to speak with fluent Spanish speakers. Well yesterday we had to Skype. Not only did we Skype, but we Skyped with a woman who knew almost no english and who was from Concepcion (which was also really exciting, but after listening to her speak, I have no idea how I'm going to understand people there) for 40 minutes! Usually our lessons for TRC are 20 minutes, so we were all way under-prepared. Things were going alright at first and then there was this long pause (which in actually was probably only, like 1-2 minutes, but it felt like 1000 starts were born and died in that time) I had no idea what to say and neither did my companion. My mind went completely blank of everything and I was just searching for one Spanish word I could say. I finally did, but boy, that was not my favorite part of the day, I'll tell you what. It was so awkward. Good things did come from the lesson, though (I think) We told her we were going to Concepcion and she got really excited (I could tell, because she was talking really fast) I think she told us to find her family, but I don't know. She also told us some things about Chile like the food and the people (I think) She also showed us her grandson who was super adorable. He would be in the background kicking things while we were talking (or trying to talk) I finally got to bear my testimony of the Book of Mormon and how it's helped me in my life and then FINALLY it was over. She was super nice though. I just felt super dumb.

On that note, my Spanish is coming along, don't worry. I'm just used to the Spanish of my teachers which is slow and easy to understand. I'm no where near fluent, but if I put in a lot of work in the next two weeks, I should be fine for Chile (I hope)

So, some sad news (at least for me). There's a missionary meeting thing on June 21st that the first presidency and the quorum of the twelve is going to be at and the MTC choir gets to sing! For the first presidency and the quorum of the twelve! (that means Uchtdorf!!!) Except.....I'm leaving on the 18th! I'm so sad. That is the coolest opportunity ever and I'm going to miss it by a few days. :( One day I will see President Uchtdorf. One day.

 

--Insert more gushing about my awesome teachers, Hermano Staples and Hermano Lounsbury--

 

Have I told you about our progressing investigators? When we first got to the MTC we had Matias (who ended up being Hermano L) and now we have Victor (Hermano S) and Pedro (Hermano L again). It's cool because even though there are mock lessons with fake investigators, we feel the spirit strongly every time. It's like the Spirit is training us to listen to him and follow his promptings. It's hard. The other day, we practiced feeling the Spirit. Dang, that was hard! But it's good to get the practice in. I've had some really cool moments where the Spirit just took over. There was one lesson with Pedro where we were trying to explain a difficult concept, which is hard enough to expalin in english. My companion asked Pedro if he understood it. He kind of did, but he obviously didn't understand it completely so I started to explain what it was. Honestly, I don't even remember what I said, but I just started talking. The words just came to me...I had to think about a couple and how to conjugate them, but other than that I just spoke like I would speak normally. I explained it really simply and easy to understand. But it totally wasn't just me, it was definitely the Spirit helping me, because before the lesson I had no idea what I was going to say about it.