more pics from the MTC

soon to be there!

These four walls

spring has sprung

study hall

district

Familiar faces! 

friends from home

                                                  Elders Hale and Jones... going to El Salvador!

                                                                                 yup

week 9 - june 18

Hola familia!

Well, only a couple more days before i leave for Argentina! So, we have 9 missionaries in our district, and we are all going to the same mission, and we were all supposed to leave Mon, but we found out yesterday that 5 of them didn't have their visas. So both my companions got reassigned temporarily until their visas come through. Hna. Buys to Colorado Springs, and Hna. Mitchell to Knoxville Tenesee. And then 3 other elders as well. I think mine came through because i got my mission call about a month before them. It stinks though, they were pretty bummed at first, but they are ok with it now. We were just all excited to go to Argentina together, and now that won't be happening.

Ok, so i probably will not be calling from Texas, because from the time we land in Texas, til the time we take off from texas is about an hour, which is not much time. So I will probably have to call from Salt Lake...we are meeting at 11:30am on Mon and taking off from here (The MTC) shortly after. But our flight doesn't leave til 2:50pm from Salt Lake. So somewhere between 12:30 and 2:30pm i will be calling. That is what seems would be the easiest. sorry Dad, you might have to come home for lunch. Unless you just want mom to give me your work number, but i think it would be easier to talk to both of you at the same time. The MTC doesn't tell us anything about calling home, their policy is "we don't encourage you to call, but we don't encourage you not to call"...so it's basically up to the missionaries.

But ya, i definitely am getting excited! I'm so excited to just immerse myself in the language and the people and the culture. A lot of the other missionaries are afraid they don't know enough Spanish, and we definitely don't know enough, but I have faith that it will come in time. i think i am just more excited than anything. but i'm sure when i get there, i'll have more concerns. The MTC has pretty much been the same this week. Not much changes here. We did go to a couple meetings, one about language study in the field and the other about health and safety. And they told us that lots of girls lose their periods in the mission becuase of the changes in culture, food, climate and then stress on top of that. So the sisters were all pretty excited about that, including me! Sounds like home is pretty busy though. Mom, it sounds like you are just getting involved. You should try to share the gospel with the other parents that you meet through these things, because that's the best way. And don't be shy about it, you've got the Lord on your side. Just follow the spirit and look for opportunities. Missionary work is soooooo important, and so many people would accept it if they just knew about it. Sometimes i think, "why was i born a member of the church, and others not?" I think the Lord trusts us with His work. We just need to trust in Him as much as He trusts in us.

Sarah, thanks for your letter! I think that's so cool that you gave up your soccer tournament on Sunday! I'm glad you decided not to play because that shows the Lord He is more important to you than soccer, and He will bless you for that, i promise you that. Something that I am learning is how important the little things are. Things like, don't play soccer on Sunday, or don't wear flip-flops to church, or pray every morning and night, go to church every sunday. When we obey ALL of God's commandments, our faith is increased, and hope is increased, our joy is increased, and we are more intune with the spirit of the Lord.

well, now you will have to write to my e-mail address! i look forward to hearing from you next week, and i will tell you about my trip!

love, hermana amundsen!

P.S. thanks for sending me Luke's letters. I know 2 missionaries going to his mission in about 3 weeks, and i told them to look for Elder Facer. Maybe Luke will get to train one of them!

(elder hale, and elder jones)

12-week missionaries...oooo, it would be hard to be here that long.

week 8 - june 11

HOLA!!!! 

We just got our travel plans like 10 minutes ago! we are so excited. We leave Mon the 21st of June, and we leave from here at 11:30am (not bad) and then our flight leaves at 2:50pm where we will be flying to texas! and then from texas we leave at 7:35pm and fly to buenos aires, argentina!!! we are scheduled to land at 7:55am in argentina......their time. But we still have no idea if we have our visas, and they didn't tell us if we could call our parents or not. They really don't tell you anything here.. they just slip something into your mailbox when they need to talk to you, otherwise there is no one we can ask questions to. But i'm sure we'll find out later.

Well I wanted to say thanks for your letters this week, it's nice to have support from your family. It helped a lot, i really miss being able to talk to you guys when i'm sad....i used to be able to just call you when i was at school. But, thanks for your letters, it makes me feel a lot better when i get to hear from you. Also, thanks for all the details of the wedding mom, i loved it! i could imagine it so much better with the details. 

So next week should be my last letter from the MTC, so don't send any dear elders basically after Thurs cuz i don't think i will get them.  Mom, can you please send me some new knee highs, i am almost out! make sure you send them right away though, so i can get them before i leave. And please, if there is a choice between lighter than my skin or darker than my skin, please get the darker ones, the light ones just look silly. Also, can you get me a pair of pearl earings from like target or somewhere, because i really miss those....and also my blue striped shirt with a collar from gap? And i do like the watch mom, thanks! it is perfect! as far as the food goes, i've been trying to get more protein but i usually do eat it.. And we actually get $8 a week for either the vending machines or the bookstore, so there is food avialable, but i'm just not always available to go get it.. But i have been sneaking fruit from the cafeteria after breakfast just in case i start to die again..I'll be sending a package home probably right before i leave with things that i won't be needing in argentina. hopefully my bags are alright as far as weight goes, cuz we did get a bunch of books!! I'm definitely ready for Argentina though.. My teacher Hno. Del Toro said he didn't like the MTC, but that he loved Argentina! so i'm excited! 

This week was better though. We've just been excited because we can see the end in sight.. My comps are pretty cool, we are close and all but it's just different with them. They aren't like my family or my really close friends from home, we are all really different but we get along well. We definitely try to help eachother out. Hna. Mitchell has had a  few things going on at home that were really tough for her, but she has been handling it really well.

I forgot to tell you guys that i was asked to say the prayer at a devotional about 2 weeks ago. I said the closing prayer when a Seventy came, and my companions and i sat up on the stand the whole time.. that was fun.. i didn't trip or anything, thankgoodness, because it was in front of about 2,000 people. and this last devotional we had Robert D. Hales come, so that was a real treat too. So we've heard from 4 different Apostles since we have been here!!! that doesn't happen that often, so we got really lucky.

But ya, i feel like i have grown a lot and i know that i still have alot more to learn.. but i'm excited to go and talk to the people in Argentina.. I always talk to the spanish missionaries here. I just met an elder from Argentina a couple days ago, and one from Chile, and they are so funny, i love talking to them. Today they kept trying to say "world cup" and i had no idea what they were talking about, and when i finally understood they were just laughing. But apparently in Argentina, while the world cup is going on, no one comes out of their houses.....he said they are "fanatics!" ok.. gotta go.. thanks so much for your letters! one more week here!!! so excited.. hopefully i'll be able to tell you more next week.. 

Love you all! Todo mi amor! 

Hermana Amundsen..

week 7 - june 4

Hola mi familia!

Thanks for the pictures mom, i loved them! i can look at them just fine, but if i want to print any off then ya, i gotta go to another room and they print off in black and white and it takes time off my time to e-mail. But i loved seeing the pics and everything looked so beautiful!! I bet it was so fun. And ya, it was frustrating being outside kris's house and not seeing him. hopefully he will get a chance to let me know what happened.

This week was really tough for me. Really every week here has been tough and i just haven't written that in my letters because i focus more on the fun things that happen or our adventures here. But, this last week was just hard. It can be very stressful here, really stressfull, and it doesn't help that we are tired too. But last sat i got to be el nativo for the 3rd time in 4 days and that was hard, and then we had alot of things that we had to get done and i was feeling very overwhlemed as usual, and then all these little things just got to me. I got pen on my new skirt, my nylons keep ripping, i was having a hard time staying awake, i couldn't understand a lick of the spnaish my teachers were saying even if my life depended on it, and the elders wouldn't shut the window when it was freezing, and i was super hungry because we have 5 hours between each meal, and all these things, and then we went to go teach a couple elders in our district and they were "atheist"...of course! and i just broke down in the middle of our lesson and just started crying. It sounds so silly, but the MTC has been really hard on me emotionally. We have fun a lot of times, but it's really hard for me to be inside a class all day, for 6 1/2 weeks now. and i had my weekly interview with my branch pres. who is amazing, and i was telling him about this and we were just laughing at all the silly things that were happening to me. He made me feel really good, and told me how hard the MTC was for him too, but how much he loved serving in Guatemala and the people, and he just made me feel really good.

But i'm not complaining about anything. I really want to be here. i know i am supposed to be here, i just thought i would love the MTC and i really just want to go to Argentina right now. But i know that the Lord is stretching me so that he can teach me the things i need to learn. And i am grateful for this time here, it's just different. But i know that the Lord is trying to help me, and this is the fastest way for me to grow; to be stretched beyond what i think i can do. But thanks for all your letters and your love and support. i look forward to them so much. We should get our travel plans next week! love ya!

hermana amundsen