Birthday!

Buenos Dias,

Next week is our last full week in the MTC!!!!! Then it's off to California to realize that we really don't actually know any Spanish or anything about how to share the gospel, but we have a fire in our hearts that others will be able to see through our eyes. Then we can really start to set the world on fire! I don't have much time this week, so I'm just going to include a few scattered stories about what's happened lately. (Some of them might be from past weeks that I just haven't had a chance to write about yet.

3/9

Elder Bennett was teasing one of the Sisters in our district, I really can't remember what about, but he came up with the scripture James 3:7-8. Look it up if you want to know exactly what it says, but it says something about how the tounge cannot be tamed. Then Elder Bennett said and I quote, " My tounge's not tamed! It's like a wild beast in my mouth!" It was absolutely hillarious and we all got a good laugh out of it.

3/11

We got new Zone leaders last Sunday, and they're really great guys. To illustrate let me tell you a story about Elder Workman. He came into our classroom one evening to tell us something, don't remember what... but the truly funny part came as they were leaving. He said super quietly, "You were studying so quietly when we came in so don't let us ruin that spirit." The funniest part was that he then backed out of the room making shushing motions with his hands and just before the door closed he looked at us all and whispered, "Shhh." The best part is that he wasn't even trying to get a laugh. He was completely serious. He and his district are leaving Monday or Tuesday so we'll lose him as zone leader on Sunday, but I'm glad we had them for the week that we did.

3/11

I don't know how many of you know about the tradition of passing down or inheriting things in the MTC or in the mission, but it's a big thing among the elders especially. They have certain things that they don't want to pack into the field with them, and so they just pass them down to younger districts, and it becomes a tradition. It's a pretty big honor to get something passed down to you, and the Elders are generally pretty exclusive about it. I'm sure you can imagine why with most of the things that might get passed down among 18 and 19 year old boys. However the night before he left one of the Elders who I've become friends with pulled me out of our classroom for a little bit. We've kind of adopted eachother as siblings. He's my big younger brother, and I'm his little older sister. :) He handed me a binder full of conference talks, and told me that he wanted to pass it down to me. It had been through 3 elders before, and he'd never heard of anyone passing anything down to a sister, but since I was his favorite person in the MTC he wanted me to have it. He did make me promise that if I gave it to a sister I'd make her promise to give it to an elder just so it didn't stay with sisters for the next 50 years. I have to say, that made me feel pretty special.

So I really only have time for one more story, and this one is especially for my little brother Jackson!!!!! (I love you!)

3/12

Elder Dohner in our district hurt his knee while we were playing volleyball during gym. He's been on crutches, and he hates it. On a particularly nice day all the elders wanted to study outside in the sunshine, but he really didn't want to go all the way out there on his crutches. In our rooms we have desks/chairs with wheels on them. So to fix the problem and make it so everyone could go outside, but Elder Dohner didn't have to walk, Elder Pahulu pushed him outside in his desk. It was a little bit scary to watch them navigate bumps in the sidewalk, hills, and doorways, but it was accomplished there and back without any mishaps. The things the elder's in our district do amaze me sometimes, but as Hermana Clifton reminds me almost daily, "Boys will be boys, and that's why we love them."

Love you all,

Hermana Marin Hardy