Week 1

Friends and Family,
Julia Bendixen is serving a mission in Lima Peru, but she is in the MTC right now in Provo, UT. I am her sister and will post the emails that she sends and wants her family and friends to read. I've never blogged before so I apologize if the blog looks lame and if I mess stuff up. Enjoy her letters!!
-Cheryl

Dear Family and Friends,

I just entered the MTC on the 27th.  When my Dad dropped me off outside, another missionary who had been here for a few weeks helped me with my luggage and I got in a long line where I received my classic name badge.  As my Dad was pulling away he yelled something really loud in.. Hawaiian?  I don't know what it was but it made me smile and all the Elders around looked and were like "that's awesome." Haha. I thought so.  Even though I have no idea what he said. 

When people say that the MTC is hard, they weren't joking.  Every single minute of every single day is planned out.  I don't know what's wrong with me, but most of the Sister missionaries I'm blessed to work with and room with have already broken down in tears.  After the first day we had already entered a classroom where the teacher spoke only Spanish to us.  About half of us in our District have taken Spanish before, but I especially feel bad for this one sister who has never even taken a language.  She took ASL, so the conjugations and masculine and feminine forms of words etc. are completely new to her.
 I got lost multiple times on my first day, but everyone is so nice!  It felt a little like being at BYU-I where everyone says Hi to you and is happy and helpful except ten times more so. 

By the second day, we were told that we had to teach a lesson in Spanish to an investigator.  It turned out to be a former missionary pretending to be an investigator he had, but it was still really nerve racking!  We all felt like we didn't know any Spanish whatsoever.  I'm still amazed how we did that lesson.  The words just came.  We didn't know how to conjugate everything, but through actions and a lot of "lo siento"s we were able to share a message about the restored gospel. It wasn't easy.  He kept asking why he should do things and we had to respond without reading our lesson plan haha! But, I thought it went really well since he didn't tell us that we should come back better prepared like to other companions in our district and since he said he would pray about the Book of Mormon. =) It's seriously amazing how even our sister who only took ASL, is able to communicate in Spanish.

The Spirit is so strong here and I'm so grateful to be here. 

I have yet to break down like many of my sisters.  I feel like at some point God is going to seriously humble me, but I keep praying that I will be humble, partly because I don't want to have the experience of being humbled. haha.  Whenever there seems to be a lot of negative things happening i.e. I've had this really bad cough.. possibly walking pneumonia? for basically this whole week, and we are a little late to class because we keep losing our key cards and other essentials, and whenever I'm about to be a little disappointed, I look down at my name badge and I can't help but smiling. 

I'm seriously so blessed to be in this place where we are all learning how to be better missionaries, and to be surrounded by so many people who are so devoted. 

I've learned more Spanish here in two days then I did in French in two years of French Class. :) And I'm not lying when I say that.  It's incredible. 

I feel like I've been blessed by having a great first companion.  a.k.a that other missionary who walks around with me all the time for those of you who are reading this and are unfamiliar with that term.  We are from similar backgrounds and we are both 21 instead of 19.  Her name is Sister Butterfield.  Because we are around everyone from our district ALL DAY, I already love them all so much and we are all really good friends. 

I can already see how we are changing and we've only been here a little over 3 days. 

An interesting scriptural thought I'd like to leave you with is something that my companion's friend wrote her in a letter.  I thought I would pass it along.  It's about Alma.  Alma the younger in the Book of Mormon.  Alma didn't have the full gospel of Jesus, Christ. He didn't know everything, but he continued doing what the Lord wanted him to do.  Learning is a process. It's not all going to come at once.  We aren't always going to know  all the answers, but we can have faith that we are doing what the Lord would have us do, the Spanish language will eventually come to us Hermanas, and that the Spirit of what we teach will touch the hearts of some people who want to draw closer to Christ.

I only have 30 minutes to respond to emails and to write a group letter each Pday or (preparation day) on the computer, (the rest of the time my pday will be on fridays), so sorry if these emails become shorter, and also for the poor grammar in them etc...  Thank you so much to all of you who have already written me! God bless!

Love, Hermana Julia Chanel Bendixen