Week 2 at the MTC!

Tuesday is Kaitlyn's P-Day (preparation day) and so we got to hear from her again today. This week she was pressed for time again, not only because the computer she emails from, kicks her out after a certain amount of time but she said she got a TON of letters this week. She is really grateful for them but it cuts down on email time.

She's not complaining though so keep sending letters - she loves them.

• Good news and bad news: Kaitlyn's companion Hermana Krambule said a prayer and asked that they wouldn't be distracted by their really good-looking teacher and then the next day...he was replaced by a new teacher, Hermana Keller. She's relieved and a little disappointed. She loves her new teacher though and feels like she was sent to her specifically. She says they're very much alike and she is good for the sister missionaries when they need to break down or they're getting stressed. Hermana Keller is 23 and served in Florida spanish-speaking.
• About the "Pilot Program": Her district was randomly selected for this teaching technique/ experiment where they basically take the teacher out of the equation and they teach themselves Spanish by relying on Faith. The teacher is there if they have questions, but rarely actually "teaches." Each teacher comes for about two hours a day and during those two hours they pretend to be a progressing investigator and they have to go out and role play with them in Spanish. They have taught the first lesson in Spanish five times now. All the other Spanish districts teach in English the first 3-4 weeks and then transition to Spanish. Everyone feels bad for Kaitlyn's district though. She says it's really hard because the vocabulary is pretty much just gospel words and the teachers always talk so fast. She says that as horrible as the program is, they are starting to to see that they are better than the districts they started with in Spanish. When they have Zone Meetings they talk a lot faster than the other missionaries and can conjugate as they go along.
• Funny Learning Stories: When missionaries teach the First Discussion they discuss how we believe that God has a human body just like the rest of us - of flesh and bones. "Bones" in Spanish is "Juesos." A similar word is "Juevos" which means - balls. Another word that is similar is "Jueves" which means Thursday. She said they were teaching and realized they had said that God has a body of flesh and balls. Another story is that last night as they were leaving their "investigators" her companion accidentally said "See you balls!" When she meant "See you Thursday." She said they couldn't breathe, they were laughing so hard.
• Another story: During the same First Discussion they're supposed to ask the investigator to read a scripture from the Book of Mormon, but they didn't plan ahead so they had to wing it. Her companion thought she remembered one about families being together forever but all they had were their Spanish Books of Mormon. So they guessed and shouted out 3 Nephi:11? They looked it up and it was about getting baptized or you will be damned...not exactly the scripture they wanted to convey...
• Another story: Her companion Hermana Krambule is a pilot and on of the Elders were asking about how many women were pilots and she told them they were rare. Elder Elkins (who is a favorite of theirs) said "Wow, you're just like Anne Frank." And they questioned him by saying "Yeah just like her except the Holocaust and all that. Then he said, "Oh I meant Rosa Parks!" And they had to question him again and said "Minus being Black and the bus...I think you mean Amelia Airheart." She said it was pretty funny.
• Pranking Story: New missionaries came in on Wednesday and they heard a story of one of the districts pranking them. It was in a Czech program and their teacher asked them "Who will give the prayer in Czech?" Since it was their first day none of them knew the language so they told their teacher that. And so the teacher said "Are you saying you don't have faith?" Then one of them volunteered and they all knealt in prayer and the missionary gave the prayer in perfect Czech! They said they looked like they were going to pee their pants! Then they finally let them in on the joke - that the "Missionary" that volunteered was actually one of their teachers. Mean!
• Gym Time: She says it's fun and compares it to recess. They play foursquare and kickball, volleyball, and horseshoes. She says she's actually sore from playing kickball. She says they're all competitive and even though there's a rule that they can't keep score - she says they totally won!
• Sundays at the MTC: Sunday at the MTC is not like a normal Sunday - it's very long and exhausting. They have meetings back to back and everything is in Spanish. They all have to prepare a talk every week because they're randomly selected to give talks and they never know who they're going to pick. They get to walk around Temple grounds on Sundays too - she says it's kind of boring but it's time outside which is nice.
• Sick: I guess Kaitlyn was really sick this last week - today's letter was the first any of us heard about it but apparently she had a really bad cold - enough that she had to leave campus to go to the Dr. and to the pharmacy. She says she's never been so sick with a cold.

Terms:

*First Discussion: Missionaries break up lessons about our church into different discussions so the people they teach aren't overwhelmed with information. The first discussion covers many aspects of our church and our beliefs.

*Zone Conference: Missionaries will get together periodically in their Zones/ areas to discuss different aspects of missionary work.

Any other questions? Feel free to leave a comment or email jessajill@gmail.com. I can't promise I'll know all the answers but I promise I'll find them for you!