One Month

 Buenas Dias! Today I have been in the MTC for exactly a month Que loco, no?

Thank you for the letters and stuff. It is the best!!!! You are definitely the cool kid when you walk out of the mail room with a package.

Most of our zone left to Mexico on Monday, so there is just my district (5 hermanas) and a brand new district of 4 elders left in our zone. It is fun being the ones who show them all the MTC ropes. Since the elder who played piano left, I will be playing the piano in sacrament meeting now! That will be fun. There are a few Spanish hymns that are not in the English Hymn Book and they are really awesome. Hermana Wood and I played our musical number last Sunday for sacrament meeting. During the song, some of my music fell down while I was playing! Yikes! I just kind of made the part up that fell on the floor... it wasn't my best improvisation but the rest of the song went ok haha. We are also playing our song for the New Missionary meeting today!!!

We are taking this song on tour!!! haha (MTC tour)

St. Patty's outfits

We will be getting our flight plans on Friday!!! Woo hoo! I am so excited. I hope I have a layover somewhere cool. I will write you (probably mom) about them when I get them so you don;t have to wait until wednesday.

Sometimes I come home to my apartment at night and I find a surprise from Mally! Woo hoo! Her roommate does the cleaning checks for the Wyview apartments and leaves me goodies :)

Basically everyday at the MTC is the same... but it is still really good. Sundays are nice because we get to watch Music and the Spoken Word and there is always a speaker for Relief Society and sometimes we watch mormon messages in our classroom for an hour haha. We can use lds.org which is nice because there is a lot of good stuff on there. 

Also thanks for the exercise band, apparently at West Campus you don't get a stretchy band! What a let down. I was testing it out last night and snapped myself with it hahaha. It was great. It didn't feel great, but it made me laugh. I can't believe how much I laugh here at the MTC. Hermana Wood and I are always having a good time.

I hope you all are doing so well! It is weird being away from you for so long... but in 17 months we can hug and stuff again. Family is such an important part of the gosepl. How cool is it that Heavenly Father put us on the earth in families, a perfect place to love and learn and grow, and then we get to be with them forever!!!!

I have never wanted to learn so much about the gospel as I do now. Thank you for the gospel principles book! I am eating it up. There is so much good stuff in there. 

I love you so much! Be strong and remember that we have so much light in our lives! 

D+C 6:36 Read it. Love it. 

Les quiero mucho!!!!!!

Hermana Fleischer

Beunos Dias: Half way to Mexico

This week is basically my half way point for the MTC! I have a little less than 3 weeks here! It feels like I have been here forever. I am really excited to go to Mexico, even if it is almost 100 degrees in Merida this week!!!! 

One of our teachers is leaving this week, he's worked here for a while and he is getting a real person job. We are going to miss him so much, he is our favorite.

Last Sunday Hermana Wood and I played Nearer My God To Thee (I played piano and she played violin) for the Relief Society meeting for all the sisters in the MTC! It went so well and it was pretty fun! 

I saw Sister (Debbie?) Smith, from our stake! Ray Smith is in a branch presidency at the MTC so I saw her at Main Campus. 

Fun Fact: The wife of one of the counselors in our branch presidency is from Orem and babysit Neal and/or his siblings when he was little. Kind of a fun connection. I remembered that Lynn was a bishop so that's how we found that out. I don't know her maiden name!! But her married name is Durfey.

Spanish is coming, and I can understand most things in the lessons we teach! But there's a lot to learn. I am SO glad I already knew some Spanish before we came. I can't imagine starting from scratch. I still have a long ways to go. 

Sometimes we catch a bus to come to main campus to eat lunch, we have just done that a few times. But it is fun to have a change of scenery. The 2 campuses seem so different, and sometimes I forget how to greet people in English because we also do it on Spanish with all the missionaries on West Campus. I'm also to the point where the only songs stuck in my head are hymns haha. 

There is a lot I didn't know about missionary work, or more like I'm just learning so much more everyday!! The Lord's work is hastening, whether we are a part of it or not. But we get the opportunity to have a front row seat of watching people change their lives as they grow closer to the Savior. We teach pretend investigators but we feel so much love for them!!! It's awesome. It is so cool how the gospel applies to all of our needs and as we help them know how they grow in the gospel with faith and prayer and the scriptures. The scriptures are like a text book, and we have a lot of tests that we go through, but guess what. It's an open book test! WE have the answers and the way to receive revelation and guidance through the scriptures and we can access them at anytime! 

Especially with all the technology! If you have a smart phone, you can have all the standard works and everything just in a little place! So cool.

Well, Hope y'all are having a good week and that the business is going well!

Today I have my last dentist appointment and I will get my crowns! Yay! And see Mom.

I love you so much and miss you so much. 

I can't really think of many specific things to tell you guys but I hope that this is enough! Ask me any questions I guess.

Also dearelders are the best too. Mom- thank you so much for sending me a bunch! They are great.

Semana Dos

 Hello Fam!

I'm still doing really good here! The MTC treats you pretty well. 

Some days I look north and feel like I can see our house from here. Especially when we take the bus to go to the main MTC campus. I still kind of feel like I am home, especially after going to the dentist.

The dentist! Was the worst. But I'm ok now and my smile should be back to normal next week! 

There is not really a whole lot of new things to tell you, because we basically do the same thing every day haha. We are basically always learning, practicing, or studying something. I love it.

But my companion, Hermana Wood and I are practicing a musical number, (she plays violin and I'm playing piano) that we might play at a devotional or something.

I will let you know more about what's going to happen. You can check out violins and cellos and sheet music at the MTC which is such a blessing!! We have time to practice on Sunday and P-day.

I am so excited to hear about the business. I hope everything goes well!

Last Thursday I took the front runner up to Salt Lake with about 20 other missionaries to meet with the Mexican Consulate to get our Visas!!! It was interesting to be out of the MTC as a missionary. When you are in the MTC, every one is a missionary and you don't stand out much. But once you go outside, you DO stand out and you are a light to the world!!! Something we talk about is that you are planting seeds, even with people you don't ever talk to! So it's very important to be dignified because we are representatives of the Savior!!!!

It was fun to talk to some people on the train and tell them a little bit about missionary work. I really love public transportation.... I don't know if that's weird. But I just love seeing a huge variety of people that have all come from different places and experiences, and it's fun to think about where they might be going or take a moment to make conversation with them.

We are all so different but we are children of our Heavenly Father! He loves us SO much. More than we could ever wish to comprehend. 

We may feel like we are one in a billion, that we are just a small dot on this huge earth, that we lack talent or knowledge. But we have the creator of the universe on our side!! We have the Savior of the world to rely on and to find comfort. 

We have the divine potential to be great, to love, to influence, and to enjoy life!!!!!

The missionaries in my district and in my zone are becoming great pals. Almost everyone in our zone is going to Guadalajara, mexico. I will miss them. I will really miss the sisters in my district who are going to Puebla and Mexico City West! So far I have not met any sisters in the MTC who are going to Merida.... I guess I will be a loner for now.

Thank you so much for sending me the map of Mexico!! I will be living there in about a month.... hooray!

I love all of you so much! Never give up! Never lose hope! Have a great week! Send me letters! Yay!

Week #1

Hello everyone!! 

Thank you for the emails and the letters and the packages. That is a super awesome thing while you are a missionary.

Well, I have made it through my first week. The first few days were really long but I actually love it here. It has probably been the longest week of my life, but a very good one.

To answer some of your questions:

My companion is Hermana Wood, she is so sweet and nice. She is going to Mexico City West. She is 5 feet tall. We get along so well. Yesterday I don't remember why but we were laughing so much together.

We have gym time every day, and it is really fun. Sometimes I shoot hoops or play volleyball and sometimes we do my workout that I made. It is a really good break in the middle of the day. We exercise in these huge bubble tent things.. they are really cool. If you drive on freedom boulevard in between wyview and raintree you can see them.

I see Bro. Justice almost everyday which is fun. I see lots of people I know all over the place. The food is actually pretty good. There are lots of cookies :)

I have only met a few elders going to Merida, but no sisters yet. This week I am going to ride the train to Salt Lake to get my Visa! That will be fun. 

Basically, we study all day. Which I actually really enjoy. Especially with lunch and dinner and gym time to break it up. But we study Spanish and we have personal study and companion study and study study study!!!!!!!!! Some days my brain hurts. But I am getting used to it. We are teaching lessons and praying in Spanish. We have "investigators" who are just teachers, but they help us practice teaching. That is one of my favorite parts. Our teacher is so cool! He's just the best. 

We don't really have any free time except a little bit at night but after I write in my journal and a letter and brush my teeth and stuff, I just go straight to bed. 

My roommate plays violin and so we are practicing a song to play in church or maybe devotional. We'll see. But there is a library of music you can check out from and also you can check out a violin!

The time we have to practice is on Sunday and P-day.

Sundays are the best. We have church with 2 zones, and then we have relief society with all the sisters in the MTC. Then we have some free time to study, write letters, practice piano, watch mormon messages, take a nap, whatever. But then we have district meeting and Sunday Devotional!!!! So fun. We go to main campus and then after the devotional we stay there and watch another movie, we can choose between some previous firesides and such. 

Today is P day! We went to the temple which was my favorite temple experience so far. We just do laundry and chill and email and my district is going to Brigham's Landing some time today, which I will not tell you so you don't try to find me. :)   It is actually kind of tempting not to tell you guys where I am going to be so we can meet up. But it's against the rules so you will just have to soak up these emails for a while. 

I love wearing my name tag! It's so great. It's great that I am a missionary now!!!!! So much fun.

I love MTC West, because we all speak Spanish. 

Have you guys sold my car yet??? Also can you give me a Queenadilla update?

How is Dad and the business doing? Are you guys working on the next home show??

Tell Kaleb I am so excited he is a deacon. 

Also, would you mind sending me a few things? I would love you forever. Well, I already do.

I would love for you to send me a map of Mexico. Just 8 x 11 black and white is totally fine.  But of the whole country por favor.

And I have a necklace that is a gold circle and the bottom half is sea green, can you send that? I really like it and I forgot to bring it.

And my mexico stickers!!!! They should be either on my dresser, or in the top left tote by my bed. I want to put one in my Spanish scriptures and on my Hymn Book.

Well, I know this was kind of a long and random email.

I am doing so well!!! Also thanks so much for the laundry bag and detergent, good thing to have to do laundry right??

The church is true! I feel so blessed to be a part of the building of the kingdom of God!!!! I am so excited to help bring people to Christ in Mexico! I am so excited to go to Mexico in 5 weeks!! I learn so much about the gospel everyday! It's so exciting. Love it.

Love you and miss you!

Hermana Fleischer

Ps. Dearelder.com is a good way to send letters. It's all online and it's free!!!! But they print them out for us so we can get them everyday! 

First Day in the MTC

Always a head above the rest!

Dearest Mom and Dad,

My first day was kind of crazy but super great. And super long.

Being back in Wyview in kind of fun, brings back good mems.

My companera is Hermana Wood.  She is from Mesa, Arizona + she is really sweet + I love her already.

We walk back + forth a lot from Wyview to Raintree, where the cafeteria, gym, + classrooms are.  It was kind of chilly today.  I hope it isn't very cold the rest of the time. 

Today I saw Bro.Justice, and 2 people from the singles ward.  Julia Blackham, who works at the MTC, and Spencer Rust, who is a missionary.

I met a few people going to Merida as well.

There is so much to learn + feel at the MTC.

It is a one of a kind experience.

But I think it will be alright.

Spanish is so much fun.  I love speaking it.  There is so much to learn.

Think about your purpose here on earth and what it means to you + what you would tell someone if you were telling someone?

I love you so much!

I am doing great so far!

Hermana Fleischer