Subject: they weren't lying. the mtc is a prison.

but i love it.

mi familia y mis amigos son el mejor.

that is no joke. i must say this has been the most eventful week of the mtc thus far. friday and saturday were really rough days, i won't lie. but luckily things have improved exponentially from there. our zone has been through quite a bit, but we honestly have the BEST branch president in the world. my great friend hermana noxon had a brother whose twin babies were premature and died an hour after giving birth. elder rico (in my district) found out his mom has cancer and will be going home sometime today. that makes me sad cause he was one of my favorite elders. two elders went home within the first 5 days in the new district in our zone. all of the above could really use your prayers. we've all been through quite a bit together, but honestly, it had brought us even closer together as a zone. since elder rico is going home and elder lunt already went home, after today the hermanas will out number the elders 5 to 4. we must be the only district in the mtc where that is the case. but then hermana alston is leaving to the guatemala mtc on tuesday so we'll be even again.

i still play knockout everyday in gym and it is still my favorite part of the day. i have a teacher who some of us don't really like (we love hermano angus....it's the hermana we can't really handle sometimes). anyway, yesterday she called all the hermanas (missionaries) our of class and gave us the "unintentional flirting" lecture. i thought it was hilarious because we are probably the least flirtatious sisters here.

funny story: the other companionship in our district, hermana alston and woffinden (and two of my favorite people in the mtc) asked me to be a member in a lesson they were teaching. they had to teach hermana barker (estefanie) who has a reputation for being a really tough "progressive" investigator. we got in the lesson and the missionaries asked if they could speak in english. they did, but estefanie kept speaking in spanish. they had no idea anything she was saying. luckily for some reason i remember nearly everything i learned in my year of spanish at byu and for whatever reason understand it really well so i was basically a translator. hermana alston asked if estefanie had ever prayed before and estefanie started to explain (in spanish) that she was catholic so she prayed to the saints. i told the missionaries what she said, but i forgot to mention that in the catholic church prayers are recitations. and apparently they didn't know that. so at the end of the lesson the missionaries hadn't taught estefanie how to pray but asked if we could pray with her. hermana alston began to pray and estefanie repeated back everything she said. all four of us were laughing so hard we were crying and we could hear the district in the observation room laughing as well. so i stopped them after "nuestro padre celestial" and explained to estefanie that we don't recite prayers, you say whatever you want to God and there is no need to repeat what hermana alston was saying. supposedly she didn't understand what i was saying (just cause i can understand spanish doesn't mean i speak it perfectly), so when hermana alston started praying again estefanie continued to repeat everything she said. needless to say that was probably the best teaching experience i have had thus far in the MTC.

i said i'd tell you more about my comps. i am running out of time so here is the 20 second version. hermana conrad is from boise, goes to byu-i, is super quite, seems like she's been through a LOT of crap in her life so it is really great that she is here. she has a really hard time with the language cause she used to have dislexia but she has so much faith and works so hard. hermana jensen is the one i met in the parking lot. she is basically just like she was in the parking lot. she's from mesa, goes to byu-i, left her boyfriend at home that she's planning on marrying so she's really emotional a lot. she is probably the one to keep everyone in line the most though cause she's the most focused. where do i fit in? apparently i'm the mother. that's what elder lewis told me. i take it as a compliment cause i know every person in our district loves their mother.

thanks katie and ali for the package and thanks all for the letters! i will be responding to those today. stephanie, maybe you should explain to cameron the difference between sisters and elders. and to everyone, read the book of mormon. i am not kidding you, every question you have can be answered in the book of mormon. also read 2 nephi 14 the last verse i think. i thought it was really cool and poetic. i may or may not have written to mumford and sons lyrics above it (from "after the storm"). i love you all and have honestly felt your love so much this week. and i've been praying so hard that you feel my love so i hope you have.

till next thursday au revior,

herm. kelli jean

peace+love