Entering the MTC

So Happy to be here!

Hey all!

So I am already almost done with my second week here at the MTC.  Time goes by so fast!!  It's like a warp.  I am leaving on TUESDAY!!!  Like, in 4 days I'LL BE IN GERMANY!!!!!  Anybody else freaking out, because I am!!  I seriously cannot believe it.  It has gone by so quickly its insane.  The days are long, and we work for like 16 days, and yet it feels like I just got here and I've been here forever at the same time.  It's weird.  Good weird though :)  You just learn so much from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed that its like youre a whole new person!  I am so happy here, and I can't wait to get out into the field......NEXT WEEK!!!

I LOVE all the letters from family and friends!  Seriously guys, thanks a million!  It absolutley makes my day.  I never knew how much mail meant to a missionary, haha but I totally get it now.  It's like what we live for, so keep writing me!!  I love ju guys!!!!

So week 2..................its actually been a little hard, but it has been a really good learning experience.  I got really really sick, and still am.  It's pretty funny, I sound like a toad.  Like really, I do.  I finally went to health center and they said its a bad virus and gave me some medicine and told me to skip at least some of my classes everyday to sleep so that I can heal before I get out into the field.  You know me, it had to be on doctor's orders to make me stop.  I have just been so frustrated because I want to go to class and learn and be able to do what I am supposed to, especially since I am only here for two weeks  and have so much to learn to be a missionay.  It has been humbling though, and I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for me.  As long as I am working as hard as i can, and staying obedient, I know that He will bless me.  And its been an opportunity for me to love Sister Tolman even more, something I did not think was possible.  She has seriously been the very best.  My whole Zone has been.  She made me go to the doctor and has been so good and sweet about us having to leave class so that I can rest.  She is so sweet and she has served me so much this week.  I am so lucky to have her!

Also, on that note.  I have legit the coolest branch at the MTC.  They are from all over the world and they are all so cool.  Definitely lifelong friends, at least with the ones who will come to the US after the mission.  Sister Tolman and I picked up the new sisters last night and showed them around the MTC, which was so fun.  They are all asain or hawaiian.  So funny, I seriously love these kids.  My district, the germans, and the only white ones our floor.  Besides the Mongolians, who are also in our Zone.  They can't proselite there so they are actually called to go teach English.  So cool right?!  They are the funniest Elders I have ever met for sure, and we all make fun of them because the all have like 6 weeks left and we're leaving ON TUESDAY!  They're great though, I am definitely going to miss my Zone.  Also...remember how I told you Elder Peterson is pretty much going to be the 12th Doctor?  Welp, found out he has his own sonic screwdriver and is going to be a physics professor......our theory continues....seriously I love these other missionaries.  They are so funny and so good and their testimonies are all so strong!

We had in field orientation yesterday which was amazing.  It sounded dreadful because it is like 6 straight hours of instruction on how to be a missionary outside of the MTC.  It was amazing though!  I learned SO much!  One thing in particular was the how to exercise faith as a missionary and know that you can truly bring about miracles.  We preach with the voice of angels, which is pretty cool.  I am just so dang happy to be here and to be a missionary.  I can't wait to teach!  Just about all my fears about that have melted away.  The only thing I'm still nervous about is the language, which is still really hard, especially since we don't get any German instruction.  Its okay though, I know it will come and that the Lord will be with me.  That is one thing I have really learned:  The Lord called me, with all of my strengths and my weaknesses because He knew that I could make a difference.  He didn't call me here to fail, and He will be with me because I am His missionary.  Its such a peace and a blessing to know that I have been endowed with power and that I have been called to this mission because I can make a difference.  I just absolutely love being a missionary!

would be nice.  Its good though,, I'll just get a giant one in 17 1/2 months!  I love you guys so much, and I know that I am where I am supposed to be.  I am so happy to be a missionary.  I know I am doing God's work because THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!!!!!!

Love your little missionary,

Sister Dal Stringham

P.S.  I love the journal.  Like a lot.  I love how well my family knows me.  I am just so happy every time I write in it :)  Also, I love my district because we will be on our way to class and sudden;y someone says, "Up up up up up the stairs we go and then we come to the tunnnneeellll," or  we'll be eating and someone will come out with, "I've never had hobbitses before!  Is it nice?  Is it crunchable?"  Seriously, I am not lying when I say I have the COOLEST district ever.  Can't wait t see these sisters again after the mission.  And I CANNOT WAIT to see you again.  So blessed. 

  

Bye-Bye!

Into the MTC!