04 September 2011

Letter from MTC - 25 August 2011

Week One at the MTC

Dear Family and Friends,

It is finally P-day and I am finally writing my first email from the MTC. I apologize for any confusion about when I was going to write. I sent out a few paper letters implying that you would recieve an email from me last Saturday, but I was mistaken. This was our first mini P-day but we were not alloted any email time like I thought we would be.

First I want to say THANK YOU for all the many amazing letters, DearElder.com messages and incredible baked goods I have recieved. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to get mail and how much I appreciate and need all of your support. Everyone should use DearElder.com while i am here in the MTC. It is really great because, as many of you know, they print them out here the same day you send them and I get to read them. It is so nice after a long day to hear from some familiar voices. Also, be sure to include your address in the letter so I can write you back. On the same note: Eveyone please send me your addresses, You can reply here on the blog and I will have a family member forward them to me, or you can write me on DearElder.com and I will get it that way. I will try very hard to respond to any letter I recieve. i don't have tons of time but I have been finding many small moments here and there to send letters out. So, let's send letters. Everyone wins!

Well, here is the update: I am alive. and well. And very happy. I am honestly enjoying the MTC much more than I expected to. There is so much energy here. I love having a period for such intensive and devoted study. There is a a great energy here and it is fun to walk the halls and peek into classes learning every language imaginable--Finnish, Hungarian, Tagalog. Spanish definitely seems to dominate around here though and people are always greeting each other by saying "Hola Hermanas!" or "Hola Elderes" when we are walking the hallways.

I am in a GREAT district here. There are more sisters than elders in my class (6 sisters, 4 elders). This is very rare and people are always surprised when they walk into our class and see them women outnumbering the men. It is a lot of fun. When i first arrived I was briefly in the intermediate spanish class, but soon they switched me and my companion into the advanced class. This means we are only here in the MTC for 3 weeks (I leave around September 7th although I haven not yet received my flight plans) and that we are studying with mostly native spanish speakers. Here are some breif descriptions of some members of my district. All of the sisters listed below are also my roommates:
6 sisters

1. Hermana Dunn: My companion!She is from the central coast of California and is also studying at BYU. She studies Business, Music and Spanish. As soon as we met we were really excited because we realized that we have several mutual friends and crossed paths or nearly crossed paths several times before coming here. She is good friends with Justin and Jacob from my freshman ward at Wyview Park. I love being her companion and I think we work really well together. We will be flying down to Argentina together but will part ways when she goes to the Buenos Aires North mission and I head up to Resistencia. Sad!

2. Hermana Orellana: Hermana Orellana is an amazing woman! She is from Guadalajara Mexico and has a vachelor's from BYU Idaho in Business. She speaks French as well as Spanish (of course) and English and has studied abroad in France. She also lived and worked for a year in New York City. She is the oldest in our district at 23 and she is going to the Los Angeles mission.

3. Hermana McWhorter: I love this girl. She is originally from Arkansas and she grew up on a little farm doing all sorts of cool, traditional old-timey things I love like milking cows, grinding wheat, raising chickens and picking fresh blackberries in the woods. She is studying art history at BYU and we also have lots of mutual friends. A big "HELLO!" from both of us to the Art History Hot Chocolate House girls. We both love you. and love that we both know you! She is going to the Buenos Aires Bahia Blanca Mission.

4. Hermana Abreu: A fun, fesity girl from the Dominican Republic, she converted to the church when she was 16 years old. She is very upbeat and talkative and always gets us laughing and brings with her a strong spirit. She is going to California, Fresno mission.

5. Hermana Hernandez: A very calm, kind loving demeanor. She was born in Mexico but moved to Utah when she was 3 so she speaks perfect accentless English and Spanish. She also studied at BYU--psychology and nutrition. She is going to Denever North mission.

All of these women are bright, beautiful powerhouses that are going to do great things on their missions. I know it.

There are also 4 great elders in my district, I will tell you about them next week as I am running out of time today!

I am really enjoying the MTC training program for the most part. It has a lot of documentary film elements to it, which I love but which can also be distracting to me (I am always sitting there wondering to myself how the camera affected the content and how they filmed it, etc). We have used a neat audio/photo documentary project on the new york times website several times called "8 Million Others." Look it up. It is really good and exactly the type of work I am interested in doing after my mission. I also have enjoyed the reality tv-show-esquer program called "The District" that we have been watching. Basically some film crew followed a bunch of missionaries in the last couple years and we get to watch them in action. I like how people-focused it all is ("teach people not lessons") and how we are counsled to really get to know people and discover their "question of the soul."

My favorite part so far was a talk given in Relief Society by a woman named Sharon Eubanks who works with the humanitarian department of the church. I am going to write you all about it next week,. It was one of the most spiritually powerful experiences of my life. I love that woman. Look her up, if you can and see what else she has dlone. She inspires me!

I am loving my time here in the MTC but I am even more excited about getting over to Argentina. I feel like the language learning is going well and it has been especially good for me to speak all day with native speakers. I love you all and look forward to hearing from you throughout my mission. Please write to me!

love,

Brooke AKA Hermana Parker

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