July 7 hand-written letter

Life here is going good.  I have two companions, Sister Roberts and Sister Penovich.  We get along good, but it is sometimes difficult to work in a trio.  The Spanish seems to be coming along.  Still not fluent, but the strength of the spirit combined with what I do know seems to be a good combination.  Well, today is my first P-day and it has been a welcomed day.  I can get laundry done, write to you people, and rest from the run-around of the MTC.  It never stops here! Which is good, it'll kick the laziness right out of me.  Actually I feel more refreshed having a 10:30 bedtime cause then I have to go to sleep when I'm tired.

So how was your fourth of July?  Here at the MTC we had a freedom celebration show on the 3rd.  Its focus was more on the freedom of religion and how God paved the way through many men so we can have the gospel here in the Americas.  After that we were allowed to break curfew to watch the fireworks from BYU's football stadium.  It was nice.  A few hundred missionaries out on the south lawn, laughing, talking, and singing patriotic songs or church hymns,and somehow a group started singing a Christmas song.  Life at the MTC might be getting to them.  I like it here, people are nice and they always keep you busy, but I"m excited to go to the CCM in Peru.  On Sunday it was nice, we had a mission conference, then sacrament, and after another lengthy review of the rules of the MTC (not because we are breaking them, but just so everyone is still clear on the rules and standards), we were able to go on a temple walk.  Nothing too major, but we got to go to the temple and walk around.  I actually saw Elder Crockett (Justin) there.  We said hi and found out that he leaves on Tuesday, which was yesterday.

Again, life at the MTC is good. The spirit here is so strong and elders and sisters walk around speaking so many different languages!  I've heard Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Samoan, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Marshalees, German, Tagalo, and of course Spanish!  I'm sure I've heard more, but I don't know the difference.  Here in Utah, the weather has been good, but they keep the air conditioning going all the time in the residence halls, so inside I freeze.  I don't believe it's hot enough to justify so much air conditioning, but don't tell that to someone from Utah.  Right now I'm wearing my sweater in my room because it's 70 degrees with air blowing on us in the room.

I love you all and miss you lots.  Don't worry, they are over-feeding me and keeping us over-protected.  Today I think we get to walk around the temple later.  So if I didn't say it before, one week accomplished!  Today new missionaries also came in today as old ones left for their fields yesterday.  Yeah, we aren't the newbies anymore!  Ok, well, again, I love you and hope to hear from you soon.

Love, Hermana Wood

5 things I'm grateful for:

1) My family
2) The gospel
3) The Book of Mormon
4) To live in America
5) Surving the first week here!
( 6) Finding vending machines; here, we eat dinner so early I'm hungry again before I go to bed.)