Dear Family

Week 4 - Provo MTC

Jessica-- you met Zac Efron?!!!!!! What the heck?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! I AM SO JEALOUS!!!!!!  You can’t write me that and then not give me the details!!! I literally teared up when I read your letter that’s how jealous i am! I read it at dinner and I started screaming! Everyone thought like someone died in my family haha! Did you get a picture?! Please tell me you did!! And send it to me if you did!!!!! I’m tearing up again right now. Email me or write a letter asap telling me everything!!

I met Coach Hunsaker’s son this week at gym.  He was playing bball and I was over playing volleyball and I was talking to his companion and he was saying how he was a legit basketball player at UVU and that his dad was the coach there!  And I was like wait are you a Hunsaker?  And I think he thought I was like a creeper at first but I explained how my dad knows his dad and that I’m from North Manchester!  He thought it was the craziest thing ever!  Small world!  I’m pretty sure he is going to Mozambique and learning Portuguese too!

 I’m going to miss Sister MacArthur and I’m sad she’s leaving.  We were getting good at planning/teaching together.  So now I will be a “solo” sister and I’ll get a cool sticker on my nametag – that way I won’t get in trouble walking around with just guys.  It has been kinda weird teaching with elders. I thought I wouldn’t like it, but I actually don’t mind it!  They let me choose who I wanted to teach with between the two other companionships in my district.  I didn’t know who to choose because I really like all of them and we are all good friends, but two of them seem to have a little tension between them and I felt like that could be awkward, so I went with the other two.  I think it was the right choice. They are both really great missionaries and I’ve already learned a lot from them! It’s nice to teach with other people sometimes, it has shown me a lot of things that I should be doing that I never thought of before!  I was nervous they weren't going to want another person teaching with them but they have been really nice and welcoming!  When we say a prayer before our lessons, they always say they are glad that Sister Bedke is with them. That makes me feel good!

Now I teach their investigators and not mine anymore.  It was weird on the first lessons with them because even though it’s just our teacher acting like someone, I still felt like I didn’t know him because it was my first time teaching the person he was acting as! And they had taught him like 6 lessons already and knew him really well so they were asking him about all these things and I didn’t know what to say! But it has gotten better now.  It was easier to say what I wanted to say when I was with Sister MacArthur, but this will be good for me.

So this week has been interesting.  After my companion left, the other girl in my room left for New Mexico a few days later.  So I had to move all of my stuff out of the room because we aren’t allowed to have a room to our self.  It took way longer than you would think! And I’m just gonna have to pack it all back up in two weeks to leave again.  I’m now rooming with three girls that are in my zone and got here a couple weeks after me.  They are all really nice, but I kinda feel like an outsider because they are all companions and have class together all day and are really close, and I don’t really know them that well.  Hopefully that will change though.

I could get my reassignment as soon as this Friday!!!! I can’t believe it!! I’ll email you if I get it this weekend, but most likely I won’t get it till next Tuesday or around that time!! Also, the MTC gives you some warm clothes for free! And I heard they are actually really nice and cute! So that’s good. But hopefully I’ll go somewhere warm and won’t have to worry about that.  A guy in my zone who is two weeks behind me got his visa yesterday and already left this morning.  I was jealous.  But at the same time I am really excited to see where I get assigned! There is a website where you can check the status of your visa and mine is still on the first part- as in they have received it but haven’t done anything with it.  Two of the guys in the district are on the last step! They’re lucky!

 I’m trying to focus better this week in personal study time.  Usually it turns into our district talking time.  But I kinda feel like I’m not progressing as much with my Portuguese!! I’ve set goals for myself and that really has helped so far with me staying on task. I’m trying to memorize scriptures in Portuguese and learn 10 new vocab words a day. My life would be so much easier if I was just fluent.  I can’t wait for that day to come!

 I’ve seen Isaac a few times here. He said he is doing great so far!  It’s fun every time I get to see him.  I can’t believe he is leaving the MTC before I am! If i was English speaking, I would’ve already been out of the MTC for 2 weeks!!!

 I keep forgetting to mention this but I wanted to let you know that I keep my part of the room so clean!! I have never been so organized in my life! You would be so proud. And I also make my bed pretty much every morning!

 I can’t believe all the snow you guys are getting! I bet it is so pretty there. Rae said she already has to go to school on 2 Saturdays? That’s crazy!  I like hearing about how all the basketball teams are doing! Keep keeping me updated! I’m glad Rae is shooting more, she takes after me ;)

 Ok well I think that’s about all for this week. I’ll probably think of a whole bunch of stuff I forgot to say and send you a letter later this week.  I’ll send pictures in a sec! Love and miss you all!

 Love,

Sister Bedke