Sister Training Leaders, Quorum of the 12 and Long Days

So the big news for this week is that my companion and I were made the sister training leaders for our zone! This basically means we get back to our apartments 15 minutes later than everyone else... Haha, not really! It's fun! But so far we've just gone to training meetings. I also had to talk in Sacrament meeting on Sunday! Hermana Fife told me she had a "feeling" I was going to give a talk. I thought no way! Because an entire district in our branch was leaving. So of course, I didn't really prepare a talk! Then I hear, "We'd like to hear from Hermana Hoffman and Elder Nonu..." Oh dear.  We're learning about the gift of tongues really good this week! that and how preparation is a good thing!

We had a powerhouse of authorities here at the MTC this week! We counted 6 apostles at our devotional, Bednar, Oaks, Nelson, Christofferson, Anderson, and Ballard! We heard from Elder Christofferson about the Worth of Souls and man was that good!!! I hope this keeps up, because we love hearing from these amazing men! here's to hoping for President Monson next week!

What else, what else?? The days here are forever long, but they're all full of the same thing, so I feel like we've done absolutely nothing.  Hermana Fife (another Hermana in our district) says every night about how much she has to write in her journal, and I look at the two lines in mine that say "Good day. Pretty much the same as yesterday. Night." and just nod my head... Yup. So much to write! Our basic schedule looks like this: Wake up at 6:30, get out of bed 6:45, breakfast at 7:15, class at 7:50, teach lessons at 10:30, lunch at 11:35, gym for an hour, class again at 1:45, dinner at 5 class for 3 more hours then plan for 30 minutes for the next day (which is exactly the same, so I don't know why we plan! Haha!)  Once you've written that in your journal, you're good to go!

Today I saw Evie Friedbaum! I've missed that girl so stinking much! We were up at main campus for lunch after we went to the temple and I was looking around for her like crazy! But she never came. So we went to the mailroom to chat and I had them look her up for me, and she had just gone to lunch as we had left.  Luckily we caught her later, and did hugs, and smiles and all that fun stuff. 

I also met my mission president this week! President and Sister Clayton are probably the nicest, sweetest cutest couple I've ever met.  Besides my parents of course! :) They showed us pictures of their family, gave us licorice and were all around amazing.  It's probably one of the greatest blessings I've gotten here, being able to meet my mission president already! 

My companion and I are ready to get out of here already, even if our Spanish isn't! But that's ok! I can say "Soy una misionera." Y Puchika (Misty, how do you spell that???) So I'm set as long as I'm around Guatemalans!

Pictures:

1: Meeting our Mission President... Terrible quality picture, but oh well!

2: Me and Hermama Lamb at the temple

3: (Some of the) Elders in our zone

4: Sisters in our Zone

Well, I love you all hope you have a fantastic day!

Vaya con Dios!

Hermana Hoffman

Well How About that Two Week Mark?

I can't believe we've already been here for two weeks.  Time is flying by! But then I read other people's emails about already  being out for a year or whatever then I feel a lot safer in how much time I have left!

This week was incredible.  Of course there are hard days, but one of the very first things a missionary has to learn to be successful (especially at the MTC) is to get to work and focus on the good moments! If you only focus on the bad, life is hard, the mission sucks and you don't get anything good out of it! I've seen that in a lot of missionaries here.  They just don't appreciate that this will only be for 18 months!  Speaking of the crazy missionaries, this week was the wave of boys just out of high school! They're all so little! And some of them are obnoxious! Haha, but we love them! ......

Our devotional this week was SO GOOD! I'm finding out more and more that this is the best time to be in the MTC. We've had two apostles come and speak to us and this week it was Elder M. Russell Ballard. He talked to us about how noisy the world is, and how right now we're blocked from a lot of that noise, but we won't be for long.  He talked about not being ashamed of the gospel of Christ, and following the prophet. It was so powerful hearing the testimony of Elder Ballard that the apostles CAN NOT lead us astray.  Wow. Poderoso!  And rumor ison Sunday, we'll have a member of the First Presidency here!!! AHHH!!!!

Speaking of Spanish, it's coming along really well! Puedo entender mas de antes mi mission! I understand now why missionaries think they're so good at their language here at the MTC, then realize what it's really like out in the field! Our teachers talk to us so slowly! But it's all good!

One amazing experience we had this week was getting a "lecture" from Hermano Toone.  (Who'da thought I'd ever call a lecture amazing, right???) Our teacher is the "boss" of a lot of other teachers, so he has a lot of people observing him.  With that comes the expectation from all of the other teachers that our district must be the best.  So when we're not the best, they send emails, notes, and texts telling Hermano Toone exactly what we're doing wrong.  One said that we were playing tic tac toe noisily. The other said we were singing inappropriate songs (Bee Gee's!) And Hermano Toone goes, "I don't tell you this to make you feel ashamed. I honestly couldn't care less what you do, and I hate that I get all these emails and such telling me what they think is terrible.  I love you guys and just want to show you how many people are watching you." He said more, but that was the effect.  I learned that day that people will want to change 1 million times more than an angry yell or dissapointed look.  I think that was the most Christ like demonstration I saw this week!

And because we need a funny story, this week my companion and I were teaching a lesson to our investigator and I had just finished "God is our loving Heavenly Father" and my companion goes right into Joseph Smith.  We had about 5 other topics to talk about before we got there, so I kind of shook my head and went along with it.  We backtracked a little, but eventually made it out alive.  But later, we were talking to our investigator and he just started laughing. Apparently I didn't hide my shock well, and I had the strangest look on my face! Goal for mission: Control my facial expressions!

Sorry if I'm all over the place right now! I just have so much in my head I want to tell you guys! Thanks for all of your support and love though! It means the world to me! I'm so grateful for this opportunity to be serving the Lord! If it wasn't hard, it wouldn't be worth it!

You guys are amazing!

Have a great week!

Love, Hermana Hoffman

Week 1 in the MTC

Hey all! How's it going? It feels so weird to think that life goes on outside the MTC while you're here.  Logically, in my head, everyone should be paused where they were at a week ago... And I've been getting too little sleep so I apologize if this email is CRAZY!!! But hey, that's missionary life, right??

Well, I don't remember what I've said in my journal/letters to everyone, so I'll just tell you everything! Or at least everything that I can in the next 30 minutes!

I'm doing INFINITELY better than I was last week! Everyone tells you that the first week at the MTC is the hardest week of your life, but the reality never sets in until you're in the 9th hour of studying and you're starving and you'd really love to walk over to Jamba Juice but you can't.  Gee, Hermana Hoffman, could you complain anymore?? But that said, I have seriously had one of the most spitirual experiences of my life here.  We've already started teaching our investigator, his name is Jose, and he's so cool. You can tell when he's really not interested in your lesson cause he'll start texting. He knows that it bugs us, but he does it anyways, I think to "prepare us for the field" Anyways, last week I shared 1 Nephi 17:50 with him (PS, READ THAT SCRIPTURE!!) and he grabs his phone.  I had just felt the spirit so strongly and I was so mad that he grabbed his phone! I thought "What the heck?" But then he asks in Spanish I can barely understand, "What was that scripture? I want to share it with my friend." I was so shocked.  I think that's the moment this work finally became real to me. I knew that this guy was a member, but still, I saw change in his heart and eyes and I knew he felt the spirit.  This work is so true and I can't get enough of it now.  

We met another investigator on our fist night and he's from Guatemala.  His name is also Jose! For Misty: I was so happy!!!!! We talked about Pana, Antigua, Rehu (I don't know how to spell it!) And he said that place is HOT! Well, we ran into him again today as a district and I could understand 89% of what he said. And we laughed and it rocked.  After he left, my district turned to me and asked how in the world I understood him.  I just laughed and said, "He's my people.  I get Guatemalans." Thought Misty would enjoy that!

My companion, Hermana Lamb is hilarious! We decided right off the start on the first day that we wouldn't hesitate to tell each other if something was bothering us. That turned out to be such a blessing.  The other hermanas we live with have had major struggles and are just starting to become friends. Let's just say we had some really quiet nights at our apartment.

Oh speaking of apartments, ours is filled with food!! Thanks for all the packages and stuff from home! You guys are amazing! My district gets mad at me cause I get so much stuff from you guys.  I don't feel bad enough to tell you to stop though... 

As far as the Spanish goes, I'm remembering so much from school and Guatemala.  I seriously think my district is getting sick of me talking about Guatemala.  But it's a part of my heart now, so that's not going to change! #sorrynotsorry. I have to really motivate myself to study though, because I know my Spanish is still terrible, but we're learning things in class that are super simple.  So I'm forcing myself to practice past tense now.

The food here is actually really good! Here at West Campus, we don't have a soft serve machine, so instead on Sundays and Wednesdays, we get to have BYU ice cream in the little containers. It's so good! And we had spaghetti last night so you know I'm happy.

We got to hear from Elder Quentin L. Cook at our devotional this week and it was stunning! My district is also singing in the choir and it's making Tuesday my favorite day of all.  Here's to hoping we get another dynamite speaker next week!

Well, until I get more of this computer stuff figured out, I think I'll have to have a little bit of shorter emails.  I love you all and I'm praying for you! Don't ever forget that you're right where the Lord wants you and if you aren't he'll move you! I'm figuing this out now.  God loves you.  He has a plan for you and He will always protect you.  Say your prayers, read your scriptures, work hard and eat right. Do good.

1: me and my comp

2: my district

3: temple today!

4: random picture of my desk

-Hermana Hoffman