I was actually happy about it I swear but do you see that stack of bowls on one tray??? That was just one Elder who ate that OMG dead.
Hermana Keyser got some cereal for dinner on Sunday night and I nearly lost it pero esta bien.
So I'm going to try and think of anything that might have happened that I haven't mentioned yet...
Fruit on Our Faces
So this happened the other day...
I fell off the bed shortly after this was taken so lol.
I blame Hermana Frandsen. But after you work out you get hot and the girls rooms are always heated (which I'm grateful for) but not after exercise because it's so hot. Yeah you could argue to just go take a shower but we only shower when we reeeaaallly need to because we don't have enough time to be anything but disgusting hahahaha... ha. Anyways, the best alternative was putting fruit on our faces because it feels nice and cold for some scientific reason that I can't explain. Maybe I should ask Hermana Keyser.
My Dinner With the President
So one night for dinner we sat down with this friendly senior couple. We've sat with other senior couples before so it wasn't unusual. We were chatting and stuff when I made the mistake of asking, "so where are you guys serving?" Immediately I knew I asked a stupid question because the sister looked at her husband with a really surprised face and Elder Schiess and Elder Hamblin were looking from between me and each other like "Is sheserious???"
"We're serving here," the man said.
"At the MTC?"
"We're the MTC President and Wife." President Burgess said.
Ohhhhhh myyyy goshhhhh. Never have I ever apologized so much! Why didn't I look at their name tags that cleary said who they were ahhh.
In my defense though, I knew there was an MTC president but never heard his name or see his picture and I sit so far away from him during devotionals because I'm in choir. So. Yeah.
But they were so nice about it but I didn't talk very much the rest of the dinner. Everytime we see them now Elder Hamblin is like "hey Hermana Davidson! Where do you think those two are serving?" haha I think it's hilarious now. But I'm NEVER going to live this one down in the district.
Diana
So this week we got a real life investigator this week. At least I'm 99.99% sure she's legit. They just never tell you so you're always on your toes. Her name is Diana and we don't know her but we love her. She is from Ecuador and she came to BYU for school and her cousin (who is LDS) is here. She wants to know more about the church and our first lesson was pretty good I think. I can understand everything she was saying except for little words here and there that I've never heard of. It's just speaking that is really hard. Diana really wanted to know why Mormons don't drink coffee and tea and Hermana Ahlmer tried so so so so hard to explain. But she accidentally said "coffee and tea isn't bad for you, we just don't drink it," and then I made it worse by saying "sometimes weird things are asked of us but we just do it" and soooo yeah. A lot of things were lost in translation there.
But at one point she asked us why Hermana Ahlmer and I are here and it was so cool to watch her reaction as we told her how much we loved the gospel to say "adios" to our families for a year and a half and learn a new language and live in a foreign country. She grew up Catholic and so she only knew recited prayers out of the bible. We invited her to pray with us and that was probably the coolest experience. Hermana Ahlmer warned her it might be weird at first because it was something new for her and she seemed really sketched out at first. But the spirit was so strong and I tried to really focus on her needs and I asked Heavenly Father (I was the one praying) to please bless her and her family in the very little spanish I know. After you could see how touched she was by those words and guys it's just so cool to witness right before your eyes people who haven't recognized the spirit before really start to feel it.
... Kay I made it sound like the first lesson went smoothly buuuut truthfully it didn't. The spirit was strong, you just learn something about yourself and the way you teach that you can work on to be better with each lesson. We are pumped to get back in there and answer her questions much much better haha! And bring a follshetto... Darn it!
The Church is True!
So Hermana Ahlmer and I had one of the coolest experiences with our studies in preparation for our lesson with Diana. During personal study, I first started with stuff I had planned the night before to study for our fake investigator (our maestro, Hermano Parker) which was about the Plan of Salvation and I couldn't focus and I was really struggling on the inside to follow the Spirit. It just felt wrong. So finally I gave up and prayed again to ask for help to know what I should study for and for whom.
Immediately the first thought that came to my mind was Diana. It was weird because our lesson for her wasn't scheduled until a few days later and we had lesson with Antonio that night. But I went with it and I really felt like I should study about prophets in "Predicad Mi Evangelio" (preach my gospel). Out of curiosity, I looked over at what Hermana Ahlmer was doing and she was reading the exact same thing. Hmmmmmm...
And then after I had studied up on that I felt like I should look at one of the books I was told to bring but I seriously have never looked at it. I looked at the index and immediately Articles of Faith caught my eye. I started studying those and I looked over again and Hermana Ahlmer was reading them too. Was she copying me or something?
During companionship study, we started off by looking at each other with really weird looks. Hermana Ahlmer told me that she had a personal prayer just like mine and felt like she should study the same things I did and she noticed the same things too! Agghhh my mind was blown! We never discussed studying these things before our personal studies and none of us even thought to. The Spirit works in such cool ways and I love it because we had a lesson planned for Diana that we otherwise had not planned at all because of our lack of time if we hadn't followed the spirit.
I couldn't help but say, "This is too crazy. The church is true!" It's the little things that really solidify my testimony :).
Adios Elder... Uh, Quien???
So weird/funny/awkward/cool story. I made friends with this Polynesian Elder in our building from California that I still don't know his name. I don't even know why we became friends it just sort of happened. We just said "Que pasa" during break and then we had our own special handshake that we kept up until he left on Monday. He had our district take a picture with him on Sunday (he was friends with our whole district) and that was that... Whoops. Guys I just want to be good with names! Actually, I'm not even sure if anyone in our district remembers his name either hehe. At least I knew the name of his companion, Elder Barrett. I always asked him "Donde esta su companero?" (where is your companion) every time I saw him because he hated it so I of course loved it. You guys, it's so fun making friends at the MTC and you don't even have to know who they are haha!
Me Companero Toca Mi...
Soooo this really isn't my story but I struggle not to laugh every time I think of it. So we had this audio exam on the computers the other day which was super awk.... We had to talk into this little microphone and answer these questions in spanish so it went just about as good as you could imagine. I ended up just saying "uhhhhhh" and laughing with little bits and pieces of spanish here and there so there's that.
But Elder McCoy (in our district) had this question that asked him to tell a funny story that happened in the MTC. All what he said was "uhhhhh Me companero toca me - WAIT. What am I saying? NO." and that was all he said for an answer and we're expecting him to get pulled out of class sometime to be questioned because "me companero toca me" means "my companion touches me." Haha misionero chistes!
Mas Misionero Chistes
So speaking of more misionero chistes, Elder Knickerbocker this week told Hermano Roberts that he was "embarrassado"... Which I thought everyone knew meant "pregnant" but I guess for once I know something the Elders didn't. So now all the elders walk around telling everyone that they're pregnant.
Things Elders Say
"I had a dream last night that Hermana (anonymous) and I got married and I was mad about it."
"From the moment we first met, I knew you were cool and that we would be partners for life." - anonymous
"Why are you only eating salad?"
"Yeah the food here is gross but food is food so I'm eating as many burgers as I can cuz I just love food."
"Hey you straightened your hair today."
"Why didn't you curl your hair today?"
"How often do you wash your hair?"
"Do you cut your own hair?"
"Your hair looks like a greek goddess."
...Elders are obsessed with hair idk. Hermana Ahlmer thinks it's because they miss their long hair that they had to chop off before they came here. By the way, not all these things were about me haha.
Beware of the Smells
Here at the MTC... There are smells I just can't explain. And they're all gross. One moment you're fine and then you smell something like llama green spit (trust me... I KNOW) and you think you're going to die. But trust me... NOTHING is as bad as the tray drop off. It smells like rotten fish mixed in with dirty laundry. The sisters and I get the elders popsicles so that they will dump our trays for us if we feel sicker than usual from the food.
If you are coming to the MTC... You've been warned!
I KNEW It Was Going to be Me
So every Sunday we have to write a talk in Spanish and I just felt like I should make a special effort on mine. We don't know who is going to be picked to speak until sacrament meeting when they announce it so everyone feels way nervous until after sacrament. The moment I finished I said "it's going to be me" and Elder Schiess said "Yeah it's going to be you" and guess what? It was me.
And I KILLED it. Haha. I'm just saying that because I literally said in the beginning of my talk "I usually start with a joke but I don't know how to joke in spanish but it's okay" and everyone laughed. I didn't even mean for it be funny. Maybe I said something that got lost in translation again idk. But I did a crown braid with my hair that day and seriously think that my hair was the reason why I got picked on. Pero esta bien.
Open Your Mouth
One of the biggest things I've been learning here is to not be afraid to open your mouth and speak. I get timid in speaking spanish because it's sooooo hard to really say what I want with what little I know. But it's sooooo important to speak anyways. We know enough to get our point across, all what matters is if we're not afraid to make mistakes and speak when we feel prompted to. Sometimes I'm afraid to sound too... churchie. If you get what I mean. But I'm a missionary now. Being churchie is what I do for a full-time job that I don't get paid for haha. I kind of had a cool experience with this the other day.
We were having member TRC's where we go talk to members of the church in spanish. Our goal is just to really get to know them and share something with them that is uplifting according to their needs. We talked to this one couple - Actually, scratch that. Hermana Ahlmer talked to this one couple while was inwardly at war with myself on whether I should share this scripture or not.
Somehow, the wife's deceased parents kept coming up. She was a convert and her parents died as catholics and never accepted any teachings of the LDS faith. I could tell this was hard on her, and I remember I had found a scripture from my personal studies that had brought me comfort about someone I know when I had read it. I have started making these little scripture key in a book where I organize different scriptures that answer different questions. One of my sections are scriptures on comfort and I don't know why I hesitated in sharing the scripture but I was. But I couldn't get the scripture out of my head. I looked at my book and exactly below this scripture was another one I had written down with the description "don't be afraid to speak because Heavenly Father is with you."
Immediately Hermana Ahlmer asked if I had anything to share and I knew that I should share Mormon 9:8. I don't know why, but the wife seemed to be really touched by this scripture and I knew I had done the right thing. Poor Hermana Ahlmer was so confused because I had never shared this scripture with her and she tried to hurry and look it up and read it in her english scriptures and she either read the verse wrong or read the wrong thing because she was so confused why the wife was tearing up and calling the scripture beautiful haha. I explained it better to her after haha.
I hope everyone can learn from this that if you feel like you should share something with someone... Open your mouth! Don't be afraid to be churchie! You receive those promptings for a reason so follow it and just sit back and watch the amazing things that will unfold before you. :)
So I hope this letter was as good as everyone has been telling my letters have been. I feel like I have a crowd to please. Oh, I hope my group emails have been making it onto my blog okay.
Also, Teresa you are the best person! I have absolutely loved getting your dear elders. It was such a comfort to me to hear that your fam back at home have been praying for me in your espanol prayers. I seriously teared up when I read that for the first time I was so touched.
So sibs... If you want a special shout out... Dear Elder me.
But seriously, thanks for everyone's emails and love and support! Te amo!
Quotes of the Week
"Hermana Ahlmer's hair is like a fountain of spewing milk." - Hermana Knopf
"No enfocense Hermana Davidson No! No make a funny."-Elder Schiess about something I'm still confused about.
"I used to throw up from my own farts." - Elder McCoy
(During closing prayer in the district one night)
Elder Schiess: "Hermana Keyser would you say the prayer?"
Hermana Timm: : "She said the opening prayer."
Hermana Keyser AND Elder McCoy at the same time: "I can say it."
Elder Hamblin looking and gesturing at Elder McCoy to say it: "Okay so Hermana Keyser will say it."
Elder McCoy: "Wait, what?"
Hermana Keyser: "I can say it."
Elder Schiess: "Okay so Elder McCoy will say it."
Elder Hamblin: "Who?"
Elder Schiess: "Let's just split the difference and have Hermana Davidson say it."
Hermana Ahlmer like he was talking about her: "Alright."
(everyone settles down but no one prays)
Me: "Who is praying, me or Hermana Ahlmer??"
(I ended up praying)
Elder Schopp: "I really like that kids shirt."
Elder Trapani: "I really like that kids shirt too."
Elder Schopp: "We should mug him."
(I start laughing)
Elder Trapani: "The funny part is that we're being serious."
Hermana Ahlmer and I after we had oranges for breakfast:
Hermana Ahlmer: "ugh, I've got oranges in my teeth."
Me: "I have oranges in my body."
Hermana Ahlmer: "... That made me uncomfortable."
To Abby and Katie... I make her uncomfortable ;)
Love you all!
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