Thank you to everyone who emailed me this week! It was great to have some contact from the outside world. I feel like I live in a box. Definitely a fun, happy box though! I love the MTC. Everyone is so happy here, and it is just a great atmosphere. The transition has been pretty easy so far. I haven't been nervous, and never had the "what am I doing here?" moment. I am loving every minute of it. I have two companions, Motra Eliason and Motra Ranta. They are both really great, and set a fantastic example for me. I get distracted easily, so they keep me focused during personal study. We are the only ones in our district, and are in a Branch with the Hungarians, one Astonian, and then the new Finland missionaries. They are all great! My days are full of studying and language classes. And eating. I feel like I am always eating. But it is great. The language is difficult but still going really well. I love the challenge. My comps have had that scared moment of realizing how hard the language is. I realized it would be difficult, but I keep in mind that it is possible. I make a game out of trying to figure out what Brother Knight is saying, since he only speaks in Shqip (Albanian). We have learned how to pray and give a simple testimony in Albanian. We have been teaching Juxhin (Eugene), our fake investigator, and its all in Albanian. It is challenging, but again, that's why I love it! We gave our first lesson without any notes, and it went so well! probably our best lesson so far.
The food isn't too bad. There are some days where I eat way too much and am stuffed to the point I can't move, but it is great! I feel like all we do is eat, but I'm always hungry! It must be all of the studying. That's my theory. I do miss Arizona mexican food though. The enchiladas today didnt cut it. But yes, I like the food. And Tyler Francis is right, the chocolate milk is amazing, and I have it almost everyday.
We went to the temple this morning and it was so great! It was nice to go to a different temple. I love going to the temple on pdays. We also go on a temple walk on sundays and it is always amazing. It makes me even more excited for Pdays and getting to spend time at the temple.
We have had two devotionals so far. They are on Sunday nights and Thursday nights. Have you ever wondered who sets up all of those chairs so perfectly for the devotionals? Well I have the answer. Its my branch! It takes forever and has to be perfect. We do it twice every week instead of a service project on tuesday mornings. So on tuesdays, we wake up, get sack breakfast (so we don't have to get dressed for normal breakfast), eat, and go back to sleep. It's fantastic! But anyway, both devotionals were fantastic! Sunday was by President Holland, who is Elder Holland's son. He is a lot like him and sounds like him too. He spoke about Joseph Smith, and it was great. That night, our branch watched the restoration, and I just finished reading Joseph Smith History yesterday. His story is amazing! Tuesdays devotional was by President Ronald A. Rasband, Senior President of the Seventy. He spoke about being bold and opening our mouths. I am really focusing on being confident because of his talk. It helped so much with our lesson with Juxhin, and I was able to be confident and speak the small amount of Sqip (pronounced scheep) that I know.
One of the Elders had a great analogy for learning a language. There is this big bucket of ice water. At first, you just take small sips and think, this is pretty good, refreshing, you like the ice water. And then someone comes and just dunks your head into the water. All of a sudden, its not so great. You get back up, compose yourself, and start to take sips again, thinking that its better. Then, someone comes and dunks your head in again, even deeper. This happens over and over again, and after you compose yourself, they dunk you in even deeper than the time before. This is so true! Even though I am still taking small sips of the language, I know I'm going to get dunked really soon. We started talking about Albanian grammar, and I know its not going to be fun. I may get dunked in this ice water quite a bit. But I know I can keep up the attitude and it will be ok!
I hope you are all doing great! I love and miss you all. Write me letters, emails, dear elders, anything! and I expect more pictures of my nieces and nephews next week. My siblings failed me this week. Not a single one of them sent me a picture, and I am disappointed. But have a great week and I will email you next week!
Love,
Motra Bennett
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