MTC Week 4

Familie,

Wow, a whole month already. One time one of the Alter Deutschers said that the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days here. And that is so true for me. Each day seems like it will never end, but then I wake up and realize that it's P-Day again and I get to email you guys! I feel like I've been here four days, even though it's been four weeks already. It's been a good week again. I was able to talk to President Petersen on Sunday afternoon, and he helped me again. He just told me that I'm too hard on myself and that it's okay that I'm not perfect. Then he was like, "The best way you can get over these feelings is just serving other people." So that was some good advice. He's really amazing. I'll be sad to leave, but not too sad! The German is coming along really well, even if we don't feel like it. It's silly because we all expect ourselves to be fluent, but we won't recognize how far we've come. I've learned more here than I have my two semesters of college in German, and I've only been here a month. So sometimes Sister Miller and I just have to sit back and think of our first couple days and see how far we've come along.

Thanks for the letters! Lauren, I know how you're feeling, because I'm pretty sore myself this morning from gym yesterday. And Robert, I hope you can eventually start playing tennis! Also make sure to do well in choir and stick with it because it's super fun. Dad, thanks for the letter. Miss you lots! Your advice is always so welcome and meaningful. And Mom, sorry that people are stupid sometimes. I hope you're feeling better. Sounds like things have been pretty rough. Just hang in there for the blessings that were promised, haha. They'll come.

Elder M. Russell Ballard came and spoke to us last week, so that we pretty awesome. He just talked about devoting your time to the Lord and how we're doing a good job already at knowing the doctrine. Then I watched a talk by Elder Holland a couple nights ago, and that was fun, too. He yells a lot, so sometimes that's scary, but it's good, because he really just makes you want to be the best missionary you can. Sister Miller and I got to teach our district on Sunday. We were assigned to teach about the Atonement. It was pretty tough to prepare, and it was even harder because it was Fast Sunday and everyone was hungry, but it went well. The Spirit was really strong, and even though we're still not the best teachers, the Spirit is what really matters when you're teaching. So that was a good experience. It's been kind of an odd week because one of the sisters in my district was really, really sick, so we were taking turns switching sisters out to go to class. I missed teaching on Friday afternoon, which was a bummer, but Sister Miller really had a good experience, and that's important because I think she's really struggling being confident in speaking. She's super spiritual and is such an example, but her German is old and she's having a hard time remembering, so I'm glad that she was able to teach and feel better.

I have some pictures, but I don't have any way to send them to you this week. I'll try next week, and if not then I'll just send them when I'm in Deutschland. The computers here are like super blocked for everything, so there's no way to upload pictures unless you have this special card reader which I don't want to buy. Some Elders in my district have one, so I'll see if I can borrow it next week, but if not I'll send them in a couple weeks. Ahhh the Elders in my district are so funny. I think they wouldn't be if I wasn't stuck in a little classroom with them for ten hours a day, but it gets to you, so everything they say is super hilarious. But then sometimes I'm reminded that they're nineteen/eighteen year old boys, haha.

I'm finally all the way better. Finally. That was the worst. Taking that sinus medicine and that cough medicine at the same time made me pretty loopy, actually, and at one lesson I was so out of it. I felt bad for Sister Miller, but I had like no idea what was going on and I just sat there like duuuuuhhhhhhhh...So she just kinda had to struggle through it by herself. I was gone. But I'm fine now. Oh and here's a funny story that happened to some sisters in my zone. They were teaching an investigator about the Word of Wisdom, and they wanted to talk about how our bodies are a temple and we have to treat them as such. So they were the first ones going, so they were kinda scrambling a bit to get everything together, and so they grabbed the Bible and were going to read 1 Corinthians 3:16-17. But since they were in a hurry and they were looking through the Bible in German, they accidentally marked 1 Corinthians 7:18-19, and I'm not even kidding. They were like, "This is a commandment from God. Will you read this scripture for us?" So the investigator, which luckily was only their teacher helping them practice, read the scripture and then burst out laughing and started crying cuz he was laughing so hard. That was pretty funny. I can't type all the scriptures cuz I don't have much time left, but if you want a laugh, you should look them up.

 Okay, I love you all so much!! I'm doing well here, and it's crazy that it's only a couple more weeks. We get our flight itinerary sometime next week I think, and we get to call from the airport, so I'll tell you when/where I'll be when I call you sometime soon. Hope everything is going well over there. Miss you guys like crazy still, but not enough to leave, sorry. :)

Loves!

Sister Shipton