So first I'm gonna start with responding to questions and things mentioned in previous emails and DearElders! (:
Dad! That was so nice of Elder Jorgensen to ask how I'm doing! It's good to know that he hated the MTC, ha! But we actually tease about the English speakers cause they're only here for like a week and a half maybe two weeks and we joke that they don't even know what the MTC is like! I'm here three times longer than they are! 6 weeks. That is so long stuck in a little gated area sitting in a classroom. We really get to know the MTC (: Haha. But it's fun. Our districts get real close, and I love that. Speaking of being here sick weeks, I passed my halfway mark! I have been here a little over 3 weeks! HALFWAY! I can't even believe that. So weird. We say that days last forever but the weeks go by quick. Which is both annoying and nice. Also dad, thanks for the setting apart blessing! I really needed that!
Momma! THANK YOU FOR THE PACKAGE! Ah! I was so excited to get it! I love it! Thank you (: It was perfect and just what I needed! Also, yes to that scripture bag! I love it! It's super cute! I actually need two, I need one for my English scriptures and then one for my Portuguese scriptures, which are shaped a little different. But I think there are some in the book store for those that I can get. So if you'll order that cute one for my English ones, I would love that! Thank you! (: So tell Syd that I've been looking for Spencer Ebert everywhere! I have not seen him! He may have been on West Campus. But I don't often come in contact with English speakers going stateside. There are so many Portuguese speakers, and they just lump our schedules together. So it's hard seeing someone outside of Portuguese. Mom and dad! Way to be working out that early in the morning! HOLY COW! I thought it was bad getting up at 6:30, but getting up a whole hour and 15 minutes before that sounds yucky! But awesome! You guys are tough! Mom, if you keep that schedule up, you'll totally be ready to run that 10k! And you'll kick butt doing it! So you asked if I get to work out, I do. We have an hour of gym time every week except Sunday. So I usually will go run a mile and a half on the elliptical and then work my abs a little and then stretch. Nothing too extensive. Just to get my heart pumping. However, I have been SO sick these past two weeks. It's been wretched! I've had to skip classes and study time to go back to my residence and sleep. It's been terrible. It's hard to focus on learning and teaching when I feel miserable and just want to sleep. It was really nice though because I asked some elders in my district to give me a blessing. It was their first one (: And they did great! And it honestly really did help! I was so grateful for them. So thankfully I'm on the up side of getting better. I still have a bad cough though, and it's annoying. So I was going to wrap that all around by saying I haven't been working out the past week because I don't want to over exert and then just make things worse. So I've been taking it slow.
Sydney! I love that you mentioned I believe in Christ, so come what may. It was perfect timing because I have been thinking the same. And we've sung the song a couple times, only in Portuguese, so it's Creo em Cristo. And I love it. I've been thinking a lot about it, and I may either sing it or read it to one of my investigators. I think she'd like to hear that. But absolutely Sydney! I BELIEVE IN CHRIST, SO COME WHAT MAY! And usually, what may is good things! (: Also Sydney, you are so spiritually mature! You have great thoughts, and I love them! That's awesome.
Sydney, college is going to be great! You may be kind of scared, but we can get through this together. Because I absolutely positively know how you feel. And it's hard. The thought that you're by yourself, everything is new, you don't know whats happening, but you know what? You learn! And then you get comfortable! I am going through the same thing! Being here in the MTC was SO scary, and I hated it, and I just wanted to go home (still kinda do, but I tell myself I'm here, I'm doing this, so do it!), but you learn to get comfortable. And now I'm scared to leave the MTC! Hahah! Going to Brasil?! HA! Ya right! I'm not doing that! But we can! We can make it! And we will love it. And we can email and tell each other how scared we are but how much we're learning! We can do hard things! (: VAMP DIES! OH MY GOSH! Sydney! Good remembering! I can't even believe it. Grr. And I'm gonna miss it! The lucky thing about you is while you're at college you'll still have tv to watch (which is a comfort, at least to me, ha), and a phone where you can call home ANY time! I love that! And besides, you'll make great friends that will last you your life, I know I have (: Also, try the major. It doesn't hurt to just test the waters. If you don't like a class, go talk to your counselor early to know when the last day is to drop a class and add another one. Just work hard! And also, I hope you are number zero for that ballroom class! (:
So here are some things that happened this week! Dad, I love that you gave me a Richard G. Scott quote, because guess what?! On Tuesday, for devotional, he came and spoke to us! It was AMAZING! He talked about prayer, and it was so spiritual! It was great! And guess what he did?! He gave an apostolic blessing to all those learning a language, that we will be able to learn quickly and be able to communicate efficiently if we have the faith and work! And apostle blessed me! AH! Now I can't ever doubt myself and my language skills, because and apostle said I can do it. So I can! And I think I'm actually doing really well. We talked with a girl who served in Brasil, and she asked how long we'd been here, and we told her 2 weeks and she was so shocked that we could understand everything she was saying and talking with such ease! It made me feel so good! So I think I'm doing alright (: I met with my language teacher, Irma Tirrell, and she told me she was like me, just scared and wanting to go home and doubting myself and my abilities, and she just comforted me. She said that I could do it. That she made it through and she thought she was worse than me. I just have to keep pushing through. She's really sweet, she told me I could come talk to her whenever I'm feeling down or that I don't want to be here, so I'm definitely going to take advantage of that! It was sweet, I met with one of the brothers in my Branch Presidency, and I told him I still am having doubts that I should be here, that it's just so hard and I'm unsure. And this is what he said to me, "Then you must be really important. The Lord must really need you. Because if Satan is working that hard on you, you must really be needed somewhere." It was so sweet and just what I needed to hear. It helped a lot and I can just tell myself to push through. I can do this.
Get this! So we get to go to the temple on p-day, today, so in a couple of hours. But there was a sister who I had sat next to in sacrament meeting and we talked and really bonded, and she found out that she would be leaving early this morning, so she wouldn't be able to attend the temple. And the Provo temple had been closed for maintenance, so she hadn't gone. But they told her she could go on Thursday before she left, and so she invited me to go with her! It was SO sweet! I was so honored and so excited! So I was able to go to the temple last night, and again this afternoon. And let me tell you, it was AMAZING! Scary, because it was a temple that I didn't know, but comforting because everything is the same. And I really needed the temple that day. It felt so good. And the new film! OH MY GOSH! SO GOOD! There was just so much more emotion and I understood things better and really felt what was happening. I absolutely loved it! I can't wait to go in again this afternoon. I wrote in my journal about an experience that happened in the Celestial room, and instead of retyping it all, I just took a picture of the page, so you can read it (: But the picture thing isn't working right now, so I may have to switch computers and try sending it through a different email. But it was great, I loved it.
Well this week has been good. Can't believe that I'm half way done. I'll be getting my reassignment in a couple weeks, which is crazy! But I'm still pushing through. It's hard, and it always will be, I just have to remember why I'm here and all the blessing that I'll receive. That helps. And keep sending DearElders, I honestly love those. Thank you! I love you all so much. I miss you like crazy, and I wish that I could just be with you, but I'm so glad that you are receiving blessings as well for me being out here.
I love you,
Sister Clara Kay Dunn.
P.S Pictures:
Me with Elder Kesler and Elder Williams!
Classroom 201, where I spend a lot of my life in now (:
The temple and the sunset last night was beautiful!
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