p-day # 1

hola familia!!

 first of all, i just want to say that I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!

when you dropped me off, two host elders walked me to my building and dropped off my suitcases with some host sisters on the bottom floor. i met one of them, and she showed me to my room and then to my classroom, where we started immediately into a spanish lesson. after an hour of learning how to meet people, we went to dinner, and then to a fireside to introduce the mtc presidency. they were all super awesome, and since we sat on the front row, i got to shake everyone's hand and my companion actually got to give the closing prayer. :)  after that, we had a little mtc dormitory orientation from a sister who's only been here for a week... holy cow! she told us all of the rules and such for our floor, and gave us some advice. then i wrote in my journal for about an hour and got in bed. :)

spanish is actually coming along really well. :) i've had two teachers and a couple elders in my district comment on my accent. i'm just trying to learn as quickly as possible, and i think the best way to do that is to speak the way i know it's supposed to sound, but that makes me feel really good. :) i can now pray simple prayers and bear my testimony in spanish, both very simple, but i think that's awesome to be here for less than three days and already be able to do that. the Lord is definitely present in our learning and lessons, that's for sure. there is no other way that that would be possible.

I've already been designated the zone piano player for everything, and asked to sing in a SATB group for a fireside sometime... so, if that gives you any idea of how fast things are going here. haha. We met our branch presidency on thursday night, and my companion was made the coordinating sister of our zone, which is only us 4 hermanas, so it's not too big. haha. but that means i'm her senior companion right off. i really really love my companion. her name is hermana nielsen, and she is from logan, utah. The other hermanas in my district are also from utah. one is from riverton, hermana hermansen, and one is from like helper or something, and her name is hermana ortega. they are both so much fun, and we spend a lot of time laughing already. i'm excited to continue to bond as hermanas in the gospel, and to rely on each other in this challening time.

we taught our first lesson en espanol yesterday. and it was... well, a train wreck would be a very poor description. haha. we hadn't been taught hardly anything about spanish yet, and so we went in there with the pamphlet and a goal to get through everything we'd planned. we barely acknowledged that he was in the room, and we just read what we'd written down, bore a short testimony, and left. i think the spirit had a really hard time being there because we were so focused on our goal that we didn't deviate and try to find the spirit in the lesson and rely on our faith to help us witness about what we were trying to do. it was hard. but we're preparing another lesson for tonight, and i think we're going to do a lot better. we're going to go in there with less notes and try to rely on the spirit to help us say what our investigator needs to hear. :)

i have to go, but i love you all, and i love being a missionary. I can't wait to learn more!

love,

hermana spencer

ps, i heard rumors that david archuleta came the same day i did... and that he's going to chile. but i haven't seen him yet, so i'm not really sure if that was true. but... if it is... :)