Ye people of the outside world,

This week marks the half way point of my time in the MTC  Gah. Not good. For some reason time moves really, really fast in the MTC, even though it seems like the days are as long as centuries. There is not enough time to learn everything! I don't know what I'm going to do; I am so thankful for continued study in the field.

This last week as been pretty awesome at the MTC, as to be expected. On Sunday we had a really awesome devotional that just focused on missionary work, which seems like it would be a common topic, but it's actually not (for devotionals, that is). The speaker had everyone who had been a member their entire lives stand up, and then asked a few of them if they would be baptized if they were non-members and approached by the missionaries, and why. Then he had all the converts of the MTC stand up and asked a few of them why they had been baptized. Wow. There are a LOT of converts in the MTC. Hearing their experiences were amazing. There was one Elder from Samoa who went to church for 3 years and never got baptized because his parents wouldn't let him. He finally was old enough to be baptized, and then he went straight on a mission. The third group he had stand up were people who had either left the church and come back, or had been inactive in some way at some point. Wow, were there a lot of those as well. Their stories and testimonies were so powerful. The thing about the MTC is that it's not full of people who have easy testimonies. I say that in the best way possible, of course. But it seems like everyone in the MTC, at some point in their life, really had to sit down and figure out what they really believed, whether they were raised in it, a convert, or had left it at some point. Eventually, we all have to figure out our priorities, find where our faith really lies, and what truth really is. 

My district here is great. I realized no one knows anything about anyone except my companion, so here's the run down. My zone has 4 districts. I have no idea if that's normal or not. Each district has between 5-8 people in it. There are 2 districts of Hermanas, 1 district of Elders, and 1 district of 3 Elders and 4 Hermanas. I am part of one of the Hermana districts; we call ourselves sistricts. Get it? :P In out sistrict we had me (naturally), my companion, Hermana Concidine, Hermana Weeks, Hermana McMurray, Hermana Clay, and Hermana Horne. Hermana Weeks is 1/4 Samoan, 1/4 Black, and 1/2 Mexican, and is literally the funniest person I think I have ever met. She's sassy and intimidates all the Elders haha :P She's from SoCal and knows the most Spanish out of any of us, although she disagrees. Hermana McMurray is her companion from Las Vegas, and is the 2nd funniest person on the planet. The 2 of them combined make for some very hilarious and embarrassing times. Hermana Clay is from North Carolina and is the only one in our district not going to Mexico- she's going to the Twin Falls Temple Visitor's Center. She is simply amazing and is going to BYU, so we will definitely be friends when we get back. :) Hermana Horne is from Orem, and has no sense of humor haha :P So we're always playing practical jokes on her and teasing her. She loves us, though, and we love her. She's probably the most innocent out of all of us, and I have no idea how she's going to survive in Mexico, but she has such a sweet spirit:) I just love them all!

Our branch (zone) presidency is also ridiculously awesome. All of them are converts to the church, and have served various missions in different places, as mission presidents or otherwise, and have THE COOLEST insights and stories to tell. I feel like my knowledge is expanded just by being around them.

During my time at the MTC, I've learned a few things. First, that ties are used as currency at the MTC among the Elders, and can be used to trade for other ties, food, or needed items like socks, etc. However, not all ties are created equal, and some are worth much more than others, depending on a lot of different characteristics. Overall, I find the whole situation hilarious, and it gives me constant enjoyment and amusement, listening to the Elders talked about the latest trends in tie economics. 

I've also learned that missionaries are the only reason the US Postal Service is still in business. Seriously. I bet if they got rid of missionary letters, the PS would flop in a month. :P

Also, not everyone does everything with a companion in the outside world. It's gotten to the point where I have a heart attack any time I see someone walking alone, and a double heart attack when I see a guy and a girl walking together. Heaven knows I'm going to be extremely odd and weird when I get back off my mission. Hopefully someone will be willing to go everywhere with me, because I don't think I'll be able to handle being alone. 

Friday I'm flying to Vegas to get my Visa! :D This will be pretty interesting, since my family avoids Vegas like the plague, and I've never been. I'm excited, but also a little apprehensive. 

For all those worrying about my knees, they are fine! This week I was very careful with them, and just did a lot of stretching. Which turned out great, because now I can touch my toes for extended periods of time, which I've never been able to do in my life. So that's been cool.

There was a point in time this week when I sat in my class room and was listening to class, and I thought, I just can't believe that God trusts the Salvation of His people, or the world, to 18+ year-olds. We aren't qualified, we really don't know that much, and our communication skills really aren't that great. But then I realized a few things. 1. Because God is God, if he says we can do it, he's right. 2. It is our youth and (hopefully) humility that lets the Spirit work so closely with us. 3. This work really has nothing to do with us. A few days ago one of our teachers pointed out that whenever the Lord talks about the gathering of Israel, He always refers to Himself doing it. He never says, "I'll send my missionaries out and they will gather Israel." He always says "I am gathering Israel." Seriously. Look up every scripture you can find about the gathering of Israel, and you will see. Missionaries are simply the facilitators that help people on their path towards God. As another teacher said, the best missionaries aren't the ones who are the best teachers, or the best at speaking Spanish. The best missionaries are the ones the most like Christ, and who never stop trying to be more like Christ. So. While we are on missions trying to heal people and help them feel, know, and understand the truth, our biggest job is simply to bring them to the Great Healer, who is Jesus Christ. Think, this week, about what it means that Jesus Christ is the Great Healer. That characteristic is rapidly becoming my favorite thing about Him, and encompasses all that He stands for. 

Well, I have no more time. But I hope you are all doing well. :) I love hearing from each of you.

Only if you are unafraid of the truth can you find it,

Hermana Day 

Well. Here you go. I've officially been in the MTC for two weeks and I have
four more weeks to go. Time has flown and I don't know what to do because
there's so much to learn and not enough time too learn it all. But the good
news is that learning never stops. :)

Nothing's changed here, much. The schedule is the same, the food is the
same, the teachers are the same. Except the teachers seem to be getting
exponentially more awesome every day. Of course this doesn't make any
sense, but seriously. Every day their awesomeness doubles, and my mind is
blown. I am so blessed.

The language is coming. Sometimes I get really frustrated and just want to
run out of the buildings screaming HAY MUCHOS TACOS EN MEXICO, but luckily
for everyone I've refrained. It's been a bit weird, though, because English
sometimes looks like a foreign language to me. I don't know how to explain
this, but it does. And I'll spell English words like Spanish words. And
I'll pronounce English words in a Spanish accent. And some phrases have
just become a daily part of my life. Which gets a little complicated when I
go up on main and start talking to the Tongan Elders in Spanish. Whoops.

We love Main Campus. It's like Christmas every P day. My district is doing
well, although it has become apparent that some Hermanas want to work
harder than others. Luckily, my companion is gold, and we're both hard
workers. It's been interesting. Also, I lied. My companion is from
Glendora, California, not Glendale. :P

My knees decided to start acting up this last week, so that's been fun.
Luckily I had the foresight to bring my knee braces, so I took a few days
off from gym and wore my braces as I waited for my knees to deflate from
the size of balloons... fun times. Good news is that there are athletic
trainers and physical therapists on West Campus, so I'm going to be okay.
Hopefully I'll build enough muscle mass so I don't die in Mexico.

Did you know Morgan Freeman is a senior missionary at the MTC? Yes, it is
true. Okay, maybe it's his twin. But still. I saw Morgan Freeman.
Devotional on Sunday was SUPER AWESOME. Elder Holland's son, President
Matthew Holland of UVU, came and spoke to us about the life of Joseph
Smith. I learned some things I never knew before, and it was just a really,
really cool experience. I haven't always had the strongest testimony of
Joseph Smith, but boy, was the Spirit strong in that room that night.
Joseph Smith is a prophet, and not just because the Book of Mormon is true.

Well, I don't really know what else to say about this week... I'm a little
sad some specific people haven't written me. You know who you are, so if
you're reading this, get on it! :D Also, does anyone have Rachel Owen's
contact information? I'd appreciate it if someone could send it to me. :)

OHMYGOODNESS BRECKLYN IS GOING TO BANGKOK. Literally I screamed in the
computer lab when I read that. For all of you planning on going on a
mission sometime in the near future, I seriously, seriously recommend you
make sure you read the entire Book of Mormon cover to cover a least once.
And then do it again, and then read the New Testament. And then read the
Old Testament. And then read D&C. Basically just make sure you're always
studying the scriptures. For those of you not on missions but not doing
that, do it. There is no better way to improve your life and become closer
to God than reading the scriptures and praying.

For those of you who don't think a mission is for you, or aren't going for
whatever reason... I beg you to take another look. There are a million
reasons why going on a mission is the best idea you'll ever have, including
that it will define the rest of your life, especially your future family.
And no, that's not my branch president talking, that is solely Hermana Day
talking. I cannot imagine raising kids in this world without having the
knowledge I've gained thus far. And I'm only two weeks in. But the most
beneficial thing about a mission is that you learn that life really has
absolutely nothing to do with you. You think you understand this before you
go, but you don't. I've learned that life is not about me, that the entire
purpose of life is to devote your life to serving other people and aligning
your purpose with God's purpose. There is no better place to learn this on
a mission.

Lately I've really come to love the word Charity. The Church always seems
to use the words Love and Charity interchangeably, and it's always bugged
me a little bit, because I saw a distinction. But I've realize that Charity
is simply the highest form of love. You just give and give of yourself. Of
your time, of your talents, of your property, everything. That's what
charity is, and isn't that exactly what Christ did?

I'm also really intrigued with the word Convert. We tend to think that the
word "convert" is the same as the word "people baptized," but of course
this is not so. To convert is to change from one thing to another. In my
view, to "convert" to the gospel is to give up your will and what you want
to do to the will of God, and follow Him wherever. As we convert to God's
purpose, it's also easier to see things as God sees them, not as the world
sees them, and to serve as God would have you serve.

Anyways, this probably doesn't make any sense anyways, but I hope someone
somewhere got something out of that. I really love it here. It's changed my
life in a million ways, and made me see things that I never saw before.
More than anything, it's taught me how I really want to live my life, and
how my greatest focus should be on helping the world, not myself.

I love you all so much, and I hope everyone is doing well!

Hermana Day

Dear family, friends, and random people, I´m not sure if you were aware of the recent turn of events, but it seems that the MTC has been moved like the city of Enoch. But, instead of being brought up to heaven, it´s just been displaced to Seattle. Seriously, it has not stopped raining/snowing here since I arrived. Which has been sort of cool, because I love rain and snow, but mostly not cool, because I am getting a cold. Thankfully, the work cannot be slowed by petty colds. :) As it turns out, all of West Campus (Wyview and Raintree apartments a few blocks west of main MTC campus) is Spanish speaking, so that's where I live! It's pretty much its own Spanish MTC, which is really nice because we're (supposedly) totally immersed in Spanish, as if we were at the Mexico MTC. We only go up to main campus on Sunday and Tuesday nights for devotional, and Wednesdays (Pday) to go to the temple and take care of Main Campus things like medical and alterations. Wyview is nice because we have super nice apartments with lots of space and our own bathroom, but not so nice because we miles every day to get every where, hence the cold. But it's all good. Oh, and our food is way more disgusting, but that actually turns out to be a blessing in disguise because we won't eat so much :P We have gym in these giant blow up white bubbles that are really quite a fascinating engineering puzzle, but I won't go into it. They are really, really gigantic, and are full of every possible way to exercise imaginable. :P Oddly, we also have church in the bubbles. That was weird. But yeah, MTC life is good! I first day I got here I was super overwhelmed, but it's all good now. My companion is Hermana Concidine from Glendale, California. She's 20 and went to BYU-I for 3 semesters, and is pretty much the most amazing person ever. She's also Sister Training Leader, and is going to Hermosillo with me and one other Sister in our district, which is super exciting. Most of West Campus is made up of North Americans going to Mexico, although I have met some people going to Argentina, Spain, Costa Rica, and 1 girl going to Idaho. :P Main campus is super cool, though, because it is filled with people from all over the world. Yesterday at Tuesday devotional I met this British girl that looked EXACTLY like Adele, I kid you not. Lots of Islanders from all over the Pacific, as well as New Zealand and Australia, and I even met a guy from Croatia going to Albania, so that was super, super cool. Anyways. My Spanish is improving by leaps and bounds. Every day I try to memorize around 20 words or so, and all the grammar training I've had for the last 5 years is coming in very handy. My companion and I have taught 4 lessons to an investigator so far, all about 45 minutes long and in complete Spanish. We've gotten pretty good at expressing what we want to say, but now we have to get better at actually understanding the thick accents of our investigators and our teachers, as well as trying to think fast enough to keep up with how fast they talk... it's been fun. Most of our class time is in Spanish, unless we're going over a really important gospel topic, and then they'll switch to Spanglish or some English for awhile. It's frustrating, but rewarding. I've never worked so hard in my life. Seriously, my MTC time makes IB look like a breeze haha :P I get up at 6:30 every day, on the dot, without fail, and am out the door by 7:15. We eat and are in class by 8. We have class/study/teach until 11:30, then we go to gym. We eat lunch at 1, go back to clase/study/teach, and then go eat dinner at 5:20. At 6, what are we doing again?! Class/study/teach. Until 9:30, at which point we hurry back to our apartments, do the billion things we have to finished to get ready for bed, and fall deeply asleep promptly at 10:30. Yup. That pretty much sums up my entire experience. I love my district, I love my zone. The Elders are the nicest, and our teachers are ridiculously amazing. According to several sources, our zone has some of the best MTC Spanish teachers. I don't know if this is true, but it sure feel like it. OHHHHH. So I saw Elder Spencer Jolly on Sunday, 2 days before he shipped out, and I also see Elder Andrew Smith multiple times a day, since he's going to Spain. I've also run into a Sister Davenport (I think?) who went to prom with Juno and knows Panda and Aliya really well. She's in West as well, and is awesome. I also saw Ryker Hill on Main Campus, and ran into Mitchell Moody from Alta before he left for Argentina on Tuesday. Small world. SPEAKING OF WHICH I also saw the unmistakable jacket and head of a certain Mr. Kennan Bacon across the street at Wyview, so that was pretty cool. :P Spiritually, the MTC is literally like... the most amazing place on earth. I didn't know this was even possible, but I feel the Spirit almost continuously here. It is so strong that it permeates everything here, and I have awkwardly cried every day since I've been here. I have never so strongly felt the love that God has for me so deeply, and felt him lift me and strengthen me to heights it would have been impossible to reach on my own. I wish I could share every spiritual experience I have with all of you, but not only is there not enough time, it also wouldn't mean the same. To me, spiritual experiences are "spiritual" because they speak to your spirit, which, of course, is quite hard to do when typing over an email. :P But I do encourage all of you to seek out spiritual experiences, and live a life where those experiences can become common place. There is no greater feeling in the entire world. If you know nothing else in this world, know the love of God. With love, Hermana Day PS. Thanks for all the letters and emails! To my family, step it up! I only received contact from Dad, Opa Jim, and Oma Sue. I'm pretty disappointed. (Not really- its really not a big deal.) I love hearing from all of you though! (I especially loved hearing about how Russia is handling the Olympics. It seems that though the Iron Curtain has fallen, not much else has changed in the way of ideas and plans vs. actual implementation. Haha!

Sister Day here, in the only post I'll actually post to this blog. :P My brother Ian, and probably my other siblings as well, will be posting weekly updates about my adventures in Hermosillo, Mexico, so come back here often! 

If you'd like to contact me, you can:

Email me:

jane.day@myldsmail.net

Or, for the next 6 weeks, write me:
Sister Jane Elizabeth Day

MAR17  MEX-HER
2023 N 900 E Unit 810
Provo UT 84602

Adios!