I'm on a progressive discovery of my own ignorance.

So, hello everyone!! how are you all doing? Life in the MTC is a dream! I adore it!!!!

Here's the problem, whenever I speak with native speakers i feel like Marlin from Finding Nemo "I swear they're trying to tell me something. YOU'RE REALLY CUTE, BUT I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE SAYING!" Ahhh it's quite comical really....

yesterday however was the best lesson ever! The Spirit was so strong and the investigator committed to baptism even though our previous lesson to everything we would try to teach he would say "it's possible but I don't believe that" or "i think that is fiction" so we really had to rely on the Spirit to teach him because nothing we said would change his mind...why he is even meeting with us was a mystery to me until this last lesson.

SOOOO, I am elated to tell you that I don't think I had any language mishaps other than the occasional incorrect use of past tense. Because there are two types one for conversations and one for telling stories so those get mixed up when I talk. woohoo!

In other news......We get our travel plans on Friday! Isn't that cray cray! So So So soon everything is already happening too fast. Tomorrow the new Dutch come! They will be serving in Surinam (or however that is spelled) I'm so excited to not be the babies any more. For the last two days our ward has only been the Dutchies everyone else has left. I don't remember if I said this already but the people leaving for Denmark didn't get their visas so they all got reassigned to St. Louis Missouri, Salt Lake City West, Carlsbad, California, or Eugene, Oregon pretty crazy!

We were told the most important news of all the other day....apparently Nutella is super cheap there and they even have no name brands that are even cheaper and taste the same also in 2 tbsp there is 200 calories soooo the plan is not to diet but to ride my bike and walk ultra fast! Also they don't have stick deodorant over there just spray and a rolly kind i don't know what that means but alas.

Next order of business I have begun "eagle eye" once again. Actually it was inspired because Ian eagle eyed me through DearElder so thank you Ian. My eagle eye for tomorrow is to do what Olan Rogers did in "Ghost in the Stalls" (it's on youtube) so I will let you all know how that goes!! I have given another sister the task of, during personal study time (which is dead silent) so go all King Julian on us and say "shhhhhh! Please be quiet! Who is talking? please stop. Shhh! Please, who is that? oh it's me" haha she has yet to do it because she laughs too hard to do it yet.

Sooo this morning was great I have been so annoyed with the fact that I always have to move my hair because it covers my missionary tag. AND I JUST WON"T HAVE THAT! Alas this morning i chopped it off! like it's really short and errrrrrrrrrone can see my tag now holla! I love it, it is so easy to do and yes so alas.

I have to tell you how true the divinity of the call to be a missionary is! I learn things and retain them and when i need them the Spirit draws them to my remembrance. I know that this is true outside of the MTC and outside of being a missionary but I can honestly say I could have a good conversation with someone speaking Dutch, i can teach 30-45 minute lessons all in Dutch (granted I do talk really slow) but I've learned the key to learning is listening and reading. 

The best lessons are those that we are lots of questions and just listen. Listen to the investigator and listen to the promptings of the Spirit, listen to lessons in class and promptings to things to study later, listen to native speaker and mimic them and their accent. Listening is huge! And also reading, by reading I can recognize sentence structure and flow. I can learn and remember, I can receive revelation. Reading is such a vital tool. Joseph Smith was uneducated according to the worlds standards but he could read and because of that he came across the scripture in James. It's so simple. Ahhhh I love it. On our Sunday devotional the speaker stood up and said I had something planned but the Spirit is telling me otherwise he said, "if you have a question or concern say a silent prayer right now and ask your Heavenly Father to inspire me" it was incredible. That devotional was amazing! I swear there wasn't a dry eye in the place. Truly amazing. then he told us we have to do exactly what he just did all throughout our missions. If we had something planned and feel otherwise the Lord will direct us. i have already seen and felt this happen to me and it is incredible and it is why this is the most important and most wonderful work on earth! I love being here!!!!! I love you all! Follow your feelings! Don't be concerned about whether you think it just your thoughts or a prompting. If it's a good thought don't worry, just do. We rarely know in that moment it's a prompting and we may never know so just do it!

I love and adore you. I hope all is well. tell me what's going on out there I really have no clue!!! Flags are at half mass and I have no idea why and apparently yesterday was Memorial Day, who knew? Ahhh well love you! and talk to you next week on my last P-Day in the MTC holla!!!!! Tot ziens to ya!

Love,

Zuster Elting