Sister Jessica Anderson: First Letter from the MTC

Hello family and friends!
Thank you thank you SO much for all of the Dear Elder stuff that you send me! I get so many letters and I feel kinda bad for the other people in my district cause they only get a couple and then they watch me get all of the letters from you guys, but they just make fun of me and say that I bribed you all to be writing me haha but I love hearing from you guys! Ima try to write you back if I this email doesn't answer any of the questions that you asked me in those letters, but I really never have any time to write letters while I am in the MTC. But ill try!

So the MTC is great! I love love love it here! the spirit is so amazing here! i love it.

so the first day was crazy and right once i walked into the building they sent me from this place to this other place to another place. and then to my classroom and that's where i met my companion! She is great. her name is Sister Pearson. She is from this ity bity place in the middle of no where in Nevada. a town called Peoach or something? She is 100% a farmer and dirt bike rider. she has 13 brothers and sisters and is right in the middle of them all! she is great though and I love her lots. The food here is alright. the chocolate milk is my favorite! Dont drink the orange juice. EVER. Oh and today I was eating these grapes and then I found this icky gooey stuff connecting all of them..not okay. then another sister in my district was eating her grapes and there was a SPIDER in her grapes! so we are never going to be eating grapes ever again. And my district is AWESOME. I love ALL of them! there is me and sister Pearson, sister Granados, she is from Orem and i Kinda-ish know her and Sister Harris is from Richfield! and then there is Elder Menlove and Elder Cutler they are great and from somewhere in Utah. then there is Elder Jones from somewhere and Elder Willden also from Richfield area! I love them all! our teachers are great too! Oh so on the first day we had this "people and your purpose" thing where everyone (40-50 missionaries) all act as if we were two missionaries just teaching this one investigator who is at the front of the class. So we did that and it was kinda all over the place cause everyone had different ideas on where they thought that the discussion should go, but it turned out alright, but at the end the guy (investigator) before it ended he looked right at me.. and I was like Oh no what did I say...what is he going to do.. Then he's like "ginger high five!" and it was so funny and we had an air high five. and then he's like "so..do Mormon gingers have a soul?" and everyone just laughed and he's like "Or do you get a soul for going on a mission?" haha it was funny. I get a lot of jokes and stuff on my hair. I'm use to it.

The other day we were in gym time and playing volleyball our district against the other district and it was so fun! but one of the elders on the other team was just thinking that he was really good at volleyball and thought that he could just slam on us, so once I got to the front row I decided that he needed to be humbled a little bit so I blocked his next hit and that calmed him down a bit and everyone really liked that haha

Oh attention attention. So the sisters in my district decided to be in the MTC choir! my comp wasn't too into it, but I think that she is actually liking it :) the song sounds so good. But we are singing it on Tuesday at the devotional and they always have great speakers, like last week they had Elder Holland, and when it is someone big like him then they broadcast it. We don't know who it is but they are going to broadcast it! So I dont know how of if you guys can watch it, but you should try! you might see me in the choir! so that's cool.

So with teaching with my companion at first when we started teaching our first two "investigators" (my teachers, but very real like) It was kinda hard for us to be on the same page with things cause we use to think so differently, but Saturday we taught a member that came in for TRC like I use to do, and they don't act like anyone or anything, it is all real. but when we taught them we were totally on the same page and the spirit was there so strong! we taught these two 40ish year old people they were just friends, we taught them about the restoration and well, mostly on family and the importance of reading the Book of Mormon, and as I was saying my testimony on the Book of Mormon I looked at the man and tears started coming out of his eyes and the spirit just got stronger and stronger and then they said their testimonies and more tears were shed and it was just all so great! i loved it.

Yesterday was probably my favorite day. we said goodbye to some of the members in our zone, our zone is just one more district and they are hilarious i love em so much. the rest of them leave tomorrow at like 3 in the morning, so then its just us! until Wednesday. im so excited to meet the new missionaries! anyways so yesterday sister Perry came and talked to us and she was so good! and really funny! we sang this medley that she made and the efy medley song. I love when we sing that song, the spirit is SO strong. then after that we watched Films and our district watched The Character of Christ. its from a few years ago when Elder Bednar came to the MTC on Christmas morning and you can ONLY watch this film in the MTC. it is life changing! He talks all about how the character of Christ is to completely forget ourselves and be outwardly serving everyone and and to loose ourselves in service. It was great.

Welp everything is pretty great here! Thank you so much for all of the prayers! I can definitely feel them strengthening me throughout my day.

This letter is probably all over the place and maybe doesn't make any sense.. but oh well.

I LOVE YOU ALL!

catch up with ya later!

Love,

Sister Anderson