Happy 4th Everyone!! Week #6 in MTC July 8, 2011

Hey Everyone:

Well this week seemed like it was forever long. As I was thinking about what there was to talk about I realized that I hadn't talked about the 4th yet and so that is super crazy because that seems like it was months ago!!! So I'm just going to do a bulleted list today just to get everything in.

- 2nd of July: This was when we had our 4th of July celebration. It was way cool as we had one of the President of the United States counselors that is LDS come and talk to us about the wonderful joys of this country. It was really awesome as we talked about how he has gone to Iraq and such places and told some really sad stories of people and their fight for freedom. It was a wonderful talk. Then we talked about how we had to have this free land in order for Joseph Smith to be able to restore the gospel and such and then all of a sudden this big group of bagpipe players and some drums marched in playing "Praise to the Man" and then all the flags from the different countries where the gospel is being preached came and were following the band. It was really awesome. And then they put on the big screen a big world map and they had little missionary men running to all the different missions in the world and the name came up one at a time and we got to yell and have fun when our mission came up so it was pretty awesome. Then after that they let us stay up and we went out and sat on the grass in the MTC courtyards and watched the stadium of fire it was really fun. It took me forever to fall asleep that night because there were fireworks going off all night and so I only got a few hours of sleep but it was awesome!!

- Sunday, a day full of meetings since I"m the cordinating sister but they were all really good. One meeting really frustrated me because the elders in my district don't really like one of our teachers, Brother Gámez because he makes them actually follow the rules. Well in one of the meetings we discussed it and the elders all told stories that were way imbelished and made Brother Gámez look horrible, I wouldn´t like him either if he was that way. I tried to stick up for him a little and one of the counselors in the branch presidency told me I was wrong and this man needed to be punished. So I was super frustrated but it´s ok I can´t really do anything about it but I do feel bad for Brother Gámez because he is definitely getting in trouble for things he really didn´t do. But then we had Sacrament meeting in the dark because the power was out for some reason so that was kind of interesting and fun. Then I went on the temple walk and had a very angrying experience that I won´t mention anymore about but that temple walk itself was awesome. It was a really small drizzle and so it was nice and Hermana Lao actually got to come with us because securtiy drove her up there.

- the 4th was just an average day it didn't even feel like a holiday, we thought we would get good food that day but we didn't it was like some of the nastiest food we've had here. I'm gald they didn't make it feel like a holiday thought because the 4th is seriously my favorite so I was missing home so it was really nice just to focus on the language and teaching people. I felt bad for all the teachers that had to work and teach us but it was pretty awesome.

- The 6th, the best day EVER!!!! So the night before we had been waiting patiently to find out if we got to be hosts for the new missionaries and such and we never got a notice. We ran through the mail room right after dinner and noticed that there was another letter in the mailbox and I was so hoping that that was a notification tha twe got ot be hosts because I really wanted to host Jacqueline. Well Elder Garrett and Elder Scott went and checked and elder Garrett came back and said we got to host and I got super excited and was so so so happy and then he told me he was joking and it made me really sad and he felt super bad and so he said he owed me. Well Hermana Lao and Griffeth went to physical therapy on the 6th during the time all the missionaries came in and so I told Elder Garrett that they had to wait outside with me and study outside until she got there. So it was fun as we sat for and hour and got to watch all the new missionaries come in. It made me think back on the day I came in it seems so long ago but yet like it was yesterday. Well I got distracted for a minute and I almost missed Jacqueline. Luckily I looked up just in time and saw her and it was so fun to run an giver her a hug. They've been sticking all the new sisters in a different building because ours is full so Iw as worried but there were 6 spots still open in our building and she happened to be in a room just down the hall withch made me oh so happy!! So we get to hang out every night and talk and everything. I've really missed her and it is so great ot have such a great friend here in the MTC.

Well that is about it. I get my travel plans next week!! It's so crazy that I'm almost ready to take off! I love the mTC but I am definitely ready to move on. My Spanish is getting better I can teach all the lessons and do pretty well. Hopefully I'm not too big of a disaster when it come to the language when I get down there. But I know with the Lord on my side I'm going to be able to accomplish anything, including the language!!!!

Well I hope everything is going well in everyone's lives and you guys have two weeks to send me tonz of packages and letters until I leave!!

Love

Hermana Hubbard

Yet Another Week Week #5 in MTC

Hola Everyone,

I leave in three weeks!!! It's crazy how fast time as flown but at the same time how long I've been in this MTC. I still love it here, the food is getting a little gross but thats ok it's just because i grew up spoiled. And my district is still going through some rough times but it's ok we will figure it out I'm sure. So this week have been a little hard because wehave been trying to get Hermanan Lao back into class. We've been late to almost everything because it takes like twice as long to get places but it's ok we are working with it. It's funny because our teachers pulled a couch into the room for Hermana Lao to sit on and so she can put her leg up and sleep when ever she needs to. SO it's quite funny because there are all these desks and then this one random couch in the corner. She has been doing really well with coming to class and everything and hopefully she can continue to go even though she is sore from PT and everything. Nothing much is happening here just the same usual thing. Class, Spanish, Spanish, Class, you know so on and so forth. I really didn't get a P-day tody because I was at the PT with Hermana Lao but I loved it, I seriously love being in hte medical field. And while we were headed there there was a big hot air balloon thing going on and there were hot air balloons going down all over the place so our driver decided to take us to see the balloons and it was quite fun just to get to drive around a little bit and everything. We drove right past my friend Megan Connelly's house and it was really fun to see it, too bad she just wasn't there so I could have yelled at her or something. The big news is Jacqueline Schneiber comes in this week. I don't think anyone understands, not even Jack, how excited I am for her to come in here. I seriously can't wait, I have been counting down the days just getting more and more excited everyday to be able to see her and to be able to have a giant hug. I bet I'm going to cry my eyes out when I see her because I really want to see a close friend right now!!! Another good news is I get to be a host this week for the new missionaries so I'm going to sit around and wait until she comes around the corner and host her, if they haven't made me go with someone else by then. But I'm seriously excited if you couldn't tell. But yeah that is about all that has happened this week.

So I am kind of sad I'm missing the 4th of July, it's kind of my favorite holiday but I'll get over it. THey are letting us outside to watch the fireworks for a little bit that night but not for very long. We have a special devotional thing planned for Saturday night and I don't quite know what they are planning on doing but it should be good because everything here is amazing!! It's more casual dress because the boys don't have to wear their jackets so I'm interested in what they are doing. But it should be fun!!! So HAPPY 4TH OF JULY EVERYONE!!!!!

Love,

Hermana Hubbard

Crazyest Week of My LIfe!!! Week #3 in MTC

So I don't have a ton of time and I have a crappy keyboard that doesn't type real well so this one is going to be a little vauge. So I'm just going to bullet point some stuff so that I can try to get it all in.

- #1: Hermana Lao had surgery on monday and they didn't let me watch because it's a IHC hospital and I'm not an employee of one even though the surgeon and the anesthegiolgist said it was ok but whatever i guess i had some good experiences in the waiting room. Hermana Lao apparently tore her ACL years ago and has been walking around on it. The ACL was completely gne and had reattached to her PCL and was completely healed to it. The surgeon said he has never seen that before so i thought it was quite interesting. In the waiting room, we had an amazing talk Sunday night by brother McIff the little brother of one of the members of the mtc presidency. Well he was having surgery too so I just hung out with his kids and grandkids all day it was a lot f fun and they sure are an amazing family that is very loving and really nice and willing to talk to all. They are all lawyers at the McIff law firm somewhere in Utah. Way awesome people. Experience number two, I realized how scary missionary work is. I think maybe it would have been easier with a companion but it was really scary for me. So there was an older gentleman from Mexico sitting in the waiting room with me and and he heard me say that I was learning spanish. So he came over and sat next t me and grabbed my marker board and was like "this is waht you should say to everyone you meet" then he wrote "Hola, como esta" it was quite funny. I let him just teach me everythig he wanted to teach me and I got to know him quite well. After an hour I kind of brought up the church and he said that he had heard about it, then I got scared andj ust backed off. i really hope the Lord gives him another opporutnity for him to hear about the gospel because i failed miserably. After he left I sat andh ad a really good scripture study about the confidence the Lord can give you.

- #2: We got another companion for a few days. Sister Motuliki is from Tonga and she has been here for 3 montshb ecause she broke her ankle. She learned English and Spanish while she is here and she is quite the hilarious person. Well her companions left monday morning and they were all in our zone. So Hermana Motuliki was just watitng for clearance from the doctor t be able t go so it was fun to have her in our room and as a companion for a few days. We didn't go to class all week in between hermana Lao and Hermana Motuliki having doctor's appointments and district president's appointments but it's been good the elders have taught us everything we need so it's been good.

- #3: I've been called as th coordinating sister for the zone, it's kind of like the girl version of a zone president so I'm just like the third wheel on the zone leaders. It's been fun but hard I have meetings almost everyday and this week i have missed all of them because of different things happening. But it's been a good experience and i'm learning a lot about being a leader and about being an example so it's been great.

- #4: ALL the general authorities are on campus this week because it's the new mission president's training. It's been pretty cool. Yesterday i took Hernana Motuliki t meet with the district president and the districit president gave us permission t miss class and he pulled us into a room with a TV and we got to watch the prophet speak and he was just on the other side of thew all os it was really cool. He was so relaxed and was joking around it was really different than what you see in general conference. I was laughing my head off a lot of the time and i elarned alot. Even though he was giving the mission presidents advice it was still really good for me to hear. Then we got to watch them from like 5 feet away load up in their cars and drive off both yesterday and today because we were headed to laundry when they were coming out today. So it's beenf un and it's really made all the missionaries step it up a notch because we want to be good for the president and such.

- #5: I've seen the lords help a ton this week. I've learned and understood more spanish than I have since I"ve been here. I'm to grateful that he is helping me especially when there is so much going on and I havem issed so much.

Well that is about it, and I'm out of time so I hope everything is going well and remember to write me and I really appreciate all thel etters I have gotten from everyone and all the packages, I really do feel loved!!!

love

Hermana Hubbard

Week of Hardness! 3rd week in MTC

My schedule: So every morning I wake up at 6:25 and say prayers and then I get ready for the day. I always take showers at night because the shower line in the morning is super crazy and you won't get into the shower before class. Personal Study Time starts at 7 down in the classroom. So I go down there and study what ever I feel that I need to study to better increase my knowledge and how to help me investigators. We have breakfast at 7:40 where I have fruit and usually all-bran with bananas (it's become an addiction!!). Then we go back to the classroom for some more personal study time. Then next we have class from 9 to 12 on the day that I'm describing. The class times change almost everyday but I'm describing my least favorite schedule. Then we have lunch at 12:15 where we get the first wave of mail (packages and hand written letters) then after that we have another 3 hours of class. In this class we either teach our progressing investigator or got the the Language trainging center where volunteers come in from BYU and we teach them. Then next We have language study for an hour. After that we can go to dinner at 5:15 and then we have TALL lab at 6 for an hour. TALL lab is a computer program that helps you pronounce a little better and teaches you grammar and such. Then after that we have gym for an hour where lately because my companion is hurt we go do the stationary bikes or go out to the field and walk around the field if it's nice outside. But everyday we have one hour of language study, one hour of gym, one hour of TALL, two hours of personal study time, and 6 hours of class. It's a great schedule. We got to the temple every Friday and I love it!! our first week going some little Finnish lady came and gave us a ton of names to do because her and her daughter have been trying to do all the names and such but they have hundreds to do so they decided to come and grab some of the sister missionaries so it's been nice I enjoy doig the work for this ladies family. And then every sunday we have the temple walk in the late afternoon where we just go hang out on the temple grounds for an hour. It's great I love temple walk!!!

Well this week have been a pretty hard week for a couple of reasons. Number one is our companionship just about blew apart at the seems. Hermana Griffeth has been causing some pretty big problems in the companions hsip because she won't work as part of the companionship she wants things done her way and she won't let me and Hermana Lao say anything. So we finally had to get a teacher involved and everything seems to be going better between me and Hermana Griffeth but her and Hermana Lao are still butting heads a little bit. I love Hermana Lao to death. It seriously feelsl ike I've met her before and like we have a great purpose to fulfill in this life together. I don't know what it is but something. We are great friends. Number two hardness there are some major problems with our district. THey have been breaking rules right and left and it is really making the spirit disappear in our district. It is really upsetting me. Our district president has tried really hard to talk to them but they don't respect him so I don't know if the problem is going to get better or worse. I think it's going to get worse because it is getting worse. One of the teachers pulled them all out and talked to them and they still just laughed and made fun of the situation. So I don't know. I only have a month left with them so I'll just have ot put up with the disobedience I guess. Luckily for me the 3 of the good elders in the district are coming to my mission and only 1 of the elders thatl ikes to break rules. But that one is actually trying really hard to be better!!! So I'm glad I get to work with the obedient ones. Number three is Hermana Lao got some bad news this week. The first week here she was playing volleyball and came down hard on her knee and she heard a "pop" I tried to convince her that it was her ACL but she wouldn't believe me and she is/ was against medicine of anykind so it was hard to try to convince her to go to the doctor. SO we finally convinced her after she could barely walk anywhere last week. So she went to the doctor I went with her to the hospital where she got x-rays and MRI's and they let me watch. And then the doctor here at the MTC interpreted them himself instead of the letting the orthopedist do it. ANd told her that she just had to havep hysical therapy which made her happy because she thought she tore her Meniscus. Well yesterady afternoon we went back to the orthopedist and he had a surgeon there waiting for us and him and the surgery checked her knee and she has a torn meniscus and a torn ACL. She has to have surgery on Monday. It's a 6 - 8 week recovery so we are hoping to work her hard in physical therapy and at night before bed and get her ready to go before we leave so she can fly out with us. She is really upset about it. I'm quite sad for her. It's a pretty massive trial but I guess all we can say is I'm happy that she got it figured out now and she gets to still go to Argentina. Oh and the Anestheologist is in our branch presidency and he is going to let me come in and watch the surgery so I am quite happy about it. Hermana Lao has been really nervous through this entire thing so she has dragged me everywhere so that I can help her understand what is going on and such. It's a big trial but everyone is working with us really well. We aren't getting behind or anything so it's great.

Well other than that I love it here. I love the spirit here. I love theo pporutinty that I have to learn the gospel. I'm going to write everyone individual letters. and don't worry mom I'm sending off a package of pictures today.

Love you all!!

Cherysh

What a Week! 2nd week in MTC

This week was a little bit of a stressful but wonderful one. So they are now expecting us all to speak Spanish all the time so it is a little diffcult because i don't feel like I know anything. But it's coming slowly, everything will work out in the end. So this week is being really stressful because i had a bunch of nursing classes this week. So you know how my mission president's wife wrote me and told me that I wasn't really going to be the missions nurse because they already have one. Well i was talking to the medical director about it and they were saying that the mission president actually can't do that because the mission nurse has to be trianed by the church. They said that they will let them keep her in there for a bout another 8 months so I can get the language and understand the culture and such and if they don't put me in the mission nurse by the 6 months i'm out there then I'm supposed to email them. So i don't have to worry about me not being the mission nurse.

My nursing classes were pretty amazing I was the only nurse in there with about 5 doctors and they expect me to know and learn the same things as them. It was really intreresting and I think I understand everything pretty well. Hopefully I'm a good nurse when I get down there.

So scare of the week is I got a hug lump behind my ear and it was pushing my ear forward and giving me a massive stiff neck and headache. i dealt with it for a couple of days and then I got a little worried so i went to the doctor. It's just a lymph node and i don't really have any signs of infections or anything so they stuck me on some antibiotics because they don't know what is up but they think there must be something going on. They gave me some pain killers too but I haven't used them at all I just have been using tylenol and that has been working great. Then my companion Hermana Lao has been really sick the last couple of days and her knee has been really bothering her for a couple of weeks. She is very against medicine and doctors and such so it was really hard to convince her to go to the doctor. But we literally drug her to the doctor yesterday and she is really sick. She has an infection in her throat and in her lungs. And then they think she has a tumor in her knee. So I'm going with her to the hospital on Monday to get an MRI and see what is up. I hope everything is ok with her. but while she was sick we had to be in the dorms with her so we had a nice and relaxing day yesterday. Hermana Griffeth and I just sat on the couches and studied all day long. All the elders in our district thought we were up there sleeping and relaxing but we really tried hard to stick to the schedule and do what we could. We memorized 91 vocabulary words and went over verb tenses for quite awhile and and then we finally had to lay down and take a 20 minute nap. But we studied really hard all day long. It was really nice to just relax and take time to study. I feel a lot better because I was super frustrated all week with the language becuase I have missed so much class becuase of my nursing classes.

There is definitely a sickness going around our district. Elder Scott got it last week and then Elder Edwards has been coughing up blood because he has been coughing so much and now Hermana Lao has it so hopefully we don't all get it.

Our lesson with our progressing investigator went really well this week. Last week he was very closed and didn't want to talk to us and hated God and so on and so forth. Well this week we cracked through his barrier and he definitely felt the spirit. He was begging to know more like to hear the first vision and learn more about the Book of Mormon. It is really nice to watch comeone realize that happiness this gospel can bring.

I just love this gospel to death. It's amazing the happiness and the joy it brings. I've just noticed a massive difference in my life since I"ve come into the MTC. With the spirit as my constant companions it is really hard to get down or to be discouraged. LIfe is just wonderful and the gospel brings so much happiness, peace, and comfort to my life!!

Well that is basically my week I guess, nothing else really happened I still have like 12 minutes to write but I don't really have anything else to say. Oh I bore my testimonry in Spanish in church on Sunday I guess that was a pretty big accomplishment. I was scared out of my mind but it went great and hopefully I made a little bit of sense.

Well thanks for the love and support from everyone I really do love receiving letters every day. So keep sending letters!!

Love ya

Full Week #1

Well this week has been pretty amazing. I just absolutely love it here and all the experiences. Let me think for a second of eveything that has been going on. Well we learn a lot, I've learned more Spanish in the past week than i did my entire high school career. So let's just start with the hard stuff. So this week I had a couple of really hard days where were would learn a new concept and wouldn't have time to really study it and then move on to a next one the next day and so it was really frustrating because I'm used to staying up at night and sudying until I get the new concept. So it has been frustrating that I haven't been able to do that. So I started prayng really hard and trying really hard to rely on the Lord. I made a deal with him that I would get up an extra 30 minutes early in the morning to study Spanish if he would help me out. So I've been doing that all week. It didn't seem to be working and then Tuesday we were looking up some stuff for our fake investigator that we teach every week (which is one of the teachers playing an investigator from their mission) and I found this scripture in MOsiah I don't remember where but it talked about how we are nothing and unworthy creatures compared to the Lord and how he still loves us enough to bless us and to take care of us if we just humble ourselves. so that night a kneeled down and pleaded with the Lord and well the next day the language just kind of clicked. I'm still going to do my part, we got a tutor and I still am trying to get up in the morning and such so hopefully I can continue to progress in the language and to become better. The spirit here is amazing and I absolutely love it. The food isn't the greatest so I eat a lot of salads and I'm kind of sick of salad but ig uess i better get used to it because I have 8 more weeks of it.

Well let me introduce you all to my amazing district!! I'm just going to go through and tell you about each one. I'm gong to send pictures home so maybe my mom can find some way to get them up on the blog. Anyways so my companions. Sister Griffeth is from Lehi Utah and is kind of stressed out about the language but is very fun and loving. my other companion sister Lao is full Tongan but is from SLC. She is kind of spacy and doesn't know whati s going on most of the time but is probably the most fun loving person I know. Next We have Elder Scott and Elder Garret. Well Elder Scott as I said last week is The apostle elder scott's great nephew. He is very short like maybe 5'4 and is really quiet and keeps to himself. I sat down with him the other daya nd he told me his life story and it is amazing. His dad ran off or died when he was born he never really said which one and he was raised by his grandparents while his mom worked. His mom wasn't very active in the church because she married a non-member and he went to church each week by himself because he felt it was important and loved the spirit there. I think that is just amazing that he has done that. He knows his scriptures like no budies business and is pretty awesome when you can get him to talk. Next Elder garret, What to say about elder Garret well he is the crazy one of the group. He has a girl at home that he is positive that they are getting married when he gets home (We all know I know what that is like) I told him the other day that is probably wno't work out because they only dated for 2 months before he left, He got pretty mad at me so I havn't brought it up again. He is crazy, laughing and always getting in trouble, we always have to get him to sing hymns or primary songs to get him from not quoting or singing worldy music and movies.

Next companionship is Elder Dallimore and Elder Christensen. Elder Dallimore is the absolutely hilarious one of the group. He always keeps us laughing and is always doing something weird. He came up with our district cheer "Bienta a" it is funny we just do it every day at the end of gym. Elder Christensen is mr. serious he always sitting in the corner studying his guts out. He also has a girlfriend at home tath e is planning on marrying I keep telling them my situation about a year ago and how it doesn't work out and stuff but I guess maybe I should stop.

Next cmpanionship is Elder Marple and Elder Edwards. Elder Marple is the music guy of the group and the genius. He can already speak spanish pretty fluently and he doesa ll them usic, he played Cello at ASU and is pretty amazing. Him and Elder Edwards have tried really hard o get the elders to include us more which has worked they are great!! Elder Edwards is 23 and was cnnverted to the churhc like 5 years ago or something and just graduated with a math degree from college. His parents are anti and are pretty mad at him for what he's doing. He is our distric leader and pretty awesome.

Next companionhship Elder Beatty and Elder Varney. Elder Beatty me and my compaions have talked about this and we have decided taht we just can't understand him we don't know what to think of him. He's a fun guy but I can never tell when he's mad or upset or frustrated or happy hopefully as we get to know him more then I'll be able to understand his facial expressions. Elder Varney. This kid is also amazing. He is way fun and really tries hard to include us in the group and everything. He is alot of fun and we have a lot of fun plying volleyball with him every week.

So now you know who I hang out with. Thanks to everynoe that writes me letters. I love getting home at night and having letters to read so keep is up. I can only write letters on P-day so I won't write anyone back very fast but please continue writing me. Just know that i love it here, I love this gospel and i am so so so grateufl for the opportunity to bring people closer to Jesus Christ.

Love

Hermana Hubbard

First 3 days in the MTC 1st Letter 5-28-2011 WOW!!

Wow it is super crazy here but I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!!! It's exhausting and fun. So my companion never showed up so I have sister Lao and Sister Griffeth as companions, it is really fun being in trio. They are way awesome and we get along really well. It's just us in our room and there are six beds in our room so it is nice because we each have two closets and our own vanity. My teachers are Brother Martinez and Brother Gamez. They are both amazing. Brother Martinez is from Ecquador and Brother Gamez is from Spain so they just speak Spanish to us only in the classroom. It's only day 4 and it's amazing how much Spanish we have already learned. WE learned verb conjegation yesterday and I think I get it kind of. It was kind of hard but I can definitely feel the Lord helping me as I learn it. My district is pretty awesome, just you're average 19 year old boys. Most of them have girlfriends and that is all they talk about, Brother Gamez got after them yesterday and told them to forget about them and then told them to stop quoting movies. They have been a lot better. The elders aren't too inviting to us sisters in the district. They have a hard time including us but I have to say that they do try it's just hard to find that balance between sisters and elders while on the mission.

I love the spirit here, it is absolutely amazing. I just love learning about the gospel everyday and being able to spend hours a day in the scriptures. I love praying a ton every day!! It is so great. Before I came in I was so nervous and scared to point that I got a little sick but the second I walked into the door i knew that this is where I'm supposed to be and what I am supposed to be doing in my life right now. I have a lot of friends that are here and it has been really fun to see them all and to talk about our missions.

Oh and Elder Scott's grand-nephew in my district so that is fun to tease him about. He looks just like him but with brown hair and younger skin. But everything is great here!! I love every second of every day!! The food is good for the most part, nothing like mom's cooking but still good. And I would like to announce that I have been running everyday for gym time. I can barely walk up and down stairs from being so sore but it feels great to be getting into shape. Well I love you all and I can't wait to hear from all of you!!

Love

Hermana Hubbard