Welcome to the England MTC – Week 1 – Anna's Adventures in the Isles

WELL, I CANNOT BELIEVE HOW CRAZY THIS WEEK HAS BEEN, BUT IT HAS BEEN SO WONDERFUL!!!! ~Warning~ This is a loooong email.

Tuesday the 7th:

My day started at 4 in the morning when I left for the airport to fly to Atlanta with Elder Bradford who has been my friend from my ward for a while, so that was awesome! We actually didn’t end up sitting next to each other, but I did talk to another Elder leaving for his mission to Peru, so that was fun. The flights were long, but in Atlanta I met up with an Elder going to my mission and we got along super well! His name is Elder Hylander, and we talked a little on Facebook before the Mission, so it was nice to see someone familiar at the airport. We met a man who works for Heinz and we found out the secrets to ketchup. Very interesting. When we landed at JFK, our flight was boarding right then so we ran to the toilets and then boarded the plane. Elder Hylander and I were sitting there for a while when they said that we had to wait out a huge storm. So, we got to sit and watch a lightning storm and rain for a good 2 1/2 hours in the plane while we were starving and tired. Good times.

Wednesday the 8th:

We got to England very tired and without any sleep! Our president of the Mission Training Center (MTC) said we were able to take the day to relax and adjust to the time change, so we just played volleyball, walked around, and unpacked. We had a quick dinner and then went to bed at about 7:00 PM. We were so tired! I woke up thinking I had slept through the entire night, but it turns out, it was only midnight… my bad. But, sleep has gotten a lot better since then and I’m not feeling the jet lag anymore.

Thursday the 9th:

GREAT DAY! We have about 58 missionaries here at this MTC and about half are going to the Alpine German speaking mission so they are learning German while they are here and I feel so bad for them. I have never been more grateful that I don’t have to speak another language. There are about 5 Elders from Germany, one from Denmark, one from Norway, one from Spain, one from Italy, one from Finland, and the German Elders are my absolute favorite! They are so hilarious and actually speak English very well! We also have a few sisters from fun places like France, Myanmar, and the Czech Republic. There are about 15 sisters here and we all became really close, really fast! I love how small the MTC is because you become fast friends with EVERYONE! I know almost everyone’s name now and ahhhhh it is just so wonderful! We also had some of our first classes and I don’t remember too much about them. I think it was just a lot of rules and memorizing.

Friday the 10th:

We went running around here for our exercise time (that’s the beauty of this place, we have SOOOO much freedom). We ended up getting lost and adding about 2 miles to our run. Boy we were tired after that! We also had our first lesson and it went so well! I got teary eyed in the lesson because I felt the spirit so strongly when we taught Diana. It was also the day I found out, as a missionary, you are EXHAUSTED ALL THE TIME! The meals here are very hearty and we always have a meat and potato, basically. It also tastes very… I don’t know, rustic? Very interesting. I hope I get used to it soon.

Saturday the 11th:

We had the best futball game ever! Just imagine 50 young adults playing soccer (or futball) and for some of them, it is their life! And then for others of us, we have no clue what the rules are (ahem, me). Needless to say, it was awesome. Languages were coming out and man the sisters got beat up! For some reason we were always in the way when an Elder would kick the ball as hard as he could. Ya, I have some awesome bruises and stories now. We also taught another person today and it went pretty well! We felt the spirit really strong. The lesson didn’t go quite as we thought it would but hopefully it was for the best.

Sunday the 12th:

Sundays are the best in the MTC! I had the opportunity to sing at church today with another sister and it went pretty well. Not a ton of people actually sing here, and they definitely don’t sing loud, so I kind of stand out. This day had a lot of tears of joy and it was so wonderful. We also got to take a nap, so that was wonderful. The days here are filled with lessons and learning and eating and then going to more classes and lessons. Super fun but after a while your mind feels incapacitated.

Monday the 13th:

WE WENT TO MANCHESTER TODAY! As in Manchester United! All of us missionaries took to the streets and just talked to people for about 2 hours! And man, people smoke SO MUCH here! Like every single person in the street is basically smoking so I had the worst headache ever after that. But we met this really cool Maori guy who reminded me of a black Jack Sparrow with tattoos all over his face. Super fun, and he shook our hands at the end of talking to us and he looks at me and said, “You know James Bond?” and I said yes, and then he goes and just plants a kiss right on my hand and I couldn’t stop laughing. It was awesome! We came home, and of course we had more lessons and we taught a lesson with Artemis again. Funny moment: Sister Schlustmeyer (my companion and BEST FRIEND because she absolutely amazing and everyone calls us the power companionship), but we were so tired this night that we were trying to explain the plan of salvation in a minute and a half and Sister Schlutsmeyer was so flustered and she said, “Adam and Eve, they, well, there was a commandment, and well, and THEY GIVE BIRTH AHHHHHHH!” hahaha! Not as bad as a moment in our lesson where I said Adam and Eve partook of the frozen fruit. Good times.

Well, I love you all!!! Have a great week! The Church is true.

Words I learned: