the first full week of zoom

First things first, I got reassigned. I will now be serving in the Eugene, Oregon mission!!! At least that's what Shawn (I mean President Osbourne) told me on the phone Tuesday night, so far my missionary portal won't change so I can't get any more information on my new mission.
We started TRC (training resource center) appointments this week, this week we had to do two lessons in our native language (next week we're supposed to do one in español which will be absolutely horrific). Anyway, we signed up to teach this girl named Alex, who was a "non-member" that went to BYU and wanted to know more about the gospel. The first time we just got to know her and shared a brief message on prayer, the next time we were supposed to actually teach a lesson. Yesterday, when when we had our last lesson, we went in prepared to give the message of the restoration de el evangelio, we ended up talking about prayer for yet another 25 minutes (that's the whole time period of the lesson). Which I guess is what she (or her character) had questions about, so at least the lesson was tailored to her. I talked to Caleb, Nate, and Josh about their experiences with TRCs my favorite quote on it goes to Caleb, "You'll look back on those and wonder how you ever taught a lesson that bad." So, it seems there's nowhere to go but up my friends, and man, do we need to go up.  The next lesson will probably be an even greater trainwreck, but I assume that's exactly what it's supposed to be.

Anywho, I had many classes, this week learned a lot of great stuff, and took a lot of notes; but my favorite thing I learned this week is that an Elder in my district is the Grandson of a former Asian dictator (Laos to be specific). Apparently his mom grew up in a palace with servants before the monarchy collapsed (the country is communist now I think?) and then she escaped became a member at some point and somehow settled down in Far West Utah- which I have since learned is NOT just that one exit where I stopped to eat every other day for softball freshman year- wild.

It was great to have the day off for Thanksgiving! I got to see some of my extended family and eat the day away.


Why is a day full of eating Turkey the most tiring day of the year? I felt absolutely exhausted the entire day, but man am I grateful for rolls, pie, mashed potatoes, and layered jello (the only thanksgiving foods as far as I'm concerned). Also, I'm thankful for mi familia, Jesucristo, y el evangelio I guess ;). I definitely say those a lot in my prayers because they're three of the 15 Spanish words I can remember off the top of my head.

Anyway much love from Hermana Shelton, I'm off to go enjoy the rest of my P-day.

Messages from my Dad's Office

We've been instructed to email our families every week, to flex the technology that allows us to do so if nothing else I suppose. My district is composed of three companionships (is this unusually small or normal?) one set of Elders and the rest Hermanas. I am in a triad (I believe they are called) with Hermana Teichert and Hermana Anderson, the two of which are both blonde and I couldn't tell them apart for the first day. Both of them are extremely nice, they seem like the kind of friends that would wait for you to tie your shoelace while the rest of the group kept walking and left you in the dust.

According to Dallin, the MTC cafeteria could use a little work, but I personally think that the new chef Mary Sue (read it in a bad french accent) is doing a fantastic job. I'm very much enjoying the turkey avocado wraps she makes for me.

We had our first tutoring session yesterday, we went over Spanish 97 (below 101) and worked on introducing ourselves. Our tutor for Spanish name is Hermana Hancey and one of her MAJORS is Spanish so she's pretty qualified. She's actually roommates with our night class (6:15-9:15) teacher Hermana Edgel. Both of them seem like they would tie the shoelace for you when it came untied, and have the perfect voices to eventually in one of the General Presidencies. Our afternoon class is taught by Hermano Wride who also seems like he says sorry when someone does something to him.


In class on Thursday, Hermana Edgel brought her friend Kennedei (who is not from Utah despite spelling her name that way). She isn't a member and told us about her past experiences with religion and her knowledge of God. After she talked to us for a while we went into breakout rooms (mini zoom calls with just certain members of the group, for non-zoom users) with our companions to find scriptures or insights to share with her. Originally Heramana Edgel was just going to send her the scriptures, but Kennedei actually agreed to come back and let us teach her a mini-lesson on Saturday (so like a couple of hours ago).


She came in halfway through class and each companionship took a turn teaching her, everytime we'd come back from the breakout rooms a group would have watery eyes. My companionship went last, and we decided that since we were last we should prioritize any questions she had from the previous lessons instead of throwing even more information at her. I was amazed by her questions, I'd never heard any like those before. They were real questions, it wasn't "So, like why can't you guys drink coffee?" She was asking how she could know that the savior is there for her personally, and how she could know that God is with her. Talking with her and helping her with questions she had (for the brief 15 minutes we had) has been the HIGHLIGHT of my MTC experience. I have an overwhelming feeling that today will not be the end of her story with this church.


Anyway, hope everyone has a great day, I'm going to walk out of Dad's office so we can go to lunch now! Hope everyone has a great day and don't forget to share something you're thankful for!!


Much love,
Hermana Shelton