Hello friends!

I have been in the MTC for a week now, but it basically feels like a year. They say that the days feel like years but the weeks feel like days, and that is so true. The days are so long that they feel like they go on forever, but at the end of the day, I find myself wondering where all the time has gone. Before I came to the MTC, I wanted to make the days last as long as possible because short days meant leaving home and wasted time. But now that I'm here, I don't worry so much about how quickly the day is going because everything is planned out and I am more anxious to get into the field. So much has happened since I've been here, and I haven't even written it all down in my journal (Which I am kicking myself for because how in the heck am I supposed to catch up?? Thank goodness today is P-day.), so don't expect me to tell you everything.

Wednesday morning, we woke up at 3:30 AM (I only slept 2 1/2 hour that night) to get everything ready and get to the airport on time. Baggage check took forever, and we missed the boarding announcement, so I didn't gave very much time to say goodbye to my family. I may or may not have been responsible for the plane leaving a couple minutes late (thank heavens for merciful airport staff - a great blessing), but the flight went smoothly, and my aunt picked me up in Salt Lake. I got to have brunch with a good friend from BYU, then spend a little time with my aunt and uncle and cousins before they dropped me off at the MTC. I went through the quick orientation where they gave me my name tags and some informational stuff, took me to my room to drop off my suitcases, then to my classroom. As soon as I got there, the teachers spoke only Finnish to us, which was probably the most terrifying part of the day. Class started right away, and the rest of the day was pretty much just orientation meetings and dinner and more class. My companion came a little late (she came pretty much straight from BYU). Sister Owen is fantastic. She and I are the only Finnish-speaking sisters int he MTC right now.

Day two started at 3:15 for me. About half of the Finnish missionaries had to go to LA to go to the Finnish consulate to finish out the visa process, and we had to meet at 4:30. I was without a companion for most of the day, and it was probably the weirdest thing. Only, we didn't make it to LA. We got to the airport with an hour to kill before boarding, then spent 2 1/2 hours on the plane while they de-iced the wings, before announcing that the airport had actually shut down due to the snow storm. We waited in the airport for about an hour before the travel office told us to take the Trax home. We waited for the Frontrunner for an hour, then spent another hour or so on the train. There were some sisters who were supposed to go the Mexican consulate, so I hung out with them so I didn't feel weird with he elders. Getting back with Sister Owen was sweet relief. All the new Finnish missionaries (there are 12 of us) met our branch presidency in the evening.

Thursday we taught our first lesson in Finnish, which was basically the scariest thing. Since then, we have taught two more lessons, and have another one tonight. The good news is that they are getting better and more spiritual. The bad news is that we are going to start teaching more than one a day soon. The rest of the time has pretty much been class time, where we learn weird Finnish grammar and Preach My Gospel principles. 

Sunday was a pretty weird day. I enjoyed it, but the only thing that was different between it and a regular day was Sacrament meeting. The mission president has asked us to prepare a short talk every week, then he will announce a couple missionaries to speak at the beginning of Sacrament meeting. He said to translate each talk into Finnish by the end of our MTC stay so we will have a couple talks under our belt in case we get asked to speak in the mission field. 

By far the best part of this week was Christmas. On Christmas Eve, everything was normal until the evening. There was a devotional in the evening with David F. Evans of the Quorum of the Seventy, and Sister Owens and I participated in the choir. On Christmas morning, we open our gifts. My family snuck a couple presents into my suitcases that I found while I was unpacking, the best of which was a family photo album. Sisters Owen's grandma, aunt, and mom all sent me stockings (which still cracks me up), so I had three stockings plus the stuff from my parents. We had time to email our families in the morning, had a Christmas talent show in the morning, Christmas lunch (MTC food is sometimes questionable), and a devotional with Elder David A. Bednar. He did something totally historic: instead of a talk, he passed out two hundred cell phones and gave us a number so we could text him anonymous questions that he would answer. It was pretty incredible, and the Spirit was amazing. Sister Owen and I sang in the choir for that too. In the evening, we went to a jazz concert from Ray Smith, a saxophone professor at BYU, had and sack dinner, and got to watch the Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert from last year. The presidency got us all kettle corn, and our district was part of the service project to clean up after devotionals, so you can imagine how that went last night.\

So that's pretty much my week, even though it feels like so much more has happened. So far I am loving the work and the language and the Spirit, and I only expect that love to grow exponentially. Thank you all for your support and your prayers!

Rakaudella, 

Sister Hillebrant