WEEK 3

HOLA MI FAMILIA!

Goodness is it already Thursday?! I can't even believe it! Another great day in the kingdom! So crazy.. The days at the MTC are LONG, but the weeks fly. This week I hit my halfway mark at the MTC so that is crazy... 

Right now, it seems like all my mission is, is being at the MTC. It blows my mind that I will actually be leaving to another country in 17 days to teach people I don't know, in a language that I struggle in. Isn't that crazy? I can't comprehend it fully.. but wow, am I ever excited. 

THINGS AND HAPPENINGS OF THE WEEK :)

-We were sitting at Sunday night devotional, and we were talking to everyone around us. I love talking to other missionary's and finding out their story, and where they are from, and where they are going and stuff.. and one of the Elder's behind me asked if I was part Latina or if I had Latina blood in me.. I literally was so shocked and then I could not stop laughing. I'm pretty sure I'm the whitest girl at the MTC. Me and my companion joked about it the rest of the week. So super funny. Also I noticed this week.. I don't have a single tan line on my entire body... so that's great.. hahaha

-This week was another one of MANY huge ups and huge downs, but honestly you guys, I've never been closer to my Savior, and felt him more in my entire life!! So.. anyways. I've been looking for tender mercies everyday, and here are two that I can think of right now. One day we were able to go outside and sit on one of the benches and plan, and it was just SO warm.. and the sun was right on us, and it was just the best. I felt so blessed in that moment. The next tender mercy was at choir this week, because I'm so dang short, they moved some of us midgets closer to the front so we could see the director, and I was sitting next to a girl from Ecuador!! The same place where I went! It was awesome to talk to her. She spoke a tiny bit of English, but she mostly spoke to me in Spanish.. and you GUYS.. I understood probably 80% of what she was saying.. and she was speaking FAST. So that was awesome too.

-Family.. THANK YOU FOR THE PACKAGE!! I read every single one of the cards from all of you, and I appreciate it so much! I just sat there on my floor grinning so hard. It was the best. I'll send a picture of it! Packages MAKE missionary's day. I kid you not. 

-Something missionaries do in the MTC, is we do service two times a week. On Saturdays our district is in charge of going to the Senior couple rooms, and cleaning the rooms that were moved out of the week previous. We're basically maids, but it's really fun. I've definitely developed a new talent of changing bed sheets really quickly, efficiently, and making it look good. So that's sweet. The other service we do is sweep and mop the stairs in our residence halls. I'll send pictures of us doing that this week. It's great, and we just go over Spanish the entire time.

-I SAW ADDY THIS WEEK AND IT WAS THE BEST. Of course, burst into tears, but they were happy tears!! It was great to see her. I don't have a picture, but if I see her again, hopefully have my camera. 

WHAT I'VE LEARNED THIS WEEK :)

ahhh.. where to begin. I'm sorry if I repeat things from last week, but it's hard to remember what I've already talked about.

-This week we were talking about growing and our capacity becoming larger, and my AWESOME zone leader said something that I really liked. He said: "There is little growth in your comfort zone, and little comfort in your growth zone.." I've heard that before but I never really understood what it meant. But I think that I do now.. being a missionary.. at least for me is an uncomfortable thing. In the MTC, we do a lot of role-playing, and it can be weird to be role playing at first, but if you take it seriously, you can honestly learn a lot. So the elders were pretending to be random people on the street, and we had to go and start a conversation with them and start talking to them, and I was actually really scared to do it! I don't know why, but it was hard for me! So getting out of my comfort zone, and being bold, and extending invitations, is definitely a struggle for me, but while I prayed for the strength to do those things, and fulfill my purpose as a missionary, Heavenly Father blessed me. Sometimes in role plays I don't even know what to say, but when I show the Lord my willingness to open my mouth and at least try to step out of my comfort zone, he blesses me! It's awesome. Does that make any sense? I hope so.

-Another thing I learned.. the Lord's timing is perfect you guys. Holy cow. The testimony of that grows more every day here too. This is the right place for me to be. I honestly believe that part of the reason that my teachers got a job teaching at the MTC is because they needed to teach me. They are SO awesome. Hermana Tuft.. gah  you guys. I wish you all could meet her. She is THE BEST. I'll try and take a picture with her this week. She has helped me in so many ways. This week..she taught our district about the theory of circles. It's super super hard to explain in words over an email, but maybe google it if you get a chance? We can't get on google here so I don't know what will come up, but if you haven't heard it.. it's really cool. Basically, life is full of ups and downs and God gives us them to learn and grow. When we over come an obstacle we are "on top of the world!" but then all the sudden we have another hard thing in our path, and we feel low again. But we forget to look back and see all of the circles, or the hard things that we have accomplished. I don't know if that makes sense.. but yeah. I hope you are able to find that somewhere on google the way she explained it. It rocked. 

-I learned just because that I have been set apart and am in the MTC on my mission, doesn't mean that I will be a perfect right now.. and that's hard for me, but I'm slowly learning. poco a poco. 

-Our devotional on Tuesday was literally SO awesome. I was praying that whole day that I would be able to feel the spirit and learn something from it that night, and I did! It was great. Elder Don R. Clarke spoke.. he's in the first quorom of the 70? Or something like that.. but anyways. Instead of standing at the podium and talking the entire time, he had a tie clip mic and walked around and talked with people in the audience. It was so engaging. He talked about 10 things he thinks that every missionary should know before they go on a mission. A few things that I loved from his talk: 1) If my sister or brother or dad were inactive or not a member, and I was the missionary assigned to teach them, how hard would I work and pray and teach them? He made the point that I should look at every person like someone's brother or sister or father and work as hard as if they were my own. I hope that makes sense. It's hard to put things into writing. 2) "Revelation comes on the move, and I need to be a missionary of action. Faith without works is dead. 3) I need to KNOW the realness of my calling. I didn't know this before, but in Preach My Gospel, there is an entire chapter dedicated to my call as a missionary.. and I literally represent the Savior. I need to continually be thinking, how would  Christ deal with this situation, or what would he do in this situation right now? That's what I do as a missionary. I was thinking.. when Christ was on the Earth, he healed people.. and that's exactly what I can do.. I CAN HEAL. I have the right, authority, and ability to HEAL people through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I think that is an awesome thought. I'm smiling as I'm typing that. How cool. How lucky am I?

I hope you all have the BEST week.

HAPPY 16TH BIRTHDAY TO MY GIRL ANNACLAIRE. I HOPE YOU HAD THE BEST DAY YESTERDAY. I'm so sad that I wasn't there to celebrate, but don't worry, I ate an ice cream sandwich to celebrate. I love you so much AC. Thanks for being such an incredible example to me! 

love from the MTC, 

xoxoxox 

Hermana Ehlert

Picture numero uno.. you know you're a Spanish missionary when this was the funniest thing that I saw all day. 

Picture numero dos.. SO EXCITED TO SEE MY GIRL HERMANA DAYES. I was SO pumped. She is in a different district than me but we live on the same floor. SO happy to see a face from home. She rocks.

picture numero tres.. it was PIE day.. and we were also wearing all the primary colors. Shoutout to DI dresses. ;)

picture numero cuatro.. opening my package and it made me SO happy! Thank you for the LOVE mi familia! 

picture numero uno.. We love SERVICE 

picture numero dos.. Hermana Jackman is having a niece and she found out this week! Her family sent pink mustaches! I love mine! It reminded me of Grandpa Bruce's!!!!