Week 6

Subject: Heysan! Jag kan (inte) Svenska!


Hey all,

So, we have started doing English fasts this week. We had our first one on Friday plus a food fast, so that spelled disaster. No food plus inability to communicate creates a very distressed Sister Maxwell. It was fine though. I got over it. Today is P-day (of course) and we decided to do another one except we can write in English to you all and when we go to the temple. Aldste Bloomfield is down the table from me entertaining some English missionaries with his Swedish. We don't even speak to other people (non-Swedes) in English. I think it was a bad idea to do this today. It's hard to run errands when no one else speaks what you are speaking. I guess that will be how it is when we get to Sweden :) So this week went by incredibly fast. We only have 3 weeks left. Am I ready? I don't know. Probably.

So just a few choice tidbits for this week. So in the MTC you can buy t-shirts with your destination country or state. I chose not to purchase one because I don't think I'll wear it either in Sweden or when I get home because it has a huge gaudy Swedish flag on it. I prefer something classier :) So, the rest of my district bought their Swede shirts and wear them to gym each week. Sister Page wanted to start doing a district 1/2 mile run around the track to start gym and foster unity in the Swede shirts, but we all nixed that idea because it was silly and would look too much like a gang. We already look like a gang when we all play volleyball.

So part of the purpose of my letters is to capture a little of what it is to be in the MTC for those that haven't been here. I was incredibly shocked when I got here and hadn't heard about most of the things that go on here, so I apologize if there are any returned missionaries that think this is dull.

Someone told me before I left that Sundays are the best days at the MTC. Turns out that is true. We get to go see Music and the Spoken word in the morning which seems to have double the cheese than I remember from times I've watched it before Conference before. There was a choir from China this week. They were so good! And so cute (they were children--that's important to note). I ate it all up, but some of the other missionaries thought it was weird. Especially the instrumental numbers. We have Relief Society meeting after that. This week Pres. Monson's daughter came and spoke to us. She was really good. Had some different insights for us. Also, she told us Pres. Monson's favorite color is yellow and one of his fav scriptures is Provs 3:5-6. I had a dream we met him the night before. He was very personable and made a thumbs up sign to Sis Page :) We have sacrament meeting after. We all have to prepare talks each week and they randomly call 2 of us up to speak. I already spoke, so there's less pressure every week. Then we have another lesson with our district, then we go to the temple and then we go to choir and then we go to dinner and then we go to a fireside. The fireside on Sunday was the director of the missionary department. He told all these stories about disobedient missionaries that ended up going home, in jail or dying, etc because they didn't follow the rules. All of us sisters agreed that we didn't want to listen anymore. It was a bit of a downer. They aren't all like that though. Then we get to watch a movie or talk! We watched Mountain of the Lord this Sunday. I am glad that LDS cinema is slowly but surely improving. That's all I will say.

I had to put out a fire this week. The District Leader has been mean to us sisters, telling us to be quiet when the other elders had been loud just a few minutes before. The sisters didn't like being so unjustly called out and embarrassed. So, I had to talk to him. He actually was rude to me when I went to talk to him, so I was a little sterner than I was planning on being. He's a great elder, though, and we worked it out. They have started treating us with more respect now and we are trying to be quieter and more on task.

Mom, I liked your thought yesterday. Covenants I think also mean nothing anymore because we don't really value keeping our word anymore. A verbal commitment has no weight. We also can't often see immediately the effects of breaking covenants in their full force.

Well, can't think of anything else to start with two minutes. I love you all. I love the gospel. My love and understanding is growing every day. Thanks for the letters! Keep 'em coming.

Amy