I'm Here!!!!!!

Hi everyone!!!! Just got done with orientation and they let us email home to let our family know we're safe. 

I actually wasn't able to finish my email on Wednesday, but I'm finishing it up  now on my P-day (friday). We are SO lucky to get a p-day here and to go to the temple the first week here!!!! Let me give you a brief overview of what happened. 

Wednesday I was dropped off and an Elder took my stuff and told me to go to the library to pick up my books. Then I got my luggage and went with a Host Sister and another new Sister Missionary Sister Petersen who lives in Saratoga Springs if I remember correctly....

Anyway, after dropping off our stuff in the Residence Hall I went to Class and Met my Companion and the other Elders and Sisters in my district. My companion is Sister Garn who's from Burley, Idaho and she is going to the Cleveland Ohio Visitors Center. She is SO cute and can do door approaches really well since she did door-to-door sales during the summer selling alarm systems. We have two other sisters in our District. Sister Wadman who is going to the Washington Yakima Mission and Sister Mudrow who is going to the Independence Missouri Visistors Center. Then we have 5 Elders: Elder Williams, McGowan, Sorensen,  and.... i forgot the other two (sorry! ^.^) We had a lot of classes and we learned about our First investigator named Katia and she is from St. Petersburg Russia and recently moved the States 6 years ago. Besides our classroom (which is where we live most of the time while here at the MTC) We also had an activity where the new missionaries all went into different classrooms as huge groups and we were introduced to 3 investigators who were all different situations and we had the opportunity to talk to them and try to commit them to read the Book of Mormon, Baptism and praying etc... It was really cool! Plus the food was really good as well. I don't know why everyone says the MTC food isn't good. We had steak and mashed potatoes and lots of yummy food. And as i was advised, I did not drink the orange juice. 

Thursday:

We also had more classes and taught our first investigator Katia for the first time and we learned so very valuable insights like not everyone knows how to pray... we thought we did a good job because we told her how to open and close and what you say in a prayer but we forgot to tell her that you fold your arms, bow your head and close your eyes so apparently Katia was looking around very confused whenever we prayed.....

We also had another group lesson with other missionaries where we did some training exercises. We also Met our Branch Presidency and their wives. The President is President Williams, his 1st councilor is Bother May and the 2nd councilor Brother Taylor and his wife didn't attend because they were sick. The wives were so sweet and loving and gave us BIG hugs when they met us! They called Elder Williams as our District President so we have to be nice to him since he's the one with the mail key... :) I loved being interviewed by Brother May! He said that he saw all of the sister missionaries as his granddaughter and asked us if we left boyfriends behind. Basically all of the sisters in my district did and he told his to Lock our hearts. What i found out is that Sister Wadman's boyfriend is actually here at the MTC as well and he got here last week. 

Friday: TODAY!!! We got up and walked to the Provo Temple to do an endowment session! When we got done and we were walking back to the MTC we all felt at peace and refreshed from the stress and business here at the MTC. Then we went back and got changed into our P-day clothes and ironed stuff and now I'm here!! Tonight we're teaching Katia again so hopefully we can teach better and more simpler today since she also has a language problem and doesn't speak English very well. 

Lots of Love!!

Sister Phillips