Week 8

One quick note: Sister Bottorff will have two more email days while she is at the MTC. They will be this coming Saturday, March 5th and Saturday, March 12th. After that, she will be in Mongolia! We will keep you posted regarding new email dates! :)

Hey!

I can't believe it's March already!  I go to Mongolia this month!  Weird!

Let's see...

On Tuesday evening, we went to a devotional and sang the beautiful primary song, A Child's Prayer.  About 15 children came as special guests to sing with the choir.  I love it when children sing.  The devotional to follow was an amazing talk by the General Primary President, Rosemary Wixom.  She was amazing, and I hope to be like her someday!  The downside of Tuesday was saying goodbye to 2 more elders.  They have become great friends, and I know they'll be great in California!  They will be missed.

Wednesday was a little sad without all of our friends.  Without the Cambodians and Viets and Hmongs, our hallway was pretty empty.  But we got to our classroom in the morning to find some nice pictures from the Viets.  So nice! :)  We did our online English class, which is really insightful to learning any new language.  

On Thursday, we had service in the morning.  And it started out terribly because we knew the showers were SO bad that we volunteered to clean them.  The girl in charge of service told us that because we took on that terrible job, we would be fluent the next day.  And....she lied.  Still not fluent.  I'll talk to her on Thursday when I go back and do service.  After service, we took a language test on the computer where it gave prompts and we had to use our Mongolian to give our answers.  And it was stressful.  And terrible.  And I learned how much I don't know.  But then I thought about how short I've been here and how well I did in those terms.  Luckily nobody but my teachers will ever hear it.  I practiced volleyball drills during gym, and I got better at my overhand serves.  Still not great, but much better!  We had study time outside again!  

Friday was fun, and during gym time, I decided to try playing four square.  I ended up meeting the elders who are headed to Colorado Springs!  So watch out for them and be nice! :)  They all seem nice.  One of the best parts was that Sister Hansen and I borrowed a piano duet from the music library, and we have been playing it in our free time.  I love it!  It is so relaxing to play the piano.  Right before bed, Sister Hansen taught me some really beautiful songs that we can sing together, too!  I love music!

On Saturday, we began teaching with a "new" companion. I will be teaching 2 lessons a week with Sister Olsen.  We taught our first lesson together on Saturday, and that went well!  Other than that, it was a pretty typical day.  Class and volleyball and the usual.  But my point count in volleyball is up to 6 now, so I gave myself a pat on the back for that! :)  It's in the little things that makes life great, right? :)

Sunday was amazing, as always.  Church was really great, and I had some ice cream with lunch!  It always tastes so good!  The other meetings that day were really good, too.  I love the time I get to spend with such good friends.  It still amazes me that we haven't even known each other for 2 months, though!  The weather was perfect on Sunday, which made the temple walk really great!  I didn't bring a jacket, and we sat on the temple lawn for a while, just enjoying the sunshine and the break from our everyday work.  The devotional that night was given by Elder Allen of the Church's missionary department.  He spoke in January, and he gave another great talk this Sunday about repentance and what a gift it is.  I love that we can change and let go of all of our mistakes.

Yesterday was back to the normal everyday schedule.  We did have Subway for dinner, though!  And we met a senior couple who got  back from serving a mission in Mongolia a few years ago.  They assured us that we would LOVE Mongolia, and it made me really excited.  Also, Sister Olsen and I taught a girl over Skype who lives in Mongolia and will start her mission in Mongolia next month.  I look forward to seeing her again!  She was so nice, and I just loved her! 

The next two weeks are going to be exciting!  I have regular classes this week, and then a P Day on Saturday.  Monday through Thursday of next week will be spent on the BYU campus, and we will be practicing English teaching and finishing up our certification.  I look forward to all that is coming up!  I love you all and pray for you often!

Love,
Sister Bottorff

Sister Bottorff and Sister Hansen

Sitting on the lawn at the Temple.

Sunny selfies :)