WEEK 5

Well all good things must come to an end!!! It's my last P day in the MTC!!! I am not sure when my P day will be in the field- we'll have to see when I get there! My P Day is today because yesterday we had 'in-field orientation' basically a day long seminar prepping us, it was good but really long. Really grateful I can get everything organized and go to the temple today.

We had to say goodbye to our main teacher, Hermano Glock. Hermano Glock is extremely inspiring to me. His converstion story is so cool- I wish you could hear it in person. Basically his family is Evangelical and he joined the church as a teen because of his girlfriend, then goes to BYU, then a mission, marries the girl, and now teaches at the MTC and is just so INCREDIBLE. I can't even fathom the fact that the missionaries were once just teaching this 16 year old kid and now he teaches MISSIONARIES. He has sort of a no nonsense attitude but is still fun- just totally fit the exact kind of teaching style I really thrive in. He has taught us about Spanish and the Gospel in a way that all leads to a goal, not just to teach us. We went to go take a picture with him on the last day and I want you to imagine this visual- a 6'4 guy walking around smiling, waving to elders, and trying to find a spot to take a picture in, and then 6 petite girls following behind, crying. I think it was hitting us that we had a bunch of goodbyes in front of us, and this one was just particularly tough, we have literally spent hours of our day with Hermano Glock, learning and laughing. So he's trying to get us to focus and he's talking about where to take the picture and keeps saying 'el agua or el grass?' - dont ask me why a fluent spanish speaker suddenly couldn't say grass in spanish. El agua or el grass el agua or el grass and then I finally realize we need to get it together, and wiping tears from each eye choke out 'el grass'.I'll send a picture of us in el grass with our dear Hermano Glock. The last thing he said to us was to work hard. He just has the HIGHEST expectations of us and KNOWS that we are capable of doing anything.

Hermana Best's district sisters with Hermano Glock in el grass

We got to hear from  M. Russell Ballard at the devotional this past week! Oh and Sheri dew too- did I mention that the last time? It's all blurring together. He talked about being proud of who we are and making bold declarations about the church regardless of what people think or say. He also talked a little bit about striking that balance between those bold declarations and being a humble person. It was hilarious because afterwards the girls and I accidentally went out this door that we didn't realize we weren't supposed to and were just standing there with the MTC PRESIDENCY hahaha we all just shook their hands and said hi as if it was normal...then realized, yeah thats a special exit for them so they can say bye to the speakers and such haha...oops. They said 'goodbye you Mexicans...and then wished us all luck'. The presidency is SO AMAZING I just love it here. But definitely excited for some Mexican adventures ahead of me. 

If you're reading this blog and need some advice about the MTC I would recommend that you

Push yourself out of your comfort zone

Join the choir

SPEAK YOUR LANGUAGE as much as possible

and pray for help. Some days there's so much going on and you think you can somehow do all of it by yourself. and you just can't.

We finished all of our lessons and such- I'm getting nervous because we've had a couple of days using a lot of English- I need to work on my Espanol!!! I get to call my family in the airport on Monday I'm about to jump out of my seat excited! I'm the travel leader so I'll be herding the 5 other girls in my district as well as our friend Elder Keiken who is also going to Puebla South. We travel first to Houston, then to Puebla. We leave here at 7am and get there at 8pm so it will be a full day of traveling. I'm glad I get to have one night of sleep there and then it's to work the next morning! Thank you SO MUCH FOR THE LOVE AND SUPPORT all of the letters, dear elders, and packages have been amazing you have no idea how much it brightens up a missionary's day. I know I'll be further away but if you can continue to correspond with me it would mean the world to me- it doesn't make me homesick, it makes me feel still connected to you! Attached is also a picture of four of us at the temple- I will miss the temple!!!

Love

Hermana Best

Hermana Best with some of the sisters in her district in front of the Provo, UT temple.