March 23, 2010

Hello family!
It sounds like you are all doing very well and I'm happy to hear it. Karli wrote me this week! Yay!!! It was quite exciting and she is very funny. I'm doing well and the MTC is really great. This last week has been a really good week for me in revamping myself as a missionary and really trying to study hard and think about how this is the Lord's time. The title of this email refers to a conversation that i had with some native Spanish-speaking sisters who were in our zone (until they left this week, even though they got here a week after us. No es justo.). One of them would always ask me," Como estas?" every time she saw me and for some reason, I would always answer, "Pssh, bien." and my companion would always say "so bien." She thought it was really funny so every time she sees me, she says "pssh." She told me that I'm going to be the craziest sister missionary ever, but I'm pretty sure she meant it as a compliment. I love the natives - they crack me up and all of them think I'm totally nuts. It's funny because the only ones in our zone that absolutely will not speak Spanish to us is the ones that are fluent in Spanish. They say it's because we're white. I really hope that's not how the people in Argentina see it because it's going to be a rough 17 months if it is. The native sisters also told us some jokes. One of them was," Why do Mexicans always cross the border two by two?" "Because there's a sign that says No TRESpassing." Get it? Like no three passing, but tres is Spanish for three. I thought it was funny... maybe that's not good to put racial jokes in these emails.
So this week, one of the elders in my district was talking about how we're not here to make friends or have fun, but to preach the gospel. I don't think that is the reason why I'm here, but I do think I had it higher up on my priority list than it needs to be. It's me and i have fun no matter what I'm doing so I don't think it's important to go out of my way to find it. Plus, my district is ridiculous and there is no way to avoid fun when they're around. Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve actually came last Tuesday so that was pretty sweet. I got to sing in the choir and we sang a really powerful song about the Savior. He didn't really talk about the Savior in his talk, but it kinda felt like that was the theme of the meeting for me. We sang that opening song and then he gave his powerful special witness of the reality of Jesus the Christ and we sang "I know that my Redeemer lives" for a closing song. When we were singing the words," Oh sweet the joy this sentence gives - I know that my Redeemer lives," I really just realized how much those words mean to me. Being able to say that and knowing that my Savior lives really does give me so much joy. It helps me with everything I am doing right now and I know that it will also be able to bring joy to all the people in Argentina and everyone who's reading this email. There was a great spirit in that meeting and our district meeting afterwards and there really is no denying that I know Christ is my Savior. In another meeting, we sang "I need thee every hour" and I really liked the part where it said "I come to thee." Sometimes we don't think about it, but that's what we need to do. We need to come to the Savior and then he'll be able to help us more than we can even imagine.
This week has actually been kinda interesting because I got kinda sick. At the beginning of the week, I would wake up every morning with my throat super dry and I kinda felt like I wanted to die. My nose was all stuffed up too so I had to breathe out of my mouth when I was sleeping and I kept drooling on my pillow. Kinda gross. I eventually got better though... just in time for Hermana LaPray to get sick on Saturday. We went to the doctor at the MTC on Monday and found out she has pneumonia so she slept while I studied for like four hours that afternoon. It actually turned out to be great to be able to have four hours of personal study in my room with no one to bother me. I got a lot done and realized that I probably need to study more Spanish. Now I know the word for mop though - el trapeador. I wonder if that word will ever come in handy. Anyway, pray for Hermana LaPray (haha) to get better because she doesn't feel good and I can't leave the room. We did a zone exchange today so I could go to the temple. When I was putting the clothes I rented in the laundry chute, I accidentally dropped my blue card that I use to get into the cafeteria and my residence hall down the chute. I got to go explore the depths of the Provo temple though because I had to go find it. It was a fun little adventure.
We taught about the Word of Wisdom this week in Spanish and it was pretty fun. The Spanish is actually coming and I could understand everything our investigator said (but he was white). I finally felt like I was being myself in the lesson and not pretending to be a sister missionary. It was good. Also, this week, our whole district was standing in a circle ready to say a prayer when somehow Elder Keeling ended up in the middle of the circle. We thought it was funny and he moved out to join the rest of the circle, but then Elder Shawhan said," Okay, on the count of three, we're all going to move the circle around Elder Keeling. 1, 2, 3." and the whole district moved around Elder Keeling. Elder Shawhan was completely shocked that we all did it, but it was really funny. The prayer after that wasn't the most reverent thing ever, but that happens sometimes.
Oh, also, I met an elder who knows our cousin, Adam. He's Brother Parker's, who works at BYU, son. He's going to Mexico on his mission and we play volleyball together during gym time. That was pretty exciting. I actually had his dad for BOM at BYU. Well, the MTC is great and I love it and I'm working harder to be the missionary Heavenly Father wants me to be. One of our speakers told us that the mission will prepare you to be a missionary for the rest of your life so I gotta do something that will set me on that path. Also, make friends with non-members so you can invite them to church. :) I love you all! Thanks for the support!
Love,
Hermana Seegmiller

March 16, 2009

Hello family, Let's play a game with this email. It's called "Let's see how many funny stories of my district I can fit into an email with 25 minutes and thirty seconds to write and also make you think that I'm learning something here" (which i am). I guess that's basically the game I play every week. My life is just ridiculous so I could pull a story out of anything. Well, tomorrow makes four weeks that I've been at the MTC. That's a whole month! That means I only have 17 months left of my mission! I'm almost coming home! Well, not really, but I do feel like that month has just flown by so I'm sure the next 17 will too. It kinda makes me sad that I'm coming home so soon, but that's really ridiculous. I just realized, as a bunch of elders walked into this computer lab, that I'm wearing the headphones that were sitting by this computer. They are huge and look ridiculous and there is no reason why I would be wearing them. I'm gong to take them off now. So this week, we were learning about commands and we were practicing in class how to do them. Good old Elder Keeling (the one who's very serious and likes to stay on task all the time) kept saying to Elder Shawhan "No tocame" after he would touch him, but he was actually saying it wrong. He was trying to say "don't touch me" but what he actually said was "No, touch me." We all thought that was really funny, especially when Elder Shawhan kept touching him and Elder Keeling kept repeating "no, touch me!" until someone finally told him what was right. We've all been saying that this week when someone bumps us or touches us and we get a real kick out of it. Our teacher, Hermana Jesperson, says that we have the most inside jokes out of any district she's ever met. I would take that as a compliment. Elder Spencer, another ridiculous elder in my district who always calls himself a pelotador ( "baller" - but he totally made it up) told us a freaky joke this week. What do you get when a cow tries to jump over a barbed wire fence? Udder destruction! I thought it was a terrible joke, but still kinda funny. Later that night, we were watching Legacy (which by the way is a ridiculous movie with the acting and just weird things that happen so basically the whole MTC was cracking up while watching it) and the little girl was reading her BOM next to a cow that she was supposed to be milking and all anyone in our district could think about was "udder destruction" so we all cracked up. Thanks so much for the packages this week, Mom! I actually got three packages from you, which is a pretty impressive number. And you sent everything that i asked for. My teacher thought the "get lucky in the RC" pin was so hilarious that he pinned it to our board. And I shared the Carmel Delites with my district (who think they're called Samoas - silly district) and they absolutely loved them. Elder Shawhan also got the package you sent him and the letter that Kylie sent him. I felt slightly ridiculous that two people responded to my request for letters for him, but I think he was happy to get them. He was thrilled when Elder Miller handed him the little yellow slip that meant he got a package and he ran all the way to the mailroom, singing "I've got the golden ticket." It was pretty funny when he got back to class to tell me that the package was from my mom." I wasn't totally shocked though - you're the best, Mom. He shared the cookies with all of us. Also, this week, we've been arguing with Elder Miller about how there is really no such thing as Karma because he's always saying that I'm going to have bad karma because I don't finish my food at any meal and I waste it. I tried to tell him that I don't believe in Karma. Then H. Crosby said that her grandma is named Carma and she went on to say," Yo se que Carma vive." It was really funny. That was on our day of English fast so we were really excited that we were funny in Spanish and we all high fived. What a victory! We played a game this week with Hermano Quintana and after we were done, we were talking about different games we could play that would help us learn. Elder Keeling told us about a game that he likes to play where everyone tries not to smile or laugh. I said that i would be terrible at the game because I can't ever stop smiling or laughing and he got a completely serious face and said," All you have to do is think about dead puppies and you can win." It was one of the most ridiculous things I have ever seen someone say and we all died laughing and of course, we have been repeating it all week. Do you remember when I told you that H. LaPray likes to call me Herman? Well, I told the elders about that too and now Elder Shawhan always calls us Hermans and also things like Herm Seeg, Herm Ting, Herm Lap, and Herm Cros. It cracks me up every time. This next week we're going to start teaching in Spanish and we are a little concerned, but really excited. We're also going to speak completely in Spanish on Wednesday and Friday. MTC choir is going great. I always sit by Hermana Tingey because we both sing altos and we figured out quickly that on Tuesday night when we sing at the devotionals, they always film the choir and put them on the big screen. There aren't that many sisters in the choir so you always see us on the screen, but we wanted more attention, so last week, I wore bright green and she wore bright purple. It worked like a charm - they totally focused in on us for a little while. We are MTC celebrities. Tonight is another devotional, but I think I'm going to wear gray. I don't want too much attention. :) We went to the TRC on Saturday morning and it was really fun. We convinced Trudy to get baptized! I'm so excited for her. She seemed pretty into it, but we're really trying to work on the questions that we can ask to get people more involved in the lesson. Sometimes, our teachers get other missionaries who've been here longer to come and do a demonstration for us and I always feel really bad because it's so boring and we almost fall asleep every time. I don't want to teach so that people fall asleep. I could always throw out one of my weird voices or something to wake them up, but I haven't been able to master my voices in Spanish yet. My district loves this one voice that I do sometimes (that I think I got from Luke and Cory and Kylie always do it - by the way, where is Cory? She hasn't written me yet and I miss her!). They call it the "grandma voice" and they ask me to do it all the time. Well, I love being at the MTC. I love wearing my tag and being called "hermana." It's really great and so fun and I'm learning a lot and hopefully, I'll know a little bit about how to be a missionary by the time I leave here. I love you so much and I'm grateful that I have a solid family supporting me at home. LOVE YOU!
Hermana Seegmiller
P.S. I haven't gained weight yet, but I was weighing myself the other day and Elder Shawhan came around the corner as I stepped on the scale and said," FOUR HUNDRED POUNDS!" What a punk. Also, I'm addicted to sour patch kids. I crave them all the time. I think I'm going to try out the PMG method of overcoming addictions to see if it really works. :)

March 9, 2010

Hello, hello. The MTC is just as much fun as ever and we're learning tons. Don't be afraid to send me dearelders during the week. It's not against the rules or anything. I am actually sending you some pictures this week in a letter so I'm sure you will enjoy those. They are just full of those good old fashioned Kasidy faces and the famous Seegmiller smile. I don't want to lay any guilt trips here, but I'm just saying that I haven't heard from two of my dearest sisters at all and I'm going on three weeks here, people. I also lack mail from a certain younger redheaded brother and a black kid who lives at my house (I think you know who you are). Just saying... Jordy has already written me and he's on a mission so I think you can step it up. I want to hear from you because I love you! Also, you should tell Najee to start perfecting his typing skills because you only get half an hour to read and type your email so you can get a lot more in if you have excellent typing skills. So this week has been really good for learning about the Holy Ghost. We watched a talk from Elder Bednar that he gave at the MTC in July about the Holy Ghost and he said he was going to answer the question that every Mormon has about if they are really feeling the Holy Ghost or if it's just you. He said the answer was to "quit worrying about it" because it really doesn't matter. He says that as long as we are obeying all the commandments, keeping our covenants, and trying hard to do what is right, it doesn't matter whether it's an impression from the Holy Ghost or not because we will be guided and the Holy Ghost won't let us do something totally apostate or harmful to us. That was really comforting to hear because I have been wondering lately how to be guided by the Holy Ghost in a lesson. Should I just not say anything until the Holy Ghost prompts me to? I think I would not be a very good teacher if I took that approach because I might not say anything at all. He also said that he has asked new members of the church what he thought about the missionaries' teaching and he said that most of them said that they didn't have a clue what the missionaries were talking about, but they could feel the spirit so they kept listening. So that means that as long as I teach simply so that the Spirit can testify them and bear my testimony with everything I have, they'll be able to feel that what I am saying is true and it won't matter if I decided to use the scripture in 2 Nephi or Alma (definitely Alma..) Besides that, I do have some ridiculous stories from my favorite district, my own. This week, we practiced contacting people at their doors in Spanish so we practiced on each other. I knocked on Elder Shawhan and Elder Keeling's door with Hermana LaPray. We talked to Elder Shawhan for a while, but Elder Keeling never said anything so I asked him if his brother was a mute (no, I don't know how to say that in Spanish). He then told me that his brother had been kicked in the head by a large gato when he was young so he's not very smart now. I don't know where E. Shawhan gets this stuff, but it made me practically die laughing. When we actually did the door contact in the TRC, it went really well. That might have been because it was our teacher's wife and she practically invited herself to learn more and go to church and get baptized. Wouldn't it be nice if it really worked like that? There is also this elder in our zone that we call the "Napoleon Dynamite elder" because he has blond, curly hair, no clue what's going on ever, and is a really awkward guy. He wandered into our classroom the other day and read Elder Keeling's nametag and said," Keeling. Looks like Killing." And Elder Keeling gave him a death look and said," No, it's Keeling." "Oh, well, it looks like Killing." Elder Keeling didn't even smile and he was so angry. He really hates that elder now because other elders on our floor have now started calling him Elder Murder. Maybe it's only funny if you know Elder Keeling, but he doesn't think things like that are funny and his eyes just tell you that he thinks you're an idiot. He cracks me up. We started teaching the 2nd lesson this week about the Plan of Salvation. That is intense stuff, but I think we got it down pretty well. At the TRC, we taught a guy named "jose" who had a small family and we taught everything up until the Atonement. We kinda ran out of time to teach the rest, but we testified powerfully of the Atonement and you could definitely feel that it is so true. My companion invited him to church on Sunday with his family and he said he'll come! He probably did go to church the next day, but I'm pretty sure he's a single BYU student. I also talked to a lady named Synthia the other day in the RC making phone calls. I talked to her in Spanish about Christ coming to the Americas and the BOM. She asked for a Joy to the World video so I resent that to her. I testified about the BOM and how the church can change your life and she said I could send her a BOM. So exciting! She said that she had to go because she was cooking dinner, so I said," Buena suerte con su cena!" and she said," Oh, que amable!" I also talked to this hilarious guy named Stuart who was more interested in knowing what the boat was made out of that took Nephi and Lehi to the America's than hearing my testimony, but he was really fun to talk to. Maybe someday, Stuart... So everything is going really well in the MTC. We are starting Spanish Wednesdays, where we only speak in Spanish so that should be really fun. Oh, also, Elder Shawhan never gets letters except one a week from his dad so if anyone wants to write him, he would probably get angry and call himself pathetic, but he might appreciate it deep down. I don't know... I actually need you to send me some stuff. I left my black skirt with the belt loops at home and I really need it because my other black skirt is kinda ugly. I did get another one out of the give away box on my floor that's pretty nice, but I still want to get mine. I also need some makeup brush cleaner (pink stuff in the bottom drawer in my bathroom) and that purple shade shirt that's probably in the drawer with all the tanktops that I need in order to wear my purple shirt. Also, last week at laundry, I accidentally sat on a chair with bleach on it so my pants have a big white bleach stain on the butt (which some elders thought was pretty entertaining) and I think I would appreciate having some jeans at the MTC and then I could send them home later. My district would really appreciate some Carmel Delites... just saying. And I know Easter is a month away, but I'm really excited because I'll get candy! I need more nude nylons too... the knee highs only work for some skirts. They look really ghetto when you can see where they end. Hermana Tingey and I went to toning and stretching on Saturday morning at the sisters' exercise class and it turned out to be rough. My legs still hurt when I walk up stairs. The MTC is great. I only have six weeks left. I love it so I will be sad to leave. I love the choir and the food that is usually better than it looks and Spanish and my district and playing volleyball in gym and going to the temple and feeling the spirit all the time and getting letters from my favorite people (who is anyone that writes me), and laughing until I cry and being a servant of the Lord and writing totally cliche and huge emails to my family, who probably didn't even make it this far. :) Well, I love you all so much. I'm excited for the letters that I'll get this week from every one of my family members. Tell Jordy I say hi and can you send me a dearelder of his email home. I don't have time to read emails when I'm writing mine. Have a lovely week! I miss you all! Hermana Seegmiller

March 2, 2010

Hello Family, My email was being really dumb and I read all the emails I got so now I only have fifteen minutes to tell you all about my week and I'm kinda annoyed about it. It's all good though. So, I've only been here a week and I already have a rash on my arm and some freaky canker sore in my mouth that won't go away and hurts really bad so I went to the doctor here. They said they'll send you a bill. :) Darn this sensitive skin of mine. They gave me two creams for them and I think it'll go away soon. The doctor told me that it's probably because it's so dry here, but I told him I've been living in Provo for two years. He said," Oh, this isn't Provo. It's the MTC. It's much drier here." I have no clue what he means by that, but it doesn't make much sense to me. I do feel like it's pretty dry here and I am parched every morning when I wake up. Anyway, the last week has been really good. It's weird that I've only been here two weeks because I feel like I can barely remember a time when I wasn't here. Life is still really good. We got a new elder in our district so we now have six elders and four sisters. They are all really fun and we have a good time together. This week we all wrote nice things about each other and I got a lot of nice notes about how I have a great sense of humor. One of the elders wrote that I have a "sweet spirit." Doesn't that mean I'm ugly? haha.. just kidding. It was a good building activity. It's really funny though because the personalities are all so different. One elder, Elder Keeling, really likes the rules so he quotes the white handbook a lot, which cracks me up. The other day, he told us a story about how he got hit by a car when he was eight. It was potentially going to be a really good story, but he made it the most boring getting hit by a car story ever. Pretty impressive, I thought. He spent five minutes telling us why he was riding his bike to the library (to get a book from a series he liked) and then mentioned that he got hit by a car and was unconscious for two weeks and then had to recover for two more after that. Pretty intense stuff. Then my companion asked him," Well, how'd you get hit by the car?" meaning whose fault was it and he replied with," Well, the car was at the same point as I was at the same point in time." and he was completely serious. That elder cracks me up. Also, Elder Shawhan told us about his friend whose last name is Fuller, who whenever someone says they are full, he says," Oh yeah, well I'm fuller!" So the district tried to apply this to other names so sometimes they say," I'm so Seegmill right now!" And then you're supposed to say," Oh yeah, well I'm Seegmill-ER!" It's totally ridiculous. Gotta love the elders. I also noticed this week that Hermana looks like Herman and I told this to my companion who thought it was really funny and she calls me Herman all the time now. I like my companion a lot. She thinks I'm hilarious and we get along well. We also started teaching lessons this week, which was really fun. We learned how to do it and made lesson plans and practiced on everyone we could. I think we teach together well. Everyone who practiced with us says that we're good at teaching simple lessons. We're going to work on meeting the investigators needs this week and getting to really know and help them. Our teacher took us to practice on real fake investigators at the TRC on Saturday morning and she said we all did really well. She said she is so impressed by our district and we definitely speak the best Spanish out of any intermediate district she's had. When she said that, our whole district replied with," Oh, gracias. Stop it." in a way that was totally how I would have said it. I think it's safe to say that my presence is being felt in our district. It cracked me up. Now I'm just waiting for all of them to start saying "freaky" all the time. Something that we talked about this week at devotional (by the way, Ann M. Dibb, the prophet's daughter, came to Relief Society on Sunday and it was so great! Gotta love RS.) was that you really need a solid foundation on all aspects of the church. The speaker said that we should ask ourselves," Can you testify of this as if you were there?" It kinda made me think about it and I know there are some things that I could definitely testify about as if I was there, but other things I couldn't do that. So I am going to try to strengthen all parts of my testimony so that when someone hears me testify of it, they will at least know that I know it's true. Hopefully that will be enough to spark their interest. We also went to the RC yesterday. I talked to someone for a little bit about the gospel and asked him if I could send him a BOM. He said he'd rather I didn't. Rejectomundo. It wasn't a big deal though. That's what the work will be like. He said maybe someday he'll check out the Mormon church that's by his house. I just testified about how I know that it's true and that it can really help his life. He'll come around eventually. Well, the MTC is great. I got Mom's package and my district devoured the Peanut Butter Patties. I need my other black skirt that I left at home and some Carmel Delights please. I love you all. Hermana Seegmiller :)