¡Hola!
So I’ve been in the Johnson MTC (Missionary Training Center) for a total of 3 weeks now. Monday officially started week 4, out of 6 weeks in my missionary training, and they definitely stepped it up a notch this week. We are setting higher goals in every aspect of our training (gospel study, language learning, missionary teaching, etc.) every single day, but when I look back at my extremely small amount of Spanish knowledge before starting my training compared to now, I can see a big difference. Don’t get me wrong my Spanish is still pretty bad haha, but it’s slowly getting better each day. :)
On Thursday me and my companion bonded for like an hour talking about the most random things like “In heaven, will we get to wear cute robes/clothes?” and “If the Universe is always expanding, what is it expanding into?” I think this was our way of making up for all the time we would get to talk if we were at the Mexico MTC in person. We quickly snapped back to reality during our evening class. The teacher, Hermano Chavez, introduced us to this thing called “Intermediate Core”. Now we learned “Basic Core” from this cute little red pamphlet in 10 days, which I thought was stressful at first but I was able to do it. Hermano Chavez described the difference to us with an analogy, he said “You know the game Mario? (Super Mario Bros on Nintendo) Basic Core was Mario on level one and Intermediate Core is when Mario has to save Princess Peach on the Bowser level”. This made me think of all the times me and my younger brothers played Super Mario Bros and whenever we got to the Bowser level I let Ethan do all the work while I hid in the corner of the screen. I couldn’t hide from the Bowser level now.
On Friday in companionship study with my companion (my partner during this whole crazy online MTC experience), Hermana Dunn, we set goals to accomplish Intermediate Core in the week and a half Hermano Chavez gave us. And these are some BIG goals because literally every spare second I have (which really I don’t have any free time), I am studying. I have made so many flashcards with Spanish vocabulary words and phrases, it's crazy.
On Saturday my family brought home Chick-Fil-A (drive-thru of course) and it was amazing. Or as the missionaries in my district (group of 11 other missionaries in the online MTC with me) described it to Hermano Valdez, who lives in Mexico City and has never had Chick-Fil-A before, it’s food of the Gods. I really love Chick-Fil-A and will miss it when I finally get into the mission field. [Fun Fact: My second semester Freshman year at BYU I saved up my dining dollars money and literally ate at Chick-Fil-A one to two times a day for the entire semester because I got sick of the food at the Cannon Center (cafeteria)...oh what good times :)]
Now on to Sunday….I knew that this would happen at some point, but I still hoped it wouldn’t. Pretty much everyone that knows me knows that I LOVE sleep (I mean seriously, who doesn’t?) and that I have a really hard time waking up in the morning (hence I will never take an 8:00 AM ever again in college, my mistake first semester Freshman year). Sunday was the day that I turned off my alarm while being half awake and instead of waking up at 6:30 AM I woke up at 7:18 AM. Luckily I don’t have classes on Sunday but I do have companionship study at 7:00 AM. I threw on a dress and started a Zoom meeting with my companion, who was super nice about it and said it gave her time to shower haha. Hopefully this never happens again because I felt so bad, but my companion is fantastic. With my family, we had church at home and completed a puzzle, our favorite Sunday activity :) At the end of the night I had a fairly consistent nightly meltdown about my Spanish skills and not having enough time to study everything for Intermediate Core. I think this is about the time you hear missionaries talking about how hard the MTC is in their emails because everything definitely seems impossible to me right now. I can’t imagine being thrown into the mission field after only SIX WEEKS of learning Spanish, it seems kind of insane.
If you guys didn’t already know this, I have the best mom ever. On Monday I was super stressed about waking up and studying before class that my mom made me a plate of breakfast AND made sure I was awake so that I could get some more study time in. Seriously. I. Have. The. Best. Mom. Ever.
On Tuesday my morning class teacher, Hermano Valdez, gave us a demonstration of teaching a gospel principle to “Maria” or “Mario” and he picked ME to be the person being taught. I had to answer his questions and ask my own questions using the “Maria” profile he gave us. On top of this being all in Spanish, it was in front of my ENTIRE district!! I’ve practiced with just me and my companion a bunch of times but never with the whole district!! I was beyond scared. By some miracle (the miracle of God’s help) I was able to understand ALL of his questions and answer them IN SPANISH! That Intermediate Core IS paying off! I felt so good and like I am actually improving in Spanish! Then for dinner my dad, also I have the best dad ever if you didn't already know, drove all the way to Temecula (almost an hour drive) and back to bring us Cafe Rio since it was my parent’s 26th Wedding Anniversary and they can’t exactly go out somewhere nice right now.
I know that I have a loving family here on earth and I know that I have a loving Father in Heaven who wants me to succeed and helps me during my hard times. I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He has felt every single pain, trial, nightly meltdown about Spanish, etc. that I have experienced. I know that when I turn to Christ and Heavenly Father in prayer, I feel an embrace of comfort, peace and joy just like the feelings I get when I hug my parents and siblings on earth. I know that God loves me and that God loves you because we are all His children. I cannot wait to share His message of hope and joy during these crazy times.
Love,
Hermana Johnson
Pictures!!!
1. My companion and I during companionship study!
2. Us doing a companion fist bump through the computer!
3. The difference between my Basic core and Intermediate Core
4. My growing stack of Spanish flashcards.
