thanks to ma, gee, betsy, jen u, and sis terrill (may have thanked last week) for the correspondance! this week the mailroom/mailboxes have been moving to another building (lots of construction going on) and so we haven't gotten any dearelders for a couple of days. complete mail service should resume by tonight, so of course by then it will be too late to respond. so if you wrote this week, thanks. and i'll shoot more thanks your way (telepathically of course) later on tonight, when i can actually read everything. :)
got photos developed this week. look for them in the mail!
elder ballard came and spoke at our tuesday night devo. that makes two apostles in only a couple weeks. so lucky! apparently, that's not so typical. he didn't speak with teleprompters. (neither did elder holland.) he gave us some "suggestions" for being good missionaries. yeah, if an apostle suggests something....better take it to heart. good stuff.
on sunday, pres. brown (the mtc pres) gave the fireside. it was a special 9/11 commemoration. we watched a video of news clips from that day, and then the music and the spoken word from that morning. very powerful. i have very vivid memories of 9/11. weird to think that it was 10 years ago. (the typical elder here was in the 3rd grade. crazy!) family, did you get to see the music and the spoken word? you should watch it online if you can. was very good. one of the closing songs was "amazing grace." i think pa would like it. they had people playing bagpipes. i like bagpipes a lot.
it was our teacher hermana nelson's birthday on monday. we had a little party. one of the elders had a party hat and we brought her a donut from the cafeteria and we sang to her. and then she ate with us in the cafeteria. i like her a lot. she's a good teacher. we had a really good class with her last night. we discussed one of the lessons that we teach (lesson 3 - the gospel of christ) --specifically faith, repentence and enduring to the end. it's really easy to skim over those topics when i study on my own since they are so "basic," but after last night's discussion, i realized that i have a lot to learn. those are good realizations to have, i am discovering.
on tuesdays, we have a workshop. we can always choose from a couple topics. the last two weeks have been really good. this last week's was about how to recognize the spirit. i think i liked it because it was a little untraditional--very little talking and more putting-into-practice. exactly how a workshop should be. at the beginning, we watched some clips of elders ballard and bednar talking about how to recognize/learn from the spirit. and then we looked in the scriptures for the pattern to receiving revelation. and then we discussed what we found with our comp, and then for the remainder of the time (about 20 minutes) we put into practice what we learned. it was really powerful. it was quiet and people were reflecting and pondering the scriptures and searching for answers to questions they had and i think there was some real learning going on.
i was called to be the "coordinating sister" for our zone on sunday. basically, i just have to make sure all the hermanas are doing good and go to meetings on sunday (branch council) and tuesday nights (how are the sisters doing in the residence halls? we discuss modesty/reverence/comp relations/etc.) i hope i can get to know our branch pres a little better. he's a good leader. i'm excited to learn from him in meetings.
you know the song they sing on the zion's camp video? it's in the spanish hymn book- #153 "oid el toque del clarin." we sang it in class the other day. i like the words. too bad it's not in the english hymn book.
the other day i saw a kid that looked just like president hatch. (well, actually a good cross between ryan and scott hatch.) but i couldn't see his tag, and figured it couldn't possibly be a relative. well, the other morning, i passed by him in the cafeteria, and lo and behold, his tag said elder hatch. so i talked to him. it's derrick. he recognized my last name. asked how my family was doing. ("let's see, you have a brother just younger than you?".....uh, no. i'm one of the older sisters, actually.) anyway, he's going to paraguay (north, i believe). funny.
the elders learned how to make a bubblegum flavored drink from the soda machines in the cafeteria: one part fresca, one part orange-strawberry-banana juice and a shot of rootbeer. so crazy. but it really does taste like bubblegum.
times up. thanks for the letters and prayers! the church is true!
hermana magnusson
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