HELLO!

Hello all!

First off, I wanted to say "Congratulations" to Sarah Kemp for getting a mission call to the Alabama Birmingham- Spanish speaking mission! WOOOHOOOO! Missions are the best! I am so excited for her! (Along those lines, ANYONE, feel free to send me your mission call and I will give you a shout out! Missions should be celebrated!!!)

Anyways, so I am in my "fifth" week at the MTC. WHAT?!?! Excuse me?!?! Where is the time going? I need to get a move on in order to learn this language so I can talk to people about the gospel in Hungary! It is kind of interesting how long I am here in the MTC. I think I am not bothered by it because I came expecting to be here this long. Also, I have a LOT to learn and I'm sure that I won't learn it all in the time that I do have. But everyone always looks at us very sympathetically when we tell them we are here for 12 weeks. This is probably because English speakers are only here for 3 weeks. I have already seen the first English group that came in the same day as me leave (fun note, btw: we had a district of elders going to the Boston Massachusetts mission (my home mission) in my zone! I tried to tell all of them to say hi if they ever went to Cromwell Ward... I'm not sure they will actually remember, though, haha :P The district that replaced them is heading to Florida (where I used to live). Coincidence. What a funny thing!)

So, my district is actually having our first SYL day this Friday. (SYL = Speak Your Language) So, basically, this means that on Friday, I will be speaking Hungarian all day. Feel free to pray for me :P I mostly know gospel terms, so it will be interesting (and probably really quiet) on Friday when we discover how much (or little) we actually know. But we need to speak more, so it will be good for us!

Kind of along those same lines, the older Hungarian district is finishing their consecration week today. (Consecration week is an entire SYL week right before you leave the MTC.) They are leaving this Monday. That means we will be the mentors for a new group of Hungarians probably the week after that! Baaah! I don't feel ready yet! But I know that it will be okay :)

Some fun things from this past week:

-We discovered how funny it is to read Spanish like Hungarian. You don't need to know all the pronunciations to know how funny this is. Basically, just understand that the "s" in Hungarian is a "sh" sound. Try reading Spanish. Feel free to laugh.

-One of our teacher taught us Hungarian tongue twisters the other day to try and help us with our pronunciation (one of them had a lot of "r" sounds (which we roll in Hungarian) and the other one had a lot of "s", "sz", "cs", etc. ("sh", "s", "ch", etc.). I don't have them written down write in front of me, so I can't specifically share them this week, but I do remember that he shared one just for fun that apparently Hungarians have a lot of trouble with. It's something super simple for Americans, something like: "Jamicai egy Jamicaian". I don't think that is it exactly, but it is just talking about Jamaicans and apparently they have a really hard time saying it? That was one instance in class where we felt quite masterful :P

-I don't know if I properly explained this in past emails, but Hungarian doesn't have a verb "to be." They have a verb "to exist" which they sometimes use in that same capacity. However, if I said "Thomas S. Monson egy profeta." (sorry for the lack of accents), it would mean "Thomas S. Monson (implied "is") a prophet." Kind of fun.

-I've run into a LOT of people I know here! I have a lot of friends who teach here and more and more friends coming in on missions. It is really nice to see them, but kind of weird, too, because I forget sometimes that I am a mile or so from where I used to live.

-I got to play sand volleyball the other day. SO FUN. The sand burned our feet, but it was so nice not to wear shoes :) I need to practice my dives, though.

-We've had REALLY awesome devotionals this past week! No time to write about them, though! Gotta go :P (Sorry!!)

Anyways, I've really appreciated all of the letters and thoughts and love! Keep it coming :D

<3 McKenna aka Sister Kramer

P.S. I asked around and apparently I can't attach photos to my email while I am in the MTC. Sad. But, I am working on getting photos printed and sent home (and to whoever else wants one). Funny story, though: I actually ordered a whole bunch of photos a week ago. But they didn't come and didn't come and didn't come. The Bookstore finally told me today that they think the machine LOST my photos! I think the MTC is enhancing my talent to lose things. I am apparently affecting inanimate objects now! Haha.