Week 3

Hi everyone!

(To explain the title) I am technically in my THIRD week at the MTC, despite having only been here 14 days. That is because they count weeks starting on Monday or Sunday or something, so my first three day week counted as a whole week. Along those same lines, my estimated departure date from the MTC is on October 10th (which is actually a LOT earlier than I thought it would be?). And our estimated death date (end of the mission) is January 17th, 2013. For those of you who don't know, that is actually my 23rd birthday haha.

Anyways, THANK YOU everyone for the letters and DearElders and packages and emails! I feel loved :) I am trying my very best to write everyone back pretty quickly; if I haven't written you yet, it IS coming! I just have almost no time to write letters. Other than P-Day, I only get one hour of "free" time a day and during that last hour of the day, I have to get back to my room, get ready for bed, write in my journal, and then maybe try and write a letter haha :P So just be patient!

Anyways, I'm going to try to share a few more experiences from the MTC:

-First of all, Hungarian is really cool! Remember how I told you I am actually called Kramer Nover (excuse the lack of accents) here? So we were talking about the word Nover, and it literally means woman blood. So it really emphasizes that we are a sisterhood. Cool, huh? The grammer is intense, though! But I am saying ALL of my prayers in Hungarian now! And my district has made a goal to have a completely SYL day in a couple weeks! It is kind of an intimidating thought right now, but it gives us something to motivate us and work hard towards.

-Speaking of motivation, the other day in class, Daybell Testver had us all think about what movitates us as missionaries to do our best. My list included a lot of things, like love of the Savior, love of the Hungarian people, etc. but that every one of you also made the list! My family and friends are a big reason for me trying as hard as I do!

-Since my last letter, we finished teaching Gabi. We taught him a total of 5 lessons in less than a week. It was a super cool experience. At the end, I just felt so much love for someone who was essentially a character, and thought: If I care about a fake investigator so much, I can only imagine how strongly I will feel for the real people I serve. After our last lesson with Gabi, he thanked us for himself. The day after that, the man "playing" Gabi came in and talked to us about the experience. His name was actually Leindenbach Testver; he served in Hungary awhile ago (there was actually a picture of him on our classroom wall that none of us noticed haha). He taught us that even though our Hungarian was broken, we all were able to touch his heart. He told us that if we can keep our dependence on the Spirit and add to that language skills and experience, we will all be great missionaries! He told us he thought every companionship could have brought Gabi to baptism! He also told us that language is just one form of communication and it is the lesser of those. Love and the Spirit are so powerful and important in communicating and teaching the gospel message! We all wrote letters to our future prideful missionary selves, reminding ourselves of these simple truths.

-We are now teaching an investigator named Mate. We are teaching him the first discussion.

-Daybell Testver said something in class the other day that I really liked: "Heavenly Father shapes the back of the missionary to fit the burden that is placed upon it." I think this is true for everyone. He shapes us into who He needs us to be. It's not necessarily easy or painless, but it will make us better people, able to hand the burdens and trials given to us.

-I don't remember if I told you this last week, but we get to go to the Provo temple every week on P-Day! It is SO COOL to go with a bunch of other missionaries! (Especially since I've barely ever gone with people my own age haha)

-I'm already almost out of time! Ahhhh! I will try and hurry!

-We've had really cool devotionals from a lot of inspired people: a member of the YW presidency, members of 70, director of mission services, 2 BYU presidents (one of which was Cecil O.). I think they are some of my favorite parts of the MTC!

-My district has really bonded this past week! I feel like they are my family away from home, with sisters and little brothers. A lot of this bonding came about by singing excessive amounts of Disney songs haha :P

Keep up the love!! KEEP writing letters! I WILL write you back! And missionaries (especially this one) really love news from the outside world! Whoever you are, I would love to hear from you! Send me your questions, your thoughts, your life stories!!!

I love you all! Szeretem titeked!

-Sister McKenna A. H. Kramer