Week three down, week four to come

hey,
so, i hope these emails are getting forwarded to the family, grandma, james and monica. i was alo wondering if you could send them to bishop perkins? but whatever you want to do. now i get to answer questions, how fun, right? for me anyway.

ok--lots of questions about the MTC, or the CCM en Español. Sleep--i get to bed before 10:30 so that i might get a full eight hours of sleep because a tired hermana is an unhappy/unChristlike hermana. I sleep on the bottom bunk in a room with 5 other girls. that means that there are five different tones and alarm clocks that go off at five to fifteen different times. my favorite is the alarm clock that starts slow and then gets faster and faster, and then when the owner hits the off button it says, as chipper as possible, "GOOD MORNING!" Mickey Mouse Style. it is not a good morning if i am not awake before that clock goes off. i don't know who owns it because if i did then i might hold a very big grudge against them. one time i was so tired in the morning, and i didn't have ample time to wake up that i drowsily walked to the bathroom. i ran into a stall to find a worker restocking the toilet paper. she apologized, i grunted and then looked for the next stall. i was so out of it. the first few nights were hard for me because i couldn't sleep so early. but now i try to go to bed as soon as possible becausei am so tired. sometimes, when my companion and i are studying together, i tell her i can't focus and could she give me a few minutes. That is when i put my head on my hand, strtegically placed so it lookes like i am reading the book of mormon, and take a cat nap. those little cat naps have saved my life and also my companion's.

there is a store here, for those of you who don't know. it is an extension of the BYU bookstore. but missionaries get a really good discount. i have learned, the hard way of course, that you don't yell out for your elders in the middle of the store because about 40-50 pairs of eyes turn to you wanting to nkow what you want. i laughed, they didn't. i mean, c'mon, that's funny.p-day is tues. it is my favorite day. i'm sad to say that. but i do have to say my close second favorite day is sunday. we get to watch movies after the fireside. and i get to take a nap-30 min. the movies are the church movies everyone has seen, but when a bunch of missionaries never get to watch anything on a big screen, we feel like it is a saturday night out in a theater with all of our friends. it is funny though, because when the subtlest and sweetest little peck of a kiss comes on the screen you hear the hooting and whistling of a couple of hundred elders. any entertainment is good entertainment. i laugh at them because it is so hilarious. the most innocent kiss seems sooooooo awkward and contreversial in this particular audience.

we do eat our food on paper plates. it is going to be sad when we go back to regular plates because it is so easy to just throw everything away in one simple toss. well, i say that as if i throw my own stuff away. usually our elders take our trays and open our doors. i have gotten so spoiled that when i see an elder within 20 feet of me and they don't make an effort to open my door, i get a little angry. com'on, be a gentleman!

on to teachers--most districts have two teachers because the day is divided into three 4 hour segments. one is Missionary Directed Time (MDT) and two are lead by a teacher. my district, which consists of 4 elders and 4 hermanas, has had 12 teachers in total. it is really frustrating because i feel really lost when it comes to some parts of the grammar but it doesn't matter because tomorrow we are going to have a new teacher. yesterday i broke down though. my district wanted to learn subjunctive but i don't even understand pronouns quite yet. oh well. onward and upward.

ok-spiritual thought. this last week was Mission President's week. the cafeteria is cut in half so that they can decorate and beautify the other half for the presidents. they also get catered food (we saw a chocolate bowl full of vanilla mousse and lots of fresh strawberries once in the garbage and i know that was not one of our options). we also couldn't use some of the buidlings. it was quite inconvenient. but, all of the 12 and the first presidency were here. one day, sunday, we had all of them except president packer here. we were taught from elder holland. on sunday my companion and i were randomly sitting by the door where the prophet enters and exits. we waited because hermana barfoot wanted to see the prophet--she never had, but we were going to be late to lunch (the best meal of the week because there is an ice-cream sundae bar). i had a thought to promise her that if we were obedient she would see the prophet. i kept it to myself--who am i to make such a promise? The thought came to me three or four more times--promise hermana barfoot. but i didn't. as we started to walk to our residence hal;l, a few hours later an elder said that if we wanted to see the prophet we should go up a hallway to our right. we went, and there we saw the prophet and president eyring. i should've made that promise. it taught me that i can, as a missionary, and under the direction of the spirit, promise things. that will be so important when dealing with my investigators. i can promise you that if you do this, if you make this sacrifice, you will see blessings.

it was cool to see the prophet. it reminded me of the savior in america where the people came and touched his wounds and then they told others about their experiences. we missionaries got to see the prophet, and then we will go all over the world and testify of his exsitance and reality.

i'm out of time. too bad, i have some good stories about:
> foursquare,
> my elders,
> the gym,
> new companionships
> and more
but for now i must go and be obedient.
love,
hermana barros