First Week!

Hello, everyone!  I am at the Missionary Training Center!  I've been here for less than a week but it feels like it has been more than two.  It's crazy how fast you get used to the routine and how quickly you get to know people.  I love my district (the missionaries that I hang out with most of the time) and zone (group of districts) SO much!  The girls in my district are amazing and I love them!  My companion is Sister Jensen from Eugene/Salem, Oregon.  She is so fun and nice.  She is going to Redlands, California.  Sister Giles and Sister Josephson live with us, too and they are awesome.  Sister Giles is super fun and Sister Josephson is really sweet and funny.  They are both going to Fort Worth, Texas.  The guys in our district are a bunch of goofballs, but we love 'em :)  Elder Peterson and Elder Koontz are coming to Tampa with me!  Elder Holton and Elder Ogden are going to Redlands with Sister Jensen.

One of the districts in my zone left this morning.  They had some wonderful sisters who we love and miss.  Their names are Sister Martinez, Sister Green, and Sister Priest.  Sister Martinez is going to Alaska and Sister Priest and Sister Green are going to Utica, New York.  They were kind of like older sisters to us even though we found out I am older than most of them, haha :)

On Thursday night, we had the fire alarm go off in our residence hall while we were getting ready for bed.  I think someone burned popcorn.  There's nothing like hundreds of sister missionaries huddled together outside in the cold singing hymns and primary songs :)  It was funny because Sister Giles had a face mask on and her hair in curlers.  Some girls were wrapped in towels because they had to jump out of the shower.  I felt so bad for them!  When we got back in, we took a picture of what we looked like when we went out...minus the face mask.

It has been really fun learning to be a missionary.  I know that God is helping me even in the little things.  I was worried about waking up on time, but since I've been here I actually wake up before my alarm!  It's a crazy and busy schedule, but I don't mind it.  The food is good even though lots of people complain about it.  We have taught lessons to our teachers pretending to be investigators (people wanting to learn about my church).  Which reminds me - my teachers are so awesome!  Their names are Brother Combs and Sister Pahulu.  They have taught us so much.  We also taught some people who we aren't told if they are pretending or if they are really investigators.  The first one went really, really well.  She was very interested in what we had to say and seemed to understand and want to learn more.  The second one...not so much.  She was really nice, but we don't know how to teach her.  She has similar beliefs, but seems to think ours are wrong in small but significant ways.  She just wanted to make small talk, which is fine but not the most efficient.  She played us a beautiful song on her guitar, though :)

Well, I miss you all and think of you often.  It's hard not to be able to call or email whenever I want and see on Facebook what's going on in people's lives.  Please email me or even write me letters!  I can get letters every day, but I only check my email once a week.

Much love!

-- 

Sister Porter

P.S. Here are some pictures!  The first is me on my first day pointing to where I'm going :)  You may notice the orange dot on my name tag...that pretty much meant people said, "Welcome to the MTC!" to you every 5 seconds.  The second is our bedroom door that the other Sisters decorated for us before we came.  The third is us after the fire alarm incident.  The third is Sister Green :)  I can't fit the rest in this email, so I'll send another one :)