So! I'm here! Just so you know, my normal p-day is on thursday, so from now on I will be writing to you on thursdays, but since we have this like, special half week since we first started, I get to check in with you today. It's highly encouraged that we write our families, so you know that I'm going to be writing you as much as I can. Also, thank you SO SO much for all of your letters! I mean, I'm the one who gets the most mail out of my whole district, which is a little embarrassing, but not really. SO keep it all coming. Dearelder is truly a blessing. Speaking of my district, they are great. I mean, they can get rowdy at times but that's just the nature of the beast. There are 13 of us, 10 elders and us 3 hermanas. OH! I should probably mention that I'm in a trio of hermanas. Which, is cool and difficult all at the same time. My companeras are Hermanas Deskins and Hollday. Hermana Deskins is from Ethiopia originally, but she was adopted 10 years ago by a family that is from a little town in southern utah that I don't remember the name of. She's serving in LA just like me. Hermana Holladay is from Lindon, UT and she's goign to be serving in the Mesa, AZ temple visitors center mission. I'm a little jealous because you know how much I wanted to serve in a visitors center. They are both hermanas fantasticos and we are all getting along really well. Out of the other elders, 6 of them are going to LA, 2 to Peru, 1 to Washington DC south, and 1 to Vancouver Canada. We spend a whole lot of time together and they're all really cool, so that's good. All different age ranges as well. Elder Wilson was a theater/opera major and Cal State Fullerton for the past 6 years, so we get along well :) BUT there's not flirting in the MTC so it's all just good fun.Spanish is going really well I'd say! On the very first day in the MTC right after we checked in and got our nametags and things we went to class. And it was total immersion. Like, they were only speaking to us in Spanish and that's what all of our instructions were in. BUT It's really so similar to French that I have a rather easy time understanding things. AND yesterday, we had our first lesson with our 'incestigator' Oscar! He seems like a really cool guy and is very open to learning new things and to the gospel so I think we will have a good time teaching him. However, he doesn't speak any English and so we're gonna have to improve on our Spanish real quick like in order to be able to communicate with him. However, something that Maestro Catt (Hermano Gato) said was that if we are trying to speak mouth to ear, we aren't really teaching. It's when we speak heart to heart that the message really comes through. That's something that I definitely want to improve on for the next lesson we have (which I think is on Monday). I was so focused on being able to speak in spanish to him that the spirit wasn't as present as it should have been. We learned to pray and bear our testimonies (that's really it so far...) and so we were able to do that and get the spirit there for a minute, but it would be more beneficial to have it there the whole time. I mean, that's the goal, right??
I'm getting used to getting up early and being in bed by 10:30. I'm usually so exhausted by the end of the day that I wish I could go to be earlier. However, it's the 6:30 thing that's hard. PLUS we have to be IN class at 7:00 so if we want to shower and get ready in any amount of time and be to class ready for personal study on time we have to get up at 6:00. And we aren't allowed to get up earlier than that so we'll just have to start being super speedy.
Well, my time is almost up and I want to write some personalized notes in this email so I'll wrap this up. I love you all and look forward to your letters!
Yo se que Jesucristo es el Salvador su mundo, y estoy agradecido por la Evangelio de Cristo. Yo se que la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los santos de los Ultimos Dias es verdad. En el nombre de Jesucirsto, Amen :)
BESOS!
Hermana Hensley
This is Dad. I think I will translate the Mormon language here.
P-day is Preparation day. This is the "day" or really only about 9 hours of the day when missionaries have "free time" So on p-day Shannon will be able to do things like shopping and laundry and write letters and other things like site-seeing or other activities that are approved by her mission president. So if you write her you will have to get used to not getting a quick reply. She will only have a few hours once a week to reply.
MTC : Missionary training center.
Companeras or companions. As a missionary Shannon will never be alone unless in her apartment and then her companion must always be in the apartment with her. Her companions are assigned by her mission president and are changed on a regular basis. I am not completely sure why this rule is in place but it has been this way for 30 or more years. Normally companionships are only 2 missionaries but as you can see, sometimes there are 3 missionaries in a companionship. What this means is that the 3 missionaries must always be together. They have privacy in their apartment or dorm room but when they are in public they must be together. So when she says “it is cool and difficult” you can appreciate what she is saying. It is cool to get to know 2 other girls but I am sure it is difficult to get them all to class at 7 AM on time in a group.
Most missionaries who are assigned to a foreign language mission do not speak that language before they are called. The MTC has been toured by many organizations across the years because they are able to take missionaries from not speaking or understanding a language and in 8 to 9 weeks not only have them speaking but have them teaching and reading the new language. So it is no surprise that on day one they stopped talking to them in English. They do have bi-lingual teachers and mentors but are very strict and very serious about “total immersion”. Shannon has the benefit of speaking French so learning a 3rd language will be a bit easier for her than someone who only speaks English.
Shannon mentioned someone named Oscar. This will be an employee who is role playing with them to help them develop their lessons. As I said she will be able to teach lessons in Church to non-English speakers when she leaves. It may not be perfect after 9 weeks but it should be close enough to get by if she had to do it.
Maestro Catt (Hermana Gato) will also be an employee or one of her teachers.
The daily schedule in the MTC and missionaries in general is from 6:30 AM until 10:30 PM seven days a week, as she said she can get up no earlier than 6 AM but I don’t see that happening with Shannon anyway. This will also be the expected schedule for the entire 18 months she will serve. Other than p-day which starts at 9:30 AM and usually ends at 6:30 PM, there are no breaks or holidays. This also means they are expected to be “a missionary” at 6:31 PM on p-day. They are always expected to act in a manner becoming a missionary but p-day is like having a day off. She will only be able to make 2 phone calls a year home, Christmas day and Mothers day if you would like to talk to Shannon you will have to be at our house when she calls. Of course local customs and common sense are to be used in abundance and each mission has some minor differences but as a rule of thumb this is a missionary schedule. Deviations from the schedule must be approved by the mission president.
Also in the MTC they get a limited time on the computer to write email, this is just due to the missionary to computer ratio, they must use the computer center at the MTC and all are on a schedule. The limited time on a computer for email will hold true after she leaves the MTC but for other reasons. They will not have a computer in their apartment. She will have to go to some type of public place for computer access. This is usually the public library. So reading email and replying to email will be difficult. It is better if you can send her regular mail. She can read the letters anytime she has a free minute and she can hand write letters from any place. So snail mail is by far the best way to communicate with her.
While in the MTC there is a service at www.dearelder.com that will print your letter and put it in her mailbox. This is the quickest and easiest way to get letters to her but you will have to wait for p-day for her to reply. She has listed all of the info you will need to send a letter from there below in this blog.
