What a week!

Hola mi familia!

Oh wow, I don't even know where to start. It has been a wild first weeks here at the MTC. I never thought I could feel so overwhelmed! But life is getting better. The first couple of days were rough but now that I'm kind of getting into the swing of things it is nice. I'm actually probably going to have a switch-up here pretty soon. I took the Spanish language assessment on Saturday and they want to put me in the intermediate class starting this afternoon/evening, so that will mean having a new companion and district and zone and everything, which is really sad because I LOVE my district. There are 12 of us, 4 hermanas and 8 elders. 7 of us are going to NJ Morristown, 3 to Las Vegas, and 2 to the Dominican Republic. My companion so far has been Hna. Binning, from Tucson, AZ. She actually is the girl I met at the end of the semester so that is cool. We get along really well but when I move into intermediate, I will probably get switched to be with one of the other hermanas who is also moving up, Hna Cornish, from Orem. It is a tough decision for me because I don't want to leave my district but I was reading in my Patriarchal Blessing and it told me to take every opportunity I have to progress and improve myself so I can be a blessing to those around me and that is what being a missionary is all about, being a blessing to those around me, not hanging out with my friends. Plus, I will still get to see 6 of them in NJ. So yeah, I may end up with 2 p-days this week because my new district has p-day on Thursday, I think. :)

What else is new? Oh, they let all the elders and sisters stay up on Saturday night and stand in the MTC parking lot to watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks, which was way exciting. I saw a sister from China and started speaking to her in Chinese while we were all just standing around. :) My district got to go into the Referral Center on Friday and make phone calls following up with people that had called in and asked for things like church DVD's or Books of Mormon or something. I was way nervous at first but then the first 10 numbers I dialed weren't home so I calmed down...until someone answered when I wasn't expecting it, and they wanted to know more...and I freaked out but then I bore testimony to her and told her we would send the missionaries over to her house in the next week. Life is good. :) I also called this one lady and asked for her husband (because he was who was listed on the referral) and she's like, "He's dead." I was so shocked, I had no idea what to say...unfortunately, I passed up the golden opportunity to share the gospel with her because I was still in shock but I put them on the call-back list and made a note that he had died. Hopefully someone will call them soon. :)

I'm sorry to say but I passed out on Saturday while doing gym time out on the field. I went to see the MTC doctor this morning (because they made me) and he was all strict and told me I'm not allowed to drive in NJ and wants me to go see my cardiologist again in AF before I leave the MTC, so we're setting that up for sometime next week. Grrr....oh well. Pray for me.

So I mentioned how my Spanish has just been growing so much here (so much so that I'm going to intermediate). I try to say all my prayers in Spanish and I bore my testimony in Spanish yesterday. I'm currently working on trying to learn the first lesson, though my class just barely started conjugations. It is going to be so hard moving into intermediate...I don't know if I'm ready for it. But I was talking to some hermanas yesterday who did the same thing and they said that even though they always feel a little behind in their new class, they were bored in the old one and it is just so much better now because they can be completely thrown into it. More details on how it actually goes later. :)

I've run into TONS of people I know here. Several girls I didn't even know were on missions. It's good to see them and nice to have a familiar face like the other night when I was overwhelmed. My friend told me to just pray and do all I can because the Lord will take care of the rest, and he definitely has. This week I will have an extra stress of Spanish study hardcore but I know I can do it with the Lord's help.

Well, I think that's about all I have to say for now. Thank you for your wonderful examples and support. I miss you tons but I love you more!

Love,
Hermana Jackson