2 more weeks!

This week has been very good and has gone by really fast.  I only have less than two weeks left before I go to El Salvador!  This week since I am officially the music person in the zone, I had to go to three different districts and teach them how to conduct.  Two of the districts are advanced, meaning they are already fluent in Spanish and are only here for 3 weeks.  They were so bad at conducting and it was so funny to watch.  But, I had told one class that they were better than the other class.  At dinner that night, we were all eating and one advanced Elder starting "fighting" with an Elder from the other advanced district.  They were trying to see who was better.  One said that they should have a push up war and then they came up with other things.  Finally one said, "Well, I heard you were bad at conducting.  Show me a 4/4." Then he led a 4/4 really badly and so everyone laughed.  So he said, "Well, I bet you can't to a 6/8." And that Elder waved his hand in a precise 6/8 and the cafeteria went up in applause.  It was so funny to watch.  I don't know if you will think that is funny but I thought it was hilarious.

Another funny thing that happened this week that you might not think is funny was at our Tuesday devotional.  So, I brought a book to write notes in to devotional and I was labeling the top of page with the date and who was speaking.  It was a member of the Quorum of the Seventy named "Ralph F. Ballard".  So that is what I wrote.  After 10 minutes of sitting there, my companion looks over and said "Oh, his name is not Ralph, it's Allen." I don't know where I got Ralph but we had a good chuckle.  But she said to me that it was okay because she had written down his last name as Ballard when it is actually Packer.  And then she looked at my paper and realized that she had gotten his last name off my paper.  So, I don't know what I was thinking but we starting laughing really hard.  His name was not Ralph F. Ballard but Allen F. Packer.  At least I got the middle initial right.  I guess this just goes to show that I feel tired all the time.

I hope that everyone had a fun New Years Eve.  On thursday nights we normally have gym from 8-9 at night and so we were really excited to celebrate the New Years Eve in the gym but when we went to the gym, they had canceled our gym time.  We were sad and instead went back to our rooms and had a big New Years Eve party with the 12 sisters in our zone.  It was fun and then at 10 we celebrated the News Years with the people in Baltimore:)  And of course, we promptly went to bed at 10:30.

On Saturday, our district came up with a goal not to speak English at all this week starting on Monday. So, yesterday was the first day and it was really hard.  It is hard not to be able to communicate what you want to say.  But we are still going on strong.  Hopefully we will be able to make it to Saturday. I wish that I could think in Spanish because it is hard to be constantly translating in my head. Someday...

This week has been a great week spiritually.  In class we have been learning about the attributes of Christ and I have been personally trying to improve myself.  I can say one thing, I have never had a stronger desire to be better.  I know that if I come closer to Christ, and follow his example I will be a better missionary and be able to affect more lives.  I am so grateful to be here learning at the MTC.  Hermana Layton and I decided that we had to learn a language because we have learned so many things these last 4 weeks that we wouldn't have learned if we weren't here at the MTC.

I love you all!

Hermana Crystal Bush