Hermana McKayla Jean Thacker: Week 4

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Hermana's Thacker, Urie, and Mills

First off, let me answer your questions. I have two companions. One from Orem, who knows my roommate, Kelsey. She celebrated her twenty first birthday yesterday. Her name is Katherine Anne Mills. The other is the girl that stood behind us in line at the airport, the one that I boarded the plane with. She is awesome. Her name is Mary Elisabeth Urie. She is from South Salt Lake. She is a scriptorian. It's insane.

Don't worry about taking up all my email time reading long letters. We go early in the morning and print our emails and then we go home, do laundry and read them. That way we aren't using our hour for reading. So write away, por favor! As for my flight, we haven't gotten our itineraries yet. I will let you know when we do. We get to email the day before we leave, whenever that may be. Oh, and there are over 800 missionaries here, although they have the capacity for a lot more. Most of the houses are only half full. The number changes every week though.

Now what is up with the family physically falling apart? Why is everyone trying to kill themselves off? I'd like everyone in one piece when I get home! Tell both Grandpa's, Great Grandma Hansen, and Tony and Jodi to get better. I am super glad to hear that the girls won their game against Green River. I am very happy to be where I am, but at gym everyday and on P-Day when we get to play volleyball, I miss playing a little. Tell Nelle to enjoy it while it lasts!

I have started making lists of things to write about so that I don't forget. One of the first things is that Sundays are for the most part in English, everything except for the talks. For sacrament meeting they have six people talk. Everyone in the MTC prepares a talk on the same assigned topic and no one knows until after the sacrament who it will be. It's really awful. You sit there stressing and stewing and praying that it isn't you. The first week here, Hermana Urie had to speak, the next week Hermana Mills, the next week was fast and testimony meeting so we all got away. My companions were sure that I was going to get my turn this week, but I dodged the bullet again and Hermana Mills got stuck again! Haha.

Anyway, do you guys remember an Elder McClaws. If you don't DaNelle should and Diana Knight definately will. He was in the Basin for most of my senior year, but he is back in Provo now. I ran into him once while I was working at Golden Corral in Orem. Anyway, I was in the comidor the other day and I saw him, but then I realized that it wasn't him, but his last name was McClaws. So, I talked to him and it is his little brother. I thought it was pretty cool. Turns out that they have an older brother, who got home like a week ago, Elder McClaws in Provo, and this brother who is actually going to Chile, I think. That is three missionaries out at once (for like a week I guess)! I thought that was cool. Oh, and in your last letter you asked if I had talked to my mission president about the Van Tassels (the Van Tassels are related and told her to say "hi") The answer is no. He scares me to death and I think I found out why. We often listen to the MTC devotionals from Provo and Jeffrey R. Holland is a favorite. He mentioned in his talk this week the he and my mission president were companions. I'm pretty sure they spent their months together learning how to be intimidating!

Next, for your snippet of information... when people sneeze in America we say "bless you". Here when people sneeze once, you say "Salud", which means health. If they sneeze again you say, "Dinero", which means money. And if it happens again you say, "Amor", which means love. So health, money, and love. It is way cooler that bless you!

Now, for your entertaining story of the week. We have TRC, which is basically a time when members from the community come and the missionaries teach them rather than the MTC staff. So, we went in last week to do our second TRC and we had a gentleman of about thirty. We went in and started with a prayer and began the lesson. All was going fairly well until one of my companions eeeked and pointed to a corner of the room. Our investigator spun around, his eyes got very large, and he lept out of the couch with a decorative pillow in hand! He proceeded to chase the HUGE flying bug around the room, jumping high and ducking low, frantically swinging his pillow! After literally two minutes of grunting and screaming (from him and my companions), he smashed it with the pillow! He then proceeded to try to explain to us in the simplest Spanish possible that they bite and leave huge lumps on your skin. At least, I think that was what he was trying to say... haha!

I have one more funny, awesome, crazy story. Elder Smith, from my district, is an absolute hoot! He is seriously the funniest person I have ever met. He has our Latino teacher rolling on the ground by the end of class most days. Anyway, you can see in the district picture I sent that he is wearing his constant companion, which is a fanny pack, and in his fanny pack is his Storm Trooper alarm clock which he sleeps with. The other day after gym I was standing by our kitchen window, which was slightly open, when two of the Elders walked by on their way back to their house. Since the window was slightly open, I knocked on it and said hello. Elder Smith, out of the blue says, "Hey, watch this", then he sprints over to a huge puddle on the grass and without hesitation canon balls into it.... It may sound stupid, and it was, but it was seriously the funniest thing I have ever seen. I didn't know what to think of him at first, but at long last, I have decided that he really just wants to be loved and accepted, just like the rest of us. On Saturday night, our zone leader surprised us all by having a testimony meeting. Everyone had taken a turn and all that remained was Elder Smith. All week I had noticed him changing and becoming more studious. He was still funny, but it was almost like he was finally figuring out why he was here. Anyway, after a few awkward coughs, he stood to bear his testimony. It was so beautiful and so sweet. After bearing a simple testimony, he said that he felt like he should share where his testimony began. He started by saying that from his freshman year to his junior year he hadn't had friends. He used to hang out with his parents on the weekends. He went on to comment about one Friday night, his Senior year, he sat alone in his bedroom, contemplating ways to end his life. Then he received a text message from a random kid, a kid that was actually a druggy, but the text asked if he wanted to go camping. He decided to go and from then on, he had friends. He was the babysitter, and the DD, but he said that he soon realized that every single one of his friends was just like him. He said much more, but several weeks before he left, he gave one of them a BOM. Last week he received a letter, and his friend is taking the discussions and in the words of Elder Smith, "He is so happy, I can just tell that he is so happy!" I guess it just goes to show what a difference the gospel can make and the importance of friends.

Anyway, there is always more to say and never enough time to say it. I love you all bunches. I mailed a bunch of letters today. Don't get too excited. In the large envelope there are three or four letters, I can't remember, but I didn't know addresses so I was hoping you could take care of them for me. I'm sorry for the hassle. OH! and today I got a dearelder from Aunt Tracy and the Fam. It was awesome! Anyway, talk to you next week.

Love Hermana Thacker

The top picture is our district again at the temple. The very small man sitting down is our teacher and also one of our (fake) investigators. He is so small, he reminds me of Captain America before he became Captain America! The second picture is the sign at the CCM. Elder Robinson was cleaning it for one of our service projects and he totally broke it, haha!