Greetings from Guatemala

Natalie arrived "safe and sound" Tuesday afternoon or night ---and was involved all morning today at the MTC here in Guatemala --- in orientation for their next phase of training. They finally got into the classroom in the afternoon and have started learning more Spanish & teachings from Preach My Gospel. I've attached a photo of her out in front of the flags in the entry of the MTC here in Guatemala.

This is a very good (and large) group of 42 new missionaries who join another extraordinary group of 7 North Americans who are in their final three weeks PLUS 42 missionaries from Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Bolivia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Belize, Chile, Panama, and other Latin American countries who will be here at the MTC for the next three weeks .

You can send letters in the pouch service, a one page 8.5X11, triple-folded, taped or sealed with the address and stamp on the outside.

Pouch Address:

"POUCH"
Sister Natalie Dance
Guatemala MTC
P.O. Box 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150

For the next several weeks you can ALSO send letters, packages, or other mail at the following address:

Sister Natalie Dance
Centro de Capacitation Misional
Boulevard Vista Hermosa 23-71, Zona 15
Vista Hermosa 1 C.P. 01015
Guatemala Ciudad, Guatemala C.A.

Do not send anything to the above address after September 23. Anything you send after that date should be addressed to her mission address.

I'm going to Guatemala!

Hey family!

Thanks so much for you letters and emails.
Mom, your experiences in Daugavpils (sp?) sound awesome. The family and friends you visited sound awesome. And Dad, thanks for your letter too. I've been thinking about the difference between sacrifice and consecration and I studied a bunch of scriptures but I'm not as smart as you so I still don't really know the answer...haha. But I'll keep working.

Oh yeah, as to the subject title of my e-mail...I'm leaving Monday night (the 24th?) to go to the Guatemala MTC for six weeks. Apparently the SL travel office was supposed to tell us that in our calls but they didn't so the travel office just called us down yesterday and gave us our flight plans even though we didn't even know we were leaving. Only the Hermanas who are called to central america and learning spanish are headed down there, so one of my companions, Hermana Brewer, is staying because she's going to Virginia. :( I'm going to miss her and I wish she were coming with. My other companion, Hermana Caldwell, (oh yeah, I'm in a trio again because more hermanas moved up from the beginning spanish district into ours) is coming with me though.

I'm excited to improve my spanish but a little nervous because I feel like I don't know enough of the language to even communicate well. And I'm going to miss all the amazing resources at the MTC like tutors, teaching evaluation, the call center, workshops, devotionals and firesides. We're hoping for a General Authority at tonight's fireside but no one knows... :)

Ok here's the address for the Guate MTC:

Guatemala MTC
Bulevar Vista Hermosa 23-71
Vista Hermosa I, Zona 15
01015 Guatemala City
Guatemala, C.A.

I'm not sure if DearElder works there or not but feel free to try it.

K i'm running out of time so I'm just going to rush through things as I think of them. In case I don't get a letter written before I leave, please tell Aunt Mindy thank you so much for her package. That was so sweet of her. Oh and I guess the MTC computers don't let you put pictures on them so I'll try to print some out and mail them before I leave.

Ahhhh sorry I'm out of time and I haven't really had time to tell you anything but I'm doing well, I love it here and I love the gospel. I'll call you from the airport!

Love,
Hermana Dance

I'm alive!!

Hey family!

I live! Today is our first Pday and we just barely set up our email (nataliedance@myldsmail.net). The clock is ticking down now and it makes me have anxiety...haha.

I don't even know where to start. Yes mom, the missionaries are right when they say the first week at the MTC feels like a month. But it's an awesome month. I seriously love it here. Even though it's crazy scheduled and busy and draining, I love it. I LOVE mi companera, Hermana Brewer. She's from Springville and has a lot of the same interests as me. We get along really well and love each other and work really well together.

My roommates are awesome too. They're all so sweet and strong and unique. A couple days ago I wrote 3 or 4 pages about how awesome they each are in my journal and I could probably spend an hour telling you about them. We've had a lot of sicknesses and health issues in our room this week, but we're helping each other get through it. Thursday I got really sick and threw up all morning until we went to the doctor and they gave me a shot to help me not get sick and make me sleepy. So I missed almost the whole first day because I was sleeping in the sick bay. It was gone by the morning though and I've been blessed to be healthy since then. It was actually kind of a blessing because now everything seems even more awesome because hey, at least I'm not throwing up :)

When I first got here I was in a trio with Hermana Brewer y Hermana Caldwell, but then Hermana Okura moved up from a Beginning Spanish district so she and Hermana Caldwell are now companions. My district is big (4 sisters and 7 elders) but we're getting to know one another better now. Our teachers are awesome (Hermana Cochraine is from the US and Hermano Hidalgo is from Mexico) and I learn so much from them. I love it. I'm so excited to learn. Spanish is coming back pretty fast so I'm not too worried about it yet. It's nice because since we're in Intermediate Spanish we get to go pretty deeply into the doctrine instead of only focusing on language. Right now we only study Spanish about 30-40% of our class time. We sing, pray, and practice contacting in Spanish, but our class is still in Spanglish.

The days are suuuuper long but packed with goodness. Sundays and Pdays go by really fast though. Sundays are amazing because we pretty much have church and then a whole day of MDT (Missionary Directed Time) where we get to study whatever we want. And we get to go on a temple walk with our district.

Pdays aren't as cool because it's just laundry, cleaning, and writing letters, but we do get to go to the temple so that's cool. I took some pictures for the first time today but I forgot to put them on the computer before the timer started counting down so I think I'll just attach them next week.

Oh yeah, thanks mom for writing me from Dear Elder. It was my first letter and it made me happy :) Yes, we've been able to go outside for gym time. No one wanted to play sand volleyball with us and they don't allow the sisters to play soccer in the same game as the elders because we're delicate flowers and get injured too easily or something so we just ran and worked out on our own.

Ok, something I learned this week. So I spoke about recognizing and understanding the spirit before I left, and in our first district meeting we talked about the spirit. Elder Whiting, our district leader talked about how there are two ways for us to lose the spirit:
1. we sin, and we have to repent before we can feel it again.
2. it has gone to a higher level, and it wants us to follow it. We have to learn something new and work on a higher level to feel it again. I don't know, I just thought that was really awesome because it went right along with what I spoke about.

Hmm....what else to write about. I don't even know where to start explaining everything that's been going on. It's weird thinking that real life is still going on outside of this place. It really is a bubble. A bubble of goodness.

Oh yeah, I saw cousin James!! I was going to write him a note before he left today but again, we're not supposed to write on any days besides Pday. I'll write him a real letter so he can get it in Washington though.

Alright, I'm about out of time. Sorry this is so all over the place, no time to edit. I love you!! Have a great day!

Love,
Hermana Dance

1 Nephi 17:3

Tick....tick....tick....

I leave on my mission to Panama tomorrow!!! So I thought I should update this one last time to put my addresses up and introduce you to my sister.

This is my sister:

She is cool and will copy my e-mails in here while I'm gone on my mission for anyone who wants to read them. Her name is Cassie, she is a grade school counselor and lives in Sugar House.

Ok, on to the addresses for my mission.

Letters can be sent through the pouch service. They need to be post cards or single page letters folded into three panels and taped at the top, so no envelopes. That address for the pouch service is:

Sister Natalie Dance
Panama Panama City Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150
USA

Other letters (longer than a single page that you don't send to the POUCH service) can be sent here until OCTOBER 2009:

Sister Natalie Dance

MTC Mailbox #119-1006
Panama Panama City Mission
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

After OCTOBER 2009, letters that you don't send in the POUCH can be mailed to:

Sister Natalie Dance
Panama Panama City Mission
Carrasquilla
Apartado Postal 0834-00071
Panama City, Panama

The address for express mail and PACKAGES ONLY is:

Sister Natalie Dance
Panama Panama City Mission
Edificio Hi Tech Plaza Piso 5 Puerto D
Calle 35, Marbella
Ciudad de Panama
Panama

Hope to hear from you! Peace out girl scouts, see you all in 18 months!