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