June14, 2010

Word of the week: viajar--to travel

Friday last week we got our travel plans! They are of course contingent on the fact that we receive our visas. I'm pretty sure that I will...but keep your fingers crossed and pray hard...I don't know if I could mentally stand staying here longer! :)

Here's the official news: American Airlines flight 1392 from Salt Lake to Dallas (2:50-6:30 pm) on June 21st. Then from Dallas to Buenos Aires (7:35 pm-7:55 am June 22). From there, I'm not sure what's going to happen, but I suppose one way or another I will get to Mendoza :) Yay! we are all very excited and now very distracted! We still have a lot to learn and a lot to practice before leaving. While I'm excited and anxious to go, I'm absolutely terrified! I'm pretty good with my Spanish, but no where near able to fully express myself and that's scary to think about. Eek!!! Thankfully I've been reassured by the mission president's wife that I will have a native English speaker as a trainer my first transfer! Phew!

In other news, I spoke yesterday in church. I've never told you how this works! Each week we are assigned a topic and asked to prepare a short talk in Spanish to give on a minutes notice (to take to the field and use when someone falls through in the program, etc). Well, Sunday, after the sacrament is passed and as whom ever in the branch presidency is conducting and announcing the remainder of the meeting, he calls on 2 missionaries to give their prepared talks. I knew my time was coming--they normally pick missionaries who have been in the MTC for a while....and since there are only 2 sisters in the zone, I was a sitting duck! Yep, I got called and everyone in my district (including me) knew it was coming, but it was still a good jolt of adrenaline. It went pretty well, but thankfully no one really speaks Spanish (except the branch president), so everyone said i did awesome! hahaha....

OK...I only have a couple of minutes: Elder Hales spoke on Tuesday! that makes 3/12 of the apostles! woo! There was tons of security and cameras that night, so we knew it was someone important! He talked about the power of light in our lives and the power we have in sharing our testimonies and lighting other people's lives. It was a great talk...I wish I had more time to share more!

Alright, next week I will be on a plane (hopefully) for my P-day...and I'm not sure when I'll get to write again. I love you all! Thank you so so so much for all the letters and prayers! They help a ton!

(Apparently the word is, you should use the pouch to send mail to Argentina!--look into that I suppose)

Love you,

talk to you all in a few days!

Hermana Pelton