line upon line precept upon precept

 Things here are still
super busy. Every minute of every day is scheduled for me. The only
thing they forgot to give me when I got here was the headphones that
tell me, "breathe in, breathe out..." Personal time is non-existent,
which makes sense because I am not here for me I am here for the Lord
so I am on his time. On Sunday the BYU men's choir was our devotional.
They are really good! I kept waiting for them to serenade me with
"Hallelujah" but since we are in the MTC they only sang
hymns...bummer. After the devotional I was able to watch the movie
"The Testaments." With all of the kissing and flirting it was a bit
racy for the MTC but the message was SUPER BUENO so I guess that's why
they let that slide. Anything that has to do with the Savior always
makes me cry now so I was really working hard to hold back all of
those tears. The Spirit tends to do that to you...
  I've gotten so many
e-mails, letters, etc. telling me how cool it was to see you put in. I
ran into one Sister Kami Call last week and that was way cool to see
her. I asked her about dad getting put in and she said it was awesome.
It was also nice for me to see another familiar face. So, talking
about familiar faces, you'll never guess who I ran into this week?!
Larry and Vickie Smith (for any not acquainted with my extremely large
family tree, Larry is my mom's uncle). But yeah, I was so shocked to
see them because everyone and their dog failed to mention that they
were serving a mission. I guess that they just got their call a couple
of weeks ago and they are serving in the new Salt Lake mission working
on computers and stuff. They left on Thursday, but it was nice to see
some family again. They were super excited to serve and it got me
wondering when my grandparents were going to do that *cough cough*
*wink wink* *nod nod* you know who you are...
     We are starting to learn things about Spanish that I haven't
learned before so it's really starting to get difficult. We are
learning how to conjugate verbs in past tense, which wouldn't be so
hard if there weren't two past tense conjugations. It's just crazy
trying to learn when to use each conjugation because they have a
preterit tense and an  imperfect tense-which doesn't exist in English.
We use one past tense. Our teacher said that it is really hard for
native English speakers to grasp the concept because we don't use two
tenses...so that's how things are going here. I just pray SUPER hard
every day and really try to study hard. There's not much else I can do
except just have faith in the Lord that He will help me with it! Just
remember, "Line upon line; precept upon precept; here a little, there
a little." I found some scriptures this week that are really helpful
for that: Doctrine & Covenants 30:11  "And your whole labor shall be
in Zion, with all your soul, from henceforth; yea, you shall ever open
your mouth in my cause, not fearing what man can do, for I am with
you. Amen." And Doctrine & Covenants 31:3 "Lift up your heart and
rejoice, for the hour of your mission is come; and your tongue shall
be loosed, and you shall declare glad tidings of great joy unto this
generation." These really helped me this week!
     My comp and I are getting along pretty great. We have our moments
but it's pretty much me just being impatient or selfish. Shocker,
right? No. I can definitely say that I am learning to become more
humble because of this. She helps me to be a better missionary so I
know that we were put together for a reason :) It's her birthday on
Wednesday so our district is going to really try to make it special.
We are even going to have Hermana Boothe's dad try to smuggle in some
cake for her. I'm excited!

     Well, I love you all and  enjoy hearing things from home! I know
that I am where I am supposed to be no matter how hard it gets. Until
next week.
Love, Hermana Freestone

At the MTC (hope this works!) -mollie-

                                  

Hermana Becca Elton and Elder Richens (Morgan Utah)

Hermana Cisalee Oldham

Elder Richens (Morgan Utah)

Hermana Olivia Carter

Group from the MTC

 I never sent an e-mail last week because my companion and I basically totally forgot about e-mail. Don't ask me how that happened...we were just so emotionally spent. The first three days here in the CCM were super exhausting and probably the longest 3 days of my entire life. One of my roommates, Hermana Wankier (yes, the Wankiers in our ward are her cousins) said it best, "The first few days here is like drinking from a fire hydrant."  

     Ok, Spanish is improving slowly, but steadily. I can now say a simple prayer, bear a very short testimony, and can carry a fairly decent conversation. We had to teach a lesson our third day here. Talk about nerve-wracking. Since then we have taught three more times and committed our investigator to baptism. Granted, we were teaching our soon-to-be teacher, but we were still able to feel the Spirit. My companion's name is Hermana Syphus. She is from St. George and she is going to Buenos Aires North. She is a quiet little thing but secretly funny. I love her to death! Though, parts of her personality are definitely testing my patience, which isn't much. So I've been developing my patience here :) I was originally put in a trio when I first arrived because one of the girls in our district never showed up (I'm convinced she got engaged the night before). My other comp was Hermana Boothe. She is from Orem going to Fresno and her dad actually works here in the kitchen so that's who you got the picture from dad :) Last Friday we got a new Hermana in our district named Hermana Boomhower, who we fondly refer to as Boom. She was originally going to Las Vagas West English Speaking, but she broke her foot in the first gym class she had. Well, her whole district left after two weeks and her branch president didn't want her to keep learning the same things over and over again so he gave her the option to either go home and heal or learn a language, so she's learning to speak Spanish now. There are 8 people in my district: the four girls, Elder Moss (from Arizona going to Buenos Aires North), Elder Evans (from Los Angeles going to Beunos Aires North), Elder Morrow (from Virginia going to Fresno), and Elder Bang (from Maine going to Sacramento). So we have Elder Bang and Hermana Boom in our district! It's pretty awesome :) Apparently there were two bombs that went off at the Boston Marathon (we are totally cut off from any outside news) and Elder Bang's family was there because his parents were running in it. Thankfullly no one was hurt, but it was still pretty scary to hear about.

     Erm...oh! Every Tuesday we have a devotional here and gues who we got this week? Richard G. Scott! Yeah...I just said Richard G. Scott. Can I just tell you how awesome that was? He talked about how we need to better communicate with our Heavenly Father. He also talked about recognizing the Spirit in our lives. He talked about the three ways that the Lord answers our prayers 1) He gives us a feeling of peace and comfort 2) an unsettling feeling that we may not be doing the right thing or 3) not at all (basically, He has something better in mind that we need to wait for OR He trusts us to make the right decision). After we sand a closing hymn he stopped the girl coming up to say the prayer and started talking again. He said something that really made an impression on me: The Lord has called us to succeed, not to fail and He will fit the tasks to our abilities. WOW!

     For Relief Society the sisters get to watch Music and the Spoken word, which is a BEAUTIFUL thing because we aren't allowed to listen to any music here :( A lady named Mary Edmunds came and spoke to us. She is so amazing! One thing she said that I really liked was that, of all of the millions of missions that have been served since the church began, my mission has never been served and never will be served. I am the only one that can serve it. Nifty huh? She is also hysterically funny. She said, and I quote, "DO NOT touch the Elders...but keep track of the ones you want to touch (insert devilish grin here)." The entire audience busted a gut.

     I am really starting to like it here. The food messes with your insides like you would not imagine, but it's alright. I live for gym time every day. My arms are actually really sore right now from lifting yesterday (don't worry Mom, I run too). The dorms are really cramped because there are six people to a room that is roughly the same size as mine sans bathroom. I have to wear flip flops in the bathroom because that many girls in one bathroom equals lots of nasty! I just have to do my best to ignore all of the hair...yummy. We spend most of the day sitting in a classroom and eating. I was able to go to the temple this morning, which was so nice! It's not fair having to look at it every day but not being able to go. It literally feels like I am living in a compound. We are surrounded by a fence and security gaurds are all over the entrance. You also have to have a swipe card to get into every building. But really, it's not that bad :)

 

     Well family/friends, I love getting your letters and DearElders so please keep them cooming! Mom and Dad, did you get my last letter?

 

Love always, Hermana Freeston

¡Adiós!

     Well, the day has finally come! I am getting ready to go and be set apart as a full-time missionary! I appreciate all of the well-wishes and the support you all have given me. I love you all and will see you in 18 months! Mollie will be keeping up my blog so if she starts to slack let me know lol!
     I know that what I am about to embark in is truly the Lord's work and it will bring blessings of great magnitude to myself and my family. I'm so glad that they called me on a mission! :) 

¡Adiós!