New York this week!

So I went to New York this week! Je blague, je blague (look that one up). I actually just stayed in the MTC all week long. I fear that this email is not going to be as thrilling as last week's because it was not a super eventful week, but I will try. Sunday was probably the best day of the week. Lots of cool stuff happened. I guess every Sunday all the elders go study after Sacrament meeting, but all the sisters get to go into the gym and watch Music and the Spoken Word! It was so so good and I was so excited because I knew that you were watching it at the same time. ALSO while we were in there I saw Sister Ricks so I went up to her and gave her a big hug and told her to give you a hug from me. Did she? It was really exciting/a little sad. But we had relief society right after that and for the closing song we sang the new primary song "My Savior Lives" or something like that. But it's the song that we had been working on in primary while I was in there and it made me miss my silly little Sunbeams! Will you please give them all hugs from me and tell them that I am singing the same song as they are? Give Bryce's dinosaurs a hug too haha. After Relief Society, one of the branch presidency members asked to speak with me and he asked me to be the new Coordinating Sister for the branch. Bah! It's kind of like the zone leader but for sisters and with a lot less responsibility I think. But I have to teach a lesson to the new missionaries about planning and using their MDT (missionary directed time) effectively. I got called to be the CS because the "old" missionaries are all leaving on Monday and my group is going to be the old ones now. It's kind of crazy. But it's cool not being the newbie anymore. On Wednesdays, when I see new missionaries walking around with orange dots on their tags, I give them a good shove, slap their books to the ground, and give them wedgies to show them who's in charge. Just kidding, I don't do any of that, of course. I try to be as welcoming as possible because I know how horrible/sad/overwhelming the first week is. We were out front on Wednesday around noon practicing contacting and I saw some parents dropping their missionaries off and it seriously made me so sad for them. I just wanted to give them all hugs and tell them not to worry and that it will get better I PROMISE. Anyways, I'll just finish this bit by saying that after two weeks, I am having a blast and, although I miss home like crazy, I am so happy to be here.

The other day we watched Elder Holland's talk called "Miracle of a Mission." It is AMAZING. He basically told us "Don't you dare" think about going home, or miss any hour or day or anything while you are on your mission. This is seriously the most amazing opportunity we have, to participate in another person's salvation. And he said that it is supposed to be hard because Salvation is not a cheap experience. If I want to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, I have to spend a little time in Gethsemane. I kind of want my mission to be hard now (not too hard though haha) because I seriously want to be the best missionary I can be. At the end of every day, I want to be able to feel like I accomplished all that I could and that I didn't waste anything. Yeah!

I feel like I'm typing really slowly today because I only have 15 minutes left.

We had our second TRC this week, and it went SO much better than last time. We were better prepared with the French part (just contacting and getting to know the people) but we were also better balanced and prepared as we taught the first lesson again in English. I was teaching the part about Joseph Smith and the Restoration, and I recited the First Vision to our investigator, Matt. After I did that, I started to bear my testimony but he said "en francais" so I bore my testimony right then and there in French! It was so cool and I felt the Spirit A LOT. Matt was just looking straight at me, and I could tell that he was feeling the Spirit too. It was awesome. That's the coolest missionary experience I think I've had yet.

HEY so Donovan Terranova got called to the Ivory Coast?? Is it French speaking? Because there are some elders in my zone going there! When does he come to the MTC? It probably won't be while I'm here but I'm like 89% sure that he'll be in this zone. That is so cool! French is awesome! Tell him congratulations for me. Also, tell Dakota congratulations too. That's cool that you got to go to the temple with him, mom. When does he come to the MTC again?

Oh my goodness. So today, we had planned to get up early and get our laundry going at 6:30 so we could get it out of the way and study/write letters the rest of our free time. We put our stuff in the washers, and when we had like 4 minutes left, the FIRE ALARM started going off! We had to leave our laundry and the whole main building was evacuated. I don't think it was a drill because fire trucks actually came to the MTC. I still don't even know what happened, but I heard that there was a small fire in the kitchen or something (the laundry room is in the same building as the cafeteria). Luckily, my clothes were not on fire and I will not have to wear my P day clothes for the rest of my mission. Speaking of clothes though, if you ever see cute skirts or shirts that you think I would like, feel free to send them to me...! Haha 18 months is a long long time to have the same plain Jane wardrobe.

I probably said this last week, but I just love my district. The boys are immature but hilarious and we all have a lot of fun. On Mondays and Wednesdays we have gym time as the last thing right before bed, so we've been going out and playing volleyball as a district. I'm terrible and contribute nothing to the team, but it is so fun. It's nice to just be outside too, since we spend the rest of the day in a basement level classroom that stinks always (BOYS) and only has a small window that doesn't open. Eee. But yeah, we have a lot of fun. We also spent some time this week just going into one of the practice rooms and singing hymns together. I get to play the piano, which is awesome, and we get to just sing. I love it. My least favorite rule is that we can't listen to any of our own music here, so I love listening to/singing the hymns whenever I can. And seriously, men's voices are amazing and bring the Spirit so much I think. I love it.

Oh, another thing we did on Sunday was go up to the temple again and take pictures. Since a lot of our zone is leaving, there were a lot of pictures being taken. It was funny because so many people wanted to take pictures with/of (creepy) the sisters. I kind of felt like a celebrity haha. I'm jealous of the elders that get to go to Switzerland in THREE days. They told me I could just come in their suitcase.

Anyways, time is almost up. I just want to tell you how much I love you and how grateful I am for your love and prayers and support. I know that Heavenly Father loves us so much and that Jesus Christ is the Savior. This church is true true true! Write me letters! I love you and miss you dearly!

Love, Allie