another week at the MTC...

Querida Familia,

Ok, first off, the enter key on this computer is not working for some reason, so that might make this formatting a little annoying, but alas, there is nothing I can do about it, so I shall press forward.. Also, apparently when you push the period button in puts in two.. haha.. this is ridiculous..

Ok, So this week was basically just like every other week, except that one exceptionally funny thing did happen, which I will now share..

So one of my teachers, hermano pope told us one day that when he was at the mtc people were always taking apples from the cafeteria and leaving them on this shelf to save for later, so he thought it was funny to take a bite out of each of them and then put them back with the bite facing backwards.. Anyways we all thought this was funny.. the next day he brought a sandwich and left it in the room while he went to sub for a different class.. Naturally we decided that someone should take a bite out of it.. We knew that he would immediately suspect elder rowan, so he didn't want to take the bite.. Naturally this meant that I eventually was the one to take the bite from his sandwich, which was tuna fish, not my fav, but oh well.. So i took a bite and then put it back on the shelf.. Later we came back to the room and hno pope had left a note for elder rowan saying that he was going to give him a whooping later (a very common phrase that we hear from him........bajar la can~a in spanish).. So elder rowan wrote a long note on the board basically saying that his mouth was clearly not small enough to have taken the bite so he should probably look to one of the hermanas (livingston).. haha basically it was really funny.. Then the next day before hno pope came we each brought an apple from the cafeteria and left it out on our desk.. Sure enough when we came back there was a bite taken from each of them.. it was pretty funny..

This week we had a sub for one of our classes and he talked about how we can follow the spirit.. It was really cool because he read us this quote that said that we needed to create an environment for the spirit, but we can't force it to come.. The teacher compared it to planting a see.. We can create a good environment for the seed, but then we cannot force it to grow any faster or sooner than it wants to.. It's the same way with the spirit, all we need to do is create an environment where the spirit can be and then get up and go, aka act, and the spirit will tell us when we are going to stray from the path or when we need to do something.. It was cool..

On Saturday we taught at the TRC again, this time we taught the second lesson (aka the plan of salvation).. The girl we taught had been off her mission for 2 weeks, so she played the investigator well.. But it was a way good lesson.. Hna C and I worked really well together and you could really feel the spirit.. We challenged her to be baptized at the end, and she eventually said yes, so that was cool, to bad it wasn't real.. haha..

My friend Lara Zenger who was in spain with me arrived this week.. She is going to Ukraine.. It was fun to run into her.. Speaking of people coming, I'm pretty sure Tim Terry comes in this week, so I will keep my eye out for him..

I'm glad to hear that megan finally graduated.. i was really worried that she wouldn't.. jk.. (hota ka, as we say in spanish) haha.. I'm glad to hear her senior roast movie came out well and that she didn't trip or anything.. That's super cool that she got a gian mac book pro.. That will be nice for her graphic designing.. Oh, btw, mom asked where hna C is from..........she is from orem.. up by the canyon.. That is fun that emily had field day, I hope she won all of the competitions.. haha.. And dad, you better get practicing on that harmonica, I want a full blown concert ready when I get back, which btw is in like 17 months.. way cool..

Something awesome that happened this week was I got a package and was surprised to see that it was from Jessica Knuckes (aka Jess Christensen who is now married), she had baked me chocolate cake cookies with white chocolate chips!!! So delicious..

That's great that you are all reading the BOM individually.. Way to be.. I am trying to read it in spanish, so it is taking a little longer.. haha.. But it is coming along.. It's lucky that I already really love spanish, because it would be hard to learn a new language that you didn't even like.. But i love spanish almost more than english, so life is good.. Dad asked about my departure date.. That is a mystery to me.. On some of my mail it says july 27 and on others it says august 3, so I'm not really sure.. The mail people keep changing it back and forth.. i would guess august though because i think the elders in my district leave at the end of july and i'm here an extra week..

Today hna c and i got called up to the front desk......don't worry, we weren't in trouble, they were just letting us know that we needed to attend a fitting tomorrow for our pioneer dresses.. that should be fun.. hahahaha..

well, that's mostly it for this week.. sorry, it is so hard to remember things that happen.. haha

love,
hna livingston

Photos Arrived!

Here is Aunt Merry dropping off Sister Livingston at the MTC

One last hug from Greg...

The district with solo sister, Hermana Livingston

The more recent district:
Hermana Christensen, Hermana Livingston, Elder Corbit,
Elder Rowan, Elder Daines,
Elder Armstrong, Elder Duncan, and Elder Self

The companions!

MTC week #3

Dadio/Family-

Thanks for your email!

As for reading the BOM by topic, I've never done that before, but I'm kind of trying to now. I'm trying to read it normally in spanish and then I'm also studying various topics. Also, I took your advice and have been reading the New Testament so that I can be up to date on the stories of Jesus. I finished luke and am halfway through john. I don't know why I started with luke, but I did. haha.

As for my week, it was good. It's weird because I can never even remember what happened in the week by the end of it. The days are long but they go by so fast and all slur together because they are so similar. But some stand out things for this week were:

On saturday we (hna C and I) taught at the TRC for the second time (where they have volunteers come in and play investigators). We are supposed to do the first part in spanish and then teach the actual lesson in english. When we went to switch it turned out that she didn't speak english, so we just had to teach the lesson in spanish, but it actually went surprisingly well. Afterward our teacher, who usually gives us advice on our teaching, really only gave advice about spanish - aka, we must have taught perfectly. JK, but it did go well. She said she would read the BOM and she said the closing prayer, so that was cool, even though it's fake. I was surprised that we could get through the whole lesson in spanish without too much trouble. Gift of tongues I guess.

Something funny - so we go to the RC at least once a week (where we call people who have called in to order stuff from the commercials the church used to have). basically we call to confirm that they have received their order and then try to send them the missionaries. This week I talked to maybe 4 people in the hour and half we were there. Most people don't answer. but I called this one woman and she probably meant to hang up the phone without answering, but instead she pushed answer, and in the background I hear her say, "I'm not gonna answer cause it's them mormons," then everyone in the background was just laughing and I was like "hello?" and they all just kept talking, so I just hung up and then laughed really hard. Also lots of people ahve those playback ringtones, so that's always funny. I heard some rap and a bunch of country music cause we were calling the south. The RC is always worth a couple of laughs at least.

So last week we had a district goal to speak only spanish. The goal was really successful for half a day, then kind of successful for the other half and then it just dwindled. Hno Pope, one of our teachers, suggested strongly that we reset the goal and try harder, so we did. This time we made it about 3 days pretty successfully (so far) but then p-day has been mostly a faillure. Maybe we'll pick it back up again tomorrow. haha.

Today has been a great day, we got up and got breakfast and then studied until we went to the temple, which was great. Then we've just been writing letters and now we are doing our laundry. Tonight we have a devotional, which should be good. They usually are.

Last tuesday Elder Hales came and spoke. It was really good. He spoke about the spirit and how light and dark can't dwell together, so we can bring the light to people and replace darkness. It was a great talk. Then on sunday, the administrative pres of the MTC spoke about how this is God's work and we are merely his helpers, but he has called us to help, so we should do our best to help him. But it's God's work. It was a nice talk because it put things nicely in perspective.

Well, that's about all I have time for! I love you all! And i miss you! Megan - good luck at graduation! Send me a pic in your cap and gown! Also, can someone send me greg's address please? Oh, and I am sending some pictures home today. We can't email them, so I'm just sending them in a letter, maybe you can scan some and add them to the blog if it's not a hastle.

I love you!

love,

Hna livingston

MTC week #2

Family,

This week was a much better week than the first week. To start with, I had my first experience teaching, which as surprisingly fun. i taught with elder rowan and elder corbit at the tec which is where you teach a teacher who pretends to be an investigator. He wanted to come to church by the end, so that was good.

the other good thing that happened is an hermana moved up into my class so i have a real companion!!! yay! her name is hermana christensen and she is super nice and way funny. we have a good time together and laugh a lot. she finds my jokes very funny. we have since then taught 3 lessons together, and they all went well overall. we learn a lot each time we do it, so that's good. we've mostly learned that everything in the gospel connects back to the atonement and baptism, so that is what we are working on pointing out in our lessons.

The other day in class one of our teachers, hno vance, showed us a video of an mtc devotional from awhile back when elder bednar came and spoke. he talked about listening to the spirit -- basically he said you need to quit worrying, be a good boy/girl, keep your covenants and the commandments and press forward and God will guide your steps. It was a super good talk.

Last week when we went to the RC, which is where we call people who have ordered stuff from the church and try to send them the missionaries, well it was my second time going and the first call that I made where someone answered, the person right away said they did want to visit with the missionaries, so that was a good experience. No one else was quite as receptive, but that's ok. we were mostly calling in the south, so there were a lot of baptists who weren't interested.

So I realized something kind of cool this week. We've been studying charity (hna C and I) and we were reading some scriptures and made the connection that the reason Christ can have perfect love, aka charity, is because of the atonement. He knows us all perfectly, so he can love us perfectly. This is why we have to pray and work to have it. cool huh?

This sunday was fast sunday, which was super long. We didn't get to eat till 5. So sad. But it was still a good day. We had a mission conference, which was nice, and then went on a temple walk. Hna C y yo made a bunch of contacts, cause we're supposed to do 5 a day, where we would just bare our testimonies to other missionaries in spanish. that was cool.

so as i may have mentioned before, we have 2 teachers who rotate teaching us. one is named Hno Vance and the other is Hno Pope. Hno vance is super funny and hno pope is a litte more serious, but he makes a joke every once and awhile. But the other day in class with hno vance we played basura ball aka "trash ball", basically basketball with a hoop made from a box and balls made from paper and duct tape. It was rather enjoyable. We played PIG and hna christensen succeeded in getting several elders out by doing complicated dance moves before throwing the ball. It was funny to watch them try to immitate it.

I will send you some pics soon. i tried to develop them, but it was a struggle, so next week i'll send them so you have faces to go with names.

I saw elder faulkner (chad) and he is doing really well, i think he left today actually, but it was fun to see him. I think timmy terry comes in soon, so i'll be on the lookout for him.

Matt - that's way cool that the LAX head really came.

Emily - take good care of Joey for me, snuggle with him tons. Let me know how SYTYCD goes. Also, i want to hear all about your african market!!!!

Greg - the madlibs sound like a great idea. i hope you come through on that one.

Megan - joe and demi broke up? best news I've heard in 2 weeks! haha, also, READ HUNGER GAMES!

Mom - could you get Brenda's address for me? That would be lovely. thank you for the package you sent! I loved the treats! Tell sis lacey congratulations! and I think that is the cutest name!!!! could you maybe send me her address too?

Dad - i'm glad you are eating ice cream again. It brings me great joy to know that your mouth and stomach will once again be happy.
Well, things are going really well here. I hope they are at home too.

I love you guys!

love,

Hermana Livingston

first weeek in the MTC

Dear Family,

So I have just about finished my first week in the MTC. It's definitely different than what I thought it would be like, though I'm not even really sure what I thought it would be like. We spend pretty much all day in the same classroom as a district. My district consists of 6 elders and 1 sister - me. haha. That's what is most different. I definitely assumed I would have a companion with me all the time. But I spend much more time with the elders than I do with my companions. Anyways, so the elders in my district are Elder Rowan (going to Honduras), Elder Corbit (going to Barcelona, Spain), Elder Self (going to Washington), Elder Duncan (going to Richmond), Elder Armstrong (going to Houston), and Elder Daines (going to North Carolina). We are quite a variety of people, but we all get along well. It's funny because everything that I would normally do with a companion, I pretty much switch off doing with one of the companionships of elders. So for companionship study, teaching, and companionship inventory I am still with the elders. For the first comp inventory (when you talk about things your comp is doing well and how they can improve) I was with Elders Rowan and Corbit. It was kind of a humorously awkward experience because I could tell that they felt a little awkward having to compliment me and say what I could do better at, so they both just agreed that i was good at speaking Spanish and left it at that. haha.

As for my companions, their names are Hermana Batty, Frendsen, and Collins. They are all very nice. They've all been here together for 5 weeks already and Hermana Batty actually leaves this week for the dominican republic, to finish up at the MTC there. She is technically my companion, but since I'm usually not with them, they are like a threesome. I'm not exactly sure what happens when she leaves, if I go with the other two, or if I go with the two new hermanas we have coming in.

Dad was asking about my schedule, it goes something like this:

6:30 wake up

7:00 personal study time in our classroom

7:45 breakfast

8:15 class

12:30 lunch

1:15 class

5:30 dinner

6:15 class

9:00 plan

9:30 back to our rooms

10:30 sleep

Somewhere within the different class times we have gym for 45 minutes or so with half an hour to change and get ready again afterward. It depends on the day though as to when it is. Two of the class periods we are taught by a teacher (we have 2 teachers, hermano vance y hermano pope) and then the other class time we have MDT (missionary directed time) in which we decide what to do, but it has to include 15 minutes of personal study, 1 hour of comp study and 1 hour of language study. So that's pretty much my day in a nutshell. Sundays are different, we don't have any classes. And tuesday is my pday, so that's different too.

This sunday was really nice. We had sacrament meeting in the morning with just our branch and then we watched music and the spoken word. Then I had relief society with all the sister missionaries. This week the president of the MTC spoke, so that was good. After that we had lunch, a district meeting, interviews, study time, and eventually a fireside. The fireside was really good. The man talked about what it really means to take Christ's name upon us. He pointed out that we, as missionaries, were literally doing it, but that in the sacrament prayer it tells everyone to take his name upon them too, and that we must act in a way that represents him well.

I'm glad to hear that dad's surgery went well. I'm proud of him for eating pizza and a donut! That's exciting that matthew is getting his braces off soon! send me a pic when it happens. I'm glad that Emily has decided to continue with ice skating. Tell her to learn lots of spins and jumps so that she can show them to me when i get back. Did megan successfuly graduate from seminary this week? If she did...CONGRATULATIONS!

I have to go because I have like 1 minute left. Just know that I love you all so much! I miss you! But I know that this is where I should be right now and I am excited to learn more about how to teach the gospel. I think it would be a great idea if each of you got a copy of preach my gospel because there is so much good stuff in it, even if you aren't a missionary.

I hope you all have a great week! Write me lots! (preferably not all in email because I can't check it again till next week)

Love,

Hermana Livingston

p.s. greg - thank you for the cookies, they are delicious

pps megan - thank you for the letter. I will write you more in letter form.

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!

Going... Going... Going... Gone!

Well, this last month has been filled with playing and preparing and now the time for goodbyes has come. Jessie flew to Utah on Tuesday and was greeted by Aunt Merry... had brunch on Wednesday with her 4 Aunts and lunch with Greg and entered the MTC valiantly early that afternoon. We received an e-mail from her that evening which I will post. Jessie has asked that I, her mom update her blog while she is serving her mission... so check back for info and pics...

Hello family!

Well, I successfully survived my first day here. Everyone is super nice and helpful. I am in a district with 4 elders and myself. I am what they call a "solo sister" aka my companion is in a different class because there were no other intermediate sisters that I could be a companion with. So basically I just have to be with at least 2 elders when I can't be with my companion.

I saw a bunch of people I know here, so that was reassuring, as they all seem to be having a good time. I think I will like it here just fine. There spirit is very strong and I think it will be a good environment to learn quickly.

My P-day is on tuesday, so I guess you can expect another email then.

I just wanted to let you all know that I love you! Thanks for this opportunity! I miss you guys! Write me!!!!!

love,

Hermana Livingston

NYC

For my birthday, my parents gave me a trip to New York City with my mom. Our bus left at 7:00 am on Tuesday morning and arrived around noon. After checking into our hotel our first stop was lunch. We stumbled upon a little italian place and had a chicken/eggplant parmigian sandwiches.

Next we hit of the Met for the Picasso exhibit, which displayed all of the Picasso pieces owned by the Met for the first time ever. They had paintings from each of the different periods in Picasso's career, but they also had tons of prints, most of which I had never seen before.








After the Picasso exhibit we checked out some of the other sculptures and paintings in the museum.














It was a cold rainy day, so we stayed at the museum until it closed and then went straight to the theater to pick up our tickets for Our Town.

After getting the tickets we had some time to kill, so we went to a nearby cafe and got hot chocolate and sandwiches.

Both my mom and I had read the play Our Town years ago, but had never seen it performed live. It was an amazing production that everyone should see. I would venture to say that it was the best play I have ever seen.

Here's the cast, in costume and on the stage. It was a very intimate setting with the seating around and on three sides of the stage. The man who played the stage manager, Michael Shannon, is pictured in the front below. You may recognize him from the movie Pearl Harbor. He and the rest of the cast all did an amazing job in each of their roles. It was as close to perfect as I could imagine.

The next day we hit up Times Square to get our tickets to West Side Story and check out some of the sights.


At Toys R Us I met some new friends:




We went to one of our favorite restaurants in Times Square for lunch and shared a pizza and Caesar salad.

Then we went straight to the theater to see West Side Story, which was another great play, though very different from Our Town.



On our way back to the hotel we passed through Rockefeller Center.

It was an excellent trip.

Florida: where dreams really do come true.

This week my family took an amazing vacation in which many dreams actually did come true. We flew down to Florida on Tuesday afternoon and arrived at the condo we were renting just in time for a swim and a 7 o'clock showing of Bedtime Stories in the little theater they had. Here's most of us kids laughing our heads off sometime after the show:

On Wednesday we had dreams coming true right and left as we spent the day at Disney's Magic Kingdom park. The first dream to come true was that since we each either did a day of service, or my mom did it for us, our tickets to Disney World were FREE!






Megan and I did a little tango at the Swiss Family Robinson tree house. Just after tangoing we heard Hannah Montana music blasting through the park and ran to see what it was. Naturally we were hoping that Miley had decided to do a free concert at Disney, but don't worry, it was something much better...

A DANCE PARTY!!! Yes, that's right. We were dancing it up in the streets with some real live Disney characters, Woody in particular.

Best moment of my life? Up to that moment, yes.

Here we are prepping to enter the haunted mansion, which I found to be surprisingly un-scary, since the last time I remember going I think I wet myself.

Splash Mountain. Words cannot express my love for this ride. All I will say is that I think I went on it four times in the course of the day.


We ate delicious Mickey-shaped ice cream while waiting for the parade to come by.


I think Megan and I were more excited by the parade than Emily way. Let's just say we each high fived a mouse from Cinderella. Greg's dreams came true when Belle made eye contact with him and waved...twice.




In the late afternoon some of the fam went back to swim, but not us women, we toughed it out for the full 12 hour day.




We found Don Quixote on It's A Small World.



This rocket ride, probably aimed at toddlers, was surprisingly thrilling and even a bit chilling as the rocket tipped as you went up and it felt like you might fall out.

Again, the love of my life, Splash Mountain.


The rest of the family came back in time for the fireworks show in which a real live Tinkerbell flew out of the castle. In that moment I found my lifelong calling. One day you'll be at Disney World and I will come flying out of the castle.


I figured life couldn't get any better after Wednesday, but that was before I experienced Thursday. On Thursday we went to Discover Cove where my dreams continued to come true. Here we are just after arriving, but before we have been equipped with our snorkeling gear:

Just the normal Discovery Cove experience was enough to blow my mind, but wait, Kate Gosselin was there with her 8 children in tow filming for her TV show. Be sure to watch it as I am probably featured in the episode.

In addition to a snorkeling area with fish and giant manta rays, they had an area where you could pet stingrays or whatever kind of ray they were.


You can see from my face that it is a slightly scarier experience than one might think, at least in my opinion. Every once an a while several of them will approach you at once and they seem very foreboding.

At one o'clock another dream came true. We got to swim with a dolphin! Here I am kissing Coral, my new dolphin friend:

And Here I am giving her a hug. She seems to be loving it.





And here I am riding Rascal, my other dolphin friend. Best moment of my life to this point? Yes.







Megan and I are slowly working down a list of things that Mary-Kate and Ashley have done in their movies. Here we are pictured with their signature facial expressions because we accomplished another of their tasks on this trip: swimming with dolphins.



On Friday we went to Sea world. Here we are with Shamu:





I love killer whales!




This is the leafy sea dragon. One day when I have an aquarium I will get one.

This ride is called the Manta. You ride it hanging stomach down going head first around loops and corkscrews and over water. It's probably the coolest roller coaster I've ever been on.


We ended the trip with a stop at at tacky souvenir shop before hitting up Downtown Disney and catching our flight home.

In summary, if you were wondering if my dreams have ever come true, the answer is yes. But don't worry, I now have several new dreams: become a killer whale/dolphin trainer and be Tinkerbell at the nighttime fireworks show at Disney World.