Hermana Katie Holt: Week 3: I can speak Spanish

Hola everyone!!!! Wow what a week. It has been such a humbling one and of course such an amazing one!! The Lord is SO mindful of all his children, I can testify of that!! So, with all the craziness last week I forgot to write that we went to the store for the first time!! It was SO fun!!! Except I don't think I've ever been stared at in my whole life.... hahaha and I am just grateful that none of us got hit by a car!! I'm surprised I haven't seen a wreck yet!! The store was basically like a small Walmart except everything was in Spanish :) Haha but really it was great! All the bag boys were trying to get our numbers.. hahaha and we didn't know how to explain to them in Spanish that we didn't even have one! Good times!

On Friday we went to the University and contacted for about an hour and 1/2! Talk about scary?? And my teachers were like, you have nothing to be scared of!! Uhhh, I don't speak Spanish? Hahaha nah it actually went better than what I thought it would be! I will be honest though, it took me and my companion 30 MIN to speak to the first person!!! Hahaha but once we did, (not sure if he understood what we were saying) it was a lot easier to talk to people!! Our next contact was actually a group of 20 people!!! A couple of them spoke English so they helped us with what we didn't know! We gave out most of our pamphlets to them haha :) Oh my goodness, the next two people were so awesome! This guy had come up to us and said that he had wanted to talk to us when he saw us earlier but was too nervous, but then he "happened" to run into us again! Haha happened, yeah there are no coincidences!! Now I understand what people mean when they say, the people are prepared. We taught this guy for a good 20 or so min and man!! He is so ready!! He had to take a test so we gave him the info he needed for the missionaries and gave him a Book of Mormon and yeah!! I have no idea if he will ever contact the missionaries, but in the CCM we have been talking a lot about planting seeds in the people we meet.. and I know that me and Hna Frost did!! We met another guy who was super interested too!! We are going to the University again tomorrow so hopefully I can speak better Spanish and not be as afraid to talk to people!! I honestly have such a love for the Dominican people though, it is going to be SO hard to leave!!

So Hna Frost and I are now the MTC music directors!! Hahaha how fun is that? So basically for every meeting we are in charge of the music and musical numbers for church and devotionals!! We are actually really excited and it's fun so far!! Hna Freestone said that she wants us to start an MTC choir!! Haha can you just imagine me conducting a choir?? It's going to be so fun though!! Music is such an amazing way we can worship our Savior!! I feel so blessed with such a musical family who has helped me better my musical talents!! Speaking of music and devotionals, the President of the Area 70 and his wife came and spoke to us the other day!! President Andersen!! And I got to play the piano for the meeting! I guess that doesn't seem like a big deal but it was great!! And of course, the devotional was amazing!! He talked a lot about our purpose as missionaries and it was awesome. I love being a missionary!! It's hard here in the MTC sometimes, but I know it's going to be worth it!!

Well, the language is definitely going.. haha it's definitely humbling because you just want to know everything as fast as you can!! And you feel like you know a lot, and then you get into a lesson and bam, it's gone!! But, then I just have to remember to thank Heavenly Father for how much I HAVE learned, which is a lot more than I think!! I have to always remind myself that I can't learn this language on my own, I need SO much help from Heavenly Father. And He wants to help me!! This is His work! I just have to allow Him to help me!! And that goes for all of us, a Hermana reminded me of this this week. Heavenly Father loves us more than we can imagine and He has given us SO many things to help us become closer to Him. Prayer, the scriptures, church, our families. Whenever we need something, NO matter how small it is, ask Him for help. He wants to help you. Humbly come to Him and let Him bless you!!

We had such an amazing morning this morning at the temple. So, the Haitians that are here, this maybe some of there only times they can come here to the temple, so they all brough family names to have done in the temple! And we got to help them with that. What an amazing thing. And, 2 of our amazing Haitian elders were able to be sealed to their parents, who have since passed away. Such a powerful thing!! I love the faith these Elders and Hermanas have. I love this Gospel!!!

Anyway, I can't believe today begins my 4th week at the CCM!!!!!! Where has the time gone??? I honestly can't believe it. Anyway, I love you all!! Have a wonderful week!!

Love,

Hermana Holt