Week 2 at the MTC - "...the past two weeks have been amazing"...LOTS OF PICTURES!!!!!

Greetings!!!!! I only have  ten minutes left  to email so I'll write a letter home this time instead.  I hope all is well!  Thank you so so so much for all the mail!  Honestly I could never have too much mail. 

I have some homework for everyone in the family:

1)  Watch the "The Work of Salvation" World Wide Broadcast with the entire family.  This was so incredible and I was lucky enough to be there for the real thing!  There's actually part of it where I am shown on camera but you probably won't be able to see me because it's really dark and I'm kinda tiny ;).  All of the newly called mission presidents were there (well over a hundred), many general authorities, ALL of us missionaries, and some other lucky guests.  Every seat in the BYU Marriott was filled.  In part of this broadcast I just started bawling.  It was during a clip about member involvement and spreading the gospel, and I just felt the spirit so strong.  This whole broadcast was directed towards missionary work.  But, me and my fellow sisters and Elders aren't the only ones who are missionaries.  Every member of the Church is a missionary!  This whole broadcast talked so much about members, and how they can serve the people around them.  You should let me know what you think.  And try to guess the part where I started crying haha.

2)  Keep writing me letters because I love them so much!  You could ask the other girls in my room how much mail means to me . . . Let's just say I have gone to bed more than once with a lump in my throat feeling very loved :)  Also occasionally I will stay awake and read them with the light of my alarm clock haha, since the lights go out at 10:30.
0:30.

All in all the past two weeks here have been amazing.  Every day there is a little bit of laughing and crying.  My heart just feels so full like it's going to burst.  I feel the Spirit so strongly here every day.  My German has improved so much too!  Just yesterday my companion and I taught for 45 minutes.  The words just came to me, and I found myself using words and phrases that I never had before.  Just being here is a miracle. 

I'm sorry I don't have much time to write but I will write a letter tonight.  Feel free to update my blog with pictures and information from my letters.  I only have time to really send one email and then write 1-2 letters.  So you'll have to be patient with me.  I wish I could just call you on the phone and tell you about all my experiences!  I am keeping a very good journal here though, so even though I can't share everything with you, I will be able to someday :)

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH.  THANK YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR LOVE AND SUPPORT.

Love,

Sister Shelley.

 My books in the classroom.  This was AFTER our first cleaning check.  Pretty much I had taken over four desks in the room (everybody else only had one :P).  But now I have a lovely box to put my books in!  yay!  Thank you mother for the amazing package!!! I enjoyed the contents very much AND even the box.

  This is my amazing companion Sister Rasmussen.  This is her in our classroom where we pretty much live 24/7 a day.  (Seriously the only time we aren't there is when we are at meal time, sleeping in our residence, doing service, or laundry . . .). She is from Murray, Utah if I didn't mention that in my last message . . .

                                   Completely staged picture of me studying in the classroom.  Haha. 

       A little taste of what it is like to be in our class!  This blackboard is magical.  We learn so much from it. 

 Me and meine Mieterbeiterin!!! Ich Liebe sie! :)  This was us on our Sunday walk to the temple.  Seriously I never though I would enjoy going on a walk so much!!! We are never allowed to leave except for temple walks and trips.... I feel like I'm living in a cave.  Or worst, ALASKA!  Haha just kidding ;)  I love my roommate Kiera Clark! :)

  This one is just me.  It was such a sunny day!!!

       Me and my district.  from left to right:  Elder Spencer, Elder Smith, Elder Barber, and then me and my companion (Sister Rasmussen).

                                           All of the elders in my branch (or most of them at least)

                                     

       A few of the elders from the branch.  They think they're pretty cute..... hahaha  honestly they make me laugh so hard.  They have all become my brothers here!

    Sister Larissa Merrill and me!!!!!  Holy crow I love her so much.  I have missed her and my other roommates             from college.  It is so nice running in to so many people whom I know and love here!  It makes it easier being away from home. 

  Me...and  my best friend Natester !  *cough cough* Elder Blackhurst.  It's so weird that I can't just run up and hug him.  I see him here ALL the time!  He seems to be doing well learning Dutch.  A lot of the words sound very similar to German actually so I can understand him (somewhat) when he speaks!

  Elder Cavin and me. He pulled  a muscle in his neck while playing soccer . . .(don't ask me how that happens).  So he got to wear this for a few days!  Haha the doctor said that if he wore this his neck would be better sooner.  I told him that of course he should wear it! And that he had to let me get a picture with him.  He is from Scotland and when him and Elder Barber are together . . . Holy crow . . . Something about English and Scots together haha.  They are crazy!

                                                                     Elder Barber

Delicious cupcake from Sister Rasmussen's package.  I hate to say it but I have actually gained some weight here . . . In my building there is a luggage weigher where you lift your luggage up and hang it on a hook to weigh it.  The scale goes up to 110, so I was like, hey!  No need to weight myself at the gym!  I can just weigh myself here in our building! I kind of hang there like a monkey and look at the scale . . . um.... NO.... I guess I weigh a little bit more now.  

   

  I wasn't joking when I said this place was exhausting.  This was during my two day zombie phase when I completely fell asleep on the classroom floor.  I didn't even care that it smelled gross and was dirty.  I WAS SO TIRED.

     This is Elder Smith from Clearfield, Utah.  He's been my pal in the district.  Out of all of us he and I are always the first one done, the first ones volunteering, the first ones memorizing, and as you can see the first ones asleep ;)

 Pictures of me with my package and contents!  OH MY GOODNESS THAT TOTALLY MADE MY DAY!! I'm pretty sure every missionary in the MTC could hear me shrieking in excitement like a little kid on Christmas :D

                                      Thank you so much for the package and all the mail!!!!!!!! :)