Week 3 Baby!

Oh my gracious.

Ola familia e amigos! Eu amo voces and I miss you a ton. I don't know how to say that verb yet.  This week has gone by really fast, which is good because it's been super hard. You guys, being a missionary is hard, and that's just my perspective being in the MTC. I have no idea how I'm going to make it in the field. Cheesy as it may sound, Satan is very real here. You don't just walk into the gates of the MTC and the spirit is so strong that Satan can't touch you. Because he is. A lot. He's trying to discourage us and tell us we can't do it and this week I was definitely feeling the effects of that. I've had a really hard time staying focused and missing home a lot.  I've just been wanting my old life back. I got a blessing from the Elders in our district.  Elder Platamone and Elder Tucci blessed me, and it really helped.

I absolutely love my district. We are like a family. We always have so much fun together. Our entire zone is really awesome.  Oh, and speaking of our zone, almost half of them left today! Some left for Cape Verde and some for Portugal. I was so so so sad to see them go because they've all been such a huge help to me but I'm really excited to know people in Portugal and get their emails and know what it's like. Because they all left, that means that except for one solo sister, my district and I are the oldest sisters in the zone. I am so not ready to be the one people ask for advice! I still don't know what I'm doing!

I'll tell you one awesome thing about last week.  At our Tuesday night devotional, Dallin H. Oaks came to speak to us and the spirit was tangible the minute he walked in the room.  We all stood up. It was such an amazing feeling.  His talk was wonderful. Another great thing about last week; we got a new district with 8 Elders and 1 sister and they are all so fun! Also, in our classes, we did this activity where it's just group reading of the Book of Mormon and we go verse by verse and discuss our understanding or impressions we get. Let me just say, I will never think of 1 Nephi Chapter 1 the same way ever again. EVERYONE GO REREAD THAT CHAPTER WITH A GROUP AND TAKE A MUCH DEEPER LOOK AT THE CHAPTER WE ALL TAKE FOR GRANTED.

I really don't even know what to write really because the days are so confusing. There is no sense of time in here. I can never remember what day of the week it is or what we did the day before. Overall, it's been hard but there have been so many blessings here too. The Lord has blessed me with such a strong sense of purpose here and has given me so much more understanding about myself and why I'm here and how to cope with being on a mission. Also, I kind of can't remember what life was like before being in the MTC. I feel like I'm in weird never-land that I can't comprehend life before or after.  I certainly can't comprehend leaving here to go into the field.

Oh, hey! This is awesome you guys. GUESS WHAT?! There will be an MTC choir singing in the Saturday afternoon session of General Conference and I'm in it! We have some awesome songs planned and I'm so excited because I've never been to the Conference Center. This is seriously a once-in-a-lifetime experience.  I can't even believe it! I am so excited! So, everyone look for me! And Katie, post it on Facebook! Use it as a missionary opportunity and post a link to lds.org.  Ha ha,  yay missionary work!

In general, this is the hardest thing I've done in my life but the blessings are amazing. The teachers are all so wonderful and help us so much.  There is something so special about Elders, you guys. Tell all the young men at church I said they have to serve missions because they will become such better versions of themselves. There is nothing more awesome to us Sisters than an Elder willing to use his priesthood for our benefit. There have been a lot of blessings given this week if you couldn't tell.

Thank you all so much for the DearElder.com letters. They are the best part of my day and help me so much to know that I have people thinking of me back home.  I miss you all so much so please, please keep them coming!

I'll just end by telling you guys that I know what I'm doing is right.  I know with everything in me that the Church is true and despite fighting that knowledge for a while back in the day, I can't deny it. It has been the biggest blessing in all my life; and they just continue to pour out. God loves us so much and I know he is sitting there waiting for the chance to bless us more if we rely on Him and we obey Him. I know that I need to be here learning and growing and that this will be the greatest decision I've made in life. If you've thought about a mission or if you're a young man in this church, pray earnestly about serving. I promise you that even though I'm a whiner, the good exponentially outweighs the bad. Always.

I love you all and please, please, please for my sanity keep writing and sending those Dear Elders. I love you all so much!

Week 2

HOLY GRACIOUS EVERYBODY.

Goodness, I can't even hardly think of what to write! I feel like every morning when I wake up, my mind gets completely erased of everything that happened the day before. Also, waking up is the hardest part of the day because you open your eyes and realize you have to get up and do it all over again. Don't get me wrong, I love being a missionary, but the schedule here is pretty redundant and boring. We have to make it fun for ourselves but it's hard finding time because every minute is planned out for us. Mom, because you're curious, Colin was pretty much right. The schedule changes a little bit every day but it always goes something like this:

Breakfast,  class, personal study,  language study,  more language study,  gym,  lunch,  personal study,  class,  daily planning,  bed.  We basically sit in a classroom all day. Thank goodness ours has a window so I remember there's an outside world.

Well, a few good things happened this week. We have practice investigators here in the MTC and it's been really hard but really cool. The lessons with Pablo, our investigator, went really well and he committed to be baptized! I know it's fake, but it's true what the teachers say, it's as real as you make it.  Irma Barlow and I were completely invested in it and he was REAL to us so when he said he would get baptized we both may have burst into tears we were so happy and the spirit was so incredible.

He'res a funny story about our investigator, he becomes our teacher the second week! So yeah, this person that we just asked to be baptized was teaching us Portuguese the next day. OH WAIT, it gets better. We had already known about him being our teacher part, so our other teacher Brother Duvall was like, "Yeah, his real name is Jared"
"Do you wanna know his last name..?"
We were like, "uh, well you seem really excited to tell us so, sure...?"
Oh, don't worry. his name is Jared Torgan. Yes. Torgan. as in President Moroni Torgan, the Portugal, Lisbon mission president. Yeah, we just taught the lessons to his son and now his son is teaching us. He's super nice though and he tells us cool stuff about Portugal and we're really lucky to have a native speaker as a teacher. That was pretty much the only exciting thing of the week, I'm sorry. I'll try to remember more things to write about but life here, as spiritual as it may be, is kinda boring.

I love getting mail.  It's the best part of the day so keep it coming and thank you!! You guys, being here is super hard but I still know it's what the Lord wants me to do so I'm trying my hardest to stick with it. Our teachers have to keep reminding Sister Barlow and myself that its only our third week and we're still in the MTC teaching fake investigators because we're really hard on ourselves and we get really stressed about everything. But, it's so good. I've already learned so much Portuguese and more about the gospel and I've gained a lot of insight for myself.  I'm actually doing better than a lot of other people here. Thank goodness. Oh, also, everyone in my branch understands and recognizes that I'm a strong independent black woman, so I feel like they finally understand me.

Well, I'm almost out of time.
I love you all and thank you so much for the prayers and support!

love love love love Irma Dean

Oh My Lantah (first letter from the MTC)

Oh hello parents (and friends),

Thanks for the email(s) Thanks for the Dear Elders, they're great, but please keep them coming. Seriously. Like really, please.

 I don't even know where to start. It's crazy being here. The first day was crazy just because we were all being led by the hand and sort of in "nod your head and smile and act like you understand" mode. Thursday was a little harder because we had the first full day and we were all so tired. Our days are so busy. The schedule is slightly different every day but basically we have six hours of class and a lot of personal study time and no free time at all. So, by the end of the day, I don't feel like I've accomplished half of the things I should have. I've only been able to write really small journal entries because lights out is at 10:30 and it sneaks up on you so fast.

Learning Portuguese is going okay. The language is already overwhelming and hard. Knowing Spanish has helped me a lot with understanding but, it's actually kind of hurting me with my speaking. I automatically start speaking a Portuguese-Spanish hybrid just out of habit. It's kind of making me crazy. Our teacher is really impressed with how well we're doing though, so at least there's that. Oh, and get this, we already have our first mock-investigator. Our first lesson was on Friday. IN PORTUGUESE. Like, he doesn't speak English so we did the entire thing in Portuguese and I was so nervous and I panicked. I seriously thought I was gonna poop a brick right before we went in. But, I was praying so hard that the spirit would be in the lesson and that the Lord would bring to my remembrance everything we had learned and it totally worked! I was saying things I didn't even know I had learned in Portuguese, it was great. At one point, I accidentally said the Spanish word for "after" which sounds really similar to Portuguese and the investigator kind of giggled and asked if i speak Spanish so I told him I took like six years and now when we can't figure out how to say something I try explaining it in Spanish before English.

 OK, let me tell you a little about the people. My companion is Mary Barlow! How funny is that? We had a big meeting the first night of all the new missionaries and obviously we were sitting together because we're supposed to sit with our companion all the time. The MTC president was asking people to stand up if they were from so and so. We both stood up when he asked Maryland and everyone like knows us now kind of because we're the companionship that's "the girls who are both from Maryland and ended up being companions". She's really great. She's super funny and all her insights are wonderful. I will say though, that I am not used to being this attached to someone. We can only be alone in the bathroom. I might go crazy.

Our district has six sisters and two elders. The branch president said that's the most sisters they've ever had in a district. They're all so great and I'll write in more detail about them in a letter because time is running out, but we really get along and our zone has been so wonderful with helping us all get adjusted. Turns out that I will be here for nine weeks after all instead of six like they told me originally! Let me tell you, I am so relieved. I would not have been able to handle the six week program. There's another transfer that's doing the pilot program, they've been here a week longer than us and they say it's really hard.

So far it's been fun but just completely overwhelming and so much to take in and not a lot of sleep. I've been struggling a little bit with just getting adjusted and trying to learn all the Portuguese but I keep forgetting that this is only our first week and I shouldn't be beating myself up yet. I'm so glad to be here and its turning out to be exactly what everyone said. I love it just as much as i hate it. Which is a lot for both.

Okay, well, I love you all and please keep writing! All forms are appreciated because it helps make the day better.

 I know I'm doing the right thing being here and I love the spirit here, it's wonderful. I love all of you guys and I'm praying for you and I miss you something terrible.

Love, Irma (Sister) Dean

MTC drop-off March 6, 2012

These are pictures from the day we took Erin to the MTC.  It was Tuesday, March 6, 2012.  I remember that we went to eat lunch at California Pizza Kitchen with the family (Mom, Dad, Jen, Colin, Ryan, Evan, Rita, Rita's husband and Erin's friend).  Afterward we drove down to the MTC and said our goodbyes in the parking lot across from the MTC.  Then Karen and Bruce dropped her off.  It was a nervous day but Erin was definitely in good hands!  

Kick-off

Hey Everybody!
This is Jen, Erin's sister-in-law.  Erin has asked me to get her mission blog up and going.  I know she's been gone for a while already but we're excited to have a blog so that those of you who would like to know what she's up to can check here.  I'll also be updating her Facebook page too so if you're friends with her on Facebook, look for a link to the blog there.  I'll try to get her set up with automatic notifications of when a new blog post is up.  Stay tuned, I'm going to get this thing up and running ASAP!
Much love!
Jen Dean