4th letter

ahoj! Hi!! aaah there's so much to say there's no way I can fit it all. But I will try. This week was ridiculous. First of all there are sooo many new missionaries, more than 1000 came in on Wednesday. Which means that every room is going to have 6 people in it, with 4 closets, that will be fun...we are going to move into the room with the other 4 sisters in our district today, so that will be interesting cramming all of us in that tiny room! Dinner got so crowded on Thursday that they wouldn't let us in to eat for about a 1/2 an hour, so we had to wait in the hallway because there were over 1000 in there and no seats open. haha it's just going to get worse...since we are here for another month. Wednesday is almost the halfway point of the mtc!!! Don't know how that happened, it's crazy. Mom, you asked about the love for the people-absolutely. I feel so much love for the Czech people and have ever since I got my call, it will be so nice actually be able to serve them in a little more than a month. aaah. Oh and you only have to wear the newbie dot your first day. Apparently this January was the coldest since 1949, so we aren't imagining things, it's freezing. The sun finally came out this week though! Dad, you asked about TALL (the computer language program) it's kind of annoying to learn new words because it's just online flashcards and I learn by writing them down, but it's helpful for review. It will say the word for you and you can record yourself and compare your accent. Apparently my pronounciation is getting really good, we had to read out of the KM (Kniha Mormonova) with our teacher and he only corrected me on a couple words, so yay! That was exciting. We finally started cases this week, they are a beast. And I still don't have past tense down all that well, so that should be interesting. Oh yeah, you were wondering about gym- there are two of them. 2M has ellipticals, weights, bikes and a rowing machine with church movies, and 19M has volleyball, foursquare, basketball, a track and other machines. I've been running a lot, which has been so nice. The food is going downhill cause they are cranking it out which is super lame. Luckily I haven't gained any weight yet, but it's hard when the food is so bad to eat healthy. Oh and Starsi Payne broke the MTC sit-up record, it was 571 and he did 1361 in 45 min on Saturday. All of the elders in our zone are hero worshiping him hahaha. But he wants to be Navy seal so it's hardly surpising haha. Thanks so much for your Valentine's package!! Everybody was super distracted cause it felt like a holiday and there was sooo much candy from all the packages haha. It was fun though, we all shared our food and wrote notes to each other. Dad you are judging Mr. Irish? That's awesome! Mom, I loved hearing about your MTC journal entries, that was so cool. Oh yesterday I got called on to talk in Sacrament, every week we have to prepare a talk just in case. I think it went pretty well, even though it wasn't my favorite talk I've ever written. And then I got asked to give the closing prayer in Relief Society, so I was up on the big screen in front of all the sisters in the MTC (they almost fill the whole bleachers and floor now) and I got to meet Linda Reeves cause she was the speaker, that was really cool. Mom I'm glad you read my letters multiple times too cause I definitely do! I've been a little homesick this week just cause Czech got really hard. And one of the sister's mom's in our zone keeps meeting her up at the temple, which you aren't supposed to do, I'm trying not to think about it, it's not like you are close by anyways. My companion is good, we have pretty different personalities but we get along just fine. I think she's normally pretty sarcastic like Annica but she's holding back so she just comes across as super indecisive, which means I have to make decisions haha. Comp inventory has been helpful for that. Mom, you got a Linguistics textbook?? I'm slightly jealous, that would be so helpful. I did learn that Czech is all in the front of the mouth like spanish, so that's been helpful. Oh, the longer I'm here the more I realize I really don't know anything about the gospel haha. I felt pretty good before leaving, but I learn so much from one hour of personal study it's kind of ridiculous. So good though. It doesn't discount what I knew before, but I'm learning so much. Our teacher taught us a method to get more out of scripture study the other week--we all wrote down a personal question and then started in 1 Nephi and stopped at every verse and applied to ourselves as missionaries. It was amazing how much I learned, and my question was answered every time without fail. So cool. Oh Mom- you asked about Dispensations, I have the perfect answer! I asked Bro Thompson about that cause I had the same question and he said that they show us that God will never give up on us. No matter how many times we mess up, reject the prophets and the gospel, he always calls another prophet and gives us another chance. Isn't that cool? I loved that application--God never gives up on me either, no matter how many times I don't get it right. The speaker on the Sunday fireside was from the Missionary Department, so he gets to sit with the apostles when they assign calls, he told some pretty cool stories. But he and his wife talked about Mormon 9, about how God is the perfect father, and he will do anything to help his children have the righteous desires of our hearts. So if we have enough faith, he will perform miracles through us. A miracle can be as small as bringing someone closer to Christ, but if you think about it, that is the most important thing we can do. So the MTC is good. It feels like I'm going to be here forever, but the last month went by pretty quickly. The days are weeks and the weeks are days! Love you!! Sestra Cooper