1st MTC letter

Mon, Jan 28, 2013 Well I'm here, and it feels like a month since I left for sure! so much has happened i don't even know how to start! My companion is sestra hicken, she's from brigham city, and an el ed major at utah state, she's awesome. Reminds me of kendra a little bit, but we get along great. the only thing is that we are both indecisive so it's forcing me to make decisions haha. I'm the senior companion right now, we switch in 4 weeks. We have 4 sisters and 4 elders in my czech class, and then there are 2 slovak sisters and 1 slovak elder in my district. They are all awesome, the district leader is Starsi Payne, and he is such an example to me. Starsi Howell is crazy good with czech, he gets pronunciation really well. The first day we had class all in czech, which was ridiculous, but i have learned so much already. We have taught our "investigator"Petra twice already, and we are teaching her tonight again, all in czech. The first time was super stressful cause we didn't realize we should plan the lesson in english first, so we didn't have the spirit and just felt awful. Oh and our teacher had forgotten to tell us he wouldn't be there, and had given us the wrong room number, so none of us knew what to do. but after we had all taught,Daniel (I guess I should call him Brother Bodily) came into our classroom and gave us all some awesome advice, that was a little embarrassing cause he asked me how i was doing and i just started crying haha. But don't worry, it got a lot better. I've seen him a lot actually, he's sub-ing in our class on Tuesday too. My whole class loves when he comes in cause he always has the best advice of how to not stress out about it, they were all like, wow he is an awesome teacher. Anyways, the days feel like 2 in one, it's kind of ridiculous. On Saturday me and sestra hicken were convinced it was almost time to go to bed and then we looked at our watches and it was 2 pm. Oops. That's what happens when you are up at 6:30 and using every ounce of time to be productive! The spirit is so strong here, i absolutely love it, but it means that emotions are really strong, good and bad. We watched elder holland's mtc devotional from thanksgiving last night, and that was it, i was crying again, but it was happy of course. Ok funny day to day things: some girl burnt popcorn on the 2nd floor last night, so the fire alarm went off and everybody was half in pajamas, half in dresses in the snow haha. I felt bad for the girls that were in the shower! Oh also, on Saturday we were all so exhausted that we started to play hangman to review  czech words in the classroom, it was like 7:30 but it felt like 2 am. Anyways, if you guessed the word you had to use it in a sentence. So the word was book, and my brain was so tired I said I am book of mormon true, instead of i know the book of mormon is true. hahaha we laughed about that one for a while. it's been a bit of an adjustment getting used to all the rules, like you can't bring bags into some of the buildings, and stuff like that, I guess my rebellious side is coming out finally haha. But life is good. oh yeah and our district is getting followed by some research guy at the mtc so he's been sitting in on some of our stuff and asking us how we feel about getting thrown straight into czech. that was kind of hard cause he wanted us to be critical, but we were all trying to be positive, and that made us notice stuff we didn't like. But we haven't seen him since friday, so maybe he's only going to do it once  a week or so. Ok i'm out of time so i have to go, i'll add to your letters if i think of anything else. love you! send dear
elders, i get them after lunch and dinner! love you!! Sestra Cooper

2013

2013.

It still sounds so futuristic to me. This year will definitely be an adventure, but when is the new year not? 2012 was quite eventful since all this happened:

• 2 foreign countries (Guatemala and Guernsey)
• 14 plane rides
• Senior Thesis
• French minor
• 5 states (Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, Montana)
• 2 BYU semesters and 1 term
• 2nd Spring of 4 in a row to be spent in Europe
• Mission Call
• the best BYU semester in 4 years

I've been rather lax on blogging lately, and I haven't taken too many pictures this semester, cause it was crazy. But here are some recent ones. First of all, I freaked out a little bit when I saw this:

18 days!!??? aaaaaah. Last time I looked at this it was at 30. That is really. really. soon. I'm very excited and very nervous and it goes back and forth. But lately I'm getting excited again, I'm ready to go. After all, I have been waiting since SEPTEMBER to leave. 5 months. I've known I was going to go to the Czech Republic for almost half a year. How crazy is that?? And I've been waiting to leave on a mission since I decided to go in May. I definitely needed that time to get ready but it's really strange that the wait is almost over. I now have all my clothes and I'm almost done with my list of things to get, so that's a little surreal.

It's also strange that all of my friends are heading back to BYU today and I'm not. I'm a little sad about it, but it's surprising that it doesn't bother me more I guess. I'm so ready for my mission that I don't regret not going back to school. Yes, it's sad that I won't see my friends for a year and a half, but I will see them when I get back, and a year goes by pretty quickly when you are busy. This Christmas vacation has been really nice. It's been good to hang out with my family, and to be in a house again. We went up to Willamette Pass last week and snowboarded--the powder was perfect so that was really fun. And we went rockclimbing the other day, I got to see some of my friends from high school, and there was Christmas of course. So all in all it's been great. I can't help feeling like it's the calm before the storm though--having nothing pressing to do is refreshing and I'm not going to have a moment like that for a loooong time. So for now I'm just trying to enjoy it :)

loving the powder

snowshoeing 

love this, they look 2 dimensional

Odette Lake

Dr Seuss trees

Snowboarding!

Grateful

I absolutely love Sundays, I think they are my favorite day of the week. Truly a day of rest. It's funny that I manage to forget how much I need that during the rest of the week. Church today was just amazing--everything I needed to hear and to be reminded of. I am so grateful for the blessings I have. This semester has been so great in so many ways--I honestly can say I've never been happier, especially in college. Just having the assurance that I'm doing exactly what God wants me to do right now is the best feeling in the world. I feel like I've finally grown into myself--I know who I am and who I want to be, and I am so so grateful for that. I've been thinking of this quote all day:

I just love the attitude that it captures. I'm optimistic about the future. I know some days will be really hard--that's life. But I also know that I am so blessed, and those blessings will only increase. Aaaah I just love life right now. I get to go home for Thanksgiving in 2 days and I can't wait. First of all I love that holiday, and I haven't seen my family since summer, and I get to go through the Portland Temple on Friday, which I've only been looking forward to for my entire life. So excited to see everybody, and it will be an awesome break from school. Oh and also I get to go shopping for missionary clothes, which will be so fun. Annica needs them too, and her mission call should get there while we are home! Which is so crazy, but awesome. 

Since I never have pictures on here anymore--I never take any during the school year--I thought I would post some pictures of the Czech Republic. They are gorgeous and it makes me so excited to live there!

Trilingual

Yesterday I looked up the masters program in Linguistics at BYU, and guess what the requirements are:

LING 330, the GRE, and 2 foreign languages, one at a 200 level, and one at 300.

I was like that's it?? Then mom reminded me that the 2 foreign languages requirement is kind of a big deal...and I got really excited, because I realized by the time I get back from my mission, I will be trilingual!! Aaaaah. I'm already at a 300 level for French, and after living in the Czech Republic for a year and a half, I will be at a 200 level in Czech (at least hopefully. I'm going to work for it). So. I'm petitioning to add a Linguistics minor, in addition to French. (Just last year I was wondering why I decided to minor in French, like that was ever going to help me get a job, but now it just might get me into grad school!). So that will give me a year to study for the GRE, try to get my thesis published, apply for grad schools and wrap up life as an undergrad. Pretty crazy. I can't believe it, but at the same time, I just want to have a job. It would be so nice to go to work and then not have to bring any of it home with me!! But that's all a couple years away, I'm sure I'll be ready by that point. Plus Linguistics is the only thing I've been excited about doing, so that's the plan for now.

Also, there are only 4 1/2 weeks left in the semester. Which is freaking me out. I have so much to do!!  The rough draft of my thesis is due on Monday. It's bittersweet. I'm so excited to go home and spend time with my family before I leave in January, but at the same time I'm having so much fun here. I absolutely love my ward and I have some pretty great friends--it will be sad to leave them because it will never be the same again. Most will probably be married by the time I get back, which is becoming more and more normal to me, strangely enough.  College is a strange transition, and I know it has to end at some point, and I want it to end. But it's still weird.

This semester has seriously been awesome though. One of the best I've ever had at BYU, honestly. It might even be THE best. I've had so much fun, I'm almost done with my major, I'm writing my senior thesis, and I'm going on a mission! So many things that make me happy. Life is good, and Thanksgiving is in 3 weeks. Also, Les Mis and the Hobbit come out next month. Get excited.

Fall, Life, and Czech

I can't believe it's already October, time flies by so fast! School is in full swing of course. And I do love autumn weather. Time to pull out my scarves and hats and boots. I think fall might be my favorite season, although it's in pretty close competition with summer. Here's what I've been up to:

• I filled out all my visa forms for the Czech Republic and sent them on their way, so glad that's done!
• Some things I've learned about Czech:
• they are very reserved until you prove yourself trustworthy, then they treat you like one of the family.
• you have to take your shoes off before entering a home
• Prague is beautiful
• My pronunciation is awful. But that's fine, I'm sure I'll get better.
• ahoj (said like ahoy) is goodbye and hello. It's going to remind of me of pirates every time. 
• also I have a French accent whenever I speak another language. So that's going to be fun. 
• oh and I really want a trenchcoat to take with me. Just saying. 
• and I'm kind of stressing out about selling my contract for winter, since I'm leaving. So hopefully that all works out. 
• I'm pretty sure I think about how I'm going to the Czech Republic every single day, wondering what my life going to be like at this time next year. It's really hard to picture. 
• Got an A on my French midterm. I was super excited about this because I studied foreeever and my grade went up A LOT. 
• I'm in a dinner group this semester which was a brilliant idea. I get a free home-cooked meal 4 days a week and only have to cook every 3 weeks. It's great. I'm cooking on Tuesday and I think I might make pumpkin apple stew. It's sooo good. 
• Speaking of pumpkin, I love anything pumpkin in the fall. Pumpkin bread, pumpkin shakes, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin carving...so excited. 
• I have a pretty solid group of friends, which is really fun. Oh and did I mention most of them are guys? love it.
• School's pretty hard. But I've started my thesis, so that's coming along. Progress. That's what I have to keep telling myself. Any progress is good. 
• I'm TAing again this semester, for the 4th time. But I like it--I have almost all freshmen who've never had to write a college paper before. So that's fun, and it's pretty awesome to give examples from my own fieldwork when we talk about how to do anthropology, it makes me feel so legit. 
• I also got to go to the Brigham City Temple Open House which was amazing--so beautiful and peaceful. They even had peach blossoms on the floor tiles, the detail was so pretty. We stopped at Peach City and got shakes on the way home--seriously the best shake I've ever had. And my grandparents grew up there so it was pretty cool to see it again. Also I'm so excited to go to the Portland Temple at Thanksgiving! 
• It's General Conference weekend. Which is awesome, and one of favorite weekends of the year. I'm always so uplifted and come away with more hope and a better perspective on life. If you are curious about what Mormons believe, you can watch it on lds.org for free! 

• Also, the Church just changed the age of missionaries to 18 for boys and 19 for girls, which means my sister could be serving at the same time as me now! Pretty crazy, and exciting. 
•  I can't believe I leave in January! At this rate the time is going to go by soooo quickly. 4 months! aaaaaaahh

So basically life is a little crazy, and little stressful, but that's pretty normal. But there are always the days when you laugh so hard your cheeks hurt to make it all worth it :)

Mission Call!

Well, as most of you probably know, I opened my mission call yesterday! I was surprised it came so quickly, it only took a week. I was going crazy wanting to check the mail at 3 (that's when it comes) but I had to work until 5. Still, by the time I got home I had talked myself out of being excited--I figured it would be next week. So imagine my surprise when I saw this white envelope sitting there. Luckily I only had to wait an hour and a half to open it, which wasn't bad at all. I felt really peaceful and good about it, so it wasn't really torture to wait.

I've been called to serve in the Czech/Slovak Mission, speaking Czech! I actually had a lot of people guess Eastern Europe, and I was feeling Europe too, but still, I wasn't expecting the Czech Republic. (It was pretty funny because my friend Daniel served there, and his parents were actually on Skype with mine when I opened it) I've started reading up on the history of the country, I didn't think I knew anything, but I remembered the Defenestration of Prague, the Thirty Year's War, the Prague Spring and that they were a Soviet bloc country, and that Prague is supposed to be really beautiful, so that wasn't bad. I'm so excited!!

Yesterday was kind of a roller coaster of emotions, and it still hasn't sunk in yet that I'm actually going. I'm starting to get a little bit terrified, but I'm sure that's normal, after all I'm going to be living in a country I know pretty much nothing about, speaking a language I've never heard, for the next year and a half of my life. That would intimidate anyone. But still, mostly what I feel is excitement and a little bit of disbelief that this actually is my life. I started this blog off with my adventures in Paris on study abroad, and I've been blessed to have some amazing adventures since--this is just the latest!

A girl in my ward came up to me on Sunday and said that I always seemed to be off on some adventure, and asked what my latest one was haha. It's kind of funny because I've never really seen myself as the adventurous type, but I'm starting to realize that maybe I'm a lot more brave than I think I am. Every year of college I've done something so far out of my comfort zone that it was almost ridiculous, yet managed to survive, learn a lot of things about myself, and even enjoy it. So I guess this is just the next stage of that pattern! I think if I hadn't gone to Paris and Guernsey I would not be brave enough to go to the Czech Republic, but having done that and proved to myself that I could, this isn't quite the leap that it could have been. After all I've adjusted to living in 2 different countries for 2 months each already. I'm sure as a missionary it will be way different, and much harder in many ways, but in small ways I feel like I've been prepared. Plus I'm just so excited to be immersed in the gospel every single day, without worrying about anything else. My faith is what brings me the most joy in life, and I'm really excited to be able to share that with the people that I will be serving!

Senior

Well I'm officially a senior at BYU. Weird. This is my 7th semester (not counting study abroad or my field study) so I think it's safe to say I have the whole college thing down! My Anthro lab this semester that I'm teaching is full of freshmen, and I definitely feel a lot older than them (they look so little!). One boy came up to me after class and said...um I was just wondering, what's the SWKT? So I explained it was the tallest building on campus, and that I was sure he could find it on the map...etc. haha, oh lost little freshmen... It should be good though, freshmen usually care about their grades, so they might actually participate and do the readings this semester. Oh, the joys of being a TA, haha. But as much as I fake-complain about it I really do like my job! I miss all my fellow TA's who have graduated though, we have so many new ones.

As for my classes, I am taking my last ever French class, Literary Analysis (340) . I'm actually pretty excited about it, my French isn't as rusty as I thought, and my professor seems pretty cool. Plus we get to read Voltaire and Molière! I'm also taking data analysis and thesis of course, and it's kind of weird that those are my only Anthro classes. What else....oh marriage prep. Before you laugh, it's actually an awesome class. Dance 380, which is going to be a challenge, but really fun...and an Honors class. So not bad. The most work will be my thesis, but I planned accordingly, so I'm not really worried about it. Surprisingly enough I'm excited to finally start writing it.

In other news, my mission papers are officially in!! I should get my call either this week or next, and I can't wait. I really want to know where I'm going to be for the next year and a half of my life. Any guesses?

Other things... my ward is awesome, I love it. I've made so many new friends in the first week and I can already tell this semester is going to be so fun. My new roommates are cool, they love to travel too, so we are going to put up a map and mark everywhere we've been, plus take a trip to Ikea once we all get our paychecks on Friday haha. Oh and my freshman ward is having a reunion this next weekend, so it will be good to see everybody after 2 years!

Life is good.