Holly's 2nd week at the MTC

This week has been another blur of classes, studying, teaching, and sleeping, but it's gone a lot faster than last week did. 

On Friday for our service project we weeded around the temple, which was SUPER fun. The weeds were huge but had super weak roots and the dirt was super soft so they were very easy to pull. (Mom, you would have loved it)

On Saturday, there was a big event going on in Madrid so instead of going to Retiro (the normal park we go to) we split up into 3 groups and went to different places in the city. My companion was Hermana Lenzinger and our group had a (super tiny) park and then just some streets. We've decided that every Spaniard talks way too quietly and way too fast, but we probably got about half of what they were telling us. One older lady was feeding the birds which reminded me of that Mary Poppins song.

On Sunday, we had church. I got called on to give a talk (I chose the Christlike attribute of diligence) and Hermana Lighten translated. Also at church, the French sisters sang a song called Souviens Toi and it was SUPER beautiful. It's only in the French hymnbook but we could all feel the spirit and they're super good singers. They told us it's about the plan of salvation and translated a few of the verses for us afterwards.

When we meet all together, the majority of us sing in Spanish, the Portuguese sing in Portuguese, and the French sing in French (aka there are 3 hymn numbers written for each hymn on the board during sacrament meeting). This means that as a group we sound kind of terrible haha, but the hymns are 99% the same notes/rhythms in the Spanish hymnbook as in the English one so it's not much harder to play. I have to have an English hymnbook to play out of for the prelude music, since otherwise I don't know which songs I know/are good!

Then on Sunday afternoon we had our devotional and Elder Mendez, one of the Portuguese elders who actually has cerebral palsy, got up and sang "You can make the pathway bright" (in Portuguese, he doesn't speak English) and it was AMAZING. Again, with the whole you-can-feel-the-spirit-in-other-languages thing.

Then on Sunday night it RAINED! It's been sunny every day that we've been here, so that was pretty exciting. Me and Hermana Forsyth were standing around in it for a few minutes before we all gathered under the little covered area in front of the temple to sing.

This past Tuesday morning the French district left, so we've been missing them the past few days. We had a devotional Monday night and they all bore their testimonies and it was really good.THE GIFT OF TONGUES IS SO REAL. We've all gotten so much better at Spanish in just a week and are able to memorize so many more Spanish words and phrases per day than we ever could for Spanish class in high school. It's kind of amazing.

For p-day, our district and 2 other sets of sisters decided to go to Alcala, which is the city where the author who wrote Don Quixote lived! We got to go inside a museum in the house where he was born, and also to go inside a massive, beautiful catholic cathedral. It reminded me of the one in Sound of Music where they get married, since it even had that gate thing at the back of the pews (I think that's in sound of music??).

                           

We also stopped at a place for tapas, which are basically appetizers and something really popular in Spain. None of us were brave enough to try the squid or the pig ears (sorry dad), but the foods we did get were good.

To get to the city, we took the subway and then took the train! It was a long ride but really fun. We had a good group of people and teachers with us. On the train ride back, some guy brought a big speaker and a microphone and did this rap performance thing up and down the train. No idea what he was rapping about, but we all thought it was pretty funny.

Then we got back, ate lunch, and got to go to the temple! The temple is BEAUTIFUL. 

Afterwards we got 45 minutes of actual, scheduled-in FREE TIME. We didn't know what to do with ourselves haha.

Every day at lunch and dinner (which is just our zone, so 5 sets of sisters and probably 6-7 sets of elders), our table is just cracking up the whole time. Sister Cornwell is obsessed with peanut butter, so we've started calling her capitan mani (the brand of the peanut butter is Capitan mani). 

And we rank the food on a scale of cucumber soup (which was cold, and super gross) to fried chicken (which was wonderful). Normally the things are closer to the fried chicken end of the scale, which is good.  The elders and Hermanas sit at different tables that aren't even next to each other in the cafeteria, I guess they had issues with flirting in the past but they don't any more. There are also two flights of stairs, one at either end of the building, and elders have one sisters have the other.

The bottom 3 floors of our MTC building are actually hotel-ish rooms for people who want to go to the temple and are from out of town, which is kind of cool.

I can't think of anything else to say, so I guess that's it! The native Spanish group comes in on Tuesday, and I think the Portuguese group must be leaving around then too. 

Talk to you in a week! 

Hermana Walker

Holly's first week at the MTC

_Hola!

_{Well, this has possibly been the longest week of my life (and everyone else's lives), but it's also been a super awesome week!}

_{I have a bunch of questions I'm supposed to answer so I'll start with those.}

_{How we got to the MTC from the airport: we took a bus (two buses actually), it was about a half-hour drive with traffic.}

 _{People in my room: Six! Me, my companion (hermana Lighten), hermana Forsyth and hermana Barton (both in my district) and hermana Glover and hermana Parkinson. All of us get along really well and we're normally the first room down to breakfast. So, it's a room with three bunk beds and very tiny closets. But it has a gorgeous view! The bathroom is in the hallway, four showers and three stalls. I think there are four rooms of 5-6 girls each, and there are two bathrooms total.}

_{The food in the cafeteria is Spanish food cooked by four super cute and tiny Spanish ladies. Only one of them is a member. A lot of the foods are pretty weird, but they're never bad or anything and we're glad we get to try out the funky-looking meats before we're eating at a member's house or something. Also, the rolls are always super good. And they have peanut butter! We all eat apples with peanut butter like every day, and it's an adventure cutting our apples with butter knives.}

_{The elders in my district are elder Bennet (Sully's roommate) and elder lambert (from my YSA ward), they're companions, and then elder Lentz (from my YSA ward) and elder baker. We get along really well as a district (sometimes it seems like we're having a little TOO much fun haha), we were supposed to set goals on Sunday like not saying "guys" and only speaking Spanish for 4 hours from 8-12 every day, so we wrote a "constitucion" on the board and whoever breaks a rule gets "punished" by having to stand in the corner of the room, facing the corner, and recite the missionary purpose in Spanish. I haven't been punished yet but hermana Barton says "guys" about every five minutes haha. She's from California and is very much a surfer-hippie sort of person which is super funny. We've decided elder Lentz and elder Baker are like tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum, since they're always making jokes. They're already best friends even though they've only known each other for a week.}

_{There are about 50 people at the MTC. We aren't getting any more new people until the "native" Spanish speakers (we're pretty sure) in a couple of weeks. There are two sisters and an elder heading to France (one girl is from Cali and her mom is French so she knew French, and then the other sister, sister Esmieu, and the elder are from France). The sisters are going to the Paris temple visitor's center, they have one week left.  There are also 5 Portuguese-speaking elders, only one of them knows English. I'm not sure when they leave, but they're only here for three weeks too. Then the rest of us are all learning Spanish.}

_{There is a laundry room for the girls and laundry room for the boys. 6 washers and 6 dryers. They're on the floor where the rooms are, and we can do laundry any day except Sunday. Normally when we leave for sports we stick laundry in the wash that any of the girls in my room need washed, and then we put it in the dryer when we come back.  Speaking of... sports!! I've done volleyball, futbol, and the gym so far. I'm actually not bad at volleyball, still pretty bad at futbol, and I just do the elliptical in the gym which is pretty hard to mess up.}

_{every day, this is our schedule:}

_{6:30 wake up}

_{7:00 breakfast}

_{7:30 daily planning in classroom}

_{8-9:00 personal reading of the book of Mormon in classroom (president packer asked us all to start it over and finish it by the time we leave, I just started Mosiah! Also, 2nd Nephi chapter 31 is super awesome and you should go read it!)}

_{9-1 various classes/study time}

_{1:00 lunch (we get a whole hour for lunch since it's the biggest meal in Spain, so normally we get to go back to our rooms for a little bit!)}

_{2:00 back to the classroom for more classes/studying}

_{5:00 deportes!!! Everyone has to exercise every day and there is a sign-up sheet.}

_{6:00 shower/prep for dinner, also this is when we can read emails. It's kind of tricky with so many people trying to shower at once, but it's actually only half of the girls who need to shower (I'm in zone 2, zone 1 does sports earlier) so it's not TOO bad}

_{6:45 dinner}

_{7:30 back to class/study}

_{8:30 is when me and hermana lighten teach our investigator, "Denise"(she's just one of the teachers). Other companionships teach at different times. We have Denise for a few weeks, then we get a new investigator. We teach in Spanish so I say most of the lesson when we're teaching since hermana lighten took Spanish a while ago (8th and 9th grade), but we both plan and pre-write some things for her to be able to say during the lesson. She's also gotten way more confident just between the first few lessons! It's crazy because even just between Saturday, our first lesson, and now, me and hermana lighten can tell that our Spanish has gotten WAY better!}

_{9:00 done with class, go to rooms}

_{9:30-10:30 sleep, we always say we're going to bed at 9:30 but then end up talking until 10:30.}

_{Anyway, that's a day! It's super long but definitely makes it feel like you're making every minute count.}

_{The teachers at the MTC are mostly young (younger than 30, all returned missionaries) but there are a few older head teachers. All of the teachers are native Spaniards, I'm pretty sure, except for the Portuguese and French teachers. The teachers are super good and super funny and awesome!!!And almost all the teachers can speak a ton of languages! I guess that's just a European thing, since sister Esmieu can speak several languages too.}

_{Apparently, Americans have a smell. Sister Esmieu came into our room the other day and was just wanting to smell like our lotions and things because "They smell so American" haha. We're going to miss the French sisters when they leave.}

_{On Friday, instead of exercise we do service, this past Friday we cleaned the temple grounds. It's been so cool seeing the temple get cleaned (we get a super awesome view of it every time we go up and down the stairs, which is a LOT--bedrooms on one floor, classrooms on another, cafeteria on top). You can see which parts of it have been power-washed and things. We're excited to actually get to go next week!}

_{On Saturday, we went to the park! We took the subway! I'd only ever seen the subway on Disney channel shows so it was kind of awesome taking it. I was in a trio for the park with sister Esmieu and sister Cornwell. We met someone who spoke French and it was so cool because even though I had NO clue what sister Esmieu was saying to her, I could still feel the spirit!}

_{This past Sunday, we were all assigned the topic of PMG chapter 4 (recognizing and understanding the spirit) and told to prepare a 4-minute talk on it. IN SPANISH. And then in church 10 people were called up to speak and the companion of whoever was speaking was the translator to translate the talk into English! Luckily me and hermana lighten didn't have to go up. The talks were really good though. This week the topic is "developing Christ like attributes."  Speaking of church, me and hermana lighten have a calling! We're the music coordinators (or something like that), which basically means that we're in charge of music for church, Saturday and Sunday devotionals, and any other big group workshops/devotionals (normally 1-2 during the week). AKA, I've been playing piano a lot and she's been leading the music a lot, because no one will ever admit they play piano! But we've gotten a few other people to do things, and we're going to find more people who can play piano too. This Sunday after church we had choir practice, then at 8 we went to the temple steps and sang hymns and things which was super fun. And pretty hot. But also fun, and a few people stopped on the sidewalk to listen.}

_{Today for P-day pretty much everyone went to the mall. We took the city bus. Or buses actually, since we couldn't all fit on one. Every Thursday we get to either go on the "Excursion" option or stay at the MTC, and pretty much everyone chose the excursion. It was super fun getting to see Madrid as we drove to the mall, and at the end, all of us ended up at the McDonald’s in the mall because apparently we're all super American. Also, at the mall instead of normal escalators with steps they had weird ramp ones! So we had to take a lot of pictures on them haha. Next week the excursion option is going to some city (not sure which one), so I'll let you know how that goes.}

_{I love being at the Spain MTC because everyone knows each other and we're able to go out and do fun things on p-day and even just being SO close to the temple and in the middle of the city is super awesome! It's also nice being taught by Spaniards since their Spanish is different.  Overall this has been the longest week ever, and we're always super tired at the end of the day, but it's also been super awesome because you can feel the spirit all the time!!! The church is so true and everyone here is trying to be the best they can be and it's so awesome!}

 _{Love, hermana Walker}

Surpirse letter

Hola,

So I thought I wasn't emailing until next Thursday, but the temple is closed for the next 2 weeks so we ended up having time to email today after all.

My companion Hermana Lighten and two of the elders in my district are all going to Málaga. We have pretty much just had a lot of classes and orientations so far. I can understand the teachers when they're speaking Spanish to us (I think they're speaking slow on purpose) but when  they speak to each other we have no idea what's going on.

Yesterday we played futbol. Apparently I'm terrible at futbol, but that wasn't REALLY  a huge surprise. Hopefully I'll  get better at it :) Hermana Lighten played goalie for a few years so she's really good, so as a companionship we're okay haha.

Today we went to apply for residency, and it took a long time for everyone to get it done so we were sitting outside under a tent for a while, which was HOT. (the picture below was taken under that tent).   Hermana Lighten and me are kind of scared for the heat in Málaga, it's supposed to be hotter there than it is here! 

I got to play piano for the opening hymn at one of the meetings we've had which was really fun. I used to not like playing at meetings, but there aren't really other times to play the piano so I'll  take it!

We have a lot of things to learn and memorize, but I can tell that we're all already getting better at Spanish which is kind of awesome. We're also all still pretty jetlagged, but nothing TOO bad.

Overall the food here is good, the people are awesome, Spain is gorgeous, and the church is true, so we're  pretty much all good here!

Love,

Hermana Walker

We received these emails after Holly had already arrived in Spain but they tell you a little more about her experience at the airport and on airplanes.

I'm at my gate in Seattle. There was some Korean announcement and I recognized hello and thank you so that was cool. My BYU roommate Minhee taught me a little Korean.  Also, the guy at our gate gave an announcement and then he gave it in French, which made me really glad that I don't have to learn French. I guess this counts as my first email as a missionary, so be proud. I am very bored. Hopefully my plane doesn't fall in the ocean.

I'm about 30 mins from Paris now, I am having a little trouble connecting to the WiFi but hopefully it will work better  at the mtc. I now understand the jokes about the airplane food, it's kind of gross. I slept for most of the plane ride. 

French customs we're fast, just a long line. No customs in Spain. When we first arrived at the MTC they had us eat, shower, then sleep (thank goodness).

Holly has a tablet on her mission so she can read emails every day but she can only respond on her p-day.  Feel free to send her an email anytime, she'd love to hear from you.  Here is the address holly.walker@myldsmail.net.

Holly's first letter from the mission field

Holly flew 10 hours to Paris and then after a long layover had a 2 hour flight to Madrid. She arrived in Spain today.  Here is her first letter.

Because of the filters on the tablet I couldn´t sign onto any airport Wi-Fi, but I made it to Paris and met up with Sully (he is Holly's second cousin) and his roommate like right when I got off the plane, then gradually more missionaries came and at the end of the 7 hour layover (which was VERY long) there were probably about 35 missionaries there. Me and the few elders who had to wait 7 hours (most other people didn´t get there for a few hours) pretty much have the airport announcements memorized now. Also, the French airport people use very dramatic English words like "forbidden."

 My companion is Hermana Lighton (I don´t know how to spell her name) from the Salt Lake area. I am in a district that has 4 elders and 4 sisters and two of the elders are the boys from my BYU young single adult ward whose names I don´t remember and who I never talked to, so that´s a little awkward. Hannah Forsyth, from my stake back home, is also in my district. Our p-day won´t be until next Thursday 6/22/17. I got to see the Eiffel tower out the window of the airplane which was very cool.

Spain is very hot, we all started sweating as soon as we got out of the airport. The MTC president somehow already knows all our names and where all of us are from. The MTC seems very nice and new, the food for dinner was good, and the MTC is pretty much on the temple grounds (you don´t have to cross a street or anything, the temple is right there).

I'll email you next Thursday

Love, Hermana Walker

Madrid MTC President and Sister Packer

The Madrid MTC is the brick buildings with temple beside them.