Hello family and friends!!

Thank you so much for your letters and emails! I will try to respond to some of them real quick! Ann- thanks for your letter I miss you all so much and wish I could see those little guys again. I love them so much! Cami K- thanks for the note and the dear elder. I hope your Valentines party went well! Ben- Youre right, if youre not having fun you are doing something wrong! I am loving it here! Rick- Happy Birthday! Thanks so much for the dear elders and I hope you had fun in California! Holli- Thank you for the valentines package, that made my day, and the dear elder from "Manuel".     haha I really did wonder at first if I had been given someone elses mail because I was like wait, what, who is this? haha You are so rad I just love you! Julie- thanks for your letter, I can't wait to see you this week!! You will love it! It sounds like you are already having missionary experiences. That is amazing, you are such an example to me! I hope all goes well with that guy you and the missionaries are teaching! My young women back home- I love you all and I am glad to hear you are putting my clothes to good use! haha It sounds like you are doing awesome in volleyball too! Keep up the good work. You are all simply wonderful! Becky- thanks for the note. I just want to say you are a champ for learning a language. I can't even imagine being here for that long and not only learning everything you need to know to be a missionary, but also learning FINISH!! You amaze me! Ethan- you have no idea how much your little note of encouragement meant to me! You were truly inspired because I was having a tough day that day and you said exactly what I needed to hear! Grandma C- Thank you for the update on the family! They all sound like they are doing great and it brought a smile to my face to hear about everyone!!

Ok and now real quick, I will try to fill you in on how life has been going in the great MTC. haha Wow are we busy! I feel like I am running arround all day, every day, trying to learn so much and do so much, but it is so great! P-days are so great, let me just say that! I took some pictures from last Pday and I'll send them home so you can see the people in my district. I love my district so so so much! I will miss them all so much when they leave next week! We have become a little family and its so great! It was a little weird this week when I ran into the district that just got here that is going to Hawaii, it made me a little sad because I know they will all be way tight and I will be the outsider. haha But at least I have people to fly with. Just to clarify, they aren't even in our zone, so I don't really see them much. But, speaking of our zone, we got all those new sisters that I just adore!! They are wonderful. I even have one from Hawaii and for Zone Teaching I acted as her Missionary and she was the investigator and it was by far the best lesson so far because It felt so real. The spirit was so strong she started crying and even committed to BAPTISIM! I was stoked! Another amazing experience I had this week was on Sunday we all gathered for devo and they had all 2,000 of us sing called to serve. They had us pretend we were Helaman's army and start out really quiet like we were coming over a hill and then grow louder and lourder and then stand up. It was so powerful! By far the coolest thing I have done here, I had chills all over!

Oh mom, real quick before I forget, thanks so much for sending the robe I know its here, I just haven't been able to pick it up yet because the place was closed, but I'll get it tomorrow. Speaking of packages, I was wondering if I could box some stuff up and leave it at the front desk and have either Holli or Logan pick it up before I go to Hawaii, if that's ok? And ok, I found out that I get to call you at the airport before I leave!!! I didn't know that! Glorious day right! So I think I will buy a calling card at the bookstore and then write you and tell you when I'll be at the airport because I should get that this week! It is crazy how fast it is going now. It's so true when they say the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days. I think it just feels so long because you really learn so much every day!

Also quick update, S. Saal has been getting a few more letters so all is well there and the Elders are doing great now. All the homesickness has been better. Oh, and mom, did I tell you we had Sis. Cook from the General YW come teach our RS lesson? Cool huh!

Ok, so I know it is just role play but right now I am teaching 5 investigators and it is crazy how real it feels. I pray for them all the time and worry about them all the time! They all have different concerns and the hardest part about this whole thing is it is so easy to get down on yourself when you don't feel like you know how to get thru to them. We have one investigator named Linda that is just so closed in and bitter. I have learned a great lesson from her: you can't teach people without first loving them. I am learning so much about the importance of love. If you really want people to learn they must first feel loved by you and trust you. That is something I need to work on, being able to express my love better and remembering that we are teaching people not lessons.

I wish I could tell you all the things I am learniing but there is just not enough time, but I do real quick want to tell you a beautiful analogy that was given in sarcament yesterday. When our mom pays for piano lessons our practicing the piano doesn't pay her back it just shows our gratitude for the price that she has paid for us to learn and grow. This is the same as the atonement! We can never pay Christ back but we can show our grattitude to him for what he has done by applying that great gift everyday!

Ok, well, I am already out of time! Sad day! But just know that I love you all like crazy and miss you a ton!!!

Love Sister C.