First and Last Pday in the MTC!

Family,

Greetings from one of the happiest places on earth (besides Disneyland/world)! I have so much to tell you! I'm glad you have been getting my letters. It is tough to only write on Pdays... so I'm going to get a lot of letters written today! I can't believe that I have been here for over a week. Man, so much has happened. I can't even believe how much I have grown. I feel like the best way to get everything written is bullet points, so bear with me.

• Yes I did join the choir. AREN'T YOU ALL SO PROUD?! I joined it because you get way good seats at the devotional on tuesdays. Yeah.. so guess who was the speaker for that devotional?! Elder Russel M. Nelson!! I was super close to him. One of the coolest experiences of my whole life. He said some of the coolest things. His wife spoke also. A lot of it had to do with family history. His wife said, "Pray to be led to those whose ancestors are praying for you". She also said "Pray for angels to be with you.. Pray for them by name". It was just so amazing! Elder Nelson said that he wanted to shake all of our hands and hear all of our stories but that wouldn't be realistic so we got to virtually shake his hand over the pulpit.  :)
• So everyone in my district talks in their sleep. One of the Elders (Elder Mo'Unga) apparently in the middle of the night said, "Come on man, the church is true!" Hahah I love my district. So there are 6 sisters and 6 elders in my district. 4 of us sisters are headed to Toronto Canada. The other two are headed to Carlsbad California. 1 of the elders is also going to Toronto, and the other 5 to Carlsbad, Cali. I've come to the conclusion that life is full of saying goodbyes...I don't want to leave them in 3 days!
• So, since the crazy amount of sister missionaries in the MTC, they have made leadership roles for them. So my companion and I (I'll talk about my companion soon) are the Sister Training Leaders. So that's basically Zone Leaders put into girl form. It's been so fun! We just met the new missionaries last night, and they all seemed so scared.. I hope I wasn't like that.  ;)
• So yes, it's true. I did get the flu. It was the worst night here by far. I slept on the bathroom floor of the MTC and got a grand total of probably 2 hours of sleep. The next day was sunday though and I didn't want to miss our on all of those things, so my some miracle I felt good enough to do everything. A few nights ago my companion got sick too!
• Which leads me to the food here. It's like a 14 year old boys DREAM. I eat a lot of salad :) The best part is the chocolate milk. Then every wednesday and sunday there is ice cream!
• Soooo my companion. Sister Dyer. She is the BEST! She is from Idaho Falls. She knows Grandma Ida and Tanner! She is super cool and really is the perfect first companion. She is twenty and has been at BYU. She helps me manage my craziness :) I love teaching and working with her though. Having her as a companion has truly been an answer to my prayers! We laugh all the time, yet know when to get things done.
• My teachers are Brother Terry, Brother Smith and Brother Mosley. They are incredible! Which leads me to our investigators. One is Aaron (A-A-RON) hahahah. He is our teacher (Brother Terry). So yea, we teach our teacher. It's been a really great help though because he gives us a lot of feedback. Then there is a thing called TRC where it's volunteers that come in and act as investigators. So we've done that twice. I know that they are actors, but it really makes me so happy when I teach and they agree to read the Book of Mormon or accept to be Baptized. I can't wait for real life!
• Mom, could you find me the talk entitled "Character of Christ" from Elder Bednar? Thanks!
• So I saw Austin last night! I tracked him down for hours and I finally saw him! But we can't hug.  :(  He looks great and super happy.
• GUESS WHO CAME ON MOTHER'S DAY?! Janice Kapp Perry (She wrote like half of the children's hymnbook). So I feel like all the cool people are coming when I am here! She also wrote "As Sisters in Zion". It was so cool because she made a new version called "The Sisters of Zion" and the Relief Society was the first to ever sing it. It was amazing! Mother's day was the hardest day here. All I could think about was all the amazing mothers in my life. My own mom, my grandma's, Katie, Jaclyn. Gahh the tears were flowing. But I know that all of you are doing great and that's a great comfort to me.  :)
• So here are my flight plans.. get ready for me to call you super early on Monday morning. American Airlines flight 436 leaving SLC @ 6:00 a.m. We arrive in Dallas/Ft Worth @ 9:40 a.m. From thereit's American Airlines flight 684 @ 10:20 a.m. we head to Toronto Canada and get in at 2:20 p.m. I wont have time to call you in Texas.. so salt lake it is! I would plan on me calling around.... 4:30 in the morning?
• Thank you so much to everyone who sent me packages and has written me. Some people in my district have yet to recieve mail and I think that would be so hard! I have another temple walk on sunday at 3.  ;)  ;)
• So I see Hailey Gardner in the bookstore like every single day! It's so nice to see a familiar face!
• Mom.. that blanket we got at costco has SAVED my life. The blankets here are cardboard.
• So something really hit me during zone teaching one day. Our teacher said, "The only time the Savior ever stopped his feet from being on the ground was when He was nailed to the cross dying for YOU". How incredible is that. I think about how tired I sometimes am, and then I remember that. I can't ever stop working! I love this work. It's already made me happy, and I haven't even gotten to my mission yet.
• My companion and I came back from a lesson that didn't really go as planned and one of the teachers said, "Keep your head up, you're successful in God's eyes". That also really hit me because I need to realize that there is only SO much that I can do.

I can't believe it's been a week. Time is so weird here. When I'm sitting in a 3 hour class I feel like time is never going to end.. and now.. I'm scared that my mission is going to go by too fast! I love how much I have grown in just a few short days. I'm not going to lie and tell you that I haven't been sad at some points. It's tough, and it's only the MTC. I start to look at pictures and think about home and that's just not a good idea. I can feel your prayers and I hope you all know that I am praying for all of you too. Here are some pictures of my marvelous adventures so far. I love you all. Next time you hear from me I'll be in Canada!! I can't get the voice recorder thing to attach on these computers.. and I don't have time to make it work. Oh hey!! My first Pday in Canada will be next Wednesday.

I love you all so much! Get ready to answer the phone nice and early! Keep the letters coming! I love every second of being a missionary, and I've already seen the blessings! I hope you all know of my love for you. God be with you til we meet again.  :)

With love,

Sister Hardcastle