A Plethora Of Problems And Prayers

Hi everyone!

I'm going to do this email a bit differently. Lots of things happened this week. I want to do a sort of small plates and large plates of Nephi thing where I'll quickly summarize my week, then go into more detail if people have more time to read it. (I understand if not everyone has time to read everything. XD) Also, I just have to say that I love alliteration and use the word plethora at every opportunity because it's a fun word. XD

Summary:

I've had a crazy week! The sleep schedule is hard to get used to, classes are awesome, and I have the best companion ever! The devotionals are savagely humbling, I feel slightly more confident with teaching, and I've felt the spirit so much this week! I've been feeling a bit under the weather, so I've been in and out of doctor offices, but things are good now and I'll doing much better. I went to the Provo temple with my district today. My district is great and we've been having so much fun. I've had lots of prayers answered and I know my companion is very in tune with the spirit.

Okay, I'll go into more detail here:

Waking up in the morning is rough. The other sisters in my district get ready way faster even though they do more with their hair. XD  My companion is always chomping at the bit to leave when I'm barely rolling out of bed.

I've been learning a lot about teaching this week. We've been going over how to let the spirit lead a lesson--although in my opinion, that can only be learned through experience, not a classroom. We've gone over how to ask good questions and make commitments. Learning to not fear silence is hard, though. XD I always want to talk.

The devotionals are amazing. I've loved hearing about other peoples' spiritual experiences. They are extremely humbling, though. They somehow beat me down and fire me up at the same time.

I've been having odd stomachaches and headaches for days--the headaches for weeks now, actually. Then I also did something to my eye. My patient companion sat by me for a long time in the doctor offices. I got some fluorescent dye smeared in my eye and the doctor found a little cut, so I got prescribed some eye drops. Then, yesterday I had a weird shot to make my headaches go away. Turns out, they were developing migraines that were getting progressively worse, but the shot made my head feel better almost instantly. It was pretty painful, though; subcutaneous injections are far worse than intramuscular, in my opinion.

The temple was amazing! It was so beautiful inside, and I had a neat experience where I got a prayer answered. It wasn't the answer I wanted, but it was definitely the answer that I needed.

My district rules! We've been having fun at the field playing kickball and volleyball--not my favorite sport, but I tried. We've also played some group games like Signs, and we already have inside jokes. XD

I'm loving the MTC and I'm looking forward to another spiritual week. Also, for those of you not aware, I'm for sure going to Canada! I just need to bring my passport to the travel agency a little later.

Love you all!

Sister Howard