Loving the MTC, Week 3

Familia! I can't believe this Wednesday will be my 4th week! It's weird to think that I have 2 weeks left in the MTC. I've enjoyed every minute here and I'm kind of sad about leaving soon. The last time I wrote home, I only had 20 minutes. Sorry if it was a short email. And yes, my P-Days are on Tuesdays...FYI. Sister Loefke is 22 years old. She loves to be active! She loves playing volleyball and soccer. Nobody from my district is from Utah! I think it's kind of funny. Most of them are from the West Coast or from the South. Sister Ware is from Kentucky and Elder Wilson is from Georgia. I forgot to tell you that my last name is pronounced Whitch-na in Portuguese! I've gotten use to being called that instead of Whitnah. There were a ton of cool things that happened this week! On Saturday, it was Irma Steinbeigle's birthday. We had a surprise party for her. We decorated the classroom and had Irmao Cannon buy a cinnamon/caramel cake! It looked awesome! And the cake was yummy too! :) I also recorded her coming into the classroom. We sang Happy Birthday in Portuguese. We also gave her a present. She told us that she loves chalk. So we bought her chalk for the chalkboard! She loved it haha. On Sunday, we had a special speaker for Relief Society. Guess who?! It was Janice Kapp Perry!! We sang 6 songs from the primary book. Love is spoken here, Armies of Helaman, I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ, I'm trying to be like Jesus, I love to see the temple, and a Child's prayer. It was really cool. She is coming out with a sister missionary album. She created a song called The Sisters of Zion. Gearing towards the sisters. It's the melody from As Sisters in Zion. We were the first missionaries to sing it! It was way cool! :) In sacrament meeting, every hymn we sing is in Portuguese. My favorite one so far is I Stand All Amazed. You should look it up! It sounds really cool! Sunday night, my district and I watched a talk from Elder Holland. It was called Missions Are Forever. What struck me the most about his talk was he said "You will never get an opportunity like this to serve a mission at this age and time again. Take advantage of it now! I promise you that it will change your life." That made me think of why I needed to go at this time. To take that chance and become more like Cristo and serve him. He had a lot of other good things to say, but I don't have my journal with me. This week I had the opportunity to teach a lesson in Portuguese without my notes!! IT WAS SO HARD! Loefke and I were teaching about faith and families. I tried my very best. The investigator could tell what we were saying which helped. The language is getting a little bit easier but not by much. Yes I got your package on Friday! Obrigada for the German chocolate and the other stuff! :) I'm excited for the next package! There's a rumor going on about tonight's devotional speaker! It might be from the quorum of the 12! I would die if it was Jeffery Holland, Dieter Uchtdorf, or President Monson! I'm excited to find out! All of the sisters in my district hope it's Holland. I'm just so grateful to be serving a mission. All of the counsel and advice I've been getting has changed my life. Even the people I meet and my district. We have become even more close this past week. We realize how much time we have left together and want to make the most of it. I hope everything is going good back at home. I know Heavenly Father is blessing me and you guys. He wants us to be happy always. I hope you have a great week! Tudo Bem, Ciao! :) Love, Sister Whitnah