"Hola from the MTC!" Sister Jarvis' email 12/1/12

Hi everyone!

I received your letter the first day I was here! It was so wonderful to get letters on the first day. I am pretty sure that I had at least 5 or 6 letters from people! Me gusto mucho! Continue to send letters through Dearelder. Even if it is just a sentence or 2. It is still really cool to be able to lay down at night and read how everyone is doing. Today my P-day is on Saturday because it is our first week but most other days they are all on Friday from here on out I believe! You should get a letter from me soon. Tell you that I made it safely and everything is going well. So far I have seen Elder Jarvis a handful of times. I may not always get to say hello because we are busy but I can see how different he is in just a few weeks. He is excited for the work that he has been called to do and I know that he is a tremendous blessing to the Lord!

My experience has been amazing so far! I have 2 companions, Hermana Hendrickson y Hermana Seaborn! They are the coolest! We already get along so well! Hermana Hendrickson is from San Diego and Hermana Seaborn is from Canada! Que chevre!!! (awesome) They are so powerful and we have only been here not even 3 whole days yet. Yesterday evening we taught our first lesson in espanol... It was crazy. It was hard. But most importantly it taught us how to love the investigator first and then to rely on the Spirit of the Lord. We may not always be able to communicate with our investigators or with others but the Spirit is a Spirit of Conversion. If we are sincere and rely on the Lord then all the are possible! What an amazing experience so far!

I am so very blessed to be a missionary of the Lord. The first day we were learning the language already but in the few days I have been here I feel as if my knowledge has grown so so much! The Elders in my district are amazing! There are 6 total but 2 are leaving in 3 weeks to head to Ecuador I believe! My companions and I are praying that their visas dont come through because we already feel such a great love for them and we know that we will learn alot from each one of them.

Everyone is so great! The Elders take our trays at dinner time to be put in the trash and everyone is considerate and holds the doors for us if we are near. It made me super uncomfortable at first because I felt as if I was capable to do it by myself but it is so nice to have them there to help and to be considerate. It is such a different feeling. The food is alright. I have never eaten so much salad in my life ahaha but I like it! I have been drinking my fair share of choc. milk though and choc mild makes everything better! I love it! Most of the food seems pretty decent. Yesterday for lunch we had cheese ravioli. They were delicious! haha and it made me think of the Efirds because for dinner I would always make the kids ravioli! Love it!

Please keep me in your prayers. I feel like whenever I move from coast to coast, I always get sick! Ugh. Thankfully it isn't terrible! Elder Muir in my district has the flu and has been miserable most of the week. It is sad. I have the sniffles and for once I am actually losing my voice. It isnt gone all the way so I can still communicate! Luckily. I feel like I rarely ever talk this much so that makes a big difference. I have also been sneezing so much! I never sneeze! Annoying.

The language is coming along so well! I have learned how to pray and bare my testimony already! ( Not well yet but it’s coming) Hermana Hendrickson has had some recent years of  college spanish so she is pretty advanced compared to the rest of us but she continues to lift us up whenever we get discouraged or frustrated with ourselves and the language.

I am not sure if I knew how to pray or what a testimony was before I came here because I feel like my love for my Savior and the sincerity of my prayers has increased so drastically in the short few days that I have been here! The Spirit is everywhere here! and I feel it so strongly. I can hardly believe it is only Saturday! I cannot wait to look at my knowledge in one more week and see how differently I think and how much more I believe. I have no doubt in my mind that I am where I am supposed to be! I love the gospel with all my heart and I know that I am on the Lord's errand and am making my Father in Heaven proud by serving a mission. What an amazing way to grow and to progress in this life. I know things will be difficult and I know I will experience challenges but the blessings and the happiness and joy I feel tremendously outnumber those hard parts to where I can easily put them out of my head. I love you all and I miss you all very much! I continue to keep you in my prayers every day! I want to know how everything is going! I love you so very very much!

Hermana Jarvis