So remember that scene in the Hobbit where Bilbo and the dwarves get separated from each other in the big mountain? And when the dwarves meet up with Gandalf after they escape, Gandalf asks where Bilbo is and Thorin Oakenshield says that he's probably ditched because all he's thought about is his books and his armchair, and Bilbo hears all this because he's right behind them, invisible, with the ring on, and then Bilbo steps out and says, no, he's not gone.  Then Thorin Oakenshield asks him why he came back and Bilbo says that he knows he's always doubted him and that it's true, he does miss his garden and his books and his armchair, because that's home.  And that's why he came with them, becuase they don't have a home, and he will help them get it back if he can.  Well that's what I feel like.  Leaving everything behind was hard, harder than I thought it would be, I miss my family because that's home, that's where eternity is, but there's so many people who don't know that and can't know that if I don't teach them, and I'll gladly leave home for awhile if it means someone else can have a happier home. 

I had to remind myself of this about 20,000 times the first couple of days though because this is hard.  This ain't no walk in the park, people.  And I'm even learning Spanish, probably the easiest language ever AND I had already studied it for years.  AND i have a great companion, her name is Hermana McNeil (I'm Hermana Nielsen and it's been weird not hearing my first name for a week), but she's incredible.  Very friendly, down-to-earth and hard-working and easy to get along with and exactly like Elizabeth Bown (if you know who that is), but really, incredible.  But the MTC is a HUGE life style change.  It usually means getting up a bit before 6 am every morning then studying for about 10 hours throughout the day (not an exaggeration), both Spanish and how to teach the lessons and then how to do that all at the same time.  Our second full day here we were already teaching a fake investigator a half hour lesson all in Spanish.  It was rawther stressful.  We work all day, but it's the best kind of work.

But the most incredible thing about this experience is how humbling it's been, I feel like I've fit a year of personal growth into a week, and though a day seems to last a week and I fall into my bed dead tired each night, I know how incredibly worth it this is.  We have 8 elders and 4 hermanas in my district, and we're all incredibly different, but you can't share such a humbling and difficult experience with someone without growing to love them.  Yesterday our MTC teacher said we were going to do something different that day, and he said that that day we were going to speak in English so that we could all very fully comprehend what he had to tell us.  (He speaks in Spanish the entire 3 hours we are in his class, es muy dificil people).  But he began the lesson talking about unity.  About the unity of the gospel and our need to be unified in purpose.  He said that, as a district, we were not unified.  Then very bluntly but kindly and effectively told us it was because we had too much pride, each and every one of us.  Maybe it was pride in our abilities, or pride in the fear of wanting to make a mistake and not participating in class, or comparing ourselves to other people, but that we were not unified in purpose and that we needed to change.  This sounds like it should be offensive, but learning and trying to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ has fixed within me, and I think everyone else here, the desire to let go of our pride, to realize that we all have shortcomings, that this work is hard and that yes, we are going to have some incredibly hard days, but that we also have divine potential.  That there is nothing we can't do if we simply forget about ourselves and turn outwards to other people.  This lesson continued for awhile, but some experiences are occasionally too personal to put into words, but that classroom no longer looks the same to me.  Before, I dreaded going in there every day.  Going in there to sit and study for hours on end.  But I can tell you now that that classroom is where I've learned some of the most humbling and enabling lessons of my life up to this point, and I've only been here a week.

I want you all to know as well that I know this is one of the most important works on the earth today.  I'm part of a choir of about 1500 missionaries that will be singing for the prophet and all the general authorities on the 23rd for a world wide broadcast.  maybe if you watch it, you can see my face zip by (amongst the other 1499 other missionaries).  But I know that God lives, that he loves us and has a plan for each and every one of us.  He has answered several of my most urgent and heartfelt prayers

To my family: I'm going to send you guys a lot more letters this week and thank you everyone else who sent me letters. Keep it coming, it makes me look popular. 

 I wish there was more time to do everything, but alas and alack, there is literally no time in the day and we only get an hour on here AHHHHHHHH, next email my thoughts will be more organized.  Anywho, I love you all, SEND ME LETTERS! and I'll send more too! gracias and goodbye!  

Hermana Nielsen