A Great Week at the MTC

Goede Dag Mijn Familie!

Zuster Gulliver here! Just thought I'd write and tell you all about my FABULOUS week here at the MTC!!First off, last week was very disapointing that my e-mail was deleted. I'm being extra careful this week so as not to repeat the same mistake. I wrote down everything from last week and this week that I wanted to write to you about, so here goes...
So we had Elder Holland come and speak to us last week, which was absolutely amazing! He gave an amazingly inspiring talk about missionary work and how we can become effective in our callings. It was touching and I was re-committed to being the best, most obedient missionary I can.
We had interviews with our teachers last week, to check on our progress with the language and as missionaries, and Sister Bennett and I were flattered by what our teachers said. Sis. Sander told us that we were the classiest looking sister missionaries ever (woohoo! Nice work on the wardrobe ladies ;) ) And Bro. Bond, who just got back from his mission a few months ago, said that there are some sisters that you would trade for any elders, and Sis. Bennett and I were developing into those kind of sister missionaries. We were very flattered, and I was very grateful to know that I was living up to the expectations of a dutch-speaking sister missionary. My companions are great, especially Sis. Bennett. We get along really well. We clash every once in a while about what we should teach or approaches we should take, but we always seem to resolve them. We had a tense moment the other day when we did a contacting exercise in the resource center. It was in Dutch, and I am still struggling a lot with the language- Sis. Bennett has much stronger dutch than I do at this point, and I got lost in the converstaion, and she just talked the whole time without letting me get back in, which frustruated me. I as frustruated because I knew my dutch wasn't nearly where it should be, and I felt like she wasn't helping me. Needless to say, I had to give myself a good talking to, and we talked about it later and resolved our differences, and are dedicated to working more in unity. She has really been an example and blessing to me, and on top of that, we have the time of our lives with each other and with our district. We sometimes have a little too much fun, but we are all dedicated and get back on track very quickly.
I found out a little bit about the mission from the 3 dutch sisters that left this week. Apparently Sisters only serve in Den Haag (the Hague), Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Antwerpen. They don't serve in any other cities other than those, and they have lots of restrictions in Amsterdam to keep them safe and out of the "moral pitfall" areas. The sisters were a great example and a huge help with the adjustment to MTC life. I am totally excited for the day I get to report! Of course, I need all the time I can get to work on my Dutch, so I'm happy where I am :) Oh, and one sister didn't get her visa, and she's serving in New York until her visa comes in. Start praying for my visa to go through, I know I am!!
The other day, I had quite a hilarious experience watching a church film. Every Sunday night, the MTC plays 4 different church films that we can watch if we want to. Usually they have a few MTC devotional recordings and then a few movies such as The Testaments playing. Well, last Sunday, they were showing Legacy, and my companions and I decided we wanted to watch it. Well, 3 of the elders in our district sat in front of us who had never seen the movie, and as the movie progressed, we all suddenly remembered how much of a love story it is. You should have seen the Elder's faces during the kissing scenes. They were bright red. Finally, one of the elders shielded his comanion's eyes from the movie using a copy of Preach my Gospel, and that was the end of any kind of spirit that movie might have had. We were laughing so hard and the poor Elder's were just trying to survive until the movie was over. They are such good Elders, but we all enjoyed watching them squirm a little :)
Thank you all so much for you letters. Many of your little notes have come as answers to prayers when I needed a little boost, and I feel truly blessed. We have some time tomorrow to write letters, so I will try to write a few notes back to each of you to address the questions you asked, cause my time is running out on the computer. I got your Thanksgiving decoration- it is the absolutely best thanksgiving present ever! I love, love love it!Well, my time is up, but I love you all so much! The church is SOOOOO true! Have a Happy Thanksgiving, and remember how blessed we are to have the Gospel and the blessing of Eternal Families!

Ik Houdt fan jullie! (I love you all!)

Love,Zuster Gulliver

Family,

Zuster Gulliver here! The computer just ate the e-mail I just wrote to you. I am very sad, and I have no time to write it again. I will do the best I can, and write you a hand-written letter with the rest of it. I love you all and miss you like crazy. Thanks for the pictures- I got them! They were perfect. Oh, and I hope your back is feeling better Dad- I put your name on the prayer role, so you should be doing better soon :). I am happy and loving the MTC. Dutch is presenting a challenge, but it is ok- the language is great anyways. I'm trying my best to not get discouraged. I hope you are all doing great. Your letters mean a lot to me- thanks for writing. It makes me feel very loved and supported. I will hand-write the rest of what I wanted to say.

Love Always,

Zuster Cherie Gulliver