Week 2!!!

Family and Friends,

I've been here for two weeks, wow! This past week went by so fast! I've been really busy learning a lot. We got a second teacher on Saturday, his name is Brother Israel, he is from Haiti and served his mission in San Francisco. He teaches us every afternoon. Soeur Echoles is our other teacher who teaches us in the morning, she served in the France Lyon Mission. Sister Echoles is awesome, she often tells us stories about her mission, the investigators she taught and her experiences in the MTC. We have had a little break from teaching an "investigator" because we get two new "investigators" on Wednesday. Teaching is frustrating sometimes because of the language barrier but we are slowly breaking the barrier down. It's hard when you know exactly what you would say in English but have no idea how to say it in French. It's coming along, it's encouraging to see the French missionaries leaving the MTC speaking French really well.

It's exciting to hear Sister Hixon is home. Last week a district in my branch going to New Caledonia had their visas rejected so they were sent to Atlanta Georgia until they can get their visas. They probably just missed Sister Hixon.

In the French hymn book there is a song that is called Souvien-toi. It is a beautiful song only found in French that is a lullaby. Some day I'll send you the translation. We sang it on one of our first days. The elders in my district love it and always want to sing it. Mostly because on their first night in the MTC the other elders in the branch came into their rooms, sang souvien-toui to them and tucked them into bed. The elders are looking forward to doing it to the new elder coming in tomorrow. We didn't get any new French missionaries last week so my district is still the newest, until tomorrow.

I was mistaken when I wrote last week saying the rumor was L. Tom Perry was speaking to us, it was actually Elder Groberg, Kolipoki! He gave a great message about how we can bear our testimonies in many different ways; by what we say and do, through song, through prayer, through written word, and by who we are. He showed some clips from The Other Side of Heaven that went along with these points. On Sunday, BYU President Kevin J Worthen came to speak to us. My district ushered for the devotional so we were sitting right up front. He spoke about teaching with power and authority. My companion Soeur Baggs said the closing prayer.

Somehow I got pulled into singing in Sacrament meeting next Sunday with my companions, the other Sister and the Elders in their district. I'm singing the alto part with sister Wallace. I usually sing soprano so its a bit challenging, but fun.

Fast Sunday was great! We had mission conference and the MTC presidency spoke. Testimony meeting was great, and all in French but I understood almost all of it. After sacrament meeting/testimony meeting our Branch President, President Merrill gave us an awesome lesson about the Book of Mormon. He teaches in the Department of Ancient Scripture at BYU and he knows a lot. It was awesome and I learned a lot.

Elder Rollins from my district flew out to Washington DC this morning. We were all sad to see him go but were excited for him. Last P-day I met the MTC President, President Nally. We were sitting waiting for sister Holmes and he walked in and introduced himself. He is really friendly and nice.

We went to the temple this morning and it was great! It's sad to think I don't have that many more times to go.

I love you all and hope everything is going well at home. Everything is going well here and I love the MTC and missionary work more and more every day! Until next week.

Lot of love,

Soeur Banks