email of 24 June 2009

Hola Ustedes!

That's about the closest I can come in spanish to "hey y'all!"

Sorry this will be kinda short, but you've had some pretty good long emails the last few weeks! It was great hearing from everyone - thanks!!!

What a day! Today is Wednesday, so we got a bunch of new missionaries in, AND today all the new mission presidents and their wives arrive for the seminar this week! That's great, and crazy all at the same time. Great because, well 105 new mission presidents and their wives, plus tons of general authorities, with at least 1 apostle each day, and Pres Monson on Sunday, is GREAT! Especially because I get to sing for them everyday, including twice on Sunday (one for their am devotional, AND for their Sacrament mtg with Pres Monson)! Uncle Vernon, if I get a chance to talk to Pres Monson, I'll tell him hey for you! Now, the craziness is mostly because for this seminar, they've partitioned off half of the cafeteria, which means that the already insane amount of missionaries that eat in there together are now going to be totally crammed into half the space and available food lines. Trust me, it's going to be nuts (tonight is the first meal like that for us).

Choir is SO GREAT!!!! Absolutely Awesome!!! We are singing 5 times, plus once with the whole MTC choir for devo on Friday. We are singing "Jesus, Once of Humble Birth," "Come Thou Fount," "Joseph Smith's First Prayer," "This is the Christ," and a brand new, absolutely incredible arrangement of "Precious Savior, Dear Redeemer."!!! They're letting us record our singing (our dress rehearsal/warm-ups each morning), so I'll send you a recording! I'm SO EXCITED!!!!! Our first devotional is tomorrow morning at 8am, and Pres Eyring is going to be here! Friday is Pres. Uchtdorf, Sat. is Pres Packer, and Sunday is Pres Monson! Elder Christofferson is here today. Baaaaah!!! It's so awesome!

Today we got to clean the temple! It's closed for the next two weeks, and they assigned a bunch of MTC districts to help clean. So during our normal temple time (a little longer, actually, which is why this is later than I thought), we got to go clean! We took our tennis shoes, and they gave us white scrubs to wear. It was such a cool experience! We cleaned the lockers in the men's dressing room and the male ordinance worker's room, and the 4 of us Hermanas got to go upstairs and vacuum the Celestial room!!! I got to clean the temple in Rexburg once, but this was especially neat because it was the heavy duty cleaning that they do twice a year, so all the furniture was moved out of the celestial room. It was completely empty, except for a huge painting of Christ on the wall, the mirrors everywhere (of course), and us in our white scrubs and vacuums. It was really neat to just take a few minutes to stand in there and look. There is a mirror right underneath the picture of the Savior, so I could see myself, in my white scrubs, right underneath the Savior, with His outstretched arms. Wonderful! Missions are amazing, can I just tell you?!?!?!?!

Here's another little crazy something...exactly two weeks from today, I'll be in Los Angeles! AAAAAAAAAAAAAH! I'm super excited, but super nervous, and just trying to be ready! I feel like the Lord gave me a "vision" this week of my capacity to really do this work, and I'm so grateful!

By the way, can I just tell you that I love my companion?! 'Cause I do! She's such a great example to me, and it's been amazing how much we've grown together in the last 7 weeks. She's very driven in this work, and I love it!

I'm still running...1-2 miles everyday!

OH!!! Mom and Dad, I've been meaning to write about this for weeks, and I just always forget! When you go on your mission someday, Dad will be very pleased to know that the milk here is ice cold. :) We have cereal every Sunday morning, and I think of Dad and his cold milk every single time I have milk!

Will you please make sure that Durk gets this letter? I have a letter that I'll be finishing and sending to him next week that I started last week, but that I just haven't had time to finish! Lo Siento!!!! Durk, thank you SO much for your letters...dearelder or handwritten is all great - I just like hearing from you ;)

Joseph, thanks for writing me so faithfully every week - I love hearing from you! It's great to get such uplifting emails encouraging me in the work, and I love hearing about how your family is!

Melanie, thanks for your letters too! I'll try to write next week, but no promises! And hey, Mike gets home in less than a week, huh? Good luck with that - let me know how everything goes!!!

Mom, I got your package - thank you SO MUCH!!! I love the sweaters - the color is great, and the skirts are great too. I love pockets!!!

I love you all so much!!! The church is true - I know it more and more everyday!!!

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!!

Much Love,

Hermana Sallie Wilson