Ola! The MTC is still great :) haha Also, I have a letter on the way which might be a bit outdated since I'm writing you today.... guess I didn't quite think that through. hahah but it has a letter for Marissa in there too cause I don't remember her address, so could ya get it to her for me? Sank you! Sounds like a crazy fire!!! but it's a blessing that dad didn't have to leave until after I left :) Mom that's so fun you got to go to Bakersfield!! did Sister Mangelson go with you? and yes, I remember the attacking haha. I was so jealous that Hannah was going to be able to call home and call Adam and Katelyn and hear Liam's voice over the phone as she was in the airport. Speaking of airports.. another sister in my district got her visa! Sister Verhoef.  She left for Brazil on Tuesday, so the threesome we had is now a two-some again with me and sister Jackson.  She seriously is the best companion.  We always start our studies with a prayer in Portuguese and we can say most of what we want to now in Portuguese. Progress! haha She is so willing to help with everything and we both really care when the other is getting frustrated and experiencing a brain blockage, so we'll stop for a moment, and say, "sister, how ya feelin?"  And we're both open and so we've become really good friends.  It's weird now though only having four sisters in our room instead of the 6 we started out with.  

Also, we got 2 new teachers, so sad! but it's good at the same time.  Since school started at BYU, schedules for both our teachers were changed.  Fortunately we still see Irmao Rodriguez and Irma Wells around.  Did I mention we had to switch classrooms too?  haha all these changes!  We're now on the fifth floor of 18M and only teachers get to use the elevator, so we get exercise, "or stress management" every day! haha Irma Wells taught a class on how to manage stress, cause lesbihonest, hoping into a whole new environment is a little stressful.  But we're on a regular schedule so life is good :)  Also the new teachers pretty much only speak in Portuguese which is super helpful.  They're a little less friendly and more teacher like that our other two, which helps us to focus more in class, but I hope they relax and let us get to know their real selves a bit more as time goes on.

today we have TRC (training resource center I think it stands for..)  where members come and let us teach them.  They don't try to pretend to be anyone else so it's going to be a little different than the lessons we prepare for our "investigators" but I'm excited! I hope we can invite the Spirit so he can fill in were we might be lacking, especially with our less than perfect Portuguese skills.  Our goal for the lesson is to help them to have a deeper faith that leads them to take action in enduring to the end.  (the short version of the goal anyways.)  And we have 2 new investigators which are our two new teachers, Irmao Read and Irmao Nielson.  Irmao Nielson is a "55 year old man who works on a farm and is separated from his wife.  He has no kids"  We taught him about Heavenly Father's love for him which I think he felt, and also our love for him and desire to help him. We felt we still didn't really get to asking the right question to find out what his needs are, but the spirit was there which is definitely the most important part and the first step to any lesson.  i love the evaluation that my companion and I do after every lesson of things we need to work on and things we did well.  It helps us to be on the same page. Sister Jackson always has the most wonderful insights.  We also share what we learned in personal study in our companionship study which is always amazing.  I learn twice as much that way! We'll be teaching Irmao Read (or José) on Monday, (Segunda-feira)  The days of the week are numbers by the way, except Saturday andSunday.  Weird right? haha 

I'm also getting to know some of the Elders in our District better too.  They are all so different now than the first day we all met.  They're all 18 too.  Never thought I'd feel old, but I'm the 3rd oldest in my district of 11 people.  My companion is the oldest cause she's 21. So weird. haha  I saw Sister Larabee here at the MTC and I'm hoping to see my roommate Mackenzie too.  I think she's coming to the MTC sometime this month.  I can't believe I've been here for like 2 and a half weeks!  I've also seen a couple of my BYU professors in the lunch room too. hahah mormon culture :)    Sundays here are fun, which reminds me I need to prepare a 5 min talk in Portuguese because they call the speakers at random every Sunday. Pretty exciting right? haha

I've talked with Sister Briggs a little bit about possibly being related, but we haven't quite tried very hard yet to see if that's actually possibly true.  That would be super awesome though because she is the sweetest, yet most sarcastic sister.  haha She and Sister Jackson are always coming up with these hilarious what if scenarios.  So funny!

And Mom, for me, planning starts with a planner.  haha and my schedule is already made which makes it easier too.  We plan out how to fill the time we're given for language, personal, and companion study.  Like for personal study, I read the Portuguese Book of Mormon side by side with the English one for 20 min, then switch to studying the Missionary Fundamentals of things we need to learn to include in each lesson, how to invite the Spirit, and such.  Amazing! And seems you planned the kitchen super well! I'm so glad you don't have to worry about it anymore :)  I seriously can't wait for that cement patio thing to go in.  That'll look so weird! good and much better, but weird. haha   Also, I hope you aren't missing your stake calling too much, but maybe you'll get to take a breather? haha Also how has school been with the new teacher? Thanks for delivering all my thank you cards for me!!!!!!!!!  And what a crazy scary thing to have a fire so close!  Where exactly was it?  

And Dad you totally threw me off when you started your part of the e-mail with Sister, I thought was KC for a second. BAhaha  Glad you're home safe!!! How is it not having to wake up at 5 anymore for seminary?  Isn't Brother Mishler the teacher now?  is he surviving? haha my exercise times are fun.  I haven't really done any strength stuff though.  A couple times I've been able to run around their teeny track that it takes 10 times around to make a mile.  I lose track of counting like after 4 laps.  haha  but it felt good to run.  I usually only go like a mile or a mile and a half.  We also play knockout, four square, and volleyball sometimes too which are really fun :)  That's so awesome that you gave out a book of Mormon!  I can't wait to hear more of how that turns out :)  How'd you introduce her to it? Language is doing fairly well,  I'm trying to expand my vocab because I keep naming things in spanish and a half the words aren't like the spanish one at all!  But it's super fun.  Speak Your Language days are hard though because we try to speak only in Portuguese. Let's say those days are a bit quieter, haha but they're getting better.  

About needed items, I actually think I can get garments here at the MTC.  I think I'll get a couple for hot weather because I'll definitely be experiencing that in a couple months.  My camera cord would be lovely to have, and maybe some mousse although that funky kind I got last time, yeah it like drips out of the can thing now (As KC knows), so not that one. haha  Face wash would be lovely, and feel free to send fruit snacks. bahaha  PS one day I accidentally left my eye wash and contact case in the bathroom all day.  A sister put the contact case in the lost and found, but apparently decided to keep the eye solution :/  So I still have one bottle that should last my whole stay here I think, but maybe one or two of those?  Sorry!  Oh and I'm thinking I should send my temple bag home because missionaries don't have to pay to rent temple clothing here in Provo, and I won't need it in Brazil.  That'll open up a few more pounds in my suitcase for the large load of books I now have too :)   Also, my companion has a bunch of pictures that she's sending to a bunch of the Elders and Sister's parents in our District so if you get an random email with attachments, don't through it out! it has fun pictures on it :) Also, I don' know if she sent a video but we have a running joke going of us creating an MTC musical!  It's going to be great, it's basically filled with all our goofy experiences and some of the sisters in our zone created a mini rap about getting up at 6:30am, seriously hilarious!  Ah, so much can happen in the 15 minutes between study and class. haha  Well I love you all so so so so much!!!  Eu sei que a Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos Santos dos Ultimos Dias é verdadeira!!!!  

Love Always and forever!

Sister Harston