Gladwell, Ava

Hallo Friends and Family! I made it to the mission field this week! On Tuesday morning, all of the missionaries going to Germany rode a bus to the Manchester Airport. From there, we flew to Frankfurt where we split off to go to our respective missions. My group then flew into Munich where we met our mission president and his wife. We had some pizza for dinner and then rode to the church. They told us who our trainers would be and where we would be serving. I found out that I would be serving with Sister Carter in Salzburg, Austria! We also found out that we would be opening the area for Sisters! We spent the night in the mission home, and I ended up spending an extra day in Munich. It happened that some Elders in Munich would be driving to Salzburg on Thursday, and it would be a lot cheaper just to hitch a ride with them. It was so difficult to say goodbye to all of the friends that I had made at the MTC! However, I did meet Sister Carter right before we said our goodbyes, so that s...

Hallo Friends and Family! This will be my last email from the MTC. Next week, I'll be in the field! This week was a lot more eventful!  Last Friday, I bought a giant chocolate egg just for fun, and I busted it out in the middle of class. It was eaten really fast, so I didn't have to worry about eating the entire thing. The entire week was filled with learning German again. Our teacher actually had us do an "English fast" in which we couldn't speak English for the entire day. I survived it by not speaking as much and saying "sehr gut" a lot. It was really difficult, but our teacher got us McFlurries, so I'd say it was worth it. Even though I've made a lot of progress with German, I don't feel ready to go to Germany. However, I have the faith that everything will be alright. For P day today, we went to Chorley again. I bought some more chocolate to add to my stash, and we walked through a really beautiful park. There was actually a little zi...

Hallo Friends and Family! I have finished another week at the MTC! It honestly wasn't a super eventful week because it was mainly filled with learning German. German is a lot more different from English than I originally thought! There is so much to learn, but I've felt like I've been able to learn things beyond my natural abilities. The Gift of Tongues is real! I haven't been able to magically speak the language perfectly or been able to understand everything, but I have learned new things much faster than I have ever before! I still have a long way to go, but I'm feeling optimistic about learning German. This week Sister Swenson and I took a walk along the canal, and it was so beautiful! Everything is so green here! We actually got a little lost on the way back to the MTC, but we said a prayer and we had the feeling that we were not going down the right path. We turned around and found our way back, so I'm really grateful for that! I also got to get to kn...

Hallo Friends and Family! I had another great week at the MTC! Spring is coming, so all the plants around the MTC are starting to bloom. Two geese have settled around the pond, and we've decided to name them Laman and Lemuel. However, I don't think that they are actually both males. They are a little aggressive though, so we thought the names fit. We started going more in depth into German grammar and vocabulary this week, and it was so difficult! It still is difficult, but I'm determined to keep trying and keep learning. We had an appointment this week with our German teacher who was pretending to be an investigator. The entire appointment was in German, so Sister Swenson and I kept on staring blankly at our teacher and asking her to repeat what she said. It was really awkward haha!  We spent most of the day today in the temple. We did a session of endowments in the morning. In the afternoon, we did baptisms for Elder Çelik's ancestors. He told us that he got his ...