MTC, week 2

Hola mi familia!
Greetings from the MTC!

My departure date from the MTC is officially Feb 1. I leave at 4:30 pm and catch a flight to LAX and then a red eye to Guatemala, and get to Guatemala at about 5 am. :)
So... expect a box from me. I'm going to mail home my coat and other winter things, as well as my temple clothes (I can rent).

So now that I have that part done, My routine here at the MTC is getting more regular (just in time to go to a new MTC). We wake up, go to an early AM exercise class, come back and get in our pros (proselyting clothes) and go to the class to study for personal study. Then we go to breakfast and MWFS we go to the gymn, then shower and go back to class (some days we have Hermano Osuna, some days we have Hermano Pepper, and some days we do companion study), then idioma (language) study. Lunch is at 1230 and then class again, dinner is at 6, then class again. Then we plan for the next day and go to bed.
P-day is a lot different. We go to the am exercise class, go get a sack breakfast (b/c we don't have to be in pros) and go and eat it in the room, shower, study and then come and write you. Then we get to go to the temple, then lunch, then comp study, then laundry, then idioma, and then Tues devotional. Then district meeting, then plan and go to bed. :)
I'm learning a lot, though I am not learning as fast as I'd like to. My comps and I get along well. And we have a lot in common.
I'm enjoying this experience, and I'm starting to understand what I'm being told when the maestros talk in Spanish. I hope I get it even better by the end of the week so that I can understand what they say in Guatemala.

Love ya all, and I'll let you know as soon as I do how to reach me in Guatemala. My comps say that Dear Elder works in all the MTCs they think. So if nothing else that will work until I can let you know on my P-day.
My comp says she thinks we can call and tell you that we arrived safely so I may be calling next week(and maybe not maybe someone else will call you).

Love you all
Mem

First week in the MTC

Hola!
The MTC is nothing like I'd expected, but it is very fun I've learned so much and I’ve only been here for almost a week. I have a strange request for you computer savvy people. I want you to write to me using www.dearelder.com It is like e-mailing, but I get a hard copy and since I can get a dear elder any day of the week whereas I can only get on a computer for 30 min on p-day it would make my time more effective if you could. I understand though if you can't make it work.

The MTC has been a very fun experience. Yesterday we had a "scenario" where we made conversation and bore testimony in Spanish. I was able to do it, & I was able to understand most of what they said (I think partly because they spoke slowly). I am part of a trio. My Companions, Hermana Newren and Hermana Atkisson, are both from Utah. Hermana Atkisson is going to Nicaragua and Hermana Newren is going to El Salvador east. We have some great elders in our district and some fun teachers. It was a little bit odd for me to be older and the same age as my teacher. One of the teachers, Hermano Osuna is from Mexico and in Mexico you can go on a mission when you are 18, so he's just recently back and he's only 20. Hermano Pepper has been teaching here for 1.5 years and he's 23 same as me. Today is Tuesday and it is our zone's p-day. We get to go to the temple today and I'm so excited. Hermana Atkisson has some medical stuff that wasn't right on her papers so we have to go to the medical center and we may not make it to the session this week, but we can still do initiatories.

There is so much to do and the longer I'm here the more things I realized I forgot. I forgot to give my address to so many people and I forgot to get so many addresses.
I don't have much time left so I'll say I love you all so much and thank you for your loving support.
Love Mem

PS: I have another 5 min and I imagine my compañeras will use all their minutes so I'll say a little more about the MTC.

The schedule is pretty hectic and there is so much to do all the time. The first three days I felt like I was back in the nursing program with how overwhelmed I felt and how much information I was receiving. But The lord helped me and while I am still receiving so much information every day I am coping a little better, although when the others in my district started getting mail I was a little bit jealous, I’ll admit.

The language I'm doing OK at but I'm struggling a bit on the grammar but it'll come with time. My goal is to be able to understand most of what people say to me by the time I leave the MTC and to be able to communicate what I want to others as well by using my own words and not memorized phrases.
GTG



Note from Dani: Mem said in an aside note to me that she could email family from the MTC, but she has to "snail mail" anyone who's not family. I'm waiting to hear back weather I can post her ldsmail address on here or not. :)
But in the meantime, ya'll can send her letters through dearelder, and you won't have to spend a stamp. :)

About "dearelder.com"... Memorie can receive your letters almost immediately through dearelder, while in the Provo MTC and it is free (no stamps)! Once she goes to South America, her letters should go out pouch mail, once a week. And it's still free through dearelder. :) ---I believe I got that all correct... I tried to learn it all from the website. If anyone knows differently let me know and I can change this...

Additional Note: For those of you like me who read blogs with a reader, Mem created a side bar on her blog that has her mailing addresses listed on it. The current one is this:
Sister Memorie Sue Allen
MTC Mailbox #259
ELS-SANW 0317
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

MAJOR UPDATE!

Wow, so I just realized that I haven't updated what I'm doing since May.
Well I decided to serve an LDS mission, and I report to the Provo MTC on January 12th of 2011. I will be serving in the El Salvador San Salvador West/Belize Mission Spanish speaking. I will be in the MTC in Provo for 3 weeks then I go to the MTC in Guatamala for 6 weeks. I plan on posting my addresses on here as well as on Facebook. I also hope to get my mom or sister to maybe post e-mails I send them (probably mass e-mails) on here, but we'll see. I know I would love to recieve mail from all.
I'm so excited to go and spread the Good News!
IN a more family related news update, Ben has decided to get married, and will be getting married this Saturday, they will be having their reception in January so that those of their friends who are in school can come. He's marrying Monique Langford, who is a native of San Antonio Texas. We are so excited to welcome her to the family.

Merry Christmas, yesterday LOL

So yesterday we got about three inches of snow at home. Wonderful, as long as I forgot it is supposed to be spring. I really do like snow, but I'm ready to plant a garden, weed, water harvest and all that stuff. And Dad would really like to be in the fields, but we get snow/rain, then it melts and is almost dry enough to get into the fields when it rains/snows again. Don't get me wrong, I am very grateful for the moisture, but it'd be nice to have to crops into the ground before June. So yesterday I felt like I should be singing 'walkin' in a winter wonderland' and other not really christmas/but winter songs.
But today it is bright and sunny, and I could almost pretend that it is warm. The grass is green, and the trees are starting to bud out. Today it feels a little like early spring. : ) Yeay for spring!

Pick my self back up...

So my last update is already out of date. On Friday my position with TVH was eliminated, and as of Friday I am no longer employed, which means I get the joy of starting the job application process all over again. I'm doing alright, I guess mostly I'm just frustrated. Just when things were going well, I have to start over again. So onward and forward I go... :)

Workin'

Hey y'all I'm a bit lax on my blogging, but that's mostly 'cause I have a job, and other than that I think my life is pretty dull. But here is a real quick update on me.
I'm living at home, helping mom out, and savings money on rent, while I am working at TVH in the PACU(post anesthesia care unit). I am loving it. For me it is kind of like working in the ER 'cause you see the patient, take care of them, then send them home or send them to the floor. Total time with one patient is less than 6 hours. I think I like it so much because it changes so much, and I, oddly enough, like variety when I work. I keep telling myself that maybe I really do like change in general, but I still haven't convinced me. (strange side note). Hmm, what else, Oh yeah, I cut my hair. Chopped it of to the chin. its great, a little anoying 'cause it doesn't pin back real well, but the amount of shampoo I use has dramatically decreased, and it is great to have a change. I think I might need another change in a little while, I'll have to think up what I can do to change up my life a little (like rearrange my room, or redo the walls or something.)
My mom has been doing spring cleaning, and she has this kick that she'd like her house to loose some weight, but all we've really done is talk about it. We started with the upstairs closet, but I don't think anything has left yet. I need to go through the books and thin out the ones that no one reads, but before that I need to clean my room and make my closet loose some weight. I have stuff in there that doesn't fit, or I never wear that I really do just need to get rid of. I heard a great idea the other day how to figure out which clothes you never wear. Turn all your hangers around so they are the "wrong" way (bear with me you OCD nut), then as you wear the items of clothing from the closet, turn the hanger the "right" way and by the end of a pre-determined amount of time you will know what clothes you never wear (think ok when I get out my spring/summer wardrobe I'll do this, and when fall comes I'll know which clothes are just taking up space.) genius.
Alright, so that's enough rambling. That foray into my mind was probably more than you really wanted, but there it is.
I think that was rather therapeutic. I may have to ramble on here again soon.

Turkey, Greece and Egypt on the Norwegian Jade

Mom and I recently returned from our 11 day cruise to Turkey, some of the Greek Isles and Egypt. The flight over was relatively uneventful, and when we arrived in Istanbul it was about 530 pm. We finally got through customs, and got on the shuttle to take us to the Jade and arrived at the Jade at about 9 pm. We were exhausted, but we signed up for our shore excursions and are dinner, and then went to bed. The next morning we went on a tour of Istanbul. We started with the Blue Mosque, or the Mosque of Sultan Ahmet. It is the only mosque that has 6 minarets. It was beautiful. It is called the blue mosque because of the large number of hand painted tiles on the interior using predominantly the same shade of blue, and making the inside seem to be mostly blue. It was beautiful and impressive. Then we went to the Topakapi palace. It was the residence of the Sultans of turkey for hundreds of years, and we got to tour through the Harem, and the treasure rooms. The kitchen was under renovations, so we didn't get to see it. In the Harem we saw the same hand painted tiles that decorated the inside of the blue mosque and got some really cool close up pics of the tiles. The walls were covered with these tiles. We also saw the treasure room, and all the riches of the sultans that are in there, including the dagger, and this diamond that was about the size of my fist. We also saw a whole lot of other jewels and jewel encrusted all sorts of things. Then we had the opportunity to go to the grand Bazaar. The bazaar is a large building that has hundreds of shops in it. All of the shops are very small. About 8 feet across, and 10 feet deep, so full of merchandise there is barely room to walk. All of them are selling things and call out, "Hey lady, buy a nice peshmina scarf/hand painted pottery/purse/bag/jewelry/etc, best price!" One scarf seller proceeded to use me as a model for his scarves in an effort to sell mom on the idea of buying one after she told him, "I don't wear scarves." "Then as gift." he says and ties scarf after scarf around my neck, finally topping my head with a hat for the picture. We laughed and finally worked our way through the maze of shops back to the bus that took us to the ship for departure. We took some time on deck to pose for pictures, as we were between two continents. The one side is Asia, the other is Europe.
The next day we were up ridiculously early and watched them dock the boat in Izmir, and then we made our way on a tour to Ephesus, and a carpet weaving place. Both were very cool. Ephesus is the ruins of an ancient city that was a thriving Roman city. The library has been reconstructed using as much original material as possible, and the marble paved streets have been excavated out to be able to be walked on. They had a water system running under their public toilets which effectively was a flushing system. There are 40 something side by side holes! Pretty impressive. We also stood in the theater where the apostle Paul taught the Ephesians. Then we went to the carpet weaving school where we learned how they get silk from the silk worms, how they dye the threads with natural dye, and how they weave carpets, as well as we saw hundreds and hundreds of hand woven carpets with brilliant colors. They were beautiful and soft and $150+. Less expensive than any you'll find in the states, but still more expensive than any of us could afford.
Our next port was Myconos. Myconos was built with narrow maze like streets to confuse the pirates that used to plague the Island. The streets certainly were maze like, and confusing to these two tourists, but it was a beautiful place, and the colors of the buildings were stunning. The buildings were painted white, with blue shutters, and doors. There were a few shutters and doors painted a green color, or a yellow color, but mostly blue. That shade of blue is believed to ward off evil, so it is used quite readily. We played in the Mediterranean sea there, and the blues in that sea are stunning.
Our next port was Santorini. Santorini is an island that is shaped like a crescent moon. It was a volcano that erupted and much of the volcano fell off into the sea. The volcano is still present on an island across the way. The bay where the Jade stopped was so deep it was impossible to lower the anchor. We stayed in place by using the jets that maneuver the ship. And we were ferried to shore aboard ships which they called tenders. The dock sits at the base of a very steep cliff that stairs have been carved into. Older houses were carved into the cliff face. We were ferried ashore to the dock where we had three options, ride a donkey to the top, where the town was, ride the tram, or walk. The donkey was 5 euros, the tram 4. The distance, about a mile. We were informed of an earlier planned departure than was scheduled because of an impending storm that they believed would shut down the tram. We chose to ride the tram up, and wander around the town for a while. We had planned to go to the beach, but with our time cut short we didn't think we could make it. Besides that it was rather windy and cloudy which made it a bit chilly if you were wet. It was a shame really, I would have liked to see the black sand beaches.
That night we had 4-7 foot swells. Mom woke up really tight. That day we were on Crete. We went to Knossos. The ruins of the ancient Minoan civilization, which is believed to have met its end by a natural disaster, namely the eruption of the volcano at Santorini. They had some really big pottery and there were some reconstructions of what the palace would have looked like. The minotaur gets its start here.
The next day was our day at sea, then we went to Alexandria. Our tour group picked us up and we had a whirl wind tour of Egypt that day and the next. We visited Giza where we saw the tomb at Saqqara, the first pyramid to be built, then we went to great Pyramid where we rode camels, and got to touch the pyramids, and see them up close, then we went and saw the Spinx. Where mom was offered 10 thousand camels for me. That night we had a Nile cruise, which was a bit of a disappointment, and we stayed at the Sheraton that night. The next day bright and early we went to the citadel, where we visited another mosque, and then we went to the Cairo museum. The mosque was impressive, but like the rest of Egypt in dire need of a good cleaning, and the museum was like no other I have ever been in. The museum was almost like a warehouse, with Egyptian artifacts scattered through the whole thing. There were sarcophagus in the middle of the floor with no rope or glass or anything exept a sign every so often saying, please don't touch. The museum needs updated, and there are supposedly plans for a new museum, but I don't see that happening at any fast rate. Egypt over all, very dirty, and I came back to the ship smelling horrid.
The next day we were at sea, and lazed about the ship all day, the next day we were in Katakalon. We rode the train to the ancient site of Olympia. We were told the museum didn't open until 130, but we later found out that it had opened earlier even though the sign said Mondays 130. The archeological site was cool, and we got pictures next to some really cool stuff. The pillars are huge, I got a picture of mom standing next to a section of a fallen one. It is wider across than she is tall.
The next stop was Napthlion, but we got hit with some type of Egyptian bug that mom was afraid to get off the ship and be ferried to port, so we just looked at the island from the ship, and we watched them put the ferry boats back on board at the end of the day.
The next day we disembarked in Piraeus where we took a taxi to Athens to our hotel. We then explored a bit of Athens. We saw the acropolis, the theater of Dionysus, the Accropolis museum, currently only 1 euro, and the temple of Zeus. Then we went to bed woke up really early and flew home.
We arrived in Jackson hole more than 24 hours later, and subsequently crashed in our beds, ready to sleep for a day. We had a blast, and enjoyed our time together. We also had a marvelous vacation, and came back ready to get to work preparing the house for the Holidays, after we had recovered from Jet Lag that is. :D