Gettin' "swoll" spiritually and physically...at least I think!

So, officially 2 weeks:) I'm oh so happy to be out of the "freshman" stage and now am movin' on up the hierarchical ladder of "missionarial" society.  It's getting coder here-twice we've had a little dandruff flakes of snow in the wee hours of the morning when we get breakfast. Well, sometime last week (I have absolutely no foal point when it come to time in here-yesterday was four weeks ago and this morning was tomorrow-that makes no sense, but neither does time in the MTC:) anyhoozles, the wife of Elder Russell M. Nelson kcame and talked to us which was super cool, Sister Bonnie Oscarson spoke at Relief Society on Sunday, and we've had various speakers of prestige come to speak to us, but I'm still crossing my fingers:)  Yesterday, Elder Hoseas' mom sent us all individual bags of candy-I wrote her a thank you card whilst dying of "cuteness".

On Saturday my comp and I cleaned the showers in the Girls Residence-never before have I been privy to that amount of hair in such large quantities and variations; truly, a life-changing experience that I never needed to have, but I cannot regain my innocence, so I might as well volunteer to clean them again this week to preserve the naivety of the incoming sisters.  I forgot how much I love to vacuum. We have a new onderzoeker (investigator) and a new teacher.  The new teacher is our old onderzoeker and our present teacher is our new onderzoeker; I can understand 99% of what the investigator says, but when it comes time for me, I start going off in German/Nederlands.

So, apparently it's a "thing" where the elders sing Disney songs in their residences and I guess some of the elders in my district were feeling less than qualified because they asked me to write down the lyrics to "Under the Sea", so that's that.

We went to the temple last Wednesday and get to go again today which his amazing and wonderful to be in a session with people your age; it's awesome to see them in the temple and then afterwards, knowing that they were with you.  I've always felt my best after being in the temple. No matter how blah I feel/think I look before a session, I'm always amazed at how wonderful I feel and (think) I look afterwards-there is literally a physical change in one's appearance. Speaking of temples, mom, so exciting about your going with Esther to the temple-I think my favorite part about what you said was that almost all of you were together in the celestial room and that you were all the way you first knew each other, as brothers and sisters (does that make sense?)  Thanks for the cookies; they were so ah-mazing, I did share but I'm starting to wish I hadn't:) oh well, main goals at the MTC: learn Dutch, become awesome teachers, and not gain weight, so I suppose sharing is the only way it'll work *shrug*

I love going to the gym and I think I'm (finally) getting acclimated to running in this altitude (that's been my excuse for running so slowly). Anyway, I'll lift weights here and there. The piece de resistance, however, is the illusion of lifting.  Let me elaborate.  Choose a machine, preferably one that's pretty well seen by everyone, do your normal lifting with the correct amount of weight making sure that others around you see that you're on that machine, then when you're done, adjust the weight every so slightly (I usually move it from like 60 lbs to around 180) and then wipe down the machine and leave.  You can only imagine the confusion that comes to the unsuspecting elder when he approaches the machine, assuming that he's going to have to add a ton of weight to it because a weak zuster just got off it, only to as subtlety and nonchalantly as possible (mogelijk) adjust the weight.  I don't know, that's just how I get my kicks.

I've heard several times now the joke "What's the difference between the MTC and prison?  In prison, you get visitors":)  I'm having an amazing time-my favorite part of the day is when we have personal study for an hour.  I've been reading various scriptures from PMG (Preach My Gospel, Missionary Handbook), about Christ in the BOM (Book of Mormon) and I am growing to love love love reading them and finding all the scriptures that allude to missionaries/missionary work.  I've never really loved my scriptures more than I have these past two weeks.  One scripture that I've really come to love is Acts 2:27 (Look at the footnote!)  Anyway, the Gospel is true and everything you need to know is found in the scriptures!  I think almost every page in  my BOM has some marking on it now:) 

Ik weet dat God onze helmelse Vader is en dat hij waar is, Hij houdt van ons en Jezus Christus is onze Heland en Verlosser. Hij leed voor onze zonden sodat wij kunnen to Hem terugkeren. Dis evangelie is waar en ich ben heel dankbar dak ik en zeningling kun zijn. 

Have an amazing week (Mom, sorry about no pictures, I PROMISE next week).  I love you all!  In the words of Bill and Ted: "Be excellent to each other!"

Tot ziens!
Zuster Do(e)bler:)