Week 3

Hello Everyone!

Well this is my last day in the MTC! It's exciting and strange at the same time! I can't believe that I'm leaving tomorrow. We have to be out to the busses at 5 in the morning! So early!! It seems like I've lived here at the MTC my entire life... it really is hard to remember anything outside these walls. Except the temple and the exercise fields. Those ever aren't too far outside!

The MTC has been wonderful. I have mixed feelings about leaving! I am super excited to get out to the mission field, but nervous at the same time when I realized that I've commited myself to go out of my wat to talk to everyone I see for the next 18 months. Not only to talk to them, but to talk about religion, a subject that can be difficult out in the bible belt. I'm super excited though, I know it will be great, and hopefully I'll come home with some good stories! I am so excited to see the east coast, and over all just excited. It is time to get out and start working!! It's been a great experience being here though, and it's sad to think that this district that I've spent 10 to 12 hours a day with for the last 3 weeks will no longer exist tomorrow, and we will probably hardly see each other on our missions. We've gotten pretty close. We've also gotten pretty close with the other two districts in the pilot program, which is cool because the majority of the other district is also going to richmond! That makes 16 of us heading out to Richmond tomorrow. We are the largest group in the MTC, and will probably make up nearly one tenth of our mission! Crazy!! So, at least we should see each other some.

Elder Hales came last tuesday night to give our devotional. Three weeks, and one Apostle, I don't think we did too bad, especially since the mission president's are coming in two weeks and we didn't think we would get any while we were here! It was great! He talked a lot about missionary work and really focusing on loving the people. That has been a big emphasis of the pilot program as well! Everyone tells us that the MTC has pretty much shut down the last three weeks and all eyes are on us! We have cameras in our classrooms, and with the right clearance, one can watch us from anywhere in the MTC. They told us that anywhere between 15 and 20 people are watching us at any given time! It's so weird to be the sole focus of the MTC! I really hope that the program is going where they want it to. A lot of people have told us that we already act and think like missionaries so thats good right!! I'm excited to see how things go for us out in the field. I guess as of yesterday though, the program creaters are all locked in a room on BYU campus making revisions, and it will be a number of weeks before they try it again with another group. We really were the ginuea pigs, but I think we will still be good missionaries! I hope anyway. It's amazing to see how much we have changed in the last three weeks. We've all grown a lot.

It was weird to see pictures of Henry in front of my mission office. I can't believe you actually went out there!!! I'm slightly embarrassed. Did you meet my mission pres? I guess I'll find out tomorrow... I had a great birthday, everyone made a big deal out of it, which was kinda embarrassing, but my district is all super wonderful! Well, I need to get around to individual emails, so I guess this is all for the big one.

And, again, if anyone wants longer personal letters, it really is best to writed me, the computer time is so short that I really can just get short emails off, and the more people that email, the shorter they will be. I have been pretty good at responding to letters... just an idea... I know it costs more....

Love you all!!

Sister Boston