Email #1...

HELLO EVERYONE!!!!!

I cant even express my excitement as i type this email!!! AHHH!!!!!!!! I must openly admit that has been the HARDEST PART, i want to write a letter everyday, call everyday, tell everyone whats happening, now, and now, and now!! Yep, i am emailing at 6 in the morning. We got up at 515 to do our laundry. I don't even know where to start, and they have a little timer in the corner that tells me i only have 24 minutes to get this email sent!!

Okay, so lets start off at day 1. :)
Well there was tearful goodbyes as mom and dad can attest too. Then off i was, with some elders, who took me to the sisters, who then took me to a million buildings that I'm still not sure i know where they are at! Its okay though. At the end of the tour i was taken to my jail cell, (JUST KIDDING) but kinda not.....when i say jail sell it means its the room that I'm going to be stuck in for the next 2 weeks. It can get a little crazy in there at times. I met my district, which is the people we spend ALL of our time with. The elders.....well they are 19 year old boys, but i love them!! they make me laugh, and some of them are admittedly cute. I'm going to test myself on my districts names

Elder Wilkins
Elder Clay
Elder Stevens
Elder Hall
Elder Christensen
Elder Edmunds
Elder Watson
Sister Pierce
Sister Froisland
Sister Buetler(my companion)
AND ME!!

I did it!!

Okay, so day one, we met all of them, we met our teachers, and watched some weird video that was never ending. Then we went to this teaching lesson, were it was like we watched missionaries give a lesson as if there weren't 20 something other missionaries watching them do it, then we got to pretend like we knew what we were doing and talk to the 'investigator' I cant remember much more about day one, all i know is i had a THROBBING headache and just wanted the day to be over!!!

Day 2!! Much better day, i woke up without a headache so that was nice. I cant really remember to much, i know we did a ton of personal study time, in the jail cell, but that's all i can remember.

Okay, well i cant remember each day, they have all blurred so I'm going to stop with the day to day stuff. All i know is i wish that i could tell everyone what I'm doing when I'm doing it. So far in the MTC i have only had a few freak out crying incidents, the 3rd day, when they THREW us into teaching and i freaked out because i didn't feel capable, then i started crying, then the elders were looking at me, and i cried harder because i was embarrassed!! So i had to RUN! Just kidding, but i did run to the bathroom! :) I really am loving it here, i am surprised at myself that i haven't cried everyday about missing you guys!! I miss that love that our family has, that support we have for one another, and i just miss that soooo much, its amazing how weird it is to be with people you don't know after being around such a close family all the time! Saturday night was pretty rough, after i got back from classes and all of this stuff, i realized that Brittney you had said goodbye to your hubby, and i started bawling, that is the one thing that my heart still hurts so much about, i just knew, you were in your room, crying your eyes out and i wish i could be there for you, and i wish i could call you, or text you and just tell you i love you!!!! So here it is too many days later, but just know i was thinking about you and praying SO HARD for you to just feel my love, and i did fast for you on Sunday!!! I LOVE YOU BRITTNEY!!!!! Sunday was so fun, it was a relaxing day, as relaxed as it gets at the MTC. We had a fireside Sunday night and go to sing called to serve, SERIOUSLY THE COOLEST THING EVER!!! when you have that many missionaries singing that, oooohhhhh SOOO COOOLLL, you should YouTube it and see if they have a video of it, because its AWESOME!!! The talks were good, but I'm not going to lie, i was dozing off a lot of it! (GUILTY AS CHARGED)

Yesterday was a seriously up and down day. I felt soooo good in the morning, was ready to give my first lesson at the TRC(which is a place where its like a really missionary tracting situation, and you have to get in the door, and answer questions and give your first lesson) I was so excited for it. I struggled a lot through the day, because me and my companion are not connecting as i wish we were. She is very quiet and a lot of the time i feel like she is just down right mad at me. At the TRC though, she did SOOO AMAZING, she let the spirit come so quickly and quoted Joseph Smith perfectly, it was SOO BEAUTIFUL!! I loved it! I am the senior companion so tonight we are going to talk and i hope to find a way for us to feel closer to one another. Last night i had a little bit of a breaking point, my heart was just so overwhelmed, i didn't know how to let out all the emotions i was feeling and i was just CRYING and doing my hair, and CRYING, anyways, the point is sister pierce is so sweet, she reminds me of you all at home and she made me feel SOO MUCH BETTER!!!

Less than 10 minutes so i better wrap it up!

I am so thankful to be here, I am learning SOOO MUCH!! i am sooo excited to get to Missouri and meet the people there, and CHANGE LIVES!! I am loving being a missionary and i am LOVING the TAG!!! SO AWESOME!! Its crazy how the spirit blesses your life here. I know this gospel is true and i know what i am here to do, and i am excited for heavenly father to mold me into the missionary he wants me to be!! I want to be EXACTLY OBEDIENT to him, and the rules, because the truth is, when you are EXACTLY OBEDIENT you are BLESSED beyond our capacity, and lets just admit, i need it!!

I want to thank EVERYONE for the letters, it was soooo great to get mail the first couple days!! but i didn't get any yesterday, so GET ON TOP OF IT PEOPLE, mail always makes me feel better, i swear!!!!!!

I love you all so much and i cant wait until next Tuesday to send a HUGE email to you again and tell you what happened! I didn't even get into the details of my TRC stuff, and the teaching moments i had, but i have ALL day to write letters, so i will send some in there.

SHOUT OUT: to my adorable nephew BLAKE!!! ONE YEARS OLD!!! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH BLAKE!!!! maybe you'll walk on your birthday instead of be scared. and shout out to BRANDY whose birthday is today, if i wrote it down right. I love you so much sister!!!

I LOVE YOU FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (not sure i could EVER put enough exclamation marks)

WRITE ME!!!

LOVE
SISTER BARNUM!!!

Don't forget to put this on my blog!

LOVE YOU!!