She made it!

Hola familia!

Wow, I´ve already been here for a week in Panama and you haven´t heard anything...you have no idea how many things I have to tell you. I don´t know where to begin. Padres, I sent you a letter my first day but I don´t think you´ll get it for a couple weeks. Mail´s slow here. Before I forget, here´s my address (please pass along):

Hermana Allison Brewster
Misión Panamá
Carrasquilla, Entrega General, A.P. 0834
Panama, Republica de Panama

We´ve been asked to tell our families and friends not to send food because they get angry...don´t know why...but please don´t send food. Also, to make sure they don´t open up packages, cover them with pictures of the virgin Mary or Jesus or else they´ll get opened up. (This advice comes directly from the mission office. I don´t get it either.)
So anyway, please stay in touch!
Now...back to the good stuff...

It´s going to be hard to go into detail right now but I´ll explain a few things as fast as I can. Basically here´s what I can tell you so far: this first week has been absolutely LOCO. And guess what? My trainer, Hermana Tracy, is a GRINGA just like me! (well her mom´s from san jose, but she speaks english and everything.) I was actually really grateful for that on Wednesday when I met her because I was feeling pretty sickly that day (the details of which are included in my letter home to you, but suffice it to say that I might be known as ´´girl who threw up in parking garage.¨´ That´s all i´ll tell you.) Anyway, no one else had a companion who spoke their language, so i don´t know what the grand plan is here but for my first area, i´m really grateful for that. And she´s a sweetheart too. I´ve learned so much from here in just a few days.

As for my Spanish....well, the people here do in fact talk at a machine gun pace. But I´m getting better! I even get some compliments about how well I understand (i fool them all. lots of head nods and grins.). But I´ve had a lot of things happen for my first week that I wasn´t expecting. Our very first lesson we commited our investigator, Domitilla, to baptism. Apparently she´s been asked a few times but didn´t say yes until then. I was pretty floored. Hna Tracy was too. It was a neat experience. i wish i had more time to go into detail!

We´ve taught a lot of lessons with members so far, too, but i think my favorite was when we taught an evangelical family last night and they started chanting ¨hallelujah¨ during the opening prayer...all these new experiences for me...I´ll have to write a really long letter home to give you a better idea :).

Also...guess who was asked to speak in sacrament meeting for her first Sunday? YUP. I couldn´t stop laughing when they asked me because i think went all right. A lot of people said they understood me, so hey...that´s a start.

Remind me in my next letter to tell you about all the individual people I´ve met here. There are some great characters. My favorite is a toothless old man who strongly reminds me of Morgan Freeman...his name is Eddie Berto and every time he sees us walk by he´ll be sitting on his porch and wave his cane at us--like an old Panamanian President Hinckley or something. The people here are so great! and i´m never going to starve because every five minutes someone is handing me a fresh plate of rice or fruit. Those are the staples here.

The food's good, the weather´s hot and the work is going! That´s all I really have time to tell you for now (which is a shame) but thanks again for your support, prayers and love. >please keep em coming!

love,
Hna. Brewster

One week left in the MTC

Oh, mi querida familia!

Muchísimas gracias for ALL of your letters, e-mails, packages and countless prayers. And bien hecho with catching on to dearelder.com! Madre, estoy muy orgullosa. I want so badly to be able to write you all back sheets and sheets but there's a slight back up...it may be a while. Know that I love you all very much, though, and I adore your letters and hearing about your lives.

Padre, I have to apologize for what I'm sure must have been a brief heart attack when you got a phone call from "Maria at the MTC Health Clinic" on Friday (this is why I had them call you and not Mom). Basically, I am fine. That old scar on my eye was irritated because it's been so dry here, so I've just been wearing my glasses for the past week. No te preocupes! I did, however, get to venture out into the real world on Friday since they wanted an eye doctor to check up on me, and that was quite a thrill for both my companion and me. ("Whooooa....houses....a street light....people running in short shorts..." thoughts like so.) That "real world" is just around the corner for us, too! We got our TRAVEL PLANS last Thursday!!! We'll be leaving on the 23rd (next Tuesday) at about 8 or 9 in the morning from the SLC airport. We have a few hours in Georgia before we hit Panama. It's going to be loco! That probably means you'll get to hear from me that morning...but Mom is leaving to Portland that day, huh? Ooh...maybe I'll see her at the airport after all (was that her plan all along? Mother...). Anyway, as far as my stuff goes, there's a service here called postmart that will call you to come pick up a box of my stuff after I leave. It's free, so don't worry about it. But yeah, keep Tuesday morning open and make sure you're awake! I don't know exactly when I'll get to call but it'll be sometime that day...vague enough?

So this is my FINAL WEEK at the MTC. And let me tell you, it's a busy one. This is our teaching week, which means we're running around scheduling appointments to teach other missionaries, teachers and "investigators" at the TEC. Estamos ocupados.

Oh yeah, and here's something fun: guess who gets to do a teaching demo for the new missionaries tomorrow? My companion and me! Our teachers recommended us (for some reason unbeknownst to me. Punishment? Perhaps I laugh too much in class...) Anyway, we get to be the first impression of missionary work for all these young ones coming in tomorrow. I remember on my first day thinking, "Man...I'm glad that's not me up there." And now....well, you see. But it should be an interesting experience :).

On a different note, I have a nickname here: "prayer girl." This is because I was the one who got to give the closing prayer at the MTC fireside on Sunday. There are some great perks with that--you get to sit up on the stands, meet the MTC presidency and the speaker (Brother Heaton--he's in charge of facilities here) and look out at the entire crowd of missionaries. It's a pretty cool experience to hear them all sing "We'll bring the world His truth" and have a front row seat. Anyway, since I gave the prayer, random missionaries have been pointing at me and exclaiming things like, "Hey! It's the prayer girl!" to which I wave my hand and bow. (Not really.) I am a celebrity. What can I say.

Anyway this is a bittersweet week. I won't gush on and on about my district and my teachers again but know that it's going to be a difficult separation. But I know that Panama is soon to be my favorite place and I'm going to love those people immensely. Our teachers always remind us of the sacredness of our call and I want to be sure I don't take that lightly. It's humbling.

Wow...not much time left. And this is my last p-day...I'm trying to think if there's anything else I need to tell you before I go...hmm...keep writing and praying! You should have my address already (though I'm not sure when that takes effect). If there's anything else, I'll include it in a special card for a special mother of mine who's having a special day this weekend...(you know of whom I speak).

Lastly, thank you so much for all of your support--EVERYONE. I know I have the best family, friends and neighbors. I love you all MUCHISIMO.

Gotta go prep!

paz.

con cariño,

Hermana Allison Brewster

So close to saying adios

hola familia1 (this keyboard has some technical issues--as always--so i apologize)

first of all, angie and caden you are possibly my heroes. thank you so much for the package111 (1=excl. mark) i can't begin to tell how much i loved the pictures, especially11 some will be coming your way soon... i wish i could hug you. muchisimas gracias. also, i got a valentine from ella (i understand the postage delay :) ) and loved that as well. oh mi familia...

all right, so i don't have much time and the inability to capitalize any letters right now is extremely frustrating, so i will try to move fast. i am down to my final two weeks. loco. i'm actually starting to get a little nostalgic about the prospect of leaving my district and my teachers...if you only knew how great they were. i know i'm definitely not pro at spanish yet, but i feel like i'm collecting more of the building blocks each day to be able to say what i want with relative ease. listening to a native spanish speaker, however, is a different story entirely.

this past saturday night when we taught an "investigator" (volunteer) at the trc, she was from honduras and i can tell you that i have never strained my ears more in my life. first of all, my teacher had to split up hna. graham and me because they didn't have enough investigators, so i had to teach with two of our elders (unique experience...a little unorthodox...lots of fun). anywho, we had this lady from honduras named mathilde and she sure had the ability to talk in such a way that i was certain it was just one long word. but i was able to catch the gist of most of what she was saying and reply back to her at least satisfactorily (i think...). luckily for me i have one of those faces that says more than my words do. so a lot of the time was spent intently staring at her, hoping my eyes would magically communicate my thoughts. i think it worked :). but that was a great experience and it got me excited for the field. i'm sure i'm going to be force fed a lot of humble pie when i get there and realize i'm not as proficient as i'd like to think...but i look forward to it.

we've had a really busy week. we got another new district, this time with 4 new hermanas, so we are now officially the "older" hermanas. we've been able to impart of our vast 7-week knowledge and i feel pretty proud of that. on fast sunday almost all of the sisters got up to bear their testimonies (myself included). i was proud of the new hermanas. they don't know much spanish yet but they got up anyway. it's pretty cool how you don't necessarily have to understand the words to understand the meaning. as one of our teachers put it yesterday, "does the spirit know spanish? he does. a lot better than you do." (this wasn't a slam against us, he was just making a point about the power of the spirit in testifying truths despite language barriers. good point, no?)

oh mi bondad...there is always so much to say and so little time (and too many frustrating keyboards in my life). we've learned a lot about panama in the last week because one of our sub teachers served there. he says we can basically get any food we want and that rarely do you get sick if ever. i have heard so many different things, so i'm not sure what to believe, but i guess i'll find out in two weeks1 here are a few things that everyone says: 1. it's beautiful 2. it's hot and 100% humid (see ya, straightener) 3. the people are wonderful 4. i am going to love it. that's good enough for me. weird to think i only get to email you one more time before i leave. loco. to all of you who have send me letters, emails, pictures (thank you jamie :) ) and the like, i can't begin to say thank you enough. i love hearing from all of you. i'm tyring to catch up with my correspondence but i think i'll forever be behind. but know that i love you with all my little corazon and i'm thinking about you (when i am permitted :) ). i should be getting my travel plans this week and i am pumped1 expect a letter in the mail...

love and thanks again,

hermana brewster :)

Getting busy with Spanish teaching

Hey fam,

I hardly have any time at all to e-mail you all today because I had to set up a new e-mail account (they're moving ldsmail over to gmail) and that ate up much of my time. Just so y'all know, my new email is allison.brewster@myldsmail.net.

Okay, moving on. I don't know what to tell you all except that I only have 3 WEEKS left in the MTC! Crazy sauce. A part of me is really excited and a part of me knows I'm going to miss my district and my teachers immensely, so it's sort of a bittersweet thing at present. But I'm ready for it...well, all right, I could stand to be a little more ready than I am. But I'm working on it.

We've been teaching entire lessons in Spanish now and I can tell you that I have learned to appreciate the struggle that goes into learning a language. Gone are the days of rapid Gilmore Girl-ish banter; I now have to rely on simple, slow phrases. It's a trial for me to not be able to express myself so easily, but it's been a huge blessing as well. I've learned that I can't be afraid to make a fool out of myself. I'll tell ya, I've had to swallow so much pride here that it's a wonder I'm not choking to death. En serio. But here's the comforting thing: this is what I was called to do, so it might start out weak and simple and first but hopefully it will become a strength one of these days. I have about 16.5 months to see.

I feel like I don't ask enough questions about home and I'm sorry about that. I've heard from a few of you (thank you for that) but I'm still in the dark about the majority...what's going on in your lives? Honestly, people--DEARELDER.COM. That is the way to go. And it's free. And I get your letters same day (most of the time). Also, if I may through in another plug here, PLEASE SEND ME PICTURES. Cheap, printed off the comp on regular paper pictures will do. I'm just forgetting what you all look like. And I just might send you some pictures of me in return...we shall see.

I wish I could tell you all the great things I get to do and learn here daily but it's just a blur in my mind and I wouldn't even know where to start. Just know that I know this gospel's true. I'm given evidence of that every day. I love being here. In fact, I might love it a little too much. Not sure missionaries should have this much fun.

As always, I love you all and I'm extremely grateful for your support and your prayers. Be happy!

con cariño,

Hermana Allison Brewster

The Spanish is taking over

Sent February 23, 2010

FAMILIA!

Como estan? (i am not using the proper accentuation, but oh well. this keyboard is no muy bueno.)

Well let me just quickly give another plug for dearelder.com as a way of sending me letters because though i thoroughly enjoy reading all of your emails, it ate up 10 minutes of my writing time today, so DEARELDER.COM! I'll get the letters same day.

Well Fam, this has been a pretty big week for me. On Sunday I participated in a musical number for the ENTIRE Relief Society--it was a pretty big deal. I, your daughter/sister/aunt/whatever, was the official PAGE-TURNER for my amazingly talented companion on the piano. Yes. Be proud. I did a good job. Two whole pages. And Janice Kapp Perry was the guest speaker that day and I know I wowed her with my amazing page-turning capabilities. (I really hate this keyboard...)

Also, on Sunday I was called upon to speak in our zone sacrament meeting. here's how it works: every week we are given a topic that we prepare a 5-minute talk IN SPANISH about. This week's was "learning through faith." They don't announce who's speaking until sacrament meeting starts, so you don't know beforehand if you're speaking. well guess who the lucky winner was Sunday? THIS HERMANA. It was an interesting experience. I'm not entirely sure it was grammatically correct, but what made me feel good was that people told me my personality still comes through in Spanish :). Good sign, eh?

We've started teaching lessons in Spanish too and i have to say that i prefer it to English. It's so much easier to be simple and to the point in a language where you're limited by your vocab.

Anywho, I am still loving it here. Sorry if you're sick of hearing that, but that's my continual feeling. One month from today i will be in PANAMA! It's sort of bittersweet, though, because i do really love the people here. But of course I'll love the people in Panama too.

We've really been focusing on developing charity for this past week as a zone and i can tell you that i've seen some pretty amazing examples of it here. Last week one of our Hermanas was having a pretty crummy day. At dinner she was standing at the end of the line and refused to move to the head (which is something the mtc pres said elders should allow sisters to do). Well one elder who had just finished getting his meal walked up to her and said, "Sister, since you won't move to the front of the line, here--take my tray." Then he handed her his food and hopped right back into line again. It was a really simple thing but I think it profoundly impacted her entire week. I know it impacted mine. I'm so proud of that Elder! Doesn't take too much to be a disciple of Christ.

I have to say that I love forgetting about myself (which sounds selfish...hmm..what a paradox...). But that's the emphasis here. I can't wait until I get to actually teach real live people (who haven't heard the gospel before, of course...we practice on people who have). I know i've said that before.

(Sorry for the many typographical errors but as I said, this keyboard is truly testing my patience this very early tuesday morning. Satan starts early.)

One of these days i'll write entirely in Spanish or something. We'll see :).

Keep sending me news and PICTURES, POR FAVOR! I love hearing from all of you (remember dearelder.com).

Thanks for the prayers! I love you all.

love,

Hna. Allison Brewster

p.s. please forward to friends :)

A little love package from home

Sent February 16, 2010

Hey Fam,

I'm mixing things up a little and trying to get the e-mailing out of the way first thing in the morning. We're doing laundry right now and I'm not totally coherent, so this might be interesting.

First of all, thanks so much for the Valentine's package! We had a lot of fun decorating those cookies last night and I was able to share the Valentines with my district on Sunday (you're helping me to make friends--thank you). Anyway, I'm sorry I couldn't send you something in return....except for my love :) (that was intentionally cheesy.)

I have to say, probably my favorite part about last week was getting Valentines from Annie and Logan and a letter from CADEN. Totally took me by surprise and it made my week! I have the best nieces and nephews. I want Annie to know that I wore my little bracelet proudly and I decorated my notebook with the Cars stickers Logan gave me :). So cute. Thanks, Campbells! I hope all of you had a good Valentine's Day. They showed "Legacy" on Valentine's night (romantic, eh?) and I can tell you that watching that movie with around 1500 missionaries was a thrill. At every kissing scene there was gasps, oohs and ahs. (One sister even said, "What is this RATED?") Everyone was joking, of course. But still funny.

I was actually sick this past week, which wasn't very fun at all. Don't worry too much about it, Mom. It wasn't that bad. Just something akin to be punched in the face by Satan...but it wasn't too bad. I'm feeling much better now. I think it was just my turn to have the illness that's beset our entire zone, so I'm glad it's out of the way.

Things are going well with my classes and studying. We're really vamping it up with our Spanish speaking. Yesterday the district had a goal to speak entirely in Spanish for the whole day. That was quite an experience. It was more like Spanish-ish with a whole lot of made up sign language in between, but I have to hand it to us--we did pretty well. Even though we still have a long way to go, it's amazing to think about how much we've learned in 4 weeks. We're going to start teaching our "progressing investigators" (a.k.a. our teachers masquerading as progressing investigators) this week in Spanish. The nice thing about that is that teaching in a different language is very simple. You can only really get to the point. This should be fun, though.

Tomorrow our district's been asked to be host missionaries for the incoming missionaries. How weird is that? It's like I'm a veteran now or something. Been here for four weeks and suddenly I know everything...my how the time does fly. Hopefully I don't get those new missionaries lost. I realized that living here is a bit like being a hamster in a cage: we've got our tunnels carved out for us, they give us a little space for exercise, regular feeding times and we're always cleaning the cage...sometimes it's funny to me. Okay, it's always funny to me. But I enjoy it.

In other mission news, Hna. Graham and I went to the Referral Center last week and I spoke to my first real live investigator over the phone. His name was Kenny and he was from Texas. We chatted for about 15 minutes and he told me all about how he wanted to give the church a try but was just too busy to have the missionaries over. He said he'd try to attend church on Sunday though, which was at least a start. It was cool talking to him at any rate. He sounded like a good guy and I hope he finds what he's looking for. I'm looking forward to when I get to talk to more real people...in Panama!

Well fam, that's all I've got for now. I hope you're all doing well and that you somehow remember to send me those pictures I so desperately long to have...:). I love you all.

Love,

Hermana Allison Brewster

p.s. Mom and Dad--do you forward my e-mails? I'm never exactly sure who gets these.

p.p.s. Angie, could you do me a small favor? Tomorrow (the 17th) is Sadie Feller's birthday and I don't have her address. Could you drop her a line on facebook from me? Thanks :) By the way, you're the best.

MTC work continues

Sent February 2, 2010

Oh mi querida familia,

MUCHíSIMAS GRACIAS for the package!!! Angie, Mom -- you are saints, truly.

Those shoes, Ang--you have no idea how much I needed them! And I might say

they are pretty stylin'. Madre- gracias for the the "shopping list." That

will indeed come in handy! What a spoiled missionary I am to be able to

write to home and have my requests granted within a couple days. Sheesh! I

like this mission thing :).

From what I heard from Dad, Mom and Angie (the rest of the family is

MIA--not missing me yet, eh?) things are going well! Glad to hear that Dad

still bought me a donut on Saturday morning. That's touching :). You can

just give it to Maggie, you know. The other me. (inside family story--check out Allison's blog for the story here)

Aside from Utah basketball

games and the like, what else is new with the fam? Padre-I'm glad to hear

you got to listen to Elders Packer and Nelson the other night. That's

awesome! We haven't had any member of the 12 or First Presidency yet, but

we have had a member of the presidency of the seventy. It's been good so

far. I think someone backed out of the devotional for Sunday night because

the MTC president said we were going to be doing an impromptu "sing-a-long"

devotional. A few lucky missionaries were able to request that their

favorite songs be sung by everyone. That was neat.

Man oh man, I tell you...there is just a never ending supply of things to

learn here. I have to say, there definitely was a part of me that was

convinced this would all come easily to me and I'd just be a natural but boy

has the humility hit me. I have such a deep sense of respect for all

missionaries who are in the field right now because this is tough stuff.

It's funny--I never thought I'd be yearning for a solid 3 hours of straight

scripture reading just to myself, but that's how I feel here daily. I can't

get enough of it. Good sign, I hope.

I think I mentioned before that I LOVE my teachers and the other

missionaries in my district, but let me just say it again: I LOVE THEM!!! I

joke with Hermana Graham that she and I are like the nauseating newlywed

couple that can't find a fault with one another and we're just so happy all

the time. I think this is in large part due to the fact that I discovered

she shares my affinity for musicals--particularly Into the Woods and

Newsies. Can you say "score"? Honestly, I lucked out something fierce.

We've been getting a lot of practice teaching about the Restoration these

past couple weeks and even though I feel like we should know the doctrine

inside and out by now, there's always something new to learn and no lesson

is exactly the same. We do a lot of simulated lessons with other

missionaries and volunteers down at the Teaching Resource Center and this

weekend was the first time we had to teach an "investigator" at the TRC.

Hermana Graham and I had a cute little Japanese woman named Kyoko. We fell

in love with her immediately! She played the role of a reluctant

investigator, though, so we can't say we had too much success in convincing

her of our message...but we'll work on that :). We actually saw her on the

temple grounds on Sunday and she wanted to take a picture with us. She

apologized for being a tough investigator (I told her not to worry because

we needed it) and she took a picture with us. At one point she leaned in

and whispered to me, "Sista Missionaries ah da BEST!" Cute lady!

I probably got what was coming to me at the TRC though, because every time

we teach other companionships, I always play the role of a tough

investigator. (My acting skills have gotten quite good, actually :)) I was

really mean to our poor young Elders one day. I decided to be an

Evangelical Feminist. Ha...don't think they've forgiven me for that one

yet. It was fun, though :).

Oh hey, remember how my companion thought I was Chinese? Some random Elder

walked up to me yesterday during lunch and asked me where I was from. I

told him I was from Bountiful and his face fell. "Oh. I thought you were

Hawaiian." Add it to the list.

I love being here. Never thought I would, but I do. At least 7 times a day

I have companionships walking up to me and bearing their testimonies in

various languages. We trained the Elders in our district to take our trays

at the end of our meals, so that's going well :).

I guess I don't have much more to say...which is funny because all week long

I'm making mental notes of all the funny/spiritual/uplifting/interesting

things I have to tell you...but p-day will come fast again, I'm sure. Two

weeks already! Wow. Oh yeah, just one more thing -- I have not gained ANY

weight since being here, nor do I intend to :).

Okay, my time's almost up, so I gotta run. Headed to the temple! L

ove you all so, so much. Thank you for your prayers. I really do feel

them.

Con amor,

Hermana Brewster

p.s.

Are you forwarding my e-mails to anyone? I should maybe edit for content,

if that's the case...not that there's anything that needs editing in

this...just wanted to check for future reference...

First letter home: Overwhelmed!

Sent January 26, 2010

My dear sweet mother and father! Greetings from the MTC! Did you think I had forgotten about you since you haven't been able to hear from me in a full week? Well, I didn't. It just so happens that my P-Day is Tuesday, so I've had to wait this entire time to be able to write you.

You would not believe how insanely busy the life of a missionary is. To give you an idea of how scheduled we are, I had a letter from one of my friends that I brought with me to the MTC on Wednesday that I just barely got to reading this morning. No joke. When we aren't sleeping we're showering, eating, studying, attending class, eating, exercising, eating (we do a lot of that), going to devotionals/firesides and studying some more. Literally every moment is accounted for. I guess that's a good thing because then there's no time to sit around and worry about stuff. I can tell you that I"ve already had massive amounts of guilt pile up about all that time I wasted lounging about in pj's for those four months of waiting. Gotta make up for that on the mish, I guess.

Madre, Padre tells me you had a hard night the day you dropped me off. That's understandable. I am incredibly difficult to part with. :) Kidding. I'm sorry to cause you such grief, but I have to tell you something: this is exactly where I need to be right now. For the first time that I can remember, I'm not thinking about all the things I SHOULD be doing. This is it. I thought I'd be in tears constantly during my first week but I haven't even cried once. So I hope you have the same comfort I've been given. The only thing I regret is that I can't fit in all the things I want to to tell you about what's been going on here. My computer's counting down the minutes I have left (20:35 by the way) so I'll try to hustle.

CLASS- We study ALL THE TIME. And you know what? It's never enough.

There's so much to learn here. Sometimes I wonder how I ever even graduated

from college because I know I never worked this hard. It's humbling, it's

intimidating, it's fascinating. I know I have a LONG way to go, but I know

if I'm patient with myself and work hard, I'll eventually be able to say

exactly what I need to say when I need to say it. My district is fabulous.

My companion's name is Hermana Graham and she's from Burley, Idaho. I

swear, I couldn't have asked for a better companion! I hit the jackpot.

She actually reminds me a lot of Sara, which is funny. She's tall, cute and

ACTIVE. Remember how I said I was afraid of getting a companion who didn't

want to work out? Well, I actually got more than I bargained for. Since

she lives in Burley and that's where they have the Spudman triathlon every

year, she's a triathlete. During our gym sessions we'll run together and

then we do the ab workouts from P90X that she brought with her. She's

really whipping me into shape, I love it! Funny story: on the first day,

when my hair was straight, Hermana Graham told me that when she saw me her

first thought was, "Oh cool. I have a Chinese companion." Yeah. My

ethnicity continues to befuddle all. I think we decided I'm Chinese when my

hair's straight and I'm Panamanian when it's curly (which is pretty much all

the time now since I don't have a minute to make myself cute anymore).

We

have two other Hermanas in our room who are going to Panama: Hermana Ochs

from California and Hermana Kennedy from Missouri. They're both really

nice, really cute sisters. I've gotta say, I don't know why there's this

notion that all sister missionaries are frumpy and homely because I have yet

to meet one who fits that bill. All this sisters here are beautiful,

friendly and very well dressed, I might say (in fact, Madre, I might need

you and Angie to send me some more cute things...).

I've been able to run into a lot of people here. On the first day I ran

into Chris Hill, Sarah Hill's little brother who's my age. He's one of the

teachers here. I saw another boy I knew in jr. high who teaches here too.

I've also seen Elder Fabrizio and Sister Muhlestein from our stake several

times. One of my friends from elementary and high school, Sister Leah

Creswell of the 7th ward, just left today for Canada and we met up in the

residence halls a couple of nights. Paula's niece, Sister Sara Austin,

lived just down the hall from me, so we met up and took some pictures

together before she left for Nashville. There are so many awesome people

here! And you won't believe this--last night I ran into a Playmill star

from last summer! Remember the girl who played "Sarah" in Guys in Dolls?

The one Mom said looks like Jenny Redd? She lives on my floor and she's

going to France. I was talking with Sister Creswell out in the hallway last

night and when she came by to get some linens I told her she looked

familiar. She got really excited when I told her we were faithful Playmill

patrons and then she told me funny stories about having to be a stand-in for

Heidi one night in Footloose, which meant she had to kiss David

Walker...yeah...I laughed quite a bit. I'll try to pump her for more

details later. Oh, her name is Sister Smith, by the way. She says she

remodeled the girl's bathroom at the Playmill, too, so have the women folk

look for that this summer.

As far as learning Spanish goes, we really have come leaps and bounds in

just a few short days. We can pray and bear testimony in Spanish and we're

picking up some conversational things. Sister Graham and I actually decided

to memorize the first vision in Spanish on Sunday night and I'm proud to say

we got it down! We haven't told anyone yet, though because we want to

surprise our teachers when that time comes. "Does it go something like

THIS?....(yada, yada, yada)" I've caught myself speaking with a Spanish

accent sometimes. It's funny. But then it's humbling when we listen to

recordings of native speakers and realize we sound like 2 -year-olds still.

Lots of work to do. Our teachers, Hermano Bingham and Hermano Anderson, are

stellar. I absolute love them. They care about our purpose and about us

individually and their genuine concern for teaching the gospel is such a

motivator. Please don't get the false impression that I'm by any means an

expert on these thigns because I have so very, very far to go. But I'm

looking forward to it.

Oh dear...my time is running short and I have so much more to say...even on

P-day there's never enough time. We're getting ready to go to the temple

though, so I better skedaddle.

I love you all so very much and I pray for you daily--but I'm not worrying

about you, so I expect you not to worry about me either. Tell the fam hi

and pass along this message, will ya?

Gracias, mis padres! Hasta luego!

con amor,

Hermana Brewster

Need to hear from the Hermana?

This little diddy of a blog is just a small way for friends/family to keep informed of Hermana Brewster's adventures while she is off being a missionary for the LDS Church for 18 months. She is spending the first 9 weeks in the Provo MTC (her stint in the Guatemala MTC was changed because of overcrowding...she was mightily bugged) before she heads on down to Panama.

Enjoy her musings--because we all sure do!