Alright, so only 5 more weeks in the MTC, but 77 until I come home! But don't let that make you think 

that I'm counting down, because I'm not. I can't believe I've only been gone a week. I seems like

I've been here a month already. It's really weird.

 

German is HARD. I mean, it's easy, because it all makes sense to me (Thanks, Senior High School), 

but we learn SO MANY words and phrases each day, it's hard to keep up.

 

My first few days were rough. Jetlag got to me. I had a four hour flight to Newark followed immediately 

by a 6 hour flight to Manchester, which I barely made. When I arrived in England, it was 6:30 am local

time

meaning in Las Vegas, it was 10pm. And that was the start of my day. It was really difficult to sleep on

the plane because we flew through a bit of a storm and the turbulence kept me from sleeping. I think I got

an hour nap on the first flight and another hour on the second flight. Otherwise I'd just talk to my neighbor.

My first neighbor was an elderly lady with all her friends and she was fun to talk to. The other guy on the

flight to England was pretty quiet, but I was able to joke around with him and pass the time.

 

My companion is AWESOME. Her name is Sister Kramer. We really balance each other out. She came

into this knowing no German, so I help her with the pronunciation and grammar, and she helps me get 

through my moments of anxiety with ease. We are the perfect companionship (at least so far, anyway).

There was a night we got really annoyed with each other, but we slept it off and were fine the next day.

 

Sister Kramer and I share our room with two other sisters-- Sister Mardsen from Idaho Falls and Sister

Gombe from Zimbabwe. Both of them are going to the England Birmingham mission, so they'll only be

here for two weeks since they're not learning a foreign language. I'll be here for 6 weeks. Sister Gombe

is absolutely hilarious. If we were companions, NOTHING would get done.

 

I legitimately feel like I'm in a fairy tale. The MTC here is pretty small. The bottom floor is the cafeteria,

a small gym with a few ellipticals, one treadmill, and some really simple weights, along with one hallway

of classrooms. The main floor has the main office, our sacrament meeting room, and one very long

hallway of classrooms. The next level has dorms. On the men's side, there are two stories of dorms, 

while on the girls, there's only one. There are six beds in each room and a gym style bathroom with

showers and such. It's nice. There are only about 50 of us here for now.

 

OH and there's a pond, and there are SWANS in it. It's great.

 

Sister Kramer and I went for a run yesterday ( I ran in England, guys!!) and we passed the edge of a 

wood and two deer just start running by us and then freak out and jump right in front of us. It was really

cool. Fairy tale, I'm telling you.

 

Here's a little breakdown of my schedule for those who asked:

I get up at 6:15, get ready

Breakfast at 7

Personal study until 8

8 is German studies. We do different exercises until lunch at 12.

Then after lunch, it's gospel study. We study what we teach so that we can help people have a better

understanding of it. When you think about it, whenever members of the church have a question, they go

to the missionaries, so I have to know all the answers!! It's a lot to take in, but it all makes so much

logical and spiritual sense, it's somewhat of a no brainer once you get the hang of it.

Dinner is at 5, then after that, we prepare a lesson and go teach our pretend investigator...

 

Auf Deutsch.

 

That is by far the hardest thing right now. They'll ask me a question that I can understand, and I'll know 

how to answer the question in English, but not in German!! It's something that will come with time and

 practice.

 

I swear I'm picking up on bits of the accent here. All my instructors are from England. There's one lady 

here who has a really thick Scottish accent and it's absolutely adorable. 

I'm running out of time and I'm trying to upload some pictures, but this computer isn't accepting any of my file

formats!!! I'm not quite sure what to do, and it's making me just slightly crazy. We've been told that our

mission will most likely be given iPads soon, which will make taking and sending pictures a lot easier.

Worst case scenario, you'll just have to wait until I get back to see all my pictures.

 

If I can't figure out a way to attach them, I'll start rotating SD cards. I'll send one home to my parents and

they can upload everything on it, then send it back to me while I use my second card. My companion's

camera is cooperating, so maybe I'll just have her send me all the picture's she's got and then I'll send

them all in a different email.

 

I'm definitely out of time, and there's a line of missionaries waiting for the email, so I've got to go!!

 

Mit Liebt,

Sister Sally Priest

Sally Priest	8:05 AM (39 minutes ago)

Aha!! I switched computers and this one likes me!!!

I swear I'll have a better grip on life next week and you won't get a bajillion emails from me at once. 

Life is hard!!
​

This one is of our district. It was on my birthday!

 From the back row:

 It's Elder Nielson, Elder Bates, Elder Maw (he's my favorite person here), and Elder McLean.

 Front row is Elder Carter, Elder Donald, Elder Faux, and Elder Bowers. Then Sister Kramer and I 

are obviously in the middle :)

Birthday selfie!

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Preston Temple​