Okay, here is the real letter. I'm doing well here. The Spanish is coming along slowly. Tomorrow we are going to have an ayuno de Ingles (a fast of English), so it might be kind of quiet since I can't say that much in Spanish. It helps that my zone is all intermediate or advanced speakers, so I can hear real Spanish a lot. I can understand mostly eveything, but I can't answer back. I can definitely tell that I have the Spirit when I learn because I never learned this well in school. Maybe I just know it's important now.

Hermana Briney and I taught in the TRC last week, and this week we are teaching again. I have learned a lot about how to really teach by the Spirit and teach about the Restored gospel. This week we are focusing on learning the investigators needs and teaching to them. We made our lesson plan and it's going to be great. My teachers are good. They have taught a lot about not only Spanish and how to teach, but what our calling is as missionaries. I hope when I go to Peru that the teaching will be the same. I'm glad that I'm not going to be here for 9 weeks, and I hope it will help my Spanish. One Elder in my district is going to the Peru MTC with me, and it says in our papers that there are 12 in our travel group, so there could be a lot of us going.

We got to go to the temple again today, and I enjoyed it. As we were leaving a lady asked where I was going and she was so happy when I told her. She served in Peru 25 years ago, and she said she thought they didn't send North American sisters there anymore. Her mission president is the mission president in the Peru MTC, so she told me to say hi for her. That was exciting for me. I also got my watch which I left at the temple last week.

I am really happy to be serving the Lord and teaching the Restored gospel of Jesus Christ to the people in Peru.

Thanks for sending me that stuff Mom. I also got a package from the Murrays, and I'm sending them a thank you card. We took pictures with the district and my roommates at the temple Sunday, so when I get them develeoped I'll send them.
Thanks for your love and support.
Love,
Sarah

I only have 10 minutes, and my last letter was good, but here it goes. My knee is fine. I usually run during gym time, so it hasn't been a problem at all.

Our sacrament meetings are in Spanish, and we all have to prepare to speak each week. Luckily I didn't have to. My Branch president is Pres. Brown, who was my History professor at BYU.
There's an hermana in the zone who lived in ND, and went to the Aberdeen Ward. Se llama Hermana Greenland. Also, I saw the Elder who went to EFY with Jan.

My teachers are great. We try and do everything we can in Spanish except important things like planning and doctrine. I'm remembering a lot from high school, so that helps. We have started practicing teaching the first lesson, and it's great. I've been able to memorize a lot of the important things like the first vision and D&C 4.

The schedule here was obviously made by a man because we only have 30 minutes to get ready after gym and in the morning. Usually we wake up early, so I never get enough sleep.
We went to the temple this morning, and I enjoyed it a lot. It is so much bigger than St. Paul. We especially enjoyed being able to walk outside the fence to go to the temple.

Thanks for your letters and love,
Love,
Sarah

Official Missionary

Thank you, Emily and Preston, for getting Sarah safely there!

From Wisconsin with Love

Tomorrow I'm leaving Wisconsin on the way to the mission. I have been waiting since November for this to happen, and now that it is here, I'm pretty happy. So, what did I do on my last night at home?

Yes, we celebrated with one pound cones at Briq's. They weren't officially weighed, so I'm a little dubious as to the authenticity of my small cone, but I enjoyed it all the same. Now I can go to Utah and Peru with fulfillment and a full stomach.

P.S. Over three hundred hits! I'm more popular than I thought.