Sister Gracie Beck's Weekly Email - The Kavorka is no respecter of languages
Hola from Chile!
My last Sunday at the MTC kinda felt like the Hermana Beck show... I got asked to speak in sacrament, and it was the first time I'd given a sacrament talk 100% unscripted and in Spanish, but I think it went really well.
After that I taught relief society! Half our branch doesn't speak English and the other half doesn't speak Spanish, so I got to give my lesson in both Languages at once. I loved it. After that, the MTC President's wife asked me to teach part of her English Connect class- I was given a bunch of teaching materials/workbooks and got to teach 6 missionaries how to speak english from the very beginning. It was SO FUN!! I made sure to keep the teaching materials and workbooks afterwards because I have a feeling they'll come in handy again on my mission. All day Sunday I was reminded how much I love teaching, I think it's one of my strongsuits. Good thing I'm going to be doing a lot of it for the next 16ish months :)
Before I left the MTC we had the opportunity to go to the Mexico City Temple one last time to do an Endowment session. MAN do I miss my old routine of almost-excessive temple attendance. I have definitely noticed the absence of the protection, strength, and blessings that come from attending the temple regularly. So if you're reading this and you're not a missionary, I'm inviting you to make a temple appointment today for some time this week. Go for me🥲
Thursday was the big day. The girls in my district all needed to leave by 3am, but luckily I was not required to accompany them so that meant I had the appartment all to myself for a couple hours😍 I played "Unanswered Prayers" by Garth Brooks and other Jesus country music on repeat/full volume and showered with the door open. (It's the little things) (best day ever)
I have a million stories to share and a lot to do today, so for the sake of time I'm gonna steal an idea from my friend Elder Bankhead, and finish this email Q&A style:
Q: what will you miss most about the mtc?
A: All of my buddies of course. But also in the cafeteria they often serve American food, but none of the cooks speak English. So they just make their best guesses at how to spell things for the menu and it made for many funny typos (bless their hearts) I included pics of a few of my favorites below.
Q: how was the travel to antofagasta?
A: I was the travel leader for Chile, which just meant I was in charge of keeping the three Elders who went with me alive for two days. I nearly strangled each of them at some point. Elder Hazelton kept wandering off and getting lost on his own, Elder Sheely kept trying to tell me how to do my job (he was dead wrong every single time btw), and Elder Permann was constantly complaining about being hungry. I found myself asking, am I a travel leader? Or babysitter? Before I left on my mission a wise old woman named Collette told me, "when the Elders start to drive you crazy, you just have to remember: they're only 6 years out of primary." that helps a lot. But other than that, the travel was actually way fun. We left the mtc at 5am on Thursday and arrived at the mission home friday afternoon, stayed the night with some missionaries in the area and then Saturday afternoon me and my new companion had a long busride to our area, arriving around midnight.
Q: where are you serving?
A: A town 8 hours away from Antofagasta called, "Alto Hospicio." When they announced where I was going in our orientation meeting, I could tell by the other missionaries reactions/comments that it wasn't a very desireable place to go. It's also known as "City of Dogs" because there's a million dogs of every breed on the streets here. Although this area just as ghetto/ugly as everyone made it sound, so far I have been having a ton of fun with it. I just can't believe this is real life!
Q: who's your trainer? What's she like?
A: Her name is Hermana Velasquez and she is from Venezuela! She is currently trying to learn English 😈 I've only been with her for a day and a half but so far she seems cool.
Q: had any earthquakes yet?
A: the word "earthquake" is dramatic, but there's been 3.
Q: how are the living conditions?
A: I don't want to freak my mom/grandma out, but it's...humble. our area isn't liveable (by missionary dept. standards at least) so we live 20 minutes away from it in a cute yellow box!
Q: how many times have you accidentally worn your camo crocs in public when it was wildly inappropriate to do so?
A: Too. Dang. Many. Someone stop me pls
Q: biggest impression this week?
A: I've had more impressions than I can count since last P day, but one that I can share is that the hymn "Carry On" (255) is one hundred times more awesome in Spanish. Especially when you're serving in the world's biggest, dryest, emptiest desert.
El desierto está cantando:
¡A vencer✊🏽 a vencer✊🏽 a vencer✊🏽!
"A vencer" means "to win" in Spanish:)
Due to an unfortunate sequence of events, I permanently lost 6 days worth of photos including all of my travel to chile, an active volcano, and the Antofa temple. And for that same reason, I cant add to my album at the moment so here's some manual photos:
- cafeteria funnies
- last time at the temple w/my mtc 💔district
- dormitorio B at the mtc, my house for the two minutes I was in mexico
- my mtc companions
- La Portada with my mission president and his wife! However windy it looks, it was even windier
- my yellow box
- our backyard (all you need is beer, apparently)
- surprise
