Week 1

Friends and Family,

Week one is done! Holy cow this week has been the longest, yet most rewarding week of my entire life. Missionary work is hard. Being with companions for 24 hours a day is hard. But being able to feel of Christ's love for everyone I meet is the coolest experience I could have ever asked for. 

First day, with the "I'm a new person" orange dot on my name tag

Birthday shout-outs:

Minte, I hope you have an amazing birthday today - this letter will probs be the best part (jokes), and happy birthday to Karen and Ellen next week! I wish I could awkwardly sing to you all over the phone, but this email will have to do. 

Me, mailing Ellen's birthday letter

Thank you all for the Dear Elders! I am getting them and I love them more than I could possible express in words. It is so great to hear how everyone is doing- keep them coming (I especially loved Cooper’s wisdom teeth stories. Welcome to our celebrity obsessed family…)! And, yes, I got your package. I LOVED IT and so did the girls in my zone! You are the best. Grandma, thank you for your bag of treats - it was much appreciated. You are the best! And thank you Granny for your email- I love it here and I love you. Hoping you and Papa are doing well. I wish I could see everyone at the upcoming reunions but have fun without me!

On Friday, we got to watch President Packer’s funeral. It was a cool experience to be able to hear about his life and the thoughts of others about his life. I know he was a true apostle called from God, and I am so grateful for the prophet. We just had our last lesson with our investigator named Alex. I was glad I got the opportunity to try to teach someone in Spanish, but holy moly Spanish is so hard (but so rewarding when I understand what someone is saying to me). The teachers here are amazing and I don't feel anxious when I have to talk to them in Spanish. I am pretty good at handling my stress; I never feel overwhelmed or like I can't do what I need to. Funny story - Hermana Barker was trying to say something in Spanish to Alex and he started laughing and said she accidentally swore at him. Oops. But other than the occasional swearing at our investigators we are pretty good at getting our point across. I am impressed by myself whenever I can say something in Spanish that I hadn't brought notes for. The gift of tongues is real. Our other investigator’s name is Jorge. He is basically my favorite person on the planet. He is a 60-year-old man whose son died of cancer when he was 14. The spirit is always so strong when we teach him. I have already told him that I love him and just want him to feel of the hope and happiness that the gospel can bring to his life. We have a cool bond that I am so grateful for. It helps that he is a Spanish teacher at an elementary school so he doesn't mind if we speak English for the words we don't know. That makes it easier to follow the spirit during the lessons instead of having to follow our notes exactly. 

I just want to say that Hermana Hubble and Hermana Haacke are the funniest people alive. They definitely get my sense of humor and they are so fun to be around. They remind me so much of Angie and I love them so much! This week Hermana Hubble fell off the top bunk of the bed and did a flip in the air landing on her bum. It was hilarious. I am still in my trio with Hermana Barker and Hermana Sherrow. We have very different opinions and personalities but we even each other out for the most part. We have to work hard on communication but it has been good for me to learn how to get along with different types of people. My love for them grows every day. 

On our way to the gym in matching outfits

Sundays here are the best. Dad, you would LOVE our church schedule. We have sacrament meeting at 11:30, then have an hour break for lunch, then go back to Relief Society and Priesthood for an hour. The only down side is we don't get to sleep for the whole day, we still have our regular study time. At the end of the day we get to go to a devotional. This week it was by a former member of the Quorum of the 70. It was amazing! He told a lot of cool stories about missionaries he knew and their experiences, as well as his own experiences being a mission president. It was so cool. They said that the members of the 12 don't normally speak during the summer because they are not in town, but the speakers we have are still super cool! After devotional we get to watch a church movie. This week we watched a talk called the Character of Christ by Elder Bednar. It is only shown in the MTC, but it was the best thing I have ever listened to. I learned so much about Christ and the spirit was so strong. THE CHURCH IS TRUE GUYS.

Sunday walk - seeing people we knew from BYU

The food here is rough, I'm not going to lie. As the Doxey family knows food can sometimes be an issue. Basically everything makes me very ill, but here the food is messing everyone up. We started a new game where we time how long it takes us to go to the bathroom after we eat. Probs TMI, but it’s true. Pray for me. 

Today we got to go do a session at the Provo Temple. It was an amazing experience. I loved going with my zone, it was a bonding moment for sure. It is so cool to see the inside of another temple! And we got to eat breakfast there, which was an amazing break from the food in the MTC. 

Hopefully this picture isn't as weird as it looks on my computer...

Mare - I get the chills so much here it’s crazy, and every time I think of you. Tell all the Young Women that I miss them and I was thinking about and praying for them while they were at camp! Tell them I want to hear all about it in a Dear Elder!

Don't worry about me at all - I'm having a blast here. There are bad moments and times when I could really use an hour on Netflix or even just a nap, but I am learning so much. The good times make up for the bad times 110%. I pray for you all the time, I hope that you are all doing well. I wish I could tell you what was happening every day so I wouldn't forget by the time Friday comes around. I try to make notes of the big things that happen but I forget a lot of them. I also forgot to bring your Dear Elders with me so that I could answer questions. My bad. 

Have a wonderful week - I love you all!

Hermana Doxey