Email 8-26-08

I have only 18 mins to write....l Go!
So, firstly to mom, the date you sent me is great but I have absolutely no idea if I actually got the shots then or not so I'm not sure if that will be useful or not. Secondly my favorite scripture is Alma 7:23-24

Greetings once again,
I am doing great minus the fact that I have been sick for the past four days. No worries, I'm getting better. It's hard to heal when there's so much going on all the time but I survive. And my companion Elder Bryner helped give me a priesthood blessing. How cool! Elder Bryner is from Delta Utah. I suppose it's more of a hick town area of Utah consisting of a lot of farmers. He however doesn't like the stereotype and is more of a mechanic himself. His dad is an engineer in some kind of place somewhere. I don't remember. But Elder Bryner loves Cars and mountain biking and Cars again.
As for the rest of my room mates Elder Evans and Elder Nelson, they are great people too. We have more of a room mate companionship prayer than a companionship prayer. Elder Evans was assigned the district leader and is appropriately very dull in writing. In fact it seems that nobody else has anything to write about in their journals except me. They always ask me what special happened during the day and I give them a few things and they finish. While I write in my (Novel) book and hurry scurry to get to bed on-time. They all think I'm a riot, since I can quote almost every line from tons of movies and have the impression down "perfectly." Not to mention I am about the opposite from them in most things, for instance... They all want to get married three or four years after their missions, and have kids much later. I want to get married when I get home! And I love kids. :D They don't like writing or singing, I do. They all get diarrhea off of the OJ and I thrive off of it. You see I found the trick to eating the food is that all of the food gives you constipation and bloating and is an intestinal disaster but the Juice counters it! So I drink a balance of juice with the meal and I can survive this MTC food. Crazy huh? Spencer gave me the idea when he told me (way back when) that the rumors of the OJ were true and he drank it every day. heh heh
Anyway, the language is coming great. I have a little story I'll save for my written letter that deals with the language but for now I'm doing well. I agree, us Lillies are just smart! :D
Every Tuesday there's a devotional and I was so fortunate to be here (my first time too) when Elder Oaks came to talk. It was a very, very great lesson on the importance of having the spirit with us all the time, just like the blessing that is promised in the sacrament. Make sure you repent and have the spirit!
Also I watched a movie you all MUST watch okay? that is the challenge, use your craftiness to obtain it. it is called Missions are forever by Jeffrey R. Holland. It will affect you, I'm sure. He is very emotional when he teaches, it's great.

Keep the letters coming I need more lovin'

And I need to hear from MIKE and NANA too!
Love ya

Email 8-19-08

Dear Family,
I Love you sooooooooooooo much.
I finally got your letter to me (Mom), and it took three days to get here. I threatened my room mates that I would talk like Gollum if I didn't get a letter by Monday. They were quite impressed with my impersonation... too impressed. Consequently they started threatening amongst themselves to hide my letters. HaHa ...but really, getting letters is proof of Love here. I need to beat them all! One elder has over 20 already within the first week.
And since hand written Letters take three days to get here and they don't do mail on Saturday and Sunday I would like to make sure you know about DearElder.Com. It is a website that delivers e-mails in the form of letters that same day for free! Utilize this pleeeeese!
So I'm sure you want to know how I'm doing these days... The answer is excellent, with one exception. when I said the food here was amazing I need to qualify... It's amazingly tasty and more so amazingly disturbing to the stomach. It's quite horrible. The rumors about the orange Juice are false... only in the fact that it isn't just the Orange Juice... It's everything. Don't drink any of the milk Michael and Brandon... just don't.
The language is amazing. German is nothing, yes, nothing. Hopefully I can show you a bit in a written letter how crazy the language is but I love it just the same. And I think it sounds great... that's a bonus. It's only maybe day five (I'm not counting) here and I already can say quite a bit... pray, bear my testimony, etc. But I'm no where close to speaking it at all. The amount that I retain is great and astonishing but in order for this to happen I HAVE to have the spirit with me AND find balance. I must study the Gospel as well. Through hard work and struggling, step by step, I know I'll get it.
The MTC is a great place of love and the spirit and a bit of insanity too. It seems people will do anything to find entertainment at night such as baseball with a bottle and clobbering the new guys room and wasting their precious alive-time.
I have several teachers here. My favorite is Brother Saakha. He is Thai and has a great conversion story. He was just a young boy when his new born baby brother died just weeks after his birth. He was left wondering why he couldn't see his brother again and why he wasn't moving. It left a great need and yearning of heart in him. The priests told him that his brother did not have any time to collect merit in this life and so he was going to Hell. Brother Saakha went to school and eventually met up with the missionaries...
My time is limited to write of course so.... write me tons and tons of letters. Make sure Brandon updates my facebook with my addresses and get me e-mail addresses of friends if you can.
I love you all so much and hope to hear from you! I'll be able to E-mail every Tuesday, yay! Also, the date I leave for Thailand is October 27.

With more love than is possibly possible,
Elder Lilly

Leaving For the MTC