Rachel's first letter home

Hello!

Here I am in the MTC and things are going really well. I love it here. The Spirit is INCREDIBLE!!!

To start off I guess I'll just say that I discovered that hanging out with the Bill Ogilvie's in a dangerous (and expensive)passtime. When I arrived at the Salt Lake airport my aunt put one suitcase in the back while I put another in the front. She climbed into the car and said "Rachel, I'm buying you a new suitcase and help up a wheel that she had broken off of my brand new suitcase. She was very gracious and got me a really nice set, and kept my old set hoping Bill could fix the wheel. Later on in the day we get a phone call saying that Logan had had a very unfortunate happenstance involving the truck and a large concrete pole in a parking garage. Then we got word that Bill, Logan and Kyle were going to go skiing/snowboarding the next day. Sue and I went to the Salt Lake Temple and enjoyed our morning as we ran errands when we received word that Kyle had taken a tumble on the slopes and needed to be picked up to be taken to the emergency room. THey decided to treat it as broken despite unclear evidence on x-rays. Gotta love the emergency room. Wait around for them to tell you that there may, or may not, be something wrong with it. Luckily it didn't take long. I was glad to see those in Provo that I did get to see, but I didn't see you all do to broken ankles and extra hospital time.

Um, make sure all of you who attended my setting apart write down a few notes of what you remember about it and mail them to me. Yes, Dad and Matt, this means you, too.

Just so you know, I received the Valentine package I was expecting from Scott here, so you don't have to keep an eye out for it anymore.

Mary, thanks for the Brownies. I'll forgive you for sending BYU brownies instead of Robison brownies, but only this once :P. I still haven't gotten around to translating the Korean on the box yet, though.

So I'm just loving it here. There's a reason they make you wait a while to write, though. Those first couple of days are really rough. But your body an mind adjust and you learn to really love the structure and the Spirit.

My companion's name is Sis. Peterson. She's from texas, but she was adopted from Korea. She will be serving in Seoul. I love her to death already. We are a really good pair. I'm just glad she's around. She's a good source of strength and I'm learning a lot from her. She's helping me to learn how to better love and serve people. She's an excellent example. She's a hard worker, and she's a whiz at Korean and she keeps me on my toes. She and I were the only Korean speaking sisters entering the MTC that day. I'm glad everything worked out so well.

The language is coming pretty well. I speak kind of like Benjamin with just a noun and maybe a verb so people might get teh idea, but it's gettign better. It was actually really cool becasue the first things they taught us were how to pray and how to testify. Then this past Sunday was fast sunday and I understood almost everything that was said. It was awesome. Then it was really cool to hear the Sacrament prayer in Korean. The Spirit was SO strong. Ahh, I love it!!

My district is really fun. There are only two companionships, which is really small. It's Sis. Peterson and I and three elders who call their companionship "the party" becasue they are like a walking party, apparently. They are fun, and they are all hard workers.

My branch president knows Pres. Jennings and says that if he and his wife had been on Jeopardy against their son they'd have whipped his tail. That would be fun to see.

Thanks for the stamps and addresses, Mom. Very helpful. More stamps would be appreciated, but I can buy them here if you need.

Chalene, could you email the Ogilvie cousins and tell them where my blog is? Thanks! I got the package from Chalene. I laughed so hard when I read Evan's "letter". Very cute.

Do you think you could send me a few pictures of the Nova. At least two, and I was hoping for one from when it was brown. I thought of some spiritual examples tied to it.

Um, Sis. King who will be serving in Seoul knows Marci and grew up with her. She asked me if I knew that she had recently gotten married. I just laughed :P.

Um, the card they gave Sue with my address has the wrong departure date on it. I'm leaving 0511. If you sent anything with the wrong date, don't worry. They assured me it wouldn't throw them off. It only matters when we get closer to me leaving.

I hate this keyboard. It hurts.

Well, I have one minute left, so I must go. Love to all!

~Rachel~