My First Full Week in the MTC!

Tell everyone I only have 30 min & I’m sorry I can't always email them. Please use dear elder.com and include their email address and mailing address so I can write them a letter.

Well this was my first week in the MTC!!!! It has been a blast.... waking up really isn't that hard....I feel like I am back at soccer for early morning runs except this is less sweaty and I don't have someone yelling at me all the time to run harder. LOL

Spanish is coming great!!! I also ran into one of the girls I played soccer with in Virginia. She is going to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. I also just ran into Sam my friend I knew from UVU. He is a teacher here. It was nice to chat with him and catch up on life....so I can now hold decent conversations in Spanish.

In Spanish, I can bear my testimony and say the First Vision and a few scriptures. Right now, I am trying to memorize as much as I can. My teachers are amazing! Hermano Martinez is from Ecuador and he is one teacher that drills me. Everyone in the class thinks he is making up for lost time that I should have had growing up. LOL Everyday, he converses with me for ten min drilling me with everything in Spanish that I know of. It's funny! Everyone says they don't have to worry because they know when it comes to practice time in the class, I will be the first one up and the last one to go again. LOL So, I think I have to thank him for my fast learning skills. He talks really fast! LOL

My P.day is on Friday at 9:00a.m. and, just so you know, I get dear elder at noon and at 5. Those are my favorite times! LOL I love mail! Well I have to go. I love you guys and will keep in touch.

Love

Hermana Castillo

I LOVE MY LIFE!!

Life @ the MTC is great! And better than what everyone has made it out to be! J There has been no adjustment. Life really feels very normal. For those of you that remember Brooke Deeme (Mine & Carly’s best friend: red hair in O’fallon) I ran into her within 5 minutes of being here! She has been here for a few weeks & is going to the mission right below mine in Mendoze, Argentina.

MY companion is amazing!!! She is so much fun. She loves to be active & is very socially normal J We will work on her Athleticism later…but bless her heart she’s really spunky!!

So the ladies are offered extra workouts in the morning @ 6:00, there are 6 different classes:

Pilates, Kickboxing, Tae-bo, Cycling, Sport performance, & Yoga!

I LOVE MY LIFE!!

Today at gym we played King of the Court (Volley ball – Dad – ask Denise or the boys). Anyway I spiked the ball & hit Elder (something – there are too many people in this gym) in the face & he had to go to the nurse for his bleeding nose! So…..that was interesting. Sad for him. Funny for everyone in the court with us & embarrassing for me. Now the elders are picking me FIRST instead of other elders on their team J.

Life is funny too…My Spanish teachers are great, but Hermano Martinez speaks too fast & his English is not great, so a lot of the time our class looks like a group of deer caught in headlights. Somehow I became the class scribe & put to sit in the hot seat, he always asks me to translate when he says something! (Ahhhhh! Curse my last name! LOL) EVERY Spanish sister & elder think I speak & automatically strike a conversation! I respond very basically & then run to catch up with my companion before they keep talking J. I’m picking it up though because it’s all I hear. Oh…and there are only 2 floors of sisters on the whole campus even though there are over 2200 (something) missionaries here! Wow! OK I have no time left. I can email next week so be ready. I love you guys so very much & look forward to hearing from you!

I love you,

Hermana Castillo

My First Hola from the MTC

I love it here! Honestly it is not bad at all, I don't know why everyone says that is is such an adjustment and that it is sooooo hard. Life is normal and they fill your days. And I have to admit it feels as if I have lived her for a week from all of the things we have learned. I know how to pray in Spanish, bear my testimony and communicate on a basic level in Spanish. And it is awesome! I figure if I learn about 20 words a day I will have learned around 2,000 words when I get out to Argentina. Spanish is coming along but I have to work at it, but very surprisingly easier than I anticipated.

Oh and I got sick! The second night I was here I was vomitting from 12:00 till 4:00am. Then the nurse gave me a shot that hurt bad!!! She put it in my hip and the pain shot all down my side but it knocked me out and took away my nausea, so that part was great. I am doing well now but I really haven't eaten anything. The doctor said it was most likely caused from stress.... hmmm ... I wonder why he would say that. LOL I never get stressed!!! LOL.

So, my companion is amazing, but a little forgetful. Well, she forgets where she puts things a lot, so I guess that would be spacey, LOL but she is very spunky, outgoing, pretty and SOCIALLY CAPABLE of communicating. Thank goodness for that! My other girls in the group are great, but the also tend to want to "one-up" one another so it makes me laugh. They always have a story if any girl has one to share that is always better than the first one, it really is funny. The last two girls in the room, well the poly girl is normal but the other girl is really, well, a horse of a different color shall we say. LOL She is an insomniac. She is always up before us and doesn't go to bed till after us, so she is dressed when we get up and just stares at us while we get ready and the night I was sick & was up all night, she was talking in her sleep half of the time. She was then hanging upside down on her bed the other half. It was funny!

I love you guys and hope to hear from you. I can get letters everyday but only email once a week. My mail is:

Sister Amanda Michaela Castillo
MTC Mailbox 269
ARG-SAL 1214
Provo, Utah 84604

I love you guys and miss you! I hope everyone is doing great. 

Keep me informed of what is new.

Write me or else!

I'm officially HERMANA CASTILLO!!

Today, Hermana Castillo is now official!  The stake president came to my brother's home, where my family and I were gathered, and set me apart as a Missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  I will be going into the MTC on Wednesday and will be prepping for my time in Argentina. Lucky for me, it will be summer there when I arrive!!!  A lot of great adventures ahead, but for now I'm enjoying those last few moments with my family.

How to contact me!

My email will be posted on here by OCT 30 at the latest!  This will be the most efficient way to reach me.


While I am in the MTC for the next two months, mail may be sent to me at this address:

Sister Amanda Michaella Castillo

Argentina Salta Mission

Provo Missionary Training Center

2005 N 900 E

Provo, UT 84604




While I am in Argentina, packages can be sent to:

Sister Amanda Michaella Castillo

Argentina Salta Mission

Los Eucaliptus 75

4400 Salta

Salta

Argentina





If you are going to do snail mail to Argentina, then it must be sent in the following format!!

Only postcards and letters that are single sheet, folded into three-panels, and taped at the top only(no envelopes), maybe sent through. This is done through a special service to help with the reliability. Send it to this address:


Sister Amanda Michaella Castillo

Argentina Salta Mission

POB 30150

Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150

USA