Well this is techincally my second letter home, i sent a fathers day card your way yesterday and snuck a letter in there too. the mtc is great.. i explained lots in my letter.

 

So yesterday we taught a deaf woman already! wow they just threw us in there real fast. luckily i have lots of asl expereince and the gift of toughts/hands sure does work. i am probably one of the best signers in my district and am not struggling with the language like so many others. my compnaion only took a year or two in high school so shes again sruggling... sometimes i feel like a walking asl dictionary. but my comp has known she is going on a mission for quite some time now (more than a year) so shes had lots of time to prep and learn the lessons- unlike me who did alot of this last minute and wasnt sure if i was even coming a few weeks ago. together we are a great team! all of my prayers are already in sign and yesterday for the first time i even did my personal prayers in sign... miraculously i was even able to express everything i wanted to. it was wonderful! there is still so much to learn, inlcuding many scripture signs and how to translate the scriptures into sign. i think thats the one hard thing about sign... because its not a written language as a missionary you translate SOOOO much. other languages you can at least read and write your language but not asl. you translate everything written and of course there is the translating for deaf memebers in church, voicing for hearing when deaf are baring testimony, etc. again lots to learn. so yesterday as i said we taught out first investigator, it was the first of 5 mock lessons we are doing. we teach our investigator again today (shes really a memeber of course) but its wonderful how we just get thrown into teaching so soon, it makes sense seeing thats what we are really doing.

 

You might believe it but one of my favorite things about being a missionary is that we are supposed to be in bed by 10:30 and up at 6:30. i never thought i wouuld enoy getting up and going to bed that early! haha but it feels wonderful and by the end of each day although you have been mostly only sitting in one 10 by 25 foot classroom all day you are READY for that soft matress and to close your eyes. And while im working hard and by no means the funnest or easiest thing to do for hours on end everyday it feels so wonderful. i love that  i have been able to feast on the gospel and the word of God so very much, ive never dug into the scriptures like this before. then again when and where else do you have 16 hours a day a day that is nothing but gospel study.

 

Okay last but not least it looks like i only forgot/need one thing, but its kind of a really important thing. i mentioned this is my letter mailed home yesterday too. well with my bad knees and us exercising everyday i realized i need new tennis shoes. i dont know if i want to wait 9 weeks to buy new ones in sacramento, i dont know if ill do more damage to my knees than needed before then. my old shoes have just worn through and have been bent/molded funny after all those river excersions this summer hiking in the narrows etc. i know if i went and saw the physicians here at the mtc they would tell me right away i just need new shoes with a good support. ive heard that the nike flexy sole shoes are some of the best right now. they would be what i would want to buy if i were purchasing them. is there a way you could do some online shopping and searching for me and send me pictures via email so i could have some imput on the tennis shoes. i wear a size 8. im sure these shoes will last me my whole mission i just need better shoes that will fit my foot and are less worn. again i think they might be called nike air free or something like that. they have just kind of flatter soles on the bottom of the shoe and are the really flexible sole. they look kind of different with cool lines/grid looking sole. let me know how you can help! thanks so much! so glad they are the only thing i need... the bookstore has the rest of me covered i think :]

 

 Hope everything is going well at home! cant wait to hear about all the happenings and grand adventures!

 

Loves,

Sister Clarissa Oliphant