Week 1

Hello everyone!  The MTC has been amazing so far and I love it here! I'm going to be here till August 29th...that's 12 weeks!!!  Such a long time, but I know I'm going to need it!  Korean is soooo incredibly hard!  I really love it though.  I'm already praying, bearing testimony, doing contacts, singing, and even occasionally thinking in Korean.  It is really a beautiful language and I can't wait till I can know it better and can better express my thoughts and feelings in the language!  I have gotten a little discouraged at times already.  I feel inadequate at times, but the feeling is usually fleeting...so that's good.  My companion's name is Sister Paul.  She's moved around a lot and her family is currently in Indonesia....cool, huh?  She and I are a near perfect match.  We compliment each other so well.  Last night we gave our first lesson and it was so much fun! Our contacts are fun to do to.  I love being here in the MTC because everyone you contact and teach wants to hear more and wants to get baptized!  hahahahaha, it might be giving us a false sense of security, but we don't mind!  Sorry there aren't any paragraphs, the "enter" key on my keyboard doesn't work :( oh well.  I enjoy the schedule here, I usually feel very well rested, and it's so cool, at 6:00 am the Sisters get to have the gym for exercise classes.  I usually use the time to work on vocab and scriptures while on the elliptical.  And this week the gym is closed due to training for new mission presidents, so we go out to the field...Sister Paul like volleyball...yeah, I play volleyball...yikes!!!  But she's going to teach me how to be better...yeah...yikes again!  I got to go to the temple this morning.  It was so great.  My whole district and a couple other Sisters from our zone was in the same endowment session and we all went to the cafeteria for real breakfast (meaning not MTC cafeteria food) afterwards.  I absolutely LOVE my district and zone. I'll be sending pictures soon.  We got to go take pictures at the temple on Sunday.  I'm singing in Sacrament meeting this Sunday.  The topic is knowledge...I'm not quite sure what I'll sing yet, but I'll think of something.  I'm going to join the MTC choir.  The practices are Tuesdays and Sundays.  I'm so excited.  Oh, we got to sing Called to Serve on Sunday at the Sunday night devotional...life long dream of singing that song at the MTC: accomplished!!!  It really has been a blast here!  I can't really believe I'm actually here!  The Spirit is
so strong everywhere and everyone is so happy and so full of such great energy all the time.  it's absolutely fantastic to be able to see that everyone around you is here for the same reasons and wants the same thing: to bring all souls to Christ!  I wish I could share more, but I really didn't realize how short 30 minutes is (the
computer has a countdown clock in the corner and it kicks you off right at 30 minutes...Davis, sorry for giving you such a hard time.) There's just one more thing I want to say before I get kicked off. PLEASE PLEASE "dear elder" (go to dearelder.com it's self explanatory. I'm at the Provo MTC and going to the Seoul Korea mission...it's
easy!) me and/or send me letters.  My address is on facebook and on my blog (thegreatlifeofmissamanda.blogspot.com) and letters are really great in boosting confidence and getting over frustrations.  Tell me anything!  I would love to be able to leave the MTC with at least a small handful of letters from friends and family...plus I can spend more time reading those and I'll see them more than just during my 30 minutes on P-Days.  I love you all and hope you are all doing well. Love, Sister McClellan  P.S. Mom, Dad, Evan, and Danny, I'm writing you another letter today...one with more detail and that's more personal.  I love you all so much!!!!  Stay awesome!!!!!!!  P.P.S. Sorry about any typos...no spell/grammar check >.<