new email account

Hey everyone, I just set up my new missionary e-mail account! So hand this out to everyone so I can get e-mail, it is hermanagosnell@myldsmail.net!

Ok I'd like to start out this letter by saying my knees are so bruised by all the kneeling I have been doing!! But it is totally worth it! My first week at the MTC has been CRAZY to say the least!! When I got here I met my companion, she is from Montreal Canada and French is her first language! She speaks English perfectly as well! We moved into our room which already had 3 sisters living in it, and 2 of them have left for the field already! Then on Friday we got notice that there was a sister from the begininng class that would be moving into our class, so me and my companion became a threesome! This new sister is Hermana Johnson, and she is awesome! She really brought a wind of fresh energy to our companionship which was great, because even though Hermana Blouin (my companion) and I got along ok, we just didn't seem to be clicking all that well! So then yesterday we got news that we would be getting another sister in our class that was moving up from begininng Spanish, so Sister Johnson was then moved to be her companion, which means its back to being just my and Hermana Blouin. Which is awesome! I miss being a threesome but I think I like being in just a companionship just as much! Hermana Blouin and I are clicking much better now, and I think having Hermana Johnson be our companion for those few days was just that little bit that we needed!

We taught our first lesson last night, in english! I was so nervous about it because I didn't really feel like we were ready at all, we haven't really been taught how to teach, and all of our classes were in Spanish so I didn't know the first lesson in English! But it is seriously amazing how the Spirit works, we said a prayer before going into teach and prayed for each other during the lesson. We were just teaching someone who works here, so it wasn't that stressful but the lesson was amazing, the Spirit was so strong in that lesson! At the end of the lesson I committed our "investigator" to pray and ask if the Book of Mormon was true and if Joseph Smith was a prophet, he said he would, so then I asked him if he would pray at the end of our lesson and ask in his prayer. I "taught" him how to pray and he did it, and I'm telling you when we knelt down to pray, and when he asked if it was true... the Spirit was so strong that I don't think anyone in that room at that time could be able to deny that what we had taught was true! It was amazing, and I'm so pumped to teach more, I'm so glad my first teaching experience went so well!! We are going to be teaching again this Saturday, only first we are going to contact people and give them the first lesson in Spanish like we would contacting on the street, and then we are going to have 15 min to prepare and then we are going to go teach the full first lesson in English! I'm a little nervous, but I know I can do it!!

Ok so I'm sorta working backwards, because the stuff that has happened just recently is most potent in my mind! So anyways my first few days here were a bit rough!! Don't get me wrong when I say this, but I'm kind of used to being one of the "better" people, you know the kind of person people know they can rely on, and is really strong in the gospel... well here at the MTC that is all there is, so I was starting to feel really inadequate. You know how when my senior year I was supposed to be in an AP class but because I realized I would be the dumbest one I decided to drop it, I just like being the top of the class, and not having to work very hard! Well here I don't have that kind of luxury!! I'm definatly the bottom of the class here. I was put in Intermediate Spanish, and I feel like I know less Spanish now than I ever have!! I need everyones prayers thatI will be able to learn this language!!

So anyways the first few days were really discouraging, I was starting to feel really down on myself thinking, man can I really do this, can I really go to Argentina and teach people the gospel in Spanish!!! Well as everyone says when you get to the MTC is just make it to that first sunday and you will be great! Well I was starting to think how is making it to Sunday going to help me learn Spanish? Well It didn't, but let me tell you that all of the talks and devotionals were written just for me! For relief Society we had Sister Dalton (General Young Womens president) come speak to us and it was all about how even though you feel like you can't do it, the Lord needs me here and I am meant to go to Argentina to teach specific people that no one else would be able to teach! So now I'm so ready to keep going, no Sunday didn't help me learn Spanish, but I know that through the Lord I can do anything, and I just need to have the faith that he will bless me! So that is what I'm working on right now!

I love it here, and I do miss you guys, I would love to get pictures from everyone, so I can show off my beautiful family!! Its funny, I'm already used to my name being Hermana, I heard someone say my name the otherday and it was so weird!! I have the best district in the world, the elders are awesome!! One of them played for SVU this past year and he said they won conference, I was really surprised! Another is from Cinci, and another is from Marietta GA and knows the Hattons. The last one is from St. George UT and he is pretty cool! We all get along great and they make class really fun! My teachers are amazing as well, one of them is from Chile, and he had fun imitaing accents from all the different places we are going, the Buenos Aires one was the hardest to understand, everyone looked at me and was like wow good luck sister!! HAHA it was the hardest to understand, but it was also the most beautiful!! Everyone in my district is going to either Argentina or Paraguay!! It is awesome! We have more going to Argentina than Paraguay, because lets face it thats the best! Well I have 5 min left, i will prob write a paper letter as well... I love you all and I love letters too... I've gotten some from Noelle and Katie, don't let them show you all up!!

Love,

Hermana Gosnell

First Letter!

We received Michelle's first letter today. I will copy it here. She wrote this letter on her first night in the MTC.

Aug. 20th
So I just finished my first day at the MTC! It was fun, a bit overwhelming but fun all the same! My companion seems pretty cool, she is from Montreal Canada, and French is her first language, English her second. We are in the intermediate class! Apparently we are still here for like 9 weeks.
There are 3 other Hermanas in my room, and 2 are leaving for the field on Monday, which I'm beyond happy about b/c all the bottom bunks are taken, so I'm on a top bunk, which we all know is very dangerous!! But no worries, on Monday I will be safely on the bottom bunk!
I haven't run into any of my friends yet, but hopefully tomorrow! My Branch President is President Romney, he is a judge, the name sounds so familiar, is he the guy that has been helping Paundrea? If so, small world!
My P'day is Tuesday's so after today, that is when you will be getting e-mails from me!
Oh, my first meeting, they made me sit on the front row because I didn't have my family with me, and because I sat in the front row, they asked me to give the closing prayer! It was crazy!
Well all in all it's been a crazy day, long as well, but I hear tomorrow is gonna be a lot longer! It is almost 10PM so I need to go get ready for bed
Love Ya lots!
Hermana Gosnell

PS
There is a quote by Adolf Rupp in my classroom! The Church is True!

Cool Fact of the week #1
If you read 3 chapters a day you can finish all the standard works in 11 1/2 months!

Michelle's MTC address

For the next two months, Michelle's address is:

Hermana Michelle Gosnell
Argentina Buenos Aires North Mission
Provo Missionary Training Center
Box #185
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84606

And she's gone

Last night Hermana Gosnell was set apart by Pres. Stucki as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Argentina Buenos Aires North Mission.



The ceremonial relinquishing of the cell phone.


Afterwards we all went to PF Changs (Michelle's favorite restaurant).

This morning we all said good-bye to Michelle at the airport and she caught the first leg of her flight which will eventually take her to the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah.


If Trish and Andrea will send me their pictures from the airport, I'll post them here too.


And she's off.

I hope they call me on a mission!!

Hey guys, this is my first and last post!! From here on out this blog will consist of my letters home! I won't be able to check this blog until I get home, so all comments that you guys leave I won't be able to see for a year and a half!! But Please feel free to comment!! I'm so excited to be serving the Lord, and hope you all will enjoy my stories!!

I am getting on the airplane to fly to Salt Lake City on Tuesday. From there I am going to Provo where I will enter the MTC on Wednesday. My mission officially starts on Wednesday, August 20, 2008.

My address at the MTC is:

Hermana Michelle Gosnell
Argentina Buenos Aires North Mission
Provo Missionary Training Center
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84606

This information will be updated after I get a mailbox number after I arrive at the MTC. Someone will post that information soon.

If you would like to write me a letter once I get to Argentina (and I would like that very much), you can send me letters through the pouch. The address is:

Hermana Michelle Gosnell
Argentina Buenos Aires North Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150
USA

You can also send me letters at no cost through dearelder.com

If you want to send me a package (and I'd like that very much too), you will want to send the package to the mission office. The address is:

Hermana Michelle Gosnell
Argentina Buenos Aires North Mission
Ituzaingo 355 1° Piso "L"
1642 San Isidro
Buenos Aires
Argentina

I love and miss you all!!!

Michelle