Conference, "the Incubator", and Pitch Perfect MTC style!

Hello again wonderful people of my life!!!

Sportin' Aaron's watch :)

First off. . .I love you all sooooo much! Thank you for your prayers and for the Dear Elders and for everything you do for me :) Aaron won and got me my first package of the MTC :) That was AWESOME! I got it last p-day and he got my lots of my favorite things as well as some really helpful stuff for my mish! :D He got me this absolutely ADORABLE lime green watch that has an owl on it and it says "Believe in Yourself" :) It's the stinkin cutest thing and it makes me day brighter when i look at it instead of the boring black thing I got haha He also spoiled me with my favorite candy and PB Oreos (those were perfect for coping with the break down I had this week haha) then Mom I got your package a few days after that and it was magnificent as well :) Packages are kinda the best thing ever haha I was definitely in need of the snacks, I like having the healthy options you sent me!

Showing off Aaron's watch

There's that watch again ;) 

Ok so I'll get into my week now :)
It's still going AMAZING! I love it here with all my heart, and the temple is so wonderful. It's definitely a rejunivator for the spirit and body!! SPEAKING of!! CONFERENCE WAS AWESOME!! There were SOOO many talks that were amazing, and while I've always enjoyed conference and thought the messages were cool and made awesome pinterest quotes (thanks for the pics mom! :) )This is the first time I went with a real specific question in mind that I needed answering, and needing to gain as much strength as I could from each talk. EVERY SINGLE ONE SEEMED DIRECTED RIGHT AT ME!!  Maybe not as a whole talk, but everyone had something I desperately needed to hear, sweet right? :) Hands down favorite talk. . .Elder Holland. He's always amazing, normally I feel like he's more 'call to repentance" at me. . .but this time? He gave me the confidence to know that as long as I'm giving my best and having faith in what I do know, everyting will work out :) It's really easy, especailly here surrounded by So many amazing people, to feel super inadequate. I"ve felt a lot of that since being here. I've never been so humbled in my entore life. But, I know that each time I'm humbled I grow a little stronger in my faith that the Atonement and my Savior is real because I have to put everything I have in HIs hands so he can make up the difference for me. That was what I felt like the over lying theme of Conference was, Come Unto Christ :) Maybe that's just cuz that's my purpose now and I hear it day in and day out haha but I love this and I'm so grateful for the oppertunity to come closer to Christ and invite others to do so as well :) Not gonna lie, it was pretty awesome to have all the talks about missionary work and be like "Whoa. . .that's ME they are talking about." Not so much in conference, but our teachers here at the MTC are always saying, "this is an amazing time to be a part of missionary work. This could be the greatest most miracluous time in all it's history, or it could be the biggest disater. it's up to you." No pressure right? Haha just kidding, I like the pressure :) 

It has definitely been a process for me this week, realizing the weight of the calling I have, but I've learned a ton and I never would have believed my testimony could have been strengthened as much as it has been in just 2 weeks. I definitely have been more lonely this week missing all of you. My district is great and awesome people, but they just don't know me as Larissa. . .I'm Hermana Conger to them, and sometimes I feel like I'm being judged a lot. I've been put in a place that I didn't realize would be uncomfortable for me, trusting people I don't know, or barely know, with the things of my heart I have only really needed to share with the people I feel closest to. One of the Hermana's in my room (they leave for LA this week! Crazy!) Told me that the MTC is an incubator. It takes away all of your comforts of home, all of the people you used to confide in, all of that, and forces you to lay everything on the Lord and trust in Him and therefore find peace throught the true Comforter, the Holy Ghost :) I can testify, that is true! I have to go to Him for all of my concerns now, and even though I thought I understood that process before, only now am I begining to realize how that process can change my life. It's pretty dang cool <3

Ok, I'll talk about my week for real now haha So I speak spanish A TON! I can't BELIEVE how much I can speak already. I think in spanish, I can bear my testimony pretty easily in Spanish, and it's now weird to say "Dear Heavnely Father" instead of "Nuestro Amorado Padre Celestial" and "In the name of Jesus Christ" instead of "En El Nombre de Jesucristo." Just praying in English in general is sooo super weird haha I remeber thinking that one story I told about that girl who couldn't remeber how to pray in English was funny. . . but I TOTALLY know how she feels now! haha

So I can't BELIEVE you guys got a SNOW DAY!! That's soooo cool haha I did wake up to a little dusting of snow on the ground that day, but it melted probably before 12 :0 It's been raining a lot, but everywhere I go we have this convenient little roof over us, even though we're outside, so I don't get wet haha Oh, on tuesday, which was the day it snowed, I got to do my first Service day and it was AWESOME!! It's kinda like a mini p-day time, except you clean bathrooms or whatever haha, me and Hermana Tolman cleaned toilets and talked about our families in Spanish the whole time, it was SO fun! And then we had an AMAZING devotional that night, all about revelation, which I've been super. . .uhm I guess feeling unpracticed at. . .and it just step by step gave me confidence and the tools that are important to remember in receiving revelation, so anyway, it was sweet :) 

Riss with friends from SVU - almost ALL of these kids are missionaries right now!  Joce and Jaren are in the middle-ish

I SAW JAREN YESTERDAY!! :D He is doing well, he told me he saw Joce and she hadn't heard he was coming here instead and she FREAKED out haha I actually haven't seen Joce hardly at all :( I got to see her a little more during conference weekend but not at all since then. . .I think they are on the same schedule and I'm on a different one. There are a TON of spanish speakers here haha OH and we saw the Consulate on Tuesday! It went well, he just had to double check and make sure our fingerprints were good and we had to sign them in front of him, and he also talked a little bit about Argentina :) I'm sooo excited! By the way he made Visa's sound, at the least we would get ours in like 3ish weeks. . .but likely it'll be longer than that. Which if they don't come, we'll either just stick around, or a lot of other missionaries are getting transferred to a Stateside mission of a transfer. I kinda think that would be awesome (As long as I don't get sent to Boise Idaho ;) <3) just cuz then I'd getta experience a little of a stateside mission too :) But whatever happens will happen!!

Oh and while I was meeting with the consulate I gotta talk to Hannah for awhile! I see her quite a bit cuz she's on my floor so we'll see eachother while we're washing our faces or whatever in the bathroom :) Haha THE BATHROOM HERE IS SO FUN! That's weird I know haha but I started humming "Nearer My God to Thee" one morning and the girl in the shower next to me started harmonizing so I started full out singing and so did she, eventually the WHOLE BATHROOM was singing in the beautiful chorus! It was freaking the coolest thing EVER!!! :D 

Oh, I was called as a Sister Trainer (I can't remember if they talked about that in conference or not. . .I think one of the Brothern did but I can't remember. . .) but with there being just as many if not more Sisters vs. Elders, they are calling Sister Missionary Trainers that serve in a capacity similar to Zone Leaders (Fam, that is the companionship of Elders that is over all the Districts in their Zone, dunno if that helps at all haha) But anyway, basically next week when we get a new district, me and Hermana Tolman get to take all the Sisters on a tour of the MTC and give them the inside scoop on life here, and kinda be like little mamas to them :) My Sister Trainers were incredible and they let me break down to them a time or two, so I'm excited to have this oppertunity to give back :) I know I need the refinement that comes with a position like this! Think the people who need the most help get called to stuff like that, that's what my Teacher says and I TOTALLY agree haha It'll be fun though, and hopefully I'll get to be a Host Sister soon, which is when i get to go and pick up the new arriving Sisters on Wednesday and show them around. My Host Sister instantly made me feel at home here, so again, I want the oppurtunity to give back in that regard!!

I can't believe all the crazy stuff going on at home this week! Kix, write me and tell me about Rachel would ya?! :) I'm sorry about Connors mustang, I woulda been horrified too! I'm glad it sounds like it's all gonna be fine though :( Ace. . .YOU'RE DRIViNG NOW!!!!! What the heck! hahaha that's freaking crazy! Tell me how it's going! Did you get my oober late birthday letter? I Love you and hope your birthday was AWESOME! Oh and boys tell me how Baseball is going :)

Cade, you are definitely turinging into a master face off designer ;) and Taysa you make a darn good model!!!! Maybe you guys should convince that main guy to do a kids version of the show and you could go on ;) Dad, I heard you went to an Avs game?! That's sounds awesome! Tell me about it sometime would ya?! :)

Riss with Rosa (right) and Emily (left)

I would like to announce that ROSA has won the truest friend contest by being my first friend from home to send me a note!!! ;) haha I LOVE YOU ALL THOUGH! I'd love you hear from Nikki and Emily if they have time! Tell them I'm sorry I don't have time to write them right now but I'd love to hear from them <3 Oh, Crystal Cleveland (on my Bball team at SVU)  also sent me a dear elder and that TOTALLY brightened my day!1 I'll try and write you back today Crystal!! :) 

Well, I gotta go. BUT I love you all and hope you are having a GREAT week! Keep on keeping on and be awesome!!! LOVE YOU!!! Esto evangelio es verdadero. Yo se que eso con mi todo corazon. Yo amo mi Salvador y Rendentor Jesucristo y mi Padre Celestial. I challenge all of you to come closer to God and our Savior Jesus Christ somehow this week :) Ok?! I LOVE YOU!

 Until next P-day :) <3

Larissa aka Hermana Conger