So little time, so much to say.

Hey everyone!

My time is limited on the computer but hopefully I'll write something meaningful. The MTC rocks! I love it here! Our district is amazing. All 6 of the elders are going to San Diego and the other three sisters are going to San Antonio. They are all so tiny...they look like they're 16 but they are mature yet a lot of fun, which creates a nice balance for all of us. Sister Mattson, my companion for the next 3 weeks, is from WY and she is super nice. I love her already. We've had to rely on each other a lot already and it makes the work go that much easier. We are roommates with the other 2 sisters, Sister Maile from the Bay Area and Sister Camarella from Sandy. We pretty much do everything togethere because we all get along so well. It has been so fun because we all have such uniqu personalities. Sister Camarella and I are pretty open and loud, whereas the other two are a little more reserved- super friendly and nice- but reserved. I love them all so much and I know that I will be so sad to say goodbye to them in 2 weeks! It's crazy how close you get so quickly but I guess when you are all out of your comfort zone together you can't help but bond quickly! I am struggling to type with this big bandaid on my finger from when I cut a chunk of skin off with my scalpel while making a box. Forgive me if I make a ton of errors.

I love getting mail! Dear Elder has been so nice. Thank you everyone that has written me, I've tried to write back but I'm learning how difficult it is to squeeze letter-writing time in on a P-day. Monday is my P-day so to my family, please e-mail me something by next monday. It was a little disappointing to not have anything in my inbox but a note from Dad that said he was confused....awesome. :) I'm not homesick though so that is a plus. Thanks for the short notes on Dear Elder dad, they've made not calling you everyday a lot easier. The only hard thing was learning to fall asleep in a new bed and after being cooped up pretty much all day 16 hours a day. I didn't sleep well the first 3 nights but last night and Saturday night I haven't had any trouble at all...I think that has a lot to do with my Black Chamomile Pillow Mist from Bath and Body Works. It is a saving grace. Another weird thing was getting used to eating really early. We eat breakfast at about 7:10, lunch at 11:40, and dinner at 4:40. I've NEVER had dinner that early before but we got used to it really quickly. Yesterday we didn't have dinner until about 6:00 and we were all starving! Church was awesome though. We had Sister Cook from the Primary General Presidency come and speak to us about Virtue. :)

I've learned so much already. I'll never read the Book of Mormon or any other scriptures the same way. I'm finally learning to study the scriptures and not just read them! We read 1Nephi 1 together as a class and stopped if we had a comment....we stopped a lot because even CH1 has a ton to offer. I love how easy it is to relate to the people in the BOM. Our district is in a pilot program where we are studying the fundamentals of teaching in class with our teachers Brother Sanders and Brother Christensen (from the "District 2".) He served in San Diego too so he is really pumped that 7 of us are going there. "The District 1" was filmed in San Diego so it is pretty cool that we're all in the same district in the MTC. Because we spend a lot of class time talking about how to teach we are primarily responsible for learning the lessons. It's nice though because we have a lot of opportunities to study and then seek answers from our teachers. A part of this pilot program is throwing us in the water to teach right away. We got here Wednesday and we were assigned to teach our first role playing investigator "Brian" Friday. It was slightly terrifying but we survived. It was really hard not to have someone with experience in the room..I"m looking forward to having a trainer so that I can get immediate feedback and most importantly have an example to follow. We spent all morning practicing extending the invitation to be baptized and discussing the importance of baptism. We spent a long time in 2 N 31 where it discusses the Doctrine of Christ, which happens to be my mission purpose. Because of this, we thought we were expected to extend the invitation to be baptized and the other sisters did when they thought so even though the lesson and getting to know you took us nowhere, we went for it in the last 2 minutes. It was nuts! It also just didn't feel quite right because we didn't even know how to apply baptism to his life and figure out what areas he would see that baptism could help him! Fortunately, we learned from our mistakes and the MTC is the best place to learn. The teacher covered the "getting started section" in the PMG, which will help a ton next time!  Fortunately we were both blessed to see our teachers as investigators, I really can say that I love them! Well i'm out of time! I love you all and I hope to hear from you all soon (hint HINT!)

Sincerely, Rachel Hudson
P.S. The temple rocked this morning!!!!!! I Love the Temple and you should all go this week!)