Getting into shape sometimes hurts

One of the things I love about being here at the MTC is the gym time that we are given each day.  My first day, I spent thirty minutes on the elliptical trainers while watching a talk that Elder Bednar gave at General Conference on a giant flat-screen television, and then I spent twenty minutes doing Jillian Michaels-style compound movements (e.g static lunge with a bicep curl). 

The next day, I was sore all over, but I knew that it was a "good" sore.  It meant that I had pushed myself and that in a few days, my body would be healthier for having pushed myself.  And I realized that even though my first week at the MTC seemed to be going ever-so-easily, it wouldn't always be so comfortable.  Heavenly Father would, without a doubt, push me to become a stronger, more capable woman.  And sure enough, he has.  I'm 25 and I have lived on my own for nearly a decade.  I can survive if I don't get a letter from family and friends.  Some of my fellow district missionaries are not at that point yet.  And so I'm realizing that I need to be more tolerant of them - at least when it comes to non-essentials.

On another note, the gym now offers P90X workouts for everyone.  I've written a lot of the exercises down so that I can do them throughout the mission.  I expect to come home transformed, like Sarah Connor from the Terminator movies.  And I don't just mean physically.

Sister Russell, aka the Best Example of Charity Ever

 I have heard horror stories from other missionaries about companions.  I was terrified that my first companion would be an enormous trial.  So far, it seems, I have lucked out.  Sister Russell is from Spanish Fork, Utah, and I know that she and I were meant to be each others' companions.

Here are some things that make me love her:

If she has something that someone else doesn't have (like a towel rack or multivitamins that are small enough to be swallowed without choking), she offers to share. 

"Swallowing horse-pills is not necessary with Sister Russell around"

She has received personal revelation on behalf of our investigators, and that revelation has proved useful. 

She puts up with my near-need to speak Spanish or Portuguese on a daily basis, even as she supports me in my effort to do it out of love and a desire to lift up other missionaries, and not to show off how awesome I am. 

She is willing to come back to the residence hall after every meal so that I can brush my teeth.

Feel free to pray for both of us, that we will be sensitve to each others' needs and be able to lift each other up.