La Segunda Semana

Dear Family,

It sounds like it has been a roller coaster of a week from what I have heard. It seemed like Poppy had the best week out of anyone. :) I hope that this next week goes more smoothly. I also hope that you guys all had a wonderful Father's Day. I didn't have a ton of time to write last time, but I want to say (a late) Happy Father's day to Dad, Eli, and Sam! I also wanted to say thank you for the package you sent me! I loved the painting supplies and Christmas tree and I'll be happy to have it for early December. All of the hermanas, who were there when I opened it, thought it was awesome. They wanted me to hang it up in our room but I thought it might be a little early. We'll see if I hold out on that decision; we might just have an early Christmas celebration in our dorm room. 

I haven't heard about moving to the DR CCM, but on the DearElders I get it says my departure date is June 30th. I went in to see if I am leaving then and I was told that if I haven't heard about it in a week to go to the travel office and ask. I'm hoping I'll here back soon.  I did, however, find out my DearElder code (no pressure :). I'm in unit 98, with my mission code being "Dominican Republic, Santiago". They were feeling very creative when they came up in the mission code, I feel like it could be a code word from Megamind. 

As far as the language goes, it is coming slowly but surely. Like Anna said, I'm not the most fluent but that is okay. We have only learned the present tense so far but we have already taught four full lessons in full Spanish. It can be easy to feel discouraged about the language, but then I realize that I've only been here for a week and a half. Adjusting to the missionary schedule was much easier than I expected. Yes, we do study a lot but we have a lot of fun and it feels good to work hard. My district is a lot of fun and we get along really well. I think I told you that my teacher told us that we were the rowdiest district she's ever taught, so our district goal this week was to be more reverent... we're still working on it. :) I've also seen a lot of people that I know. I see Heidi and my roommate Raya almost every day, which always is fun. I also see a lot of people I know from BYU. 

We go to the temple on Saturday mornings for the 7:20 session and it is always a nice break from the CCM campus. We also have played beach volleyball as a district during exercise time and my companion and I have started running everyday. I love the hermanas in my district and my companion, Hermana Burton, is great. In my district there is Hermana Sorensen, Hermana Larsen who are going to the Nicaragua, Managua South Mission (is that Jake's?); Hermana Skouson and Hermana Ward who are going to Ecuador, and then Hermana Burton who is also going to Nicaragua, me, and then six elders. I think Sundays are my favorite days but they can be stressful because everyone is supposed to prepare talks and then they call on you in Sacrament meeting and hope that you have prepared your talk. So far I haven't gotten called on, but we'll see about tomorrow. Last Sunday we also had a devotional from Donny Osmond and that was exciting. Hermana Sorensen almost died when she found out he was giving the devotional and ran to the front afterwards to shake his hand, since that is what we do here at the CCM. :) He sang "Let's Get Down to Business" and I don't know who was more surprised, the missionaries or the CCM president, but everyone thought it was really funny to have a Disney song be sung over the pulpit for a Sunday devotional. 

I hope that Esme has a great week at Girl's Camp this week; I know it isn't always very fun to go but I know that it will end up being great. If I remember right, BYU starts this next week and I hope that Anna has a great first week. Let me know if you have any questions for my next letter home so I can write a better email. I hope that Phoenix isn't too crazy hot and that classes this next week go well for everyone. I love you all and can't wait to hear from you soon. I'll be thinking of you! 

love, Hermana Schriever (the second?)

P.S. I think I forgot to thank you all for the letters you put in my suitcase when I came here, but they made my first week so much easier, so thank you thank you! I can also say I got to see my whole family in one day which hasn't happened for a while so I consider it quite the achievement. :)