Week 1

Oh my word hello family!!

Okay first oh all I felt so loved opening up my inbox to so many emails! This is the best and the hardest thing I think i will ever do. I´m not kidding. I went to the MTC feeling super capable and like I had this thing in the bag and oh my word I have never felt more humbled in my whole entire life. I plead with the Lord every single day for strength and the ability to not only learn Spanish but to speak and understand it.

The first day I got there I met up with my companion Hermana Spencer. She´s from Riverton, UT and she went to Riverton High School! She said she didn´t know Tanner so thats was a bummer haha shes really sweet. She is like the clone of After Izu I swear their mannerisms are so similar. She is going to the Riverside, CA mission. We walked into el comedor for dinner cause we were starving and the two people I know who are here from BYU both saw me and ran up to me. It´s so small here!! Like there are only 200 missionaries here right now but by the end of August there will be over 1000. I like that is small though. I LOVE my district. there´s only 7 of us! One of my good friends from BYU is in my district Elder Moser!! Intermediate class is the best and worst thing that could have happened to me. Honestly, the first real day, thursday, was 100% totally Spanish. Hrmo. Silva my teacher(hes the best teacher at the CCM people say) is so amazing. He has the Highest expectations and some times they seriously stress me out but hey one day at a time.

I feel like ive been here for weeks! the schedules is pretty rigorous. I wake up at 630 and we only have 30 minutes to get ready and 4 girls with one shower so 3 minutes in a freezing cold shower is the daily routine. We live in a casa which is super awesome. It me, my companion, hermana olsen (shes so hilarious) and hermana lee( she said shes friends with nate and gina!) and theres like 7 or 8 native hermanas that live with us. They are so wonderful. I will talk to them and feel pretty good about it and then they just laugh so hard so thats humbling. One of the natives always asks me if I eat hahaha I swear they want me to get fat here. They feed me more than everyone else im convinced. But dont worry, i don{t eat it all.

I{m not gonna lie there have been some nights were I come home and im just like what the heck am i doing here this is soooooo hard but everytime i pray this calm that i have never felt before comes over me.I do not doubt my call as a missionary. I love this gospel. We have this investigator named Hugo. He is the sweetest. It{s all in spanish and when I meet with him I feel so much love for him it{s like so weird and awesome hahaha i know its the Saviors love for him and i am simply the vessel. I get frustrated cause its all in spanish and its so hard for me to understand what he is saying! My comp knows way more spanish than I do, so she kinds takes over and does things a little differently than I would and its like so frustrating for me cause i know exactly what i need to say in english i just don't know how to say it in spanish! I was questioning my call as a missionary and if i would ever get to the point where i would be good enough and wanting to know when this whole gift of tongues thing would kick in. I was studying and came across Moroni 7:37. The felt impressed that I cannot doubt my ability or adequacy as a missionary because that is the opposite of faith. I will only receive the gift of tongues after I demonstrate perfect faith,.

Ignore the typos I don't have much time hahaha}

I MET THE ONLY TWO MISSIONARIES GOING TO HOUSTON!! Elder Murdock and Elder Noriega. They felt like they need to come talk to me and they didn't know why and We were talking in spanish And i asked them where they were going on their mission and BAM so that happened.

I love you all! Im probably forgetting a ton. Dad, SYL started the first day. All day every day. I try my best but its hard hahaha All the workers like to talk to us in spanish and teach us stuff! I say all my prayers out loud and in my head in spanish and I wrote a talk in spanish on repentance. I also have my purpose as a missionary, the first vision and the baptismal invitation memorized in spanish!

Mom my email password is _______ and that made me tear up about dads talk! I miss and love you guys a ton. ITs so busy here there is no time to be homesick so thats good!

Love you !}

Hermana Mortensen

Me and my name tag… I WEAR A NAME TAG

Me and Elder Gates and Elder Moser. Elder Moser and I are friends from BYU!

It is so pretty here!

My District!

Me and Hermana Spencer!

Me and the elders going to Houston. They loved seeing the family picture :)