Week 2: I made it to Utah!

Jambo! (Hello!)

Yes, after several flight delays, an exploding shampoo bottle, forgotten pajama pants, and many travel prayers, I am finally here in Provo, Utah!

                             (View from my dorm room: A random mountain.)

There were a few BIG hiccups with travel day yesterday.  I was at the Madison airport at 9:30 AM and I got to my new dorm at 9:30 PM. Originally, I was supposed leave at 6 AM, flying Madison - Chicago - Salt Lake, but that got canceled at midnight because Chicago had a massive hail storm. 

                 (The size of the hail in Illinois that re-routed all the flights - plus 4 tornadoes.)  

So THEN I had to call the missionary travel people and have them rebook a flight,  and they booked the earliest one they could get, going to Dallas Texas, and my mom, brother, and I rushed to the airport. 

                               (Slightly stressed smiles, due to the time crunch!)

I was only 10 minutes early before they started boarding the flight. Crazy times.

It was very rough not being allowed to travel with a phone, it gave me bad travel anxiety. Also it was very annoying being stuck between two teenagers on one of my flights both with phones out the WHOLE TIME, and I just had my Swahili flashcards and a nap. lol.  

 My Dallas connecting flight was delayed 5 hours, so I ate pretzel bites and read the New Testament. The Missionary Training Center did not know why I wasn't showing up on time, and sent stress messages back home to Wisconsin, wondering where I was, which they couldn't answer, because I didn't have a phone! 

I was told I would be issued one when I arrived at the training center and did get one today. Much of my afternoon was spent figuring out how to set up email, facebook messanger and duolingo on it.

It was CRAZY riding in the shuttle from the SLC airport to the Provo training center. It was very dark outside, and I could see all the city lights in the valleys. There were multiple times during the drive where I could see 3 temples AT ONCE out the window. INSANE.

 It's like everyone by Salt Lake has their own neighborhood temples. My family has to drive two hours to Chicago to go to the temple. And I literally saw 9 (yesterday I counted) on the half an hour drive to the MTC. 

Most applicable quote for yesterday goes to Mathew 6:27   "Can anyone of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your life?" 

    I actually read it in the airport and was like "Huh, well, I guess I shouldn't have my heart rate be at 120 like it has been for the past couple hours!"😏

 Anyways, I'll have more info about MTC life next week since I'm pretty new here. My goal this week is to figure out what building I am in currently, and how to get from the dorms to the classrooms and the cafeteria.  Since I came in late, I missed the group orientations, and it was all dark.  

Arial view of MTC campus

The best part of yesterday was arriving and walking into the MTC lobby, and having it look just like a temple lobby. There was the front desk, with the people sitting behind it to welcome you, and the large beautiful art on the walls, and the temple-like peaceful feeling.

 After calling home from the front desk to tell my mom I had arrived, I set up my dorm room (shared with 3 other sister missionaries who are also learning Swahili).

It's been so awesome to meet my group in person! Everyone's way taller than I thought. (We have only met on screen for zoom classes before today.) Here's a picture of my Swahili-learning group and me at a temple this morning.  It was so nice after such a crazy day yesterday!

It's so funny to see everyone's reactions when we say what city in the U.S. we're going to, but then we say "Swahili speaking!" and they're like "WHOAH!" It's so funny every time.😄

It looks like P-days (Preparation Days) are on Thursdays? That is the day we have time scheduled to email friends and call home, so more details next week!