P day again already!

Okay!  P day again already!

Crazy week.  We totally gold tagged it! (I know missionaries aren't supposed to use slang, but you are just my family so it is okay.)  Sister Smith and I decided that we were going to find a gold tag to talk to even if it killed us. Finally we were walking and I thought I saw one up ahead.  He was this big scary looking Hispanic guy and there was no way in the world I was going to talk to him. But then I remembered I was working on being brave so we did!  I went up and started talking to him. Then pretty soon his other friend came up.  (So they have a picture catalog of all the gold tags in the MTC and get this: the friend that came up was the one that I had dubbed the scariest gold tag just a few days earlier.  Careful with the goals you set because you may be forced to accomplish them.)  There names are Theo and Lome. They are actually really wonderful. We got to know a little bit about each of them. They were real people! It was so fun talking to real people! They are both nonmembers.  And apparently nobody ever really talks to them. Theo has been working here since February and he told us that he didn't know why the missionaries never talked to him.  He said that he had heard that we had a message to share with the world, and so he figured we would want to share it with him to. It was awesome!  We asked him what questions he had. It was soo nice to be able to teach in English.  We were able to simply communicate and testify and it was so cool! They were both engaged in the conversation, but especially Theo.  He has no idea what we are about, and he was so curious, and kept saying how grateful he was that we actually talked to him. It was a real life contacting and teaching experience. Our follow up was really pathetic though. We asked if there was another time we could talk to them, and they said yeah definitely we are always in this area. And we said is there a specific time, and they said no we are always just here, you'll see us.  So we left it at that. Shame on you Sister Olsen and Sister Smith.  We still haven't had time to look for them during their shifts because we have class. We are definitely going to find them again this week.

D'accord. The French. Soo hard. So hard. And it didn't help the Frere Davis abandoned us for part of the week last week for his sister's wedding. Frere Laguan subbed in his place though, which is really fun. He knows Kelly Gonzalez. We went to Oak and Timp together and she was one of the best friends in French for those four years. Haha, they ran into each other the other day and she totally ratted me out and told Frere Laguan how bad my French was. But he "says" that I am doing really well so that makes me feel better. But it is really fun to see him every day because we met before the MTC once. And he goes to the U!

Frere Davis finally came back yesterday. He is so funny. He has a super low voice when he speaks French, but then when we speaks English his voice shoots up like a whole octave. It's so adorable. And I finally guessed his name. It's Dee. --What does that remind you of?--

We have really stepped it up; we are speaking en francais way more often now. We know a lot. I have a lot of the language in my head. But it always takes me three tries to apply it correctly in conversation. We had to take an oral exam last week. Aaaaaaaaaaah! It was so stressful! My teachers said I did really really well, but then they gave me a 3.22 out of 7! Ce quoi ca? I'm so ticked. So I'm really going to step it up this week. No way I'm taking their back stabbing lying down.

You will never guess what happened this week! Frere Rodriguez, my other teacher, taught Shannon in the Spain MTC! Can you believe that? This is his first district in Provo but it turns out he taught in Spain for a few years--Spanish-- and so I asked him if he knew a Hermana Tuttle and he was like yeah, Shannon! She was in his district. "They are actually friends on facebook!" --I'm not sure what that really means but he seemed to think that that was super important. So that's really really fun. So Shannon and I had the same investigator, William Toro! Isn't that so fun? I couldn't even believe it. I am so excited about it. Same teacher, two different continents, two different languages. How crazy. (Oh no, crazy again. Who do I sound like? That's right. Sarah Jenson. Must be a sister missionary thing. I'll try not to use it again.)

Okay so Frere Rodriguez's investigator right now is Jean-Claude. Oh my goodness he is so difficult. He is an extremely active Evangelist. We think we are going to lessait tombe him. Drop him. Our resource teacher-- or helper-- told us that we need to, and Frere Rodriguez basically told us the same thing yesterday. So.. we don't really know what to do. We feel like that is cheating. But Jean-Luc is doing better. Our lessons have been kind of rough lately, but yesterdays was really really good. We also teach two real people each week. Real people meaning, they are members that speak French and we just teach them as themselves.  Those lessons are really cool.  But stressful!  It turns out that there is a video camera that everyone else was aware and our teachers sit and watch us in another room. There is no privacy in the MTC.

Announcement of the week: Sister Smith and I were the kings of four square on Thursday.  Nous l'avons tue.

Okay well I am out of time! I hope that was everything. I loved all your letters!  I sent pictures in another email. The one of me and Mandy is from today!  And then there is one with us and all the Elders in our district. And I don't remember the other ones I sent.  Love you all to death! Keep sending me letters, pictures, and food!

Love,

Soeur Olsen

(Catherine and her cousin Mandy!)