Sister Matalyn Weaver

 Hey everyone!! It's so hard to believe I'm done with the HMTC!! Time really does fly haha. I finished class this morning, then was packing and getting ready to fly out all day. I leave for the airport bright and early Monday morning, and the adventure officially begins! It's so weird that it's here. It kind of felt like we'd just be in the MTC for forever. (Gratefully, we weren't!) It was hard saying goodbye to our teachers the past few days. They were amazing and I'm so grateful for them and what they taught me! My Dutch has grown way more than I ever thought possible. Their testimonies and mission experiences have inspired me to continue pushing forward on this path. A few fun stories from this week!! One of my MTC teachers lives in Ohio, and she flew home last weekend. I actually have a friend in Ohio right now on a reassignment. And guess who happened to run into each other?? My teacher said she taught Dutch and my friend connected the dots. So that was

Hallo iedereen!! Het is jouw leiflingse zendeling, Zuster Weaver! It's already my fifth week of MTC... which means I have one more week left!! I'm flying out in 9 days... It's so soon, but at the same time so far away. It'll come soon enough though haha. This week was good! More nederlands leren, more gospel learning. My companion and I taught our second practice MTC lesson in Dutch this week! It went sooooo much better than the first one. We weren't as nervous, and we prepared it in a totally different way. It was way better. Not as good as our English ones have gone, but better than our last Dutch one. This is the worst lesson you'll ever teach in Dutch! It can only go up from here! --- me, to Zus Lay, myself, and my district after we all taught our first dutch lesson. It's STRESSFUL. But hey,  it only goes up from here! This week I'm grateful for grandparents who live close! My wifi was out this morning so I couldn't go to class. I was able to run

Another week in the HMTC!! I got my flight plans this week!! I fly out of SLC Monday, August 2nd at 9:50 AM. It's so weird to think about ACTUALLY leaving haha... I'm so excited though. It's finally becoming real! Washington DC, here I comeeeee. Story about the title haha. Our teachers this week were teaching us colors. We went through the rainbow and a few other colors. Our teacher, Zuster D, tells us "ok, the word for silver is crazy long. Brace yourselves." She then spells out this word for us. We're all kind of like...?? What in the world, Dutch? They had us practice saying it 5 times, then run and tell a family member the word for silver. So we all run and tell a family member this reallyyyyy long word. We get back and continue with the lesson. Towards the end of class, they say "Ok zendelingen (that's dutch for missionaries), we need to tell you something. Silver is actually just ... zilver ." We were OUTRAGED. These are our teachers, we

 Hallo, iedereen! We started learning Dutch on Tuesday. That was ....a shock to my system haha.. It's definitely been a lot harder than it was before. I enjoyed the MTC more in Engels, but I've definitely pushed myself a lot more since starting nederlands. Our teachers speak mostly just in Dutch. I'm kind of surprised at how much I've already learned, after only 5 days of language study. De Gave van Talen is real! We have to ask to use English, which I'm sure any missionary that's learned a language can relate to... SYL, iedereen!! Nederlands is moeilijk, maar het zal worden goed. Hopefully. Zuster Lay en ik try to speak Dutch to each other when we can. It leads to a lot of broken neder-engels, but as long as we can understand each other! ;) The power went out at my house on Wednesday when I was in class. This is the same day I deleted zoom from my phone cuz I never used it anymore... I ended up using my phone as a hotspot for wifi for another phone to use zoom,

 The first full week of Home MTC! I've been getting a lot more used to the schedule, which has been helpful. I've realized what works for me and what doesn't. It's been crazy to realize how much the Lord blesses his missionaries even when they're at home doing Zoom calls. If I'd had to sit through a 3 hour zoom class twice a day for school I would've cried. There's no way I'd have been able to stay awake and focused or  been happy to be there. But not with the HMTC!! There are definitely times when it's harder to pay attention, but I can always get back into it. I'll start class in a bad mood, but 20 minutes in I'll be happier and focused on the lesson. It's pretty amazing, and I'm glad it works so well :) It definitely is the Lord's Zoom.... I've really enjoyed getting to spend so much time with my family, thanks to home MTC haha. There's this cute family in my ward that invited me to go to Hyrum Reservoir with them l