Letters from Meredith...

Hola, familia y amigos!

I can't believe I've been at the MTC for five weeks! It's crazy! Katy and Leigh, I got your letters Monday and yesterday. Thank you so much! Letters are so uplifting. I appreciate your words of advice! Tahlia, I hope you had a Happy Birthday last week!

We had another district leave this week; nine elders headed to Honduras, Arkansas, and Virginia. We're getting ten new elders tonight. At lunch, the elders were thinking up different ways to scare them: only speaking in Spanish, telling them they have to get in the showers at 5:30 a.m., etc. Sometimes I just roll my eyes and shake my head at the elders. Good thing they have hermanas to keep them in line!

This past week has been great! Hermana Cooper (my companion) and I made a goal to SYL ("Speak Your Language") more in the cafeteria and residence halls. I was having some trouble conjugating the verbs, but the more we speak, the better it gets! The other two hermanas in our room say they are learning a lot from listening to us speak Spanish. It's so fun! Last week we taught the second lesson, the Plan of Salvation, in English for the second time at the TRC. Yesterday, we taught the first lesson in Spanish! It was nerve wracking and took a lot of preparation, but it went so well! Last week, Hermano Mortimer read us some scriptures and talked to us about the gift of tongues. He promised us that if we worked and studied hard, we would be able to give the first lesson in Spanish. He was so right! Last Thursday night, we watched "The Restoration" in Spanish. Even though it was older Spanish and difficult to understand, the Spirit of the message was definitely still there. Hno. Mortimer promised us that if we focused on the message rather than the language, our lessons would be great. Yesterday, Hma. and I taught David the first lesson. It was such a neat experience! I felt like the verbs were just coming out of my mouth. I didn't even have to think about the conjugations, which is amazing for me. I'm constantly trying to remember preterite, imperfect, future, etc. Anyway, I know that the scripture in the Doctrine and Covenants 38:30 that says, ". . . if ye are prepared, ye shall not fear. . . ." really is true!

So Spanish is coming along great. Last week we took a Language Speaking assessment and the tutor graded it. He ranked us from 1-7 in categories of pronunciation, verb conjugation, and vocabulary. 1 is a brand-new Spanish speaker; 7 is like a native. I got 4's in all categories! I was so excited! I don't feel like I speak that well, but our investigators usually tell my companion and I that our Spanish is really good for five weeks. We took the test again on Monday, so hopefully I did as well this time.

On Sunday, we had Sister Camille Fronk Olson, a professor of ancient scriptures at BYU, speak to us in Relief Society. She focused on chapters 10-13 in Hebrews and talked about faith. She said that the most important part of having faith is having real intent, being willing to and actually acting on the results, or answers, of our faith. It was an eye-opener for me because there are so many times I feel prompted to do or say certain things, even little things, but I don't. I have definitely felt my faith grow so much from being here! Sunday night, Brother Mark Jarman was our fireside speaker. He is a director of training here at the MTC. He talked about how to apply the Book of Mormon to our lives. I felt like this was an answer to prayer. I have been feeling like I needed to read the Book of Mormon all the way through, but I wanted to have a focus, something meaningful for me. So I have started reading it and applying the teachings to my life. It's amazing how things open up. I hope that this will help me to apply the Book of Mormon to my investigators' needs. The Book of Mormon really does answer any question that we might have. President Benson said that the Book of Mormon, combined with the Spirit, is a missionary's best tool in conversion. I know this is true!

Last week, Hmo. Taylor gave us a neat spiritual thought in class. He said that it takes a lot of humility and courage to be happy for others' successes even when we ourselves might not be having success. For missionaries, this could apply if one companionship has lots of baptisms and another one doesn't. I had never thought about this in quite that way before. Sometimes it is difficult to be happy for others. I know I want to have my days to shine. But I've found that when I'm happy for Sister Cooper when she receives mail, or gives a really good part of our lesson, or whatever it is, I find joy myself. I really think that the Lord multiplies our joy when we are happy and rejoice for the successes of others.

Those are the highlights from this past week. I hope all of you are doing well! I would love to hear from any of you if you get a chance! My mailing address it:

Hermana Meredith Cozzens
Provo MTC
MTC Box #252
PAR-ASU 0419
2005 N. 900 E.
Provo, UT 84606-1793

You can also use DearElder.com to send free letters to the MTC. Also, if you get a chance, would you send me your addresses? I'm not sure how mail is going to be in Paraguay, but I would like to have addresses on hand. Thanks!

Well, my half hour is about up. Thank you all for your prayers and support! I love this gospel, and I am so grateful for the happiness it brings to our lives. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior, that He knows each of us individually and wants us to return to Him. I know that the Book of Mormon is true, and that it was written for us, in our day. I know that as we read it, it brings so many insights into our lives. I hope you are all doing well and hope to hear from you soon!

Con amor,
Hermana Meredith Cozzens


\Hey everyone! Sorry about the confusion, but Meredith just e-mailed me because she realized that she had put the wrong zip code on her mailing address in the last e-mail that she sent. She e-mailed me the correct zip code: 84604-1793 Everything in the rest of the mailing address is still correct though. Sorry about the mix up!
- Jeanice