May 8, 2011
This week was amazing. I love the MTC!
Wow, this emailing is stressful because it has this flashing red counter in the corner! So here we go. This week was amazing. I love the MTC! my companions are Sister Anderson from Montana and Sister Smith from London. They are so fun and energetic and happy. We laugh a lot, which is a huge blessing because there are many potentially frustrating times, but we just enjoy it.
Thanks so much to everyone for the letters and prayers! I know I am being prayed for because I have had such hope this week. My district started out with four Elders going Alaska, but on Friday we lost Elder W because he said he needed to clear some things up. We got a letter from him this week saying he was definitely planning on coming back and he would look forward to that time, which made us all very happy. then yesterday, when we got to district study, Elder Wh said he was going home to baptize his girlfriend and get married. We knew he was struggling and not paying attention in classes, and he was very abrasive and angry, but we love him and were very sad. Later we found out he had a cell phone at the MTC and some other details that shed some light on maybe why he was struggling, but we hope he can continue to build his testimony and study the gospel. It was hard for the other two elders - Elder B and H because they were really struggling that first week too, but since Elder Wh has gone home, a lot of the contention is gone and they are doing really well. We are quite a close district now. We love our elders.
My companions are amazing. They inspire me in so many ways. Whenever we are teaching a lesson they will say something so profound and I am grateful to have them as examples. We like to joke. It was love at first sight with the three of us because we get along so well. Then we joke about how hard our companions will probably be in the field since we have it so good now... except we're not really joking :) And Sister Anderson and I are picking up english accents. Someone from Holland asked us if we were english yesterday. We were a little too excited.
The Lord has blessed me so much this week to be able to fall into the missionary schedule. Something I was really worried about was being productive in my study. I have never studied the gospel for two hours, but it has been amazing how naturally this came. I crave my study, and often it seems not long enough. I know this is not the natural side of me, so I am thankful for this and for your prayers.
They are apparently really worried about the sisters staying healthy here because on Sunday they had an hour orientation on staying healthy for the sisters and not for the elders. They also provide morning exercise classes like step aerobics {hello awesome 80's} and pilates you can wake up early and go to. We went. They were surprisingly hard but we had fun. Oh! my two companions are going to the Oakland California temple visitor center, so thankfully we will all go to that last week of training on Temple Square together, so yes, I will be here about four weeks.
Yesterday for devotional Elder Neil Anderson spoke. It was amazing. He talked about the merits, mercy and grace of the atonement. I wish I could just write all of his talk, but this red flashing thing will not allow that. {my companions have now disappeared and it is giving me anxiety. Funny, how fast I adjust to always having people with me} He said we should relish the book of Mormon, which he clearly does because he taught from it the whole talk. He also taught about repentance in such a loving way it reminded me very much of how they savior must feel about the atonement. He then told us that someday, when every knee bends and tongue confess, our badges we wear will be badges of honor and then he grouped us with him and the apostles and said they will become that because we testified of Him. That is how we all will be I think, by testifying of Jesus Christ through the way you live your lives. I'm grateful for your example.
Oh, I am pretty sure I have bed bugs. I'm not sure what the bites are supposed to look like but I have them all over my shoulders and my back. They don't itch, but they are a bit sore. Before I had them on my stomach. Any suggestions? This kind of grosses me out, so when I sleep I get all paranoid that they are crawling on me now. haha ew.
Something i have been impressed with at the MTC is how real role plays become. They have us pick someone we know that is not a member of the church and then we become them while our companion teaches us. We also are progressively teaching our teacher's 'representative profile' James and Michael. I was worried about role play before I came in - that it would be awkward and i wouldn't be able to take it seriously, but I can now. It is real. These are real people, and when we teach sometime is helps them realize how they can teach their friend, or sometimes it's a message they themselves need to hear. It is great training. Our teachers - Brother Nate and Brother Roberts are really really good.
I have also loved how feeling the spirit strongly is a huge part of everyday here. Wow, missionary work, thus far, is great!
We get to go to the temple today! Something we have all been looking forward to.
Also, I am grateful for how much effort the church puts into training the missionaries. Everything here is efficient, and planned and nice. The church values the missionaries and the work they do very much - how nice to know that.
Thanks again for all your letters. They make my days even better. I'm glad to hear everyone is doing well. Happy mother's day mom! I thought about you and your adventures on Sunday.
J - my companions and I say horray for zion almost everyday. I thought you would be proud. And also, sister smith shook my bed, said Horray for zion and kissed my head to wake me up the other morning. It was funny.
Well, this is a really long email, thanks to my fast typing fingers! Good work hands.
It's now time to go. I love you all! Hope to hear from you again soon.
Love,
Sister A
p.s. I have a name tag! How cool is that! Also, i felt really awesome about my ID card with my bangs sticking straight up, until I saw sister Smith's where her eyes were closed and it looked like she sneezed. Haha, yea!
05/18/11
Dear Everyone,
Hewo! Another week gone {as if there has been more than 2} and it was another really good one. Today my MTC food card/magic card that you must have for everything, fell into the toilet. I tried getting it out with a pen first, but... that just pushed it up into the hole. No go. So I just had to man up and grab it. That was fun.
But onto more important things. Last night for Tuesday night devotional Richard G. Hinckley spoke. It was really good. They asked me to say the closing prayer for it on Sunday and my companions and I were so excited! But then after we got there forty five minutes early and were excitedly sitting on the stand, our branch president, Brother Zimbleman {cool name, yes.} came up and told us he made a mistake and they double scheduled. We were very disappointed. But then we got over it, and the talk was great. He related 2 Timothy 1 to us, and I liked the verse that talked about remembering what mothers and grandmothers think of you. Then he told us to be the kind of missionary our mother thinks we are. I thought that was cute. So mom.... what kind of missionary do you think I am? :) He served a mission in Germany for 2 1/2 years as well having no German training. That's intense. And then he told this cute little joke that President Hinckley told him when he was little and he believed it, because you always believe your dad when you are little. "Adam took two of his young sons to the wall that surrounded the garden of Eden. He hoisted them up on his shoulders so they could peer over the wall and he said, 'Well boys, get a good look. This is the place where your mother ate us out of house and home.'"
Nice.
Last week for devotional we sang Consider the Lillies in the choir for devotional, which I forgot to mention, and it was one of my favorite experiences yet. It was really special, and they director was awesome.
This week my companions and I memorized those two short verses of Joseph Smith's account of the first vision. Now on missions the brethren have asked missionaries to memorize very little. This is one of the things they have asked us to memorize, and we can clearly see why. It was amazing how strong the spirit is even more so when we teach it memorized. You can look the investigator in the eye and say it. It has strengthened my testimony of Joseph Smith and the book of Mormon extensively this week. I also look forward to being able to say it in the sacred grove someday soon, if even just to myself {not sure how tour stuff works yet}.
We have this week left of PMG study and then our Elders leave on Monday. We start our visitor center training next Wednesday, so I'm not sure how that will work out with P-day. If you don't get a letter this week, that is why. I've heard the visitor center training is intense, so more of that to come! {I know, it's riveting isn't it?}
I've had crazy dreams this week. The other night it was about a terrorist attack, and when I woke up I seriously thought it had happened. Last night I had a dream that Allen {our cousin} wanted me to come pick him up to go to the temple, and when I got to the place where I was supposed to pick him up, he was hanging out with all these anti-mormon return missionaries that were mocking the temple. It broke my little dreaming heart, and then when I woke up I was relieved. Tell Allen I think he is cool. But it was in connection to our lesson on Sunday about enduring to the end. Our president taught that even people that you think are unflinching in the gospel sometimes fall away. He shared a quote by Joseph Fielding Smith when he was president saying that he prayed every night that there would not be apostasy in his heart. Then our president said we should not fear falling away, but have faith that we will stay in the church and pray and study everyday. Elder Eyring said we should study everyday until we feel the spirit and then a little more. So that is my advice of the week. I love you family, thanks for your good example.
Our teachers are awesome. We struggle targeting our energy in a good way, but they help focus it and are incredibly patient with us. It's strange they are only a year older than me and they are younger than Sister Smith.
Well it's time for me to go. Thanks for the letters and prayers. The MTC is great. The gospel is even better.
love,
Sister A
PS Oh and guess what magical little thing I found in my raincoat pocket? A prism key and my sansa.... haha whoops. I will try to send those home. That was a funny little surprise. Oh! And this is important. When you send camera cards, the pictures get erased in the mail. It's happened to several people in my district, so I will just make a CD and send it home and erase my pictures if that works.
No comments:
Post a Comment