Well, I love the MTC. It hasn't really been what I had expected but I have had such a good experience. The biggest blessing is that e really have felt so prepared. If it were not for that I feel like I personally would not have had such success here. On our first day we moved pretty quick and just got everything we needed and took our things to our room. We met our companions and our district. My companion was Sister Pelland! She is a recent Convert and the only member of her family. We are the perfect pair. I love her with all of my heart. Our district is really unique in the fact that 6 of the 8 of us are converts! Sister Pelland and I as well as all of the elders. The two other sisters in our district were raised in the church. All four of us sisters are heading to Jacksonville Florida. That night, as a zone we met infront of a statue of Samuel smith and sang the EFY Medley of "Sisters in Zion" And "Army of Heleman". I was one of the best moments I have had to date here in the MTC. I just felt the spirit so strongly and we all could feel our callings and the love we would have for eachother.
.The rest of the week was full speed ahead. As a room we have been really obedient in our time to rise and go to sleep. Honestly, I think that is one of the biggest reasons we have all been so easy to adjust. My companion, Sister Pelland, had it pretty hard here. We spent a lot of time in meetings and visiting with different people. At first I was worried because we weren't always in class or with our district.. But we have been able to stay caught up this whole week. Sister Pelland is such a diligent worker. She has pushed us to make every moment count.We are already teaching lessons here! Sometimes it is with teacher, but we also teach investigators in the Teaching Resource Center (TRC). It is absolutely incredible that we can discern the needs of these people we hardly know and help them to be able to feel Gods love. The power we have to receive revelation as representatives of Jesus Christ is real. Our teachers are all amazing! They really love us and help us to really learn these things for ourselves in ways we didn't imagine before.
.The rest of the week was full speed ahead. As a room we have been really obedient in our time to rise and go to sleep. Honestly, I think that is one of the biggest reasons we have all been so easy to adjust. My companion, Sister Pelland, had it pretty hard here. We spent a lot of time in meetings and visiting with different people. At first I was worried because we weren't always in class or with our district.. But we have been able to stay caught up this whole week. Sister Pelland is such a diligent worker. She has pushed us to make every moment count.We are already teaching lessons here! Sometimes it is with teacher, but we also teach investigators in the Teaching Resource Center (TRC). It is absolutely incredible that we can discern the needs of these people we hardly know and help them to be able to feel Gods love. The power we have to receive revelation as representatives of Jesus Christ is real. Our teachers are all amazing! They really love us and help us to really learn these things for ourselves in ways we didn't imagine before.
Our first Sunday in the MTC was incredible. We woke up extra early on our day of rest so that we could eat breakfast before our sacrament. Every week we prepare two small talks and in sacrament two missionaries are randomly picked to give a small talk on on of the two subjects! It is so neat. We also got to meet our Branch President, He hadn't been here because he was helping a family member move. President Durfey seems really nice; The whole branch presidency (and their wives) are so fit for us. Durring sacrament we recieved assignments. It is basically a calling, but we are called as missionaries so it is called an assignment. Sister Studdert (a sister from the other companionship) and I were called as sister training leaders. It is our job to watch out for the other sisters in our district, and once the district ahead of us leaves we will be in charge of relief society meetings, incoming orientation for sisters entering the MTC and a few other things. It is a really unique opportunity to serve. Sister Training Leaders have a slightly different focus in the field, but it is still on the other sisters! After we got trained real quick on our new assignments we went to the temple for a temple walk. It was really the perfect day to be outside there! Our zone all got together with our Branch Presidency and we shared experiences we had with different hymns and we sang them all together. I really wanted that moment to last forever. I also got to see Sister Shumway!! Sister Shumway's husband had been the president of the Oklahoma Tulsa/Arkansas Bentonville Mission when i was baptized. It was such a tender mercy. She is such a sweet woman and I felt really at home. We took a picture together and she sent it to Kena! I also had to say goodbye to a friend that I made here, Sister Kratz. She left monday morning to New York. She is an incredible woman.
Monday Sister Pelland and I busted our of the MTC! It was kind of fun! In reality, we had permission to leave the MTC to walk to BYU medical to pick up a perscription for Sister Pelland. We can see the building we walked to from our class! haha It was a good feeling to be out in the wild. I honestly almost forgot about the rest of Provo! After that we taught our investigators in the TRC. We had one really powerful lesson with a woman named Leila. I have so much love for her. She has such an incredible story. Our second lesson was a lot harder. Becca, the investigator, didn't really have the desire yet to know so it was hard to help her understand. Sister Pelland and I teach so well together! We really are on the same wavelength! We still have a LONG way to go before we are the best we can be, but we are certaintly making progress.
Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty hard days for me. Tuesday we found out that Sister Pelland needed to go home. She was having a really hard time and in order to feel better she needed to be at home and not here. She and I bought matching dresses to wear when she left. We tried to spend the rest of the day with our district. We had class and time to study. We also went to Choir practice. It was SO fun. The director is really amazing and he really does teach us so much about our faith at the practices. We talked a lot about Wilford Woodruff. He was a prophet and had a crazy life. He also told another story that I had heard before. It was about a convert in the early church named Charles W Penrose. He REALLY wanted to come west to live with the saints in Utah, but he was called to serve a mission where he lived in England. The one year mision turned into 7 years and then after that he served as a mission president.. Also in England, for another 3 years! While he was there He wrote a hymn about Utah called "O Ye Mountains High" Apparently that song was beloved by Brigham Young! Charles W Penrose in an ancestor of my Best friend Jordan Kent. It was such a good feeling to remember him telling me that story on our way home from Salt Lake. That moment, i felt a little homesick.
.That night we sang in the choir at the devotional. Every Tuesday Night there is a devotional here. Elder W Craig Zwick of the Seventy came and spoke to us. Oh, and we performed with a girl named Lexi Walker. I guess she is a big deal. I hadnt ever heard of her before but I certainly wont forget her.She has an amazing voice. The song we performed together was "Savior, Redeemer of My Soul" Elder Zwick and his wife delivered some really great messages. Afterwards we had a Branch Review of the devotional. Basically, we all shared what we learned and the promptings we received at the devotional. The biggest thing that I learned was that we need to have a vision of who our Heavenly Father wants us to become, and what our role in the latter-days really is. Not only that but we have to have patients and hope. We wont get there all at once or soon.. But through Christ we can become that person. Heavenly Father has the utmost hope in us that we can. President Durfey took us sisters aside one by one to talk to us about the changes that are coming in our companionships. I have been assigned to be in a trio with Sisters Studdert and Randall now. Once we finally got to our room we were up REALLY late helping sister Pelland pack. Then we woke up at 3 to take her to her drop off for the shuttle to the airport. It was really hard. Sister Pelland and I wore our matching dresses! Afterwards, we tried to go back to sleep because we had a long day. It has been really hard not having sister Pelland here. She really had a big impact on me. Being in a trio is also and adjustment. I really like the sisters so I hope we will figure out how to love eachother more and build unity.
.That night we sang in the choir at the devotional. Every Tuesday Night there is a devotional here. Elder W Craig Zwick of the Seventy came and spoke to us. Oh, and we performed with a girl named Lexi Walker. I guess she is a big deal. I hadnt ever heard of her before but I certainly wont forget her.She has an amazing voice. The song we performed together was "Savior, Redeemer of My Soul" Elder Zwick and his wife delivered some really great messages. Afterwards we had a Branch Review of the devotional. Basically, we all shared what we learned and the promptings we received at the devotional. The biggest thing that I learned was that we need to have a vision of who our Heavenly Father wants us to become, and what our role in the latter-days really is. Not only that but we have to have patients and hope. We wont get there all at once or soon.. But through Christ we can become that person. Heavenly Father has the utmost hope in us that we can. President Durfey took us sisters aside one by one to talk to us about the changes that are coming in our companionships. I have been assigned to be in a trio with Sisters Studdert and Randall now. Once we finally got to our room we were up REALLY late helping sister Pelland pack. Then we woke up at 3 to take her to her drop off for the shuttle to the airport. It was really hard. Sister Pelland and I wore our matching dresses! Afterwards, we tried to go back to sleep because we had a long day. It has been really hard not having sister Pelland here. She really had a big impact on me. Being in a trio is also and adjustment. I really like the sisters so I hope we will figure out how to love eachother more and build unity.
Today is a lot better! Even though it is rainy, we have a bright day ahead of us. We are going with our zone to the temple later today. I am so excited to be there with them! Right now we are getting laundry our of the way! Im grateful for a day that we can take at a slower pace to really reflect and prepare.
I love all of you guys so much! Please to write and send letters! We can read emails any day just like letters, we just cant respond. I cant wait to hear from everyone! I hope that you are all well!
Till Next week!
thank you, kena, for doing this! i know that mykala will do a great job! love you both!
ReplyDelete