So I did it! I have survived 10 days in the MTC! I'm still loving everything but it's definitely gotten a lot harder. Learning this much Spanish in this short amount of time has really been difficult and it's frustrating not really having much time to study and do more with it. It's amazing what the Lord will help you with though as you learn to rely on Him.
Sunday was amazing! We had sacrament meeting and that was fantastic but Relief Society was amazing! We got to watch Music and the Spoken Word which was the first time that I really got homesickness because I just kept thinking of my family watching it at home. But it was so uplifting. I really loved their arrangement on sunday of "Have I Done Any Good" It really is such a powerful song and It's really stuck in my head throughout this week reminding me that my purpose here is to be a representative of Christ and to do what He would do throughout the day.
Then we got to listen to Janice Kapp Perry speak to us! This was SO amazing! She is the sweetest lady and she gave an excellent talk. My favorite part though was how strong the spirit was through song as we sang songs that she wrote. We all sang a medley of her Primary songs with her directing (How cool, right?) Songs like I Love to See The Temple, A Child's Prayer, and a few others. I loved this. Then we sang as the closing song her missionary arrangement of "As Sister's In Zion" And this was AMAZING! I felt the spirit so strong as all the sister missionaries sang that song together. I am so excited to be out serving with all these amazing Sister Missionaries! After the devotional we went back to West Campus and watched different movies. The movie we watched was Elder Bednar's MTC Christmas address from a few years ago about Characteristics of Christ. I'm not sure if you can find that on LDS.org or Youtube but if you haven't ever read or heard it find it! It was SO amazing and I learned a lot from that.
I'm loving my District. They are all so crazy - especially the Elders. They're in a trio and we've nicknamed them Spongebob, Patrick and Squidward because Elder Robertson is seriously the human version of Spongebob and Elder Goodman is his sidekick Patrick. And then there is Elder Brown just kind of shaking his head at them. A couple days ago it snowed and during a break Elder Robertson went outside and made a snow angel and played in the snow for the whole time and we all just watched him out there in it. He's from Las Vegas so he is really fascinated with the snow. It's been so great being able to get to know so many missionaries and we seriously are in the best Zone ever. Our District is the 7th graders - we've only been here 10 days - and then we have the 8th graders who have been here a week longer than us and the cool 9th graders who have been here 3 weeks more than us. We all get along great and I always look forward to lunch & dinner and being able to talk with all of them more.
The past week we've been focusing on teaching Magdalena which has been so scary! I cannot even believe that after only being here a short time I'm already teaching lessons in Spanish. It's so frustrating not being able to express myself the way I want to and be able to say everything I want to say but it's been such a learning and growing experience that as I rely on the Spirit, I find the words I need. Though He doesn't make it easy! I'm loving this experience though and it's been so amazing! Now Magdalena - aka Hermana Ricks is one of our teachers and it's helped having her teach us after our experiences with her as our investigator. Starting Monday we'll have two new "investigators" - crazy! A highlight from Magdalena's last lesson we taught her was at the beginning we were asking her what her hobbies were and what she liked to do and then Hermana Ledek started talking about how I liked to sing and Magdalena made me sing in the lesson. It was so funny - I made Hermana Ledek sing with me and we sang I Am A Child Of God but we started it really high so it was a little rough haha After when we got to talk to Hermana Ricks she couldn't stop laughing about the fact that she actually got us to sing in our lesson.
Tuesday I got to sing in the Choir for the devotional and this was fantastic! It was the MTC President Nally and Sister Nally's one year anniversary serving at the MTC so we surprised Sister Nally by singing her arrangement of Called To Serve but we sang it with all the missionaries and then had an obbligato part sang by the choir. This was SO fantastic. I can't even describe how amazing that felt to sing that song with all the other missionaries at the MTC. And it was so great watching Sister Nally's face as we sang it because she looked so surprised and happy to hear her arrangement of the song. It was an amazing experience! We heard from James Martino from the seventy and his wife Jennie. It was so great! He talked about involving the members more in missionary work which will be really helpful when I get out into the field. Something that stuck out to me from Sister Martino's talk though was that "Attitude determines Altitude" This is so true and every day I make sure to have a positive attitude because it just makes the days so much better and so much more enjoyable.
Today we got to go to the temple again and do a session, I love that we get to do that every week it really makes all the difference! I am going to miss it when I get to Mexico and won't have that chance anymore.
Well that's all the time I have this week, But I just want to tell you all that I love you! I am loving being a missionary! I sometimes look around and wonder how I ended up here at this amazing place full of so many amazing people. I can't wait to learn Spanish and go out and teach it to the people in Veracruz Mexico! My testimony has grown so much already and I am so excited for this opportunity to grow personally but to also invite others to come unto Christ. Have a great week! Adios!
Sunday was amazing! We had sacrament meeting and that was fantastic but Relief Society was amazing! We got to watch Music and the Spoken Word which was the first time that I really got homesickness because I just kept thinking of my family watching it at home. But it was so uplifting. I really loved their arrangement on sunday of "Have I Done Any Good" It really is such a powerful song and It's really stuck in my head throughout this week reminding me that my purpose here is to be a representative of Christ and to do what He would do throughout the day.
Then we got to listen to Janice Kapp Perry speak to us! This was SO amazing! She is the sweetest lady and she gave an excellent talk. My favorite part though was how strong the spirit was through song as we sang songs that she wrote. We all sang a medley of her Primary songs with her directing (How cool, right?) Songs like I Love to See The Temple, A Child's Prayer, and a few others. I loved this. Then we sang as the closing song her missionary arrangement of "As Sister's In Zion" And this was AMAZING! I felt the spirit so strong as all the sister missionaries sang that song together. I am so excited to be out serving with all these amazing Sister Missionaries! After the devotional we went back to West Campus and watched different movies. The movie we watched was Elder Bednar's MTC Christmas address from a few years ago about Characteristics of Christ. I'm not sure if you can find that on LDS.org or Youtube but if you haven't ever read or heard it find it! It was SO amazing and I learned a lot from that.
I'm loving my District. They are all so crazy - especially the Elders. They're in a trio and we've nicknamed them Spongebob, Patrick and Squidward because Elder Robertson is seriously the human version of Spongebob and Elder Goodman is his sidekick Patrick. And then there is Elder Brown just kind of shaking his head at them. A couple days ago it snowed and during a break Elder Robertson went outside and made a snow angel and played in the snow for the whole time and we all just watched him out there in it. He's from Las Vegas so he is really fascinated with the snow. It's been so great being able to get to know so many missionaries and we seriously are in the best Zone ever. Our District is the 7th graders - we've only been here 10 days - and then we have the 8th graders who have been here a week longer than us and the cool 9th graders who have been here 3 weeks more than us. We all get along great and I always look forward to lunch & dinner and being able to talk with all of them more.
The past week we've been focusing on teaching Magdalena which has been so scary! I cannot even believe that after only being here a short time I'm already teaching lessons in Spanish. It's so frustrating not being able to express myself the way I want to and be able to say everything I want to say but it's been such a learning and growing experience that as I rely on the Spirit, I find the words I need. Though He doesn't make it easy! I'm loving this experience though and it's been so amazing! Now Magdalena - aka Hermana Ricks is one of our teachers and it's helped having her teach us after our experiences with her as our investigator. Starting Monday we'll have two new "investigators" - crazy! A highlight from Magdalena's last lesson we taught her was at the beginning we were asking her what her hobbies were and what she liked to do and then Hermana Ledek started talking about how I liked to sing and Magdalena made me sing in the lesson. It was so funny - I made Hermana Ledek sing with me and we sang I Am A Child Of God but we started it really high so it was a little rough haha After when we got to talk to Hermana Ricks she couldn't stop laughing about the fact that she actually got us to sing in our lesson.
Tuesday I got to sing in the Choir for the devotional and this was fantastic! It was the MTC President Nally and Sister Nally's one year anniversary serving at the MTC so we surprised Sister Nally by singing her arrangement of Called To Serve but we sang it with all the missionaries and then had an obbligato part sang by the choir. This was SO fantastic. I can't even describe how amazing that felt to sing that song with all the other missionaries at the MTC. And it was so great watching Sister Nally's face as we sang it because she looked so surprised and happy to hear her arrangement of the song. It was an amazing experience! We heard from James Martino from the seventy and his wife Jennie. It was so great! He talked about involving the members more in missionary work which will be really helpful when I get out into the field. Something that stuck out to me from Sister Martino's talk though was that "Attitude determines Altitude" This is so true and every day I make sure to have a positive attitude because it just makes the days so much better and so much more enjoyable.
Today we got to go to the temple again and do a session, I love that we get to do that every week it really makes all the difference! I am going to miss it when I get to Mexico and won't have that chance anymore.
Well that's all the time I have this week, But I just want to tell you all that I love you! I am loving being a missionary! I sometimes look around and wonder how I ended up here at this amazing place full of so many amazing people. I can't wait to learn Spanish and go out and teach it to the people in Veracruz Mexico! My testimony has grown so much already and I am so excited for this opportunity to grow personally but to also invite others to come unto Christ. Have a great week! Adios!