MTC: Week 2

May 17, 2013

MTC: Week 2

I can't believe it is been another week!! The first few days went SO slowly, but now they are picking up like crazy. It is good though :) Biggest news of the week, well I am now a Sister Training Leader for my Zone...it is the equivalent of a Zone Leader but a girl haha...it is funny that they aren't called the same thing :) We were called from the pulpit last Sunday. My branch president didn't even give us a heads up. So basically we are in charge of making sure all of the new districts that come into our zone are trained right. This is hard, because I am PRETTY sure we weren't trained right. I have had to read a lot to find out what the rules really are and what my job really is.

So I am just loving my teachers. Our first fake investigator "David" is now one of our teachers. He is fantastic! I am absolutely convinced that we have the best teachers at the MTC. I was talking to one of the teachers over our entire zone and he said the same thing. Hermana Doxey (and Hermana Vaudrey who is in training right now) are AMAZING!!!!!! I might want to come back and teach here after my mission :) Who knows?

Ok, so this last week was AWESOME!!!! Russell M Nelson was one of our devotional speakers. Holy cow!!! It was so cool :) It was neat seeing him again. He came to Filer not too long ago right? I am having a hard time remembering if it was him. He gave us some great advice about our missions. My favorite part was talking about how we have to keep connected with our converts after our missions. And we HAVE to make sure that they are developing a relationship with Heavenly Father and not just us. That is vital in missionary work. We want them to go to the temple...not just get wet.

We talk about it A LOT in my classes.

I feel like I am becoming such a better teacher in the last couple weeks...and my Spanish is getting so much better. It is amazing...the gift of tongues. I don't think they will send any of us out early, just because there is so much more than just Spanish to learn here. Honestly, we don't study Spanish a lot. We are learning how to connect with people and be better teachers. I think all of those pageant interviews are paying off. ;) You have to be so personable and they have to KNOW that you really care. If they don't then they won't really listen to you. I am learning how to ask soul searching questions and learn of people's needs. It is so important that you are thinking the whole time about what that investigator needs and how the gospel can help them. That is the only way we will be successful missionaries.

Elder Nelson said something funny about the people in Japan. I can't exactly remember the context, but it was hilarious and it made me think of the Shaners. I guess he knew of some people in Japan who were becoming less active and this was their response "We are resting from our current labors in the church." It was pretty funny, but at the same time not. We can NOT ever think that the work is done. The Lord has so much for us to do. There are 1,999 people of the world to one of us. We have so much work to do!!!

Another awesome speaker from this week was Janice Kapp Perry...she wrote tons of the primary songs (including my favorite "A Child's Prayer") and hymns. She spoke for Relief Society and it was incredible...maybe not the best idea to sing a bunch of primary songs on Mother's Day when we are all missing our moms...that's ok. It was pretty awesome! She wrote new lyrics to "As Sisters in Zion", but they were specific to missionaries.

I adore my companion Sister Thompson. She went to BYU I before the mish and is 19, but almost 20. She is from Wyoming and I forgot to tell Ness that she is going to Omaha, Nebraska!!!!!!!!! She is incredible. She knows SO MUCH about the gospel and will do great there :) It will be interesting after our companion leaves for Spain on Monday (she got her visa). I don't think we will be as late to things :)

There were two new sisters added to our district last Friday I think. One is going to Spain and ONE is going to MY MISSION. Her name is Hermana Geldmacher from Logan, Utah!!! She will be in our trio after the two Spain girls leave. That will be a great companionship I think. Man, trios are hard to teach with because you ALL have to be on the same page or your investigator is SO confused. It is a struggle, but I think it is teaching me a ton. It has been so cool to have so much personal study time. I love learning more about WHY we needed the restoration (which means you have to understand and explain clearly the creation, fall, and apostasy). It is HARD in Spanish!

Last week I went to the temple for the second time ever. The Provo temple is really neat. I had a really sweet old lady helping me who didn't know what she was doing, so we had a good laugh trying to get through everything :) It has been so cool to be at the MTC and focus on my own conversion. I am only going to be able to convert people to the level that I am converted. I am SO glad that the sweet girl from Uruguay emailed you all...that was part of the TRC. Look it up...I don't have time to explain. We had so much in common :) Sorry if this was all scattered...I get so stressed out typing away :) Thank you all for letters and emails!!! I am loving it here but can't wait to eat something new!!!!