3rd Week Down

OKAY So its now been 3 weeks in the MTC and this past week flew by, it was INSANE!! I think it was because I was so busy! I will fill you all in.

So on Sunday, my Branch President wants to talk to me and I have been sick, so I thought he was just going to ask me how I was doing, but instead he asked me to be the coordinating sister over the zone. Which basically is the zone leader for the girls in all the branches in our zone. Kind of scary because most of all I have to be an example to the other sisters and make sure all of them are keeping the rules (which I barely know myself), but its awesome!! I already got to welcome in some new sisters. They were from a different zone but they didn't have a coordinating sister, so I volunteered to help them. Even though my first day feels like it was yesterday. So Sunday was filled with new meetings and stuff I had to go to, my poor companions just had to wait for me! For choir this week we sang "Be Still My Soul," which some of you know is MY FAVORITE hymn of all time, and I was SO upset I was sick so I couldn't sing my little heart out! (But i still did, I just had a coughing attack right after).

Monday, we had an amazing testimony meeting with our district and we ended up all crying our eyes out. I am SO blessed to have these Elders in my district/zone. I really feel like they are family, and I love them. Honestly, all of them sincerely respect the sister missionaries for making the decision to serve a mission, and a lot of them bore their testimonis about that. It's amazing how much love there is between the missionaries here. We have grown so much together. The oldest zone, which is like my favorite, is leaving on Monday, and I really am so sad! I've only known them for 3 weeks, but I can't imagine the MTC without them. We've been getting contact information and a few of the Elders have written some of the sweetest notes in the back of our address books. Ah I will miss them. Soon my district will be the oldest and then we will be gone! Time is flying, and I need to learn so much more!! We don't get enough personal study time I swear. I am so grateful for the time I have here, and my teachers are really amazing.

Anyways Hermana Mckenzie left this week on Tuesday, so she is now in the Guatemala MTC. Lucky girl, she will pick up Spanish so fast! I am not stressing about the language, I know it will come with hard work and time. The TRC on Monday was hard, each week we have to progressively speak more Spanish. So this week my companion and I had to sort of teach a lady what church was in Spanish. She asked why the men and women seperate for one of the hours and I explained it something like this (but in Spanish): "Well, the men go to learn about families, and the women go to learn about families, too" haha The lady was sweet though, and she just smiled and nodded.

Sorry, I am skipping around a lot but I have really been struggling with liking the RC, which is where we go and call real people who have oredered a Bible or a DVD or something and ask them how they liked it, and we are supposed to share our testimonies and if it's necessary teach them the first lesson over the phone. So you can see why I was struggling a little bit with liking it, BUT my teacher had me read a scripture out loud and I am sorry I dont remember where it is right now; I think it's in D&C, but basically, I need to trust in the Lord, that when I open my mouth it will be filled. Then the next verse talks about how we cannot fear because if we fear that means we don't have faith and our abilities will be taken from us. So I was humbled by that and knew I just needed to spend like all my free time at the RC. So Wednesday we went there during MDT and started calling. I called a lady named Barbara and she had ordered a Book of Mormon, so I asked her how she liked it and she said, "Well, it brought back memories of my childhood," and I asked her why, and it turns out she used to be Mormon but got married and her husband traveled a lot so she fell away. She was soo sweet and I just bore testimony to her of the truthfullness of the Book of Mormon, and she goes, "I know honey, I know its true," and I was so taken back. I was like tripping over my words, and I asked her if I could send the missionaries over to her house and she said, no, she was sick. So I offered to send her a DVD and she accepted, and wants me to call her back next week! I am so glad I get to call her back because even though I probably talked to her for like 4 minutes, I cared about her and I want to help her. So I know Heavenly Father is showing me that fear and faith CANNOT exist in the same place.

I am so grateful to be here and to be learning so much and growing, its awesome. Oh, I saw Kira this week, she was basically ready to have a baby! AUBREE WRITE ME PLEAASEEEEE...Congrats on your mission call!!! Seriously you neeeeeed to write me!!!

Well, I love you all and I think about you, and pray for you. We all neeeeed to come closer to Christ every day: that's something I have leaened that is sooo important here! No matter what, even if you are a missionary, we can still come unto Christ. I can't wait to go to CHILE and meet people, and teach!!! Love you all!

Love, Hermana

PS I got super sick this week, but I dont feel sick (blessing?) yes. So I finally went to the health center and got HUGE horse pill antibiotics, steroid nose spray, and the thickest cough medicine I have ever seen. I am slowly getting better but I am proud to say I haven't missed any class because I still have energy!