Well I survived my first week here at the MTC! It has been just amazing. The spirit here is so strong just all of the time. Probably cause people are praying almost 24/7. I don't think I have ever prayed so much in my life since coming to the MTC. But it is great! And missionaries really do need the Lord's help.
The first couple of days were pretty much a complete blur. Thursday and Friday were hard, and I mean what-the-heck-did-I-sign-up-for-I-wanna-go-home hard. You have to be in class by 7:00 am so yeah no waking up at 6:30, we wake up at 5:45 and then have class literally all day long until 9:30 at night. It was rough. But now I am used to it! Thursday night my companion and I (more on her later) received the calling of Sister Training Leaders for our district. Don't know what that is? Yeah we didn't either (haha). That was probably the worst/most stressful day because we received our calling but did not receive any information or training because our branch presidency just barely got called and they don't know what they are doing. Let's just say it was a stressful day. But it has only gone up from there!
I LOVE my companion Sister Smedley (first name Mikelle). She is from Layton and also going to Raleigh!! We have got along just swimmingly. We understand each other's teaching styles and are able to help each other progress. We are very, very different in that she loves to hunt, play sports, and has a freakin black belt in karate!! But we are actually very similiar in how we view the world and missionary work. Here at the MTC they stress EXACT obedience. To the point where it's a little much. But luckily I have Sister Smedley who is determined to be obedient. I am so glad I ended up with her as my very first companion and hopefully it will set the tone for the rest of the mission. She is such a kind, wonderful person and I just love her already! That is one thing you feel at the MTC is LOVE, for honestly everyone. My district consists of five companionships with two sister companionships. There are just a lot more elders here than sisters. At our mission conference on Sunday they said that there are 2700 missionaries at the MTC right now!! I don't know how they feed and make schedules and provide a room for all these people. But somehow they do. Everything is very organized and scheduled, which is a blessing. We share a room with 2 other sister companionships. One going to Iowa and the other to Indiana.
Sleeping has been interesting since there is one sister in our room that snores like a beast... and I mean a BEAST, I have never heard anyone snore that loud in my life. Thank goodness for melatonin.
Like I said we have class every day for most of the day. Our teachers are Sister Davis and Sister Killpack and they are wonderful! The first couple of days were spent learning how to plan lessons based on investigators' needs. It was actually a lot more complicated than it sounds and most of us were very confused. It was a struggle. Sister Davis noticed me struggling and even said something about recognizing that I was a perfectionist like herself. It is very hard to be to let go of control during a lesson. Especially since I don't have a lot of control of what my companions will say or what the investigator will say. But now we are teaching and planning like champs! well almost. We all get to practice on our teachers who are pretending to be investigators. The first lesson me and Sister Smedley taught went surprisingly really well! We taught the restoration and I felt the spirit telling me what to say!! It is an amazing experience. Although she is our teacher, in that moment I was testifying of the true gospel restored to the Earth to someone who was seeking truth. We both felt so good after that lesson until we remembered that we forgot to pray hahaha but hey we are learning!
On Sunday we had a devotional and got to hear from Sheri Dew!! It was so incredible. She is a powerful speaker. She talked about how we need to engage in spiritual wrestles in order to gain knowledge about truths. She also said, "Don't underestimate what it means to know something" which I thought was really cool. As missionaries we get to proclaim to the world that we KNOW that this is the true gospel of Christ and it can help them. We also listened to a video of a past MTC devotional given by David A Bednar called "Character of Christ.” I strongly encourage you to look this up. It is honestly life changing.
Also on Tuesday night we had a devotional and RUSSEL M NELSON WAS THE SPEAKER!! The new president of the 12 apostles!!! It was sooo good. He called missionaries "epistles" of the Lord and gave a whole bunch of amazing insight about missionaries. The Lord is truly hastening this work. The promised gathering of Israel has begun! Being in the MTC has given me complete assurance that this is exactly where the Lord wants me. And that gives me so much confidence!
We also get the opportunity to teach other investigators of which we don't know whether they are just actors or actually investigators coming to the MTC to be taught. Our investigator is Carolina and I am 100% sure that she is a real bona fide investigator because the spirit has testifed to me so. She moved here from Mexico 9 months ago to attend BYU and is Catholic, and I LOVE her. We had the most amazing experience with her during our second lesson yesterday. Our first lesson consisted of getting to know her and her background and introducing the plan of salvation. We felt that she really needed to know that her Heavenly Father loved her, and she was a daughter of God. The first lesson went well so we decided to continue with the plan in the second lesson. She had read the pamphlet we gave to her and had a lot of great questions. At the end of the lesson we felt like we wanted her to pray. So we talked about how it is done and how the spirit will witness to her if the things we were saying were true. She said that she hadn't said a pray since she left her home in Mexico and she doesn't really have a relationship with Heavenly Father. We all kneeled down together and she said a very simply but beautiful prayer. She asked God if he was there and to let her know if He was. After her prayer she had tears in her eyes and lots of tears in mine. We asked her how she was feeling and she said it was hard to describe and we were able to tell her that it was the spirit and it was God's love. The SPIRIT WAS SO STRONG! That was such a witness to me that God is mindful of all of his children. It was just so cool to have an experience like that already!! That is why I am here. To help people come to know their Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ. It was just too amazing to describe.
So I leave for North Carolina on Monday our flight is around 7 I think, but this means that we have to leave the MTC at 3:30 am... yeah, that will be fun.
I can tell you right now that being here just one week at the MTC has changed me. It may be hard. It may be exhausting, but it is SO good. It is changing my life, and I never want to go back. I love you and I pray for you all!
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