Well hey family!!! Seriously so excited to write home for the first time. I feel like it's been 12 years since I've seen you all. But then again I can't believe it's my fourth day here at the MTC and we are only here until March 6th! So yeah let me start with that. We depart March 6th at 9:45 and fly directly Kansas City. I've been told that our first day there, our mission president takes all the new missionaries coming in around to all the church sites. Then we sleep at the mission home and have a testimony meeting and such. Rumors have it at least! So we will see when the time comes.. But I'm so stoked to be able to see all the sites eventually!! Ahhhh BEST MISSION EVER.
I love my district so much. There are 4 sisters and 6 elders and we just have a blast all day long. It's a problem though because we have gotten to the point where we know each other now so it's easy to get distracted and goof off. Last night was a prime example of that. We were seriously all sooo exhausted and delirious that we were just dying laughing and supposed to be studying. I know it's extremely important to make use of our time here, especially since it's been shortened! The MTC is amazing. The spirit is SO incredibly strong here. All the time. And it's amazing. Basically I'd compare it to EFY except it is an extreme version of that. EFY on crack pretty much. And looking back those were some of the most spiritual times of my life. Now, it is to a whole new level. We have all been called of God and we all have the same purpose and desire to be here. I have learned sooooo much already. Like seriously my brain is going to explode! I have never had a stronger desire to study and have never learned so much as I study. I know that is because we are more in tune with the Spirit than ever before. And it is awesome!!!
My first two days at the MTC were overwhelming but I felt so pumped and had so much strength and energy. Yesterday on the other hand, was my third day. And I still had more energy than I would normally have with the crazy schedule here but I felt so incredibly discouraged. In the morning, I felt great and had amazing lessons/classes and study time. I felt like I was learning so much. Then we had our first lesson! Sister Taylor and I taught Joe for the first time. We were so pumped going in there, had so much to say and felt like we had a pretty good outline before. I even felt like we were unified ahead of time and we said a prayer together before going in there. And so it was supposed to go perfect right? yeah WRONG. HA I was sooo frustrated afterwards and discouraged. I literally was in tears but didn't say anythign to anyone. It just did not go as planned and I had my first experience trying to mesh two companions thoughts/intentions and trying to teach by the Spirit. I was seriously not in a good mood for awhile after that. Once I had time to sit back and think about it, I realized how silly I was being. This is the missionary TRAINING center and it's purpose is to teach us how to teach. We are all learning and growing so much.
I'd say the main lesson I've learned is how important it is to love the investigator. We are representing Christ which is seriously the coolest thing to realize. But as representatives of Jesus Christ, we should love as He does. Each person we come in contact with, each person we teach, we need to LOOVE them soo so much. We are all children of God and each of His children needs the gospel to return back to live with our Heavenly Father. I have already experienced loving some investigators as I went out with the missionaries in az. I will never ever forget that first lesson that I went out with Sister Collins and Sister Farthing and we taught Monti. I loved him so much and I wanted nothing more than for him to want the gospel. That's the thing I am most excited about for my mission, is to grow to love so many people. I haven't met the people out in Missouri and Kansas yet but I already love them so much. There are people waiting for me and I know that so strongly!
I feel like I have so much to say and this stupid 30 minute timer thing counting down in the corner of my screen is like stressing me out. Hahah but anyways, I am learning like crazy. This place is intense and I love it here! I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. But not gonna lie, I am so happy to only be here for two weeks. Meeting people that have been here for 11 weeks, my heart like breaks a little for them. hahahha like I can't imagine!!! It is seriously like a jail cell. And soooo claustrophic. I know that's escalated also because of the influx of missionaries which is AMAZING and so powerful to be a part of. But still. I have the best mission in the world and we as a district are so stoked. Every time after we pray we do a little cheer for Missouri and it's like so ridiculous and cheesy but we are just awesome.
Today is P day obvi and it's weird not having just classes all day.. But Sister Taylor and I are going to take time to study/prepare for our lesson tonight with Joe. It's a followup lesson and we had given him a BOM and he said he'd read it so we are going to follow up on that and try and go from there. We have an outline planned and now that we know a little more what to expect, it will be less frustrating I think. And just like we've learned here, we need to just make it all about him and what he needs. Not what lessons we need to teach. What JOE needs and how we can help him to feel of the Spirit. Also today we get to go to the temple at 3!! SOO EXCITED. Ahhh this is just a great day to be rejuvenated. Like I said, these first four days have been information overload and everyone is just worn out! Honestly whenever I wrote friends on missions and when people talked about how hard the MTC is, I believed them but I didn't. You don't understand until you experience it for yourself. One thing that I am so grateful for is that I am not even homesick one bit! And if you know me, you know that was my worst fear coming out on my mission. Hawaii was so extremely hard for me in that aspect but guess what? It trained me well. And I learned soooooo much from that experience. I miss my family SO much but I'm not sick to be home. It's a different feeling. And I have promised myself that I don't have time to be selfish and to even be homesick while I'm out here. These next 18 months are completely dedicated to the Lord and to the gospel and that would be selfish of me to waste time wishing I was home.
Holy crap these 30 minutes are almost up and I feel like I have so much to tell you! Um one favorite quote that I loved is that as we become one with teh Godhead, we become one in purpose. There purpose is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. that should be ours! as we bring others unto Christ. ahhhhhhh 2 minutes and I havent posted pics. hopefully you get those and this letter!
I love you all so much!!!! The gospel is true and I love it.
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