Well, here I am at the MTC. And before I get into it, all I want to know is, WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME HOW AWESOME THE MTC IS???? I feel like all everyone said is, "it's going to be so hard", "you are going to lay in bed the first night and wonder what the heck you are doing there", "when you have a nervous breakdown just remember why you are there", etc. Well, I have one thing to say to all of you. This place is AMAZING. It is a place of uninhibited revelation and the power of God. The experiences I have had here have been so incredible, and my life before missionary work seems virtually meaningless. Tell Rick that my thoughts the first night were not "what am I doing here?", They were more along the lines of "Why would I ever want to be anywhere else? Why on earth didn't I come here sooner?" There's no where else I'd rather be. Not Highland, not India, not Australia. This is where the Lord wants me right now and this is where I want to be.
My companion is just the sweetest thing ON the planet. Her name is Sister Whipple, and we get along so well. I love her! We are so unified and draw on each other for strength. She has been such a blessing to me and I can't imagine having a better companion. Also, we are hilarious and we have had some pretty great moments. During personal time, of course. We work really hard to get the most out of class and study time, because we know that our time here is short and we have a long way to go.
My entire district, Sister Whipple included, is going to the Micronesia Guam Mission. Sweet, right?! As a matter of fact, I believe I am the only missionary in the MTC serving in Perth. I haven't even met anyone going to Australia. It's okay though, I'm just so sad that I won't be serving with my District in the mission field. We've all gotten so close.
Sister Whipple and I have been called as the Sister Training Leaders for our zone/branch. It adds a lot of responsibility and takes up all the free time that we already don't have, but I'm grateful. It really is an opportunity to serve. We are so excited for the new Sisters to come in on Wednesday, because we are the ones that welcome, show them around the MTC, fellowship and train them. Yeah it is a little crazy, I arrived less than a week ago and tomorrow I will be training new Sisters. But it's a blessing and a learning experience, and it will help me to become better faster.
On Sunday we had Sacrament and Relief Society. How was yours? Mine was great. We had someone speak for Relief Society...who was it. OH WAIT. IT WAS THE YOUNG WOMEN'S GENERAL PRESIDENCY. Boo yah. The Church really likes us, it's great. A General Authority comes and speaks to us every Sunday and Tuesday, but they never tell us before hand who it is going to be. You have to arrive at the building at least half an hour early in order to be in the same room with the General Authority; if not you have to be in the overflow. It's Tuesday so lets just say Sister Whipple and I shall be skipping dinner. We're gonna be front row! Sometimes in life you have to trade physical feasting for spiritual feasting; and we have every intention of leaving the MTC spiritually obese.
I really, really do love it here. Of course it is hard. But not because I'm homesick or overwhelmed. It's hard because there is SO much to learn and so little time in which to learn it. One of the great things about being a missionary, though, is that because we are on the Lord's errand, we are entitled to His help. And when we do all that we can do, He gives it freely. There is so much power in dedicating yourself to the Lord and to others. I love it here.
So family, how are things without me? Wow you are all probably so upset...Ha ha just kidding. Just draw comfort from the fact that you have a sister/daughter that is an official representative of Jesus Christ. Now pause and think for a second about how awesome that is.
It's tradition that we go out for Indian food lunch first
Then we spend whatever time we have left up behind the Provo Temple
Until it's time to say Goodbye!
Goodbye Anna! See you in a year and a half!
