September 27, 2013

Sisters Gesel, Shumway, Terry, Davis

Dear mom,
First of all, yes I got your packages. Thank you very much! I definitely have gotten tons of food and the food at the MTC west campus is SO DELICIOUS! I joke you not. We were able to go up to the main campus yesterday for in field orientation where we learn how to talk to people on the street and involve members in our lessons. The down side is that we also had to eat lunch there as well. It was disgusting. I'm definitely blessed that I get to be over on the west campus! But guess who I ran into? Elder Farley and Sister Tate! It was WAY funny! I totally forgot that they were there, and when I saw Elder Farley I was so excited that I accidentally called him Winston. OOPS. But he said he likes the MTC lots, and I ran into him 5 more times yesterday so it was quite interesting. Sadly no Sister Chapman though!! Could you get me her address and dear elder it to me asapronto? That would be much appreciated! You're right that we are leaving Wednesday, but it is ridiculously early so I doubt you want to be woken up at 4am just to hear my voice. :) So probably not happening for calling you at the airport. Oh and could you also give me Justin's address? I definitely want to write him letters. And if you have spare time write to my companion! She's super awesome, but she doesn't get mail often because she's from Australia and it takes weeks for mail to arrive. It's the same address as mine. :) thanks!

So on to the exciting stuff. SO much has happened this week! And I keep writing it all down so I can remember what to tell you. Unfortunately I left that notebook in my room... hopefully I can remember some of the stuff though. On Tuesday we were able to go up to the Marriot Center to listen to the devotional. I can't remember who spoke but he was a mission president in Bolivia a few years ago. He gave an amazing talk! Literally I was bawling like a baby for most of it! He showed us a scripture in D&C where the Lord was talking to Sidney Rigdon and was telling him that if he leaves his family and goes out to preach the gospel the Lord will take care of his family and they'll be blessed for his hard work. It was super cool cause it had my name in the scripture!! and then he also told us about how there are so many people who are ready and willing to hear the gospel, but we also have to be able to listen to the promptings of the spirit for who is ready to teach. It just showed me how the Lord cares about his children, and he has to be able to trust me as a missionary that I will do all that I can to invite and help them come unto Christ. And if He doesn't think that I can do it, he'll save that investigator for another missionary who is ready and willing to give all that they can. I hope that makes sense, it was really powerful to me though. I definitely want the Lord to feel like his children are in good hands and that I will do all that I can to help invite the spirit into investigators lives.

Oh my, so we got some new missionaries in our zone, on Wednesday night I got to introduce them to the rest of the zone and kind of tell them a bit about the MTC. It was SO hard! I definitely do not feel prepared to be responsible for other missionaries, I just got here! But I guess the Lord, and my mission president, know what they are doing. It's been interesting being a Sister training leader, I just want everyone to love the MTC and be so excited for their missions! The new missionaries seemed pretty cool though, we'll see how they are in the next couple of days.

At first I was SO confused at why everyone says the MTC is so rough and awful, it just seemed like the coolest place to strengthen your testimony! But now that we've begun to really dive deep in "teaching" investigators, and realizing just how difficult it can be I'm starting to understand. I still love the MTC a ton, and I'm so grateful that I'm here! But it's been a roller coaster of feelings as we teach. Sometimes we'll be in there teaching and will have such a great experience and will be able to feel the spirit. And then we'll get cocky and not plan as well and really put on the natural man and suddenly we realize how worthless we are if we don't humble ourselves and rely fully on God. Thank heavens for my teachers though! They are a Godsend. I'm so grateful for all the wonderful people who have been teaching me at the MTC and I'm really sad to leave on Wednesday but I'm so excited to go to Minnesota!! Hooray!! I love you all and I wish I could write so much more about everything here but just know that going on a mission is the greatest choice I have ever made and I'm so looking forward to using every day to it's fullest and growing closer to my Heavenly Father and also to help others come to him as well.

Love,
Sister Terry

Turns out I have a bit more time so I'll actually answer your questions. I got packages from both Danielle and Penny Johnson. I'll send them a letter with the package of stuff I don't need that I'm sending you. Thanks for the lyrics to that song. I loved listening to it! That's probably the hardest part of being a missionary. No more one direction :( I keep having it stuck in my head so I'll hum a few notes before I catch myself. Being mom is difficult! haha I definitely feel like a mom in some ways but in other ways I'm the most immature person ever. Hopefully I only show my immaturity at times when it's appropriate to take a break from being serious. That too, is one of the hard things. Since we study ALL the time, it becomes super tempting to get distracted or off topic a bit. And then once you give in to that time temptation the spirit withdraws faster than you can say "get thee hence Satan." but we're working on it, and it is a process but the important thing is to just focus on getting better everyday!

Sorry I haven't replied to many of your letters from home. I love reading what's going on in everyone's life but it's a bit difficult to find time to write back. Our schedule usually goes something like this:

6:30 Wake up, shower get ready for the day.
7:00 Study
8:00 Eat breakfast
8:30 teach an "investigator"
9:30 Exercise, shower again
11:00 Companionship study
12:30 Eat
1:15 Learn from a teacher
4:30 Zone teaching
5:00 Plan for tomorrow
5:30 Dinner
6:15 Have another teacher teach us
9:30 Return home, clean your room get ready for bed
10:15 quiet time
10:30 Bed.

Pretty much the only time we have to actually write letters is from 9:30 to 10:15. And since we have been really stressing obedience as a district we're trying to get better about going to bed on time. So just know that I love you, and those that have sent letters (sis Pasquale) but finding time to write is a bit of a struggle right now. But keep writing ‘cause I love getting MAIL!
Love you lots and lots and lots!