January 22, 2016

Elder Castro sneaking into our pictures

Language learning game

Sunday Temple walk

Sunday Temple walk with Soeur Kelley

Soeur Wadsworth at the Provo Temple

Salut! So crazy that another week has passed! The weeks are crazy fast and the days are so long! Haha. I do love the MTC! I has SO worried about it everyone seems to have mixed emotions about it, but I LOVE IT! French is coming slowly but surely. Last night I was really pretty frustrated with not knowing everything and others doing better, so I prayed. After praying I opened my scriptures to Alma 37:6 " Through small and simple things are great things brought to pass." Exactly what I needed to hear. I know that as I do the Things that I am asked to, (studying, obeying) the language will come. The gift of tongues is real, but it doesn't mean I will be fluent over night. I just need to keep telling my self "through small and simple things, great things are brought to pass."  :) but I do think that I am getting better! I love the Choir it is so much fun. I'm glad Amy told us about it and I love devotionals here! 

I honestly cannot believe that another week has gone by! This week has been really great but SO crazy! 

On Saturday, we were sitting in class and all of a sudden Elder Johnson started having a hard time breathing, they ended up taking him to the hospital and he has a collapsed lung. They thought that it would heal on its own, but it got worst, they ended up keeping him in the hospital and he had surgery the next day. He is doing well now, and He will be returning a little later tonight. We are all so glad he is doing better and will be able to back with us!

  

One of the sister companionship in our district has been so sick! They have been in and out of the health center too. Our district has shrunk a little bit but it looks like we are on the tail end of it. We have been using so much hand sanitizer this week, ha! 

We moved classrooms this week, which was rather exciting. It is about half the size and 3x's as old but that is okay because I learned an important lesson. We were a little bummed, because our last classroom was rather nice with nice desks and chairs and our new classroom is like high school with slide-in desks. Sœur Kelley and I were doing our service assignment in our old classroom building and the missionaries moving in were complaining! This was actually pretty humbling, making me realize that I should be happy to have a nice place to study. Someone out there would be so grateful to have any classroom to study in and I should be too. 

We took on 2 new investigators this week and it has been awesome! Quentin, and Alex. I love preparing lessons! On Wednesday we had a worldwide missionary training that was broadcast from Salt Lake.  One thing that really stood out to me is the importance of preparation. As we study and prepare, then when we are in a lesson the Holy Ghost will recall things to our remembrance. Something that our teachers have been stressing is the importance of knowing and understanding the gospel and then worrying about the language. I am so grateful for the time that we have here to study and learn more about this wonderful gospel. :)

We also taught our first TRC this week. TRC is when we go and teach a 20-minute lesson to a member, who speaks French. It was a lot of fun! I love teaching investigators, but it is also fun to be able to go deeper into a subject and have a discussion. We talked about the atonement and applying the atonement more fully into our lives. A lot of time we think that the Atonement is only for the cleaning of our sins, which is a very important part. But there is so much more as well. When Sœur Kelley and I were talking to our teacher about teaching this she told us this cool example. Think of applying the atonement in our life as a garden. It is important that we pull out the weeds, but it is also important that we plant flowers and make it the best that it can be. I love that! That is something that I am really going to be working on. At the MTC it is kind of hard not to compare your self to other. But knowing that I can do all thing through Christ strengthens me. And through him I can become better than I was yesterday and that is what matters.  

On Wednesday, our district was able to host the new missionaries. IT WAS THE BEST! I loved it! It is crazy to think that was me only 2 weeks ago! I loved seeing how excited they were to serve. The MTC is so neat. I felt so worried about everything as we were driving up and getting my things out of the car. But as soon as I started walking in, I knew I was were I needed to be. The spirit is so strong and special here; I love it! We get to host again next week YAY! 

My goal for this week is to teach all of our lessons in French without any note cards...eek! Haha I'm excited, it will be hard but I know as I exercise my faith, it will all work out. 

Every night from 7-8 our district does an English fast, we can only speak in French. At first that hour was pretty quiet, haha but now we are doing a lot better it has been fun to see our progression as a district! 

Janice Kapp Perry gave a Devotional on Sunday and that was so fun! She and her husband are so cute! It reminded me of the time they gave a devotional in our stake. It was a really neat night and so fun! We sang the EFY medially of As Sisters in Zion and The Army of Helaman. (She wrote both of those songs). It was so wonderful the spirit was really so strong! 

This week was awesome! I love being a missionary! I hope you have a wonderful week!

Sure do love you! 

January 15, 2016

Another great week at the MTC! Time is so weird here. It seems like I just wrote home but also seems like I have been here way longer than 9 days!

This weeks has been great! We woke up today to a fresh blanket of snow it is so beautiful out side! We were able to go to the temple again today, walking there was so neat, the snowfall was so peaceful. We go to the temple every p-day, we try to be there at about 7:10. Usually that is when most of our zone goes so that is fun. It is neat to be able to attend the temple as a missionary with other missionaries. Than we all eat together in the cafeteria at the temple.

Sœur Kelley and I have been teaching an Investigator this past week (really she is just a teacher). Her name is Nora. She is from Switzerland and only speaks French. She is the sweetest! The lessons went fine. We had to read everything off of a card ha but it was really a neat experience. It is pretty frustrating not being able to just say exactly what I feel and having to kind of bear my testimony by reading it off of a card but someday it will come. Sœur Ecloes (one of our teachers, actually she is Nora) shared a scripture with us last night that I love and really needed to hear. Moroni 7:33 “Et le Christ a dit: si vous avez foi en moi vous aurez le pouvoir de faire tout ce qui est utile en moi”. Such a comforting scripture! I know that if we have faith that we will be blessed and are able to do all things. 

Sœur Kelley and I are getting along SO well! I just love her! We are pretty similar in a lot of ways Personality, teaching styles, it has really been fun being her companion. 

We have devotionals every Tuesday where someone will come in and speak to us. This week was Elder Neil L. Andersen! It was so neat! He talked about being a witness of Christ. I really loved it! Here are just a few things from his talk that really stood out to me. 

   He talked about making sure that as we teach that we do not over complicate the gospel. That we make sure that we testify of the plain and precious truths. 

   "You can never have a deep conversion without Repentance" 

    "The doctrine of Christ is not just to be taught, but lived."

     "We all may be on different spiritual levels, but we can all find the strength to testify of Christ."

Such a neat devotional. All of my district and I are in the Choir, so we all sang in the Devo. We sang Oh how lovely was the morning. Such a Beautiful song! It was so powerful looking around and seeing all of these missionaries testifying of the restoration of the Gospel. 

After the Devotional, we went back to our classroom as a district with a member of our Branch Presidency and his wife, and we discussed the devotional and feelings or impressions that we had during the Devotional. I love our Branch Presidency and their wives! They are all so fun and sweet! Throughout the week, we all have to write talks on a topic that they gave us, on Sundays they announce over the pulpit who will be giving their talks all in french...Ha really it is great experience and I will have 6 talks ready and prepared for in the future :) You should start doing that dad! haha Just kidding :) Also on Sunday nights we can go watch a video that they are playing. There are about 7 to choose from. We went to one by Elder Bednar called the Characteristic of Christ. It is from a past MTC Devotional. I don't know if you can find it anywhere, but if you can I would definitely encourage you to watch/read it. I loved how he describes the characteristics of Christ. "That Christ turns out, when the natural man in you and me would turn in." He goes on to share really neat examples it is a really neat Devotional!

For the most part our schedule is the same from day to day. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday we wake up at 6 or 6:30 and go to the Gym. They offer a workout classes for the sisters starting at 6 so It just depends if we go to that or not :) after gym we have 30 minutes to get ready (the fastest 30 minutes of my day haha) then we go to breakfast in the cafeteria. After breakfast we have 4 hours of class time. Depending on the day we may have a teacher. Our teachers Frere Kellett and Sœur Ecoles, come in for one class block a day. If they are there we can only speak in French. We study language, doctrine, how to teach, things like that :) if they are not there, we have one hour of personal study, followed by one hour of companionship study and one hour language study (by yourself or with your companion). After that we go to lunch for about an hour and then it is back to class preparing for lessons or studying. Then dinner and back to a class block. It is good I've learned quite a bit! 

Tuesdays are a little different. We have a normal schedule in the morning but at 4:30 we have dinner so we can make it to choir practice. After Choir practice we have a Devotional at 7. That is the one that Elder Andersen came to! That particular devotional was broadcasted to all of the MTC's around the world.

Fridays are our P-days so we start out the day with going to the Temple. I love it! That has been really neat to have a weekly goal to attend the temple. Then we are free to email and do laundry until 6:40, then we have 3 hours of class. Usually one of our teachers will come to that class block. Also Friday is great because I get to hear from all of you! 

I'm so glad that everything is going well! It is so good to hear from you! Life is good I love it here at the MTC! Have a great week! 

Sure do love you! 

Sleep /Study

Branch 21 at the Provo, UT Temple

Camille and Kenzie Cluff at the MTC

Soeur Kelley and Soeur Wadsworth

in a Winter Wonderland

Winter Wonderland

Soeur Wadsworth with Soeur Kelley, 

Soeur Clark, and Soeur Robb

Winter Temple

Study Books

District G at the Temple

Lyon, France

Soeur Kelley and Soeur Wadsworth

Lyon, France

Soeur Kelley and Soeur Wadsworth

Jumping for joy!

Bonjour du MTC. C'est une bonne semaine! 

Thank you so so much for the note! I can't tell you how wonderful it is to hear from you! I am so glad that you are all doing well! I definitely felt of that same peace when you dropped me off that you talked about. I was so worried that I would be a crying mess but I really just felt so comforted and peaceful, I know this is where I need to be :) I am so grateful that you made it home safe and sound and that you had a welcoming committee haha. I love how close our family is! I am going to quote Winnie the pooh here in saying how I am grateful to have something that makes saying  goodbye so hard :) I forgot that Jared had come to the Provo MTC. That's awesome! It is SO much bigger than I thought. Soeur Kelley and I get lost at least once a day ha. It honestly feels like i have been here 2+ weeks! I was talking to Soeur Kelley and said "I really loved that devotional yesterday" turns out it was just a few hours prior...haha. Life if good I really love it here, the spirit it so strong everywhere you go. I never thought I could grow so much in 3 days! 

I am not sure how we were put into companionships, inspiration I guess :) I love Soeur Kelley we get along so well! She is so sweet and has such neat insights that have really helped me learn and grow these last few days. That is cool that mom found her on facebook!  I am so grateful for technology that allows thing like that to be possible! So cool! My whole district is really fun! There are 2 other sets of sisters and 1 set of Elders, all going to Lyon. Elder Johnson's (in my district) dad also served in Geneva. He is from Logan. There are 28 of us that are new in our zone, 20 of us are going to Lyon and 8 going to paris! Mainly sisters! Quite the group, it has been so fun getting to know them better! One sister is actually from Iona (if that how you spell it). I have not heard about the Passport and Visa yet, I assume that we will get them when we leave, no one in my district really knows, so fingers crossed. I am so grateful that we packed my blanket! They have some here but it is nice to have mine! The beds are alright I have a top bunk so that's exciting. I think that we will get our iPads when we get to France or right before. They have not really said anything.

The first day was really like taking a drink from a fire hose ha. I got there and they gave me a huge bag of books and I was one my way to my first class..all in french...Ha I could pick out the important words like "chat" and "bon". haha It will come someday. I am SO grateful that I was able to take that french class in college! definitely a tender mercy :) Our schedules are really busy but good! I love being busy! 

Our language teacher, Frere Kellett said something in class that yesterday that really help me so much, he said coming here we had to leave a lot behind, including the person that you think that you are. The spirit was overwhelming, it instantly changed my thinking. It helped me to break down my walls and realize that I was just who I am, and i am starting to become who our Heavenly Father knows that I can become.   

We were able to go to the Temple with our Zone today! It was so neat! the Provo temple is really pretty! 

I love the MTC! And I know I am where I'm suppose to be! Thank you all so much for your sweet comments and advice. That is something that I really need to, and will, take to heart! I love it and you have no idea how it has helped me and will continue to strengthen me. 

I hope that you have a great week! Sure do love ya! 

Soeur Wadsworth

  Soeur Kelley and me

  Sisters in our Residence hall/district

  Provo Temple

  Provo Temple with Soeur Kelley

  My MTC closet

 Je suis une missionaire!

Hey I made It! I love it here! It has been really fun and I feel that I have already learned so much! My companion is Soeur Kelley, she is so sweet and I fun to have as a companion. I hope that all is well, we will have more time to write tomorrow, Sure do love ya!