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!