Last MTC Week!

Hello everyone!

Once again, that timer kills me! It ticks away so fast.

Also, writing letters really is complicated with everyone and dearelders and stuff because you guys can write faster so I answer questions in letters and then you ask again cause you can write faster. I just want everyone to feel loved! Oh well.

That’s a bummer about the fires. There are SO MANY! There’s a sister in my district who was talking about the fire in Los Alamos. Thats crazy about the Balloon Fiesta park thing. WHY WOULD THEY DO FIREWORKS THIS YEAR?!?! Crazy.

So, I'm sorry if I repeat myself in these emails or my letters. Its just hard because I don't have copies of the things that I sent so I don't know what I've said. But one thing I forgot to tell you last week was that my first Sunday (I think) we heard Elder Bednar speak about how to be a Preach My Gospel missionary and Elder Sowards and I sang in the choir. It was great. Always is to hear from an apostle!

And, I have seen Chace [Kyle’s cousin] and I've also seen 8 or 9 guys from my floor at BYU! That was really exciting. We're all going to take a picture together on Friday before I leave. It will be cool to see how much we all change in two years!

I've gotten lots of letters from people so that been great. And thus far I've appreciated every one of them. It makes me bummer that I can't write back more but I definitely understand the limit on communication. Just today, I've been trying to work out everything I'm going to write. I've been writing to Becca and then I got a letter from Chad that was really cool. And then I got a letter from Linlea. Again, I would love to hear about what Heath experienced being District Leader. I'm always curious if I'm actually doing a good job. For the last few days, I've been trying to talk to everyone individually and make sure that anyone who wants a blessing before they leave gets one, or if anyone just needs to vent, I'm trying to help them with that too.

So Mom, you want to know what a normal day is like? I'm not sure! Haha. We were talking about this in our DIstrict and we got here at a weird time. This Sunday will actually be our first normal Sunday schedule. But usually, its filled with eating, going to 3 hour chunks of class and Zone teaching where we pretend to teach others in our Zone. Speaking of which, I had a very humbling experience yesterday. In Zone teaching, (seeing as how I'm an ACT-TOR, I always think I'm really good at being a pretend investigator) and yesterday, we taught two Elders who have only been here for four days. One of them came in very cocky and I figured I would humble him with a challenging investigator. So I told them my concern was that I had a problem with painkillers and didn't intend to stop. This Elder immediately started in to accuse me, asking where I got them and if I knew I was breaking the law! I immediately countered with raising my voice, furrowing my brow and saying, "Excuse me? Are you here to judge me or bring me closer to God? I don't need more judgement and if thats what you're here for, I don't want you here." The cocky Elder immediately shut down and the other one had to take over, giving a very generic Word of Wisdom lesson. At the end, the Elder began to cry, stating that he had seen the deadly effects of drugs in his life and he knew that wasn't the way to get closer to God. I felt awful. I apologized for overreacting but wanted this to be a teaching opportunity. I told him that his testimony was so powerful and he just needed to make the investigator feel loved, not judged. But I felt so bad for going so hard on him and it made me realize that I have weaknesses too and there will be people that are hard for me to help. I still see that Elder all the time and we're good friends now. He's doing ok and I know we both learned a lot from that experience.

  

I know I'm jumping around, but I only have ten minutes left. This is like the hardest test I've ever taken.

So last week, somebody mistook Elder Resse's bag for theirs and took it. So he had to go to Zone teaching WITHOUT HIS SCRIPTURES!! It was the most terrifying thing ever. For the next week, I took my scriptures everytime I went to the bathroom or to get water. I'm so terrified of losing my scriptures...pray for me on that one.

   

Oh dang! Quick story, so on Sunday we heard from Jenny Oaks Baker who is the daughter of Dallin H. Oaks and shes a professional violinist so obviously I though of Shelby. She has such a strong testimony of the gospel and it made me think of Shelby because Shelby has always taken on any challenge of difficulty with impossible faith. I always struggled with that and I'm so proud that she can continue on with faith unwavering.

So, I learned to shave really fast because if I start shaving at 6:20 (before people should be getting up normally and the showers are all empty) and I get done at 6:25, EVERY SHOWER IS FULL...The MTC is SO crowded. Whats up with all these people wanting to serve the Lord? And don't even get me started on the Laundry room!

I love President Topham! I feel like we don't have much to talk about because he's an engineer but I'm sure I'm going to love him! He was so nice and loving.

  

Also, I only have 4 minutes left but there was a time in class when I was teaching and we were supposed to focus on teaching by the spirit and my teacher kept stopping me and I was getting so frustrated. Finally, I just said only whatever came to mind, ignoring the textbook answers I knew and then I got emotional. He took me outside and told me that I had taught by the spirit! I couldn't get my emotions under control and I said, I'm sorry I'm such a pansy and he said always be grateful for that gift! Crying is the spirits way of telling you and everyone around that the HOLY GHOST IS IN THE ROOM!!

It was so great

  

I love everyone and I'm so grateful I have such a supportive family! Remember, after this Sunday, send me letters at the mission home address instead of the MTC!! Ok, byue!!!...Byue....dang it...lets see...B-Y-E!!!!