July 12, 2013

Hola!

 

Okay, so last Friday evening was one of the most amazing experiences I have had thus far on my mission.  Mi companera y yo had to teach a lesson to Loliña.  Our pdays only last until 6pm.  Anyway, that evening Hermana Brown and I were sitting in class, VERY discouraged with what we were learning.  Something like Reflexives...I don´´t know.  But anyway, she and I were SO discouraged and we had to teach Loliña.  Hermana Brown and I had NO idea what we needed to teach Loliña.  We decided we´´d go pray about everything.  So we found a little corner of our building and prayed so that we would know what to teach.  We poured our hearts out to the Lord, we told Him we had nothing and were nothing and that we needed His help right now at this moment so that we might be able to do what we needed to do.  After the prayer we felt inspired to find a scripture on peace.  WE also felt that we needed to let her know how much Heavenly Father loves her and that He cares about her, and that that is one of the biggest reasons we pray to Him diariamente.  WEll, it came to our trun to teach her.  (Loliña is an investigator my teacher is pretending to be, so in a sense this is a fake investigator, but we like to believe we are still able to teach with inspiration).  Hermana Brown and I stood at the door and said one more quick prayer.  Then we knocked.  Loliña let us in.  We started teaching her.  Hermana Brown and I are not too sure what we said at all.  The only thing we know is that we shared a scripture on peace.  Everything else was the spirit.  At the end we felt like Loliña should pray.  So we asked her to, she was very nervous and doubtful about whether or not Padre Celestial would even listen to her.  We shared our testimonies and then she finally prayed.  The spirit was SO strong!!  At the end of the prayer we just sat there in silence for a good 2 minutes.  I asked her how she felt.  She said it was a different feeling, unfamiliar.  She couldn´´t describe it, except it was a good feeling.  We explained what the spirit was, that it was God´´s way of sharing his love for us.  Then we asked her to commit to praying every day.  She said yes.  Hermana Brown and I left, adn stood in the hall with tears in our eyes.  For the first time we really REALLy taught by the spirit.  WE were most definitely recipients of the gift of tongues.  I have a testimony of the gift of tongues.  I still to this day, a week later couldn´´t tell you what we said in there.  It was amazing. 

 

Anyway, Hermana Brown and I have found that the Atonement is VERY hard to teach in simple words that make total sense....it´´s hard enough to do it in ENglish, and Spanish it´´s even harder. 

 

Sunday was GREAT.  The MTC presidency has a 2 hour meeting for the entire MTC every fast sunday.  IT is amazing how many people are here on campus and on the other campus.  The MTC meetings used to fit everyone in the gym.  Now The meetings are now broadcasted to the Wyview and Raintree campus, there´´s 3 overflow rooms in a different building here on campus AND now there are missionaries watching the broadcasts in the cafeteria!!!  IT´´s CRAZY.

 

Sunday devotional we had Brother George Durrant (VERY funny man!!!) and his new wife, Sister Susan Easton Black.  I guess she was a professor at BYU for a long time.  She was actually the first female religion teacher at BYU.  Pretty neat, huh?  Both of their spouses and died, and they'd known each other for a while...then ended up getting married.  THey are such a happy couple. 

 

Every Sunday we have a movie night.  THere are different rooms showing different movies/talks.  This last sunday I was able to watch and listen to a talk that David A. Bednar gave here at the MTC.  It was a talk he gave on a Christmas morning.  It. was. amazing. !!!!!  He spoke on the characters of Christ.  How we must always strive to obtain the characteristics of Christ.  AMAZING stories, and he actually did the greatest imitation of the Cookie Monster!!  I never would have imagined him, an apostle!!! Standing at the pulpit imitating the cookie monster!! Hahaha he related cookie monster to being like the natural man.  It was also very cool to listen to this talk because it is something that only us missionaries are able to listen to, since this is not a talk that can be looked up online.  I so wish I could look it up though!!!  He talked about how we as missionaries are right when we say,"I can't do this."  He said that is quite true.  He said that we can't do this, only with HEavenly Father can we fulfill our great calling.

 

 Teusday night was great, and Emeritus General Authority spoke.  Myrtis Kenderick.  He was very very cool.  Had so much to say, I couldn't write quick enough.  BUT, the biggest thing I wanted to mention about him is that at the end of his talk, he bestowed a blessing upon all of us missionaries.  There were three things:  Always have the comfort of the spirit, He blessed us that our knowledge and understanding with the languages will be quickened, and we may have fond rememberence of the truth and that we may have instant recall of those moments throughout our life.  After every teusday night devotional we have a district devotional review.  That is where we discuss the dev with our district and someone from the Branch presidency.  President and sister Jolley were with us, and they said they have been in the Branch presidency for 4 years, and only 3 other times have they seen someone bestow a blessing up the missionaries in the MTC.  So cool!!

 

Yesterday, Herman Brown, Hermana Thompson, and Elder Andersen were SICK.  So there were only 4 of us in class all day.  It was an ODD day, but I don't thingk I have ever learned more that I did yesterday.  It was a good day, except I'm glad everyone is feeling better today.  I hope I never see the day where I am too sick to move....

 

There's nothing else that happened that was really too interesante.  I did recieve a WONDERFUL package from "The Orem AH Mu's!!"  They sent me donuts, mmmm they were good!  My district says thank you too!  I have also been very lucky to be recieving DearElders from people!!  Thank you to all who DearElder me.  It's great. 

 

I am sad to hear sister Call was transferred!!!  But excited for her as well, she is so great.  I sent her and Sister Morris a letter....I addressed it to both of them, not too sure how that'll work out....

 

I came across a GREAT escritura!!!  3 Nephi 5:13.  Look it up. 

 

There are some things I wish I would have known before I came here:  They provide bedding (sheets, pillows, blankets, etc.),  gym shorts ARE allowed, is my green blazer dry clean only?, there's vending machines in the residence halls....and we can use our cards on them?! ( I swear they are tryihng to make us fat, especially since they add $8 to  my card every week.), I wish I knew where to find a computer that can send photos on....

 

I love it here though.  Everything is going GREAT.  I can't wiat to get flight plans (I know that is a little ways away...but still).  I can't wait to see what this next week brings.  Miracles happen here, I never thought they could happen here since there's no real investigators, but they do.  I am learning SO much, and I am seeing that 6 weeks REALLY is not a long time....I am glad I still have 2-ish more weeks, that time is VERY much needed.  Well, thank you for the support, I love y'all.  SOOOO excited for Ashley (The greatest SIL of ALL time!!)  11 more weeks!! Woot wooooo!!!! :)

 

Have a fantastic week!!!  I know I will have one!!! There is no such thing as a bad day, there are bad moments, but NEVER bad days!!  That is something great that I learned from Sister Call and Sister Morris.

 

 

Love,

 

Hermana Ah Mu

 

 

P.S.  Here is my Mission Motto:

 

 

"In the Great California Ventura Mission we are preach my gospel missionaries.  We baptize, we obey with exactness, we seek to be trusted more than loved, and we teach with power and authority."