It's P-Day!! It's weird to think
that I've been here at the MTC for only a few days. Is it five? I don't know.
Day one was an emotional roller coaster, but I have my nametag, room, and
companion. Woo! The food was great at first, but an Elder told us that it
slowly gets worse over time and I am beginning to attest to that. However, I
have had at least two glasses of chocolate milk every meal since I figured out
they have it twenty-four seven. It's so good!
So, my companion is Sister Cox,
which is great because I already know her! We're almost best buddies now and
work great together in companion study and other things that I'll be
mentioning. The other sisters in our district are Sister Lloyd and Sister
Griffiths. Sis. Griffiths is an absolute riot and shares my love of superheroes
and Doctor Who (She's the one with the short light hair). Sister Lloyd is
really sweet and is obsessed with chocolate. (She's the dark haired one in the
pictures).
The coolest part of the first day of
being a missionary was being in the orientation room with 700 others that had
arrived on Wednesday. You would have gotten chills from hearing all of us sing
"Called to Serve" and "We'll Bring The World His Truth".
The Spirit here is so strong and I LOVE it! Everyday is an opportunity to study
and feel it. Disneyland is not the happiest place on earth. It's the MTC. The
lines are about the same though, haha.
The Elders in our district are
awesome! They're like brothers to us. There's Elder Hill (blonde short hair),
Elder Proctor (dark hair and eyebrows) ( I actually remember him from PBD! He
danced on the Youth Show team with Johnny last year before he moved to Idaho),
Elder Peck (tall, dark hair, looks like superman), Elder Ritchey (spiky blond
hair), Elder Steed (short, dark hair and glasses), and Elder Kuzab (He actually
arrived here yesterday because there's seven feet of snow in Rochester, NY
where he's from). By the way we took off our dork dots after day one. We were
tired of people welcoming us to the MTC. Our district is definitely family now.
We sit together at lunch, go to devotionals together, and we do doctrinal study
as a group. It's amazing how well the Elders treat the Sisters. I have had a
door opened for me more times than I've opened one. They also get very
protective of us, because they do love us as sisters and that's awesome!
The first class I went to was on
People and My Purpose where a large group of us learned how to teach an
'investigator' during role-play. The object was to invite people to come unto
Christ by finding out what they need in their lives and not just teach the
lessons. Since I've been here Sister Cox and I have never taught a perfect
lesson. At all. The Spirit is definitely the best teacher and I tell more cool
stories soon. i'm using my journal to try and tell you all that I can. We had a
quick tour but it took us two days to figure out where everything was. I did
laundry today. Woo!
I cannot express how amazing the
Spirit is here. It's only been a few days and you can already see the change it
has made in us as missionaries and people. Our teachers are Sister Howard and
Brother Sorensen. Bro. Sorensen is one of the shortest men I have ever seen.
He's a foot shorter than me but has a spirituality that practically punches you
in the face. He's really funny. Sis. Howard is really sweet and
says"y'all" a lot which is only preparing me for Kentucky.
Sister Cox and I have been teaching
'Jordan' as our progressing investigator twice now and we have another
appointment with him today after dinner. He's actually Bro. Sorensen who's
acting like an investigator he taught on his mission. Jordan is 23 years old
and is a father of a little six month old baby boy named Nash. He's nervous
about being a father and worried he won't do a good job at it. His cousin is a
member of teh Church and Jordan wondered how his cousin was doing so well at
being a dad. He referred Jordan to the missionaries. It has been a
nerve-wracking and amazing experience teaching him. On Saturday he willingly
prayed with us and we're hoping that he has been continuing to do so. Today
we'll be teaching him the plan of salvation because we feel he needs to know
about the atonement because he's having doubts that Heavenly father will listen
to him after everything that he's done. We're ready for anything her asks us
though. Even though it's a pretend scenario teh Spirit is teaching us how to
recognize promptings and helping us know what it feels like. The Spirit has
actually put words in my mouth several time sand recalled to my mind stories
and parables that have actually helped our investigator's understanding. It's
just so exciting to help someone get closer to Christ.
Ok, awesome story time! So we were
doing role play with Elder Peck and Ritchey in which each companionship would
give an excuse as to why they didn't want to be baptized and the other would
try to convince them otherwise. When it was time for Sister Cox and I to teach
them. After they had been convinced, Elder Ritchey told me that the only reason
his heart had been softened and he couldn't make any more argument against us
was when I had opened my scriptures and left them opened. Laying on the pages
was a small picture of Christ that I kept in that section. It just testified to
me how much the Spirit testifies of truth and is the real teacher, not me or
Sister Cox. Christ is the center of everything. That's the simple truth.
D&C 88:77.
The other day Sister Lloyd was
feeling very unworthy to be here to the point where she burst into tears. She
is wonderful and deserves to be here but has had a history of self doubt and
inadequacy. So, she asked for a priesthood blessing from all of the Elders in
our district. Seeing those young men use their priesthood authority to comfort
Sister Lloyd was one of the most powerful things I've seen here. Elder Proctor,
who is a goofball, gave the blessing and I knew that he was so in tune with the
Spirit because I felt power in his words. Sister Lloyd is much better now and
doing great!
Sister Cox and I taught a member on
Friday. The most amazing thing happened. As we were having a companion prayer
before we met him something said in the back of my mind 'Holy Ghost'. And that
was it. We were going to teach a lesson on prayer. So, I told Sister Cox my
feelings and we taught about prayer then asked him about how he felt about the
Holy Ghost. He leaned back and said, 'Well....um," and he had this kind of
skewed perception of how the Holy Ghost works. Well, we taught him what
we knew and later Sister Cox told me that he was getting a bit emotional during
the last bit before we left.
On Sunday we got to listen to Sister
Marriot (First Counselor in the YW Presidency) and Brother Allen (Managing
Director of Missionary Department). Both gave powerful and amazing talks that
have truly inspired me.
I am witnessing miracles here! It is
wonderful! Right now as I write this my heart is filled with how much I love it
here. I'll be here for three weeks before we leave so I get to enjoy the sweet
spirit here, my replacement family, and the chocolate milk.
I have attached pictures from our
dorm and our Sunday walk to the Provo Temple. It is freezing! It's also the
first time a lot of the missionaries here have seen snow. Actually never mind I
don't know how to download the pictures from here.
I LOVE YOU ALL! I miss you so much
and I'm glad that daddy is already seeing blessings. They are overflowing where
I am. I've loved your letters and am so grateful that I have chosen to
serve,
The church is true. The book is
blue, Christ loves you.
All my love in the world,
Raye
