MTC: June 24-26

Hello all!

The MTC is a great place! I once heard that the MTC sounds a lot like "empty sea" and I thought that was pretty funny, hence the subject of this email. Before I start off, I want to apologize in advance for the poor organization that is bound to happen in my emails. We are very busy and I don't have a lot of time to edit them. I'm also going to warn that I'll probably leave a lot of things out--it's difficult to get used to writing the same things in journals, letters, and emails! 

I LOVE my companion, Sister Faucette. She is wonderful! She has helped me learn so much from her comments in class and in companion study. She's from a huge farm in southern Colorado. She is very kind and in tune with the Spirit. She is amazing and helps me see and understand things I haven't before. 

The Spirit is very strong here--it's stronger than I have ever felt before. I have learned way more in the past three days than I have in the past five years! I'm so glad I can be here right now. I know this is where I am supposed to be.

Things have been absolutely crazy here! I love how busy we are. There are a lot of new mission presidents that are getting trained this week, so we have been displaced from a lot of our normal activities. The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and the Church Presidency is there too! Because of all the festivities going on this week, we have been moved out of the cafeteria and get to eat in the gym.

On Thursday, all of the sisters were asked to go immediately to the auditorium for an emergency meeting, no matter what we were doing at the time. We were all trying to figure out why they wanted to speak to all of us, and the only thing we could think of was the missionary dress standards. When we got there, they started off by telling us that they thought we were in danger. Uh, what?! What's going on? Is there someone dangerous on campus? They then told us that some of the sisters saw a bat in their residency, so they were going to move ALL of the sisters to a different building! We had already unpacked everything in the nice new building and had to pack everything up again and lug our suitcases up four flights of stairs in a really old building that was just about to be torn down. As in, they were preparing to demolish it next week, so they didn't clean it after it was cleared out last time. It really made us appreciate what we have!

Yesterday we had the opportunity to prepare a 20 minute lesson and teach it to an investigator! We were really nervous to be doing that so fast, especially since we missed class time the day before because we had to move into the new dorm. We prepared a lesson during companion study and then studied the Restoration pamphlet that we had never read before, and our lesson followed exactly what was taught in the pamphlet! We were truly guided by the Spirit to prepare that lesson because we learned a lot from it.

When it was time to teach, Sister Faucette and I decided to pray right before we knocked on our investigator's door (her name is Nikki). Although we had prepared well for the lesson, we were soooo nervous! As we started teaching Nikki the lesson, we felt like we should abandon the entire lesson we prepared. It was crazy! Because Sister Faucette and I had never taught before, we weren't familiar with how the other teaches. I didn't get to talk very much, even when I felt prompted to ask Nikki to read John 10:16 (I think? The one about 'other sheep') while Sister Faucette was teacher her about the Book of Mormon. At the end of the lesson, we asked Nikki if she would follow Christ's example and be baptized by someone holding the Priesthood authority of God! I did not see that coming at all, even though we just had a class about not letting our own fear get in the way of asking someone to be baptized. Nikki said yes! What an amazing experience we had. I'm so glad we got to practice with Nikki, who is actually our teacher acting as an investigator that she taught on her mission before we work with real investigators! We have a meeting planned with real investigators on Monday.

We were able to go to the temple today--what a wonderful experience! Sadly, we won't be able to go next week because the temple will be closed for cleaning.

I love our district! We have eleven people--two pairs of sisters and three elder companionships (one is a tripanionship). Half of us are going to Las Vegas and the other half is going to Ohio. They are such fun people to be around! I can't stop saying it--I love the MTC! There are just so many opportunities to learn and grow and feel the Spirit and serve others. It is truly an amazing place.

The gospel is true! I can't wait to get out to the field and bring others to Christ and true happiness. I know I am called to serve in the Nevada Las Vegas Mission because there is someone there who needs me to teach them!

I love you all! Have a wonderful week :)