I sang for an apostle...on my birthday

So this week has seriously just flown by! It doesn't seem possible at all that I have already been here for two whole weeks: seen ten of my friends go out to their fields of service and welcomed thirty more into our zone and will be saying goodbye in just four more days to go serve in England. But for the short of it, that's what's happened.

Friday was great. Our teachers are definitely teaching us by the spirit. It has been so crazy how we'll go over something in class and then in our investigator visits, they'll ask a question and we're like "OH we just studied that! Here's a scripture to answer your question..." Friday we specifically talked about making the distinction that the "church" isn't true, but the "gospel" is. Basically, the people aren't what make it true, but the fact we have the whole restored gospel is. So we talked about not saying "our church" but saying "our gospel" when talking to investigators. We taught Sydney for the last time on Friday and saying good-bye was so hard! But we got a picture with her, so I'll send that :) She is seriously the best!

Saturday was pretty awesome as well! We studied literally all day. Our morning TRC investigator was out of town, so we got to observe other missionaries teaching their investigators. It was awesome because we were sitting next to our teacher, Sister Mitchell, and were able to role play how we would answer some of the questions that investigator had and asking faith-building questions. It really helped because then we went to teach our other investigator later and had the most spiritual lesson. Sister Horne and I really relied on the Spirit and I think we got our rhythm back. 

Sunday was Sunday! We had our leadership meetings in the morning and then went to a special "Sister's Conference" that was spectacular! We sang a new version of "As Sisters In Zion" that was written by Janice Kapp Perry. It is so great, I just have to share the lyrics with you!

“The Sisters of Zion”

The sisters of Zion are called to God’s labor,

We willingly serve Him with spirit and might.

We go to the nations with truth everlasting,

We teach of the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ.

We thank Thee, O God, for a prophet to guide us,

We trust in his words and our purpose is clear.

The angels of heaven are walking beside us,

We’ll share our glad message with all who will hear.

We go forth enlisted with Helaman’s army

In numbers much greater than ever before.

With power and spirit we’ll faithfully witness

The heavens have spoken and truth is restored!

I just loved that song! It really brought a great spirit having all the sisters at the MTC singing it! The rest of our conference was on faith and believing on His power. "We have been called to and sent to finish the race no matter how hard or difficult it gets in the end, we weren't just called to start and give up" We had our temple walk, taught relief society, sacrament meeting, choir, and devotional. Our devotional was from Brother Littlefield who works with the Missionary pre-service Department (so he helps assign all our calls) and he talked about our purpose some more. He talked about how to be the most effective we can. One thing he mentioned that really stuck out to me was that we always need to follow up because we're fighting for their eternal salvation, but Satan is too. And whoever wins is whoever puts forth the most effort. That really put things into perspective!

We got our new TRC investigators on Monday. Sister Horne and I are teaching Lisa and Emi. Lisa is from California and seemed really interested to learn! and Emi is the cutest thing ever! She is from Japan and is so eager to learn! She mentioned that she's been meeting with missionaries for awhile and believes in her mind that it is true, but has a hard time understanding the concept of believing in her heart. 

Tuesday was my birthday!! I started out dumpster diving because we were doing service again and we were in charge of the trash cans. Well then we went to throw them in the dumpster and the sign saying "no trash-only cardboard" was on the ground and who wants to look at the ground by a dumpster? that's just gross! So I had to jump up there and pull it out. Luckily there was a lot of cardboard in there so I didn't have to crawl all the way in...then we had to walk further down to another dumpster because the "trash only" one was full. All in all, it was an eventful morning! It was a weird day though because Lisa went to her son's graduation, so we didn't get to teach her and then with devotional, we didn't have an afternoon TRC visit with Emi either. So we didn't teach anyone on Tuesday. We did sing in the choir again and this time it was broadcast-ed to all the MTC's because Elder Renlund came and spoke to us! He spoke on the power of the Atonement and it was an amazing talk! Fun fact: He's the 100th apostle since the Restoration! After devotional, we had a testimony meeting as a district and then the branch presidency snuck in some treats since it was my birthday and then another elder in our district has his birthday on Sunday. Then I got called to the information desk. My amazing parents sent me flowers for my birthday! They are absolutely beautiful and smell amazing! It was really funny because when I picked them up, the man who gave them to me even commented on how nice they smell. SO you know they smell nice!

Wednesday was busy! We taught Lisa and Emi again and had such amazing experiences with them. We've definitely been humbled in our efforts to plan and prepare and things have been going so much better since we have! We had some of our most spiritual lessons yesterday and they were amazing! Then we got to welcome two new districts into our zone! Sister Horne and I, along with Elders Osborn and Deadman, gave them the rundown on MTC rules and then gave them a tour of the MTC. We had 13 sisters join us and 8 elders. Isn't that amazing! 

So today is P-Day which means I'm pretty much doing the same thing I did last week: laundry, emails, and a temple visit! Then we teach Emi again. We are so excited! oh also, we think something is wrong with our picture uploading capabilities because none of us can get anything to attach. We're going to try another computer lab later, so hopefully pictures will come!

I love you all and I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!!!!! I fly out on Monday Evening and will be in England by Tuesday night (it's a long flight). and am so excited to find those the Lord has prepared and is trusting me to find. 

Until next time,

Sister Hope

MTC District

Elder Roberts is from Boise and we call him "one pun" or OP for short. He is constantly making puns off of what we say and it is hilarious! He kinda reminds me of Vector from Despicable Me. He is like the realistic version of that cartoon. He speaks Japanese and was really disappointed to not go to Japan on his mission, but there's a big Japanese culture in Hawaii and so he hopes to serve there!

Elder Apeland is his companion and that is pronounced APPland, not APEland although it's spelled the other way. He is from the Portland area and knows some Hoffman's, but not Tiernan. They call him AP or something to do with apples: applesauce, apple juice, etc. He's an awesome missionary, but doubts himself a lot. I can tell though that his biggest strength is that he listens so intently to what everyone says and knows exactly what to say in response to them. He is also going to Hawaii.

Elder Haines is our District Leader. He is a scripture stud! I thought I knew the scriptures really well, but he really has a gift for finding exactly what scripture will help the most. We call him DL because he got mad when another elder called him Elder Haney. He's from Tuilla Utah (spelling) and is going to Leeds! I am so excited to serve with him! I know he will do great things.

Elder Lepule (Le-Pull-A) is his companion and the youngest of the group. He just turned 18 in December and also has a lot of self-doubts. He's from Compton California and so he had a pretty rough childhood. He's awesome though. He is so sincere in everything he says and one of the most humble guys I've ever met. He is also going to Leeds and I think he'll do great things. He almost went home like right away because he doubted himself so much, but our branch president challenged him to make it through at least a week and now he said there's nothing that will make him want to go home early! I just love the Spirit and to see how much it is working on all of us, but especially him. We call him boss man because his name literally translates to "the boss" in samoan. 

Elder Osbourne and his companion are going to be the Zone Leaders when the other district leaves. We call Elder Osbourne either Ozzy, or Candy Man because he literally always has a bag of candy on him and we swear he is going to rot his teeth. He has two glasses of chocolate milk with every meal too. He's worse than Rabaut and his juice! He's from the Spokane area and baptized his best friend just before coming out and his girlfriend just started meeting with the missionaries as well. He is going to Leeds and I know he'll do great things as well because he already has!

Elder Deadman is his companion and going to Hawaii. He is from Salt Lake. We just call him deadman, because why not? He also has a lot of self-doubts but I had a good conversation with him yesterday. He was beating himself up because we were supposed to teach the Plan of Salvation in three minutes and he was so discouraged that he couldn't do it. I just told him to remember that the reason we're supposed to do it in such a short period of time is for street contacts. So it's ok to skip some stuff and close with "we'd love to explain more if you're interested" and after that he just seemed so much more comfortable with teaching and it was a great thing to witness! I'm glad I was able to help the Lord comfort him.

My companion is Sister Horne. The elders don't really have nicknames for us sisters, they typically just call us as just our last names. She's from Colorado and awesome! She's a little picky when it comes to food and gets up an hour early so she can get her makeup done on time, but she is great. We've made a great team in our companionship and do a great job reading each other's thoughts. I've felt a little bad though because I feel like I talk a lot in our lessons. She says she doesn't mind because she doesn't feel she knows as much. So my goal is going to be to talk less and let her do more.

Sister Sperry is from Pleasant Grove. Is there a way I can get the Sperry Line? We're trying to figure out how we're related. We're sticking with cousins right now, but it'd be great to know exactly! She doesn't like meat and is concerned about going to Hawaii. But I'm sure she'll be fine!

Sister Nellis is a lot like me. She is from Henderson. I honestly don't know what else to really say about her. She has a great love for the Gospel and I know she'll do great things her whole mission as well!

All four of us get along so great. I feel like I've known these sisters my whole life and its only been a week! Such a great blessing. The other district told us we'd break down in a week and so for we've all been doing great. None of us are super dramatic so we don't have to worry about "girl drama" which has been a blessing too!

First Week of the MTC-- I'm a Missionary!!!

Holy Cow! This week has been CRAZY! There's so much to learn and so much to do but it is seriously the best thing ever! It is so weird to think I've already been gone for over a week because in some ways it feels like it has been a year and other times it feels like a day. Honestly, most of the days just kinda mesh together because we are so busy all the time!

So there are ten of us in my district: 6 elders, and 4 sisters. 3 of the elders are going to Leeds with me and then the rest of the missionaries in our district are going to the Honolulu Hawaii mission. It is super weird being the only sister going to England because people ask the elders where they're going and their like "well most of us are going to Hawaii, but these three are going to England" and I'm like "FOUR! THERE ARE FOUR OF US GOING TO ENGLAND!" Then they feel bad for forgetting me and it's great! I've learned so much from my whole district and we are continually drawing closer to Christ and learning little by little how to bring others to Christ as well!

So Wednesday, was mostly orientation. We did this weird group activity as all the new people at the MTC where we (as like 60 missionaries) all taught an investigator and then talked later about what could've been better. And honestly, what could've been better is if we would've all stayed on topic. It seriously seemed like we'd just be getting to know the person and a random (usually elder) missionary would stand up and completely change the subject. It was pretty obvious that they were confused as well. We met our zone wednesday night as well. They also have 10 missionaries, but it is completely opposite as us because there are 4 elders and 6 sisters. The sisters are going to California and the elders are going to Vegas West. They are crazy. They scared us. And I generally like crazy. They showed us around a little but it was close to bedtime and dark so I felt we were walking in a circle and I still had no idea where everything was the next morning.

Thursday we studied all day and did personal training. We didn't have a teacher most of the day because apparently they can trust us to stay on task. We actually did pretty well at staying on task. We met our branch presidency and got our leadership callings. My companion, Sister Horne, and I are the Sister Training Leaders, which basically means we're the Sister District Leaders. The other sisters are the Technology and Music Specialists, which mean they are in charge of choosing songs and making sure we take our online assessments. We "taught" our first investigator today, called a PI, or Progressing Investigator. Basically what this means, is our teacher came in and pretended to be one of her investigators from her mission and we got to teach her. I absolutely loved it! Sister Horne and I make a great team!

Friday was just another day of studying as a district. We taught our teacher again as her investigator and committed her to baptism! So that was great!

I promise, most of what we're doing here is just studying and practicing teaching, so the days are pretty much the same. With that being said, Saturday we mainly just studied and taught our teacher again. Saturday night, we decided to go outside and do a district study time and we all talked about why we're here and what our goals and motivations to stay on the mission as days get hard are. The spirit was so strong and I have no doubt that all of us are going to be amazing missionaries and really make the Lord proud with our hard work.

Sunday kinda shook things up a little. I had meetings all morning since I'm an STL. After the meetings, we took a temple walk as a zone. That literally means we walked to the temple, took pictures, and left. Then we split up and had Priesthood/Relief Society meetings, lunch, and then Sacrament meeting. Out of the 20 of us, I'm the only one that knows how to play hymns on the piano, so guess what my second calling is? YEP! Branch Pianist. But that's ok, we only have a piano for sacrament meeting. For every other meeting we just use the computer and play the song on lds.org and sing along to it. We had a little district meeting (Sunday School) afterwards and then went to choir practice! We had a Sunday Devotional after that and heard from the Provo City Center President and Matron about the importance of our callings and purpose here. After that we got to go to the "movies" which is their fancy way of saying we get to watch a General Authority's devotional. So we watched Elder Bednar's "Character of Christ" Devotional. To say it was amazing is an understatement. He talked about how Christ is the most selfless person and that he turns out in service, when our natural man would turn inwards. It was such a powerful message. 

Monday we got a new challenge called TRC, or Teaching Resource Center. In there, there are real investigators and converts who pretend to be themselves as if they were still investigating the church, but we're not allowed to know who is who in that regard (although sometimes it is pretty obvious). Our first lady is named Ny (pronounce NEE) and she is from Madagascar and spoke very quietly and very little. Our first lesson we thought she'd talk a lot so we could get to know her but all her answers were yes/no or "I don't know" so we had a pretty rough lesson. We wound up teaching her about the Restoration, but it felt pretty awkward to be honest. Our second investigator is named Sydney and we just fell in love with her! She loves family history and is amazed that our church would give all those resources away for free. She is so open to learning and said everything we're teaching covers all the differences in the differences in the different religions she's been to and agrees fully with the bible. We love teaching her because she teaches us as well! She knows her bible well and uses it to confirm what we're teaching! 

We did service Tuesday morning, which really just means we cleaned the building for the janitors while they supervised. It was kinda funny to think about it that way, but it was nice to be able to wear pants and do something other than sit in a room all day. After that, we taught Ny again and this lesson went a little better. We taught her a little more about the roles of the Godhead, because she grew up Catholic and was set on the Trinity. She said what we taught made sense, but she wasn't sure how she felt about it. She said she wanted to learn about temples the next day so we were pretty freaked out about what we were going to do, but I'll get to that later! We practiced teaching some more and studied. Then we had another devotional! This one was from Brother Keetch, of the 70. He talked about his missionary service and how we could best fulfill that calling. Then we had a district testimony meeting after that. Have I mentioned that I love my district? Because I do! They are so amazing. The Branch Presidency sat in with us for that too. The main thing we talked about was how we don't want to have "what if" regrets on our mission, we want to have those "I'm so glad I didn't give up" moments! And Sister Chambers, the wife of our Branch First Councilor, said something along the lines of "Hard days in the mission field come when Satan knows you could have your best day" and I just loved that! The perspective we get from all these amazing people is just amazing.

Wednesday marked a week since leaving home. We taught Ny for the last time. We discussed the Plan of Salvation with her and then explained that in the temple we make promises to live the way that would qualify us for the Celestial Kingdom and to live with our families forever! We definitely didn't want to go into too much detail with her, but we thought that was a great way to teach to her needs and still bring up her concerns and interests! We taught Sydney again too and she was just eager to learn everything we had to tell her. She was definitely a golden investigator! She's promised to go to church on Sunday this week and is reading in 3 Nephi and loves it! We also showed her Moroni 8 because she had questions about children dying before they were baptized.  We had a great experience as a district. All four of us sisters asked for a blessing from the elders. For some of the elders, this was their first or second blessings to give and the spirit was just so strong. They blessed us all with comfort and to know how pleased Heavenly Father is with us and what we're doing. We also met the new district! There's six sisters and four elders in that district. They're going to Canada, Indiana and North Carolina.

Obviously today is my P-day in the MTC. We're doing laundry right now and emailing. and then we basically have a free day. We're going to the 2 o'clock session at the temple as a zone and then P-Day ends. We'll teach Sydney again tonight about the different commandments, or as she puts it "what makes us tick" and that's about it! 

I love you all and am so excited to be here on a mission. Even though it has only been a week, I am already feeling so much closer to my Heavenly Father and so much more at peace with, well, just everything! I know I have been called of God to preach this wonderful Gospel and in just a week and a half I get to go on a plane and find people that He has already prepared. We were told that instead of praying for Him to prepare people for us to teach, that we should pray to be prepared to teach those He has already prepared and I just love that! 

Sister Hope