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
No comments:
Post a Comment