MTC - Week 4

This is how I write letters!

The Prez aka The Best Sunday School Teacher Ever - President and Sister Swensen

Our fiesta

With Sister Heather Allen

The view from the Marriott Center pulpit

Tuesday devotional prayer givers

Querida Familia,

 

Guess what? Luz is getting baptized! Yeah, so she may not be "real" but it feels real and she is based off a real person. If it's this exciting now, I can only imagine how great it will be in the field. We committed her on Friday and now we have a lot to teach her in our next 2 lessons cause she's headed to the font on the 13th!

 

To work on our Spanish, we set aside Saturday to be a day where we couldn't speak any English--it was a quiet day. I'm to the point where I feel like my Spanish won't get any better until I'm immersed in it. I know all the concepts and I know a large chunk of vocab but I just need to hear the grammar over and over until it just comes out right. So now I'm starting to itch to get out of this place so that I can learn real Spanish and not just school Spanish.

 

Sunday was fabulous as always! Sheri Dew spoke to us for Relief Society and she was great! Then in sacrament, Hermana Howard had to give her talk. Each week we get an assigned topic to write a talk in Spanish for and then on Sunday whoever is conducting the meeting just says "we will now hear from Elder/Hermana so and so" and then you just get up and go. It's kind of a nerve racking few minutes until you know whether or not you have to speak. Then of course, the Sunday night devotional was given by the one and only "The Prez" Swensen. Wow! Can I just say, I had the best Sunday School teacher in the world? When I got the letter saying he would be here, I was waiting all week for Sunday! We got seats pretty close up to the front. I went up and talked to him and his wife for a couple minutes before they had to head up to the stand. They both gave fabulous talks. It will be the last MTC devotional they will ever speak at and I feel so lucky that I got to hear it! My favorite was at the very end something he said that reminded me of how he always taught our class that we and us is really spelled me and I, because the gospel is so personal and individual. Christ died for me not just for us. After he spoke, my district understood why I was so excited for him to come! He was funny and insightful and as wonderful as always. After we went up and talked to them a little more. He took down Hermana Howard's phone number so he could call her parents and tell them how she was doing. The funny thing is, when they got the call, I guess they thought that President Swensen was talking about her sister, Sister Howard, not Hermana Howard so she'll straighten that out in her letter this week. Jill Swensen went out and got my special hand-delivery (nothing better than mail on a Sunday) and since Leigh Martinez was at the West Campus they gave me her package too and asked if I'd try to find her at the Marriott devotional on Tuesday.

 

Speaking of the Tuesday devotional, guess who prayed in front of 3,000 missionaries? That's right, the one and only me! Our branch president was assigned to get missionaries to pray and he asked me if I would do it. They explained to me three times the correct way to pray and luckily I didn't end en el nombre de Jesucristo. It was way cool to sit on the stand. Good thing I got over being nervous back in the 8th grade-I wasn't really nervous at all. Maybe that's just cause no one really listens to the closing prayer that closely anyway. The speaker was Matthew Richardson from the Sunday School Presidency and he did a great job talking about the quote "where'er thou art, act well thy part." I scanned the whole crowd for Sister Martinez so I could get her the package and I finally saw her on the screen as part of the choir so then I was able to find her and give her the package that the Swensens brought down.

 

Yesterday we hosted new missionaries. We love to watch the families drop off their missionaries on Wednesdays. It's always so cute and tender. Before they let us host they told us we had to make them believe they'd love the MTC. I guess I didn't realize that a lot of missionaries don't like the MTC before I got here. I guess I only heard good things. I guess I'm just not the type to worry about things like this though cause I really never put much thought into what the MTC would be like. And now that I'm here I understand both sides. It's really wonderful the Spirit that is here and how fast you can learn. But it also is...well let's just say I'm glad I'm only here for 6 weeks instead of 9. And the people who are here for only a week and a half don't have it bad at all!

 

I swear every sister here is dressed up in bright red and blue to celebrate the 4th. We get to have a holiday devotional and then watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks after. Maybe we can hear a bit of good ol' Kelly Clarkson too, but I'm not counting on that. Since it's my pday and we have the Independence Day devotional I only have an hour of class today! And the temple is closed for all of July so my pdays now consist of an extra 2+ hours of pday. I'm looking forward to a solid nap today! Talk about a good day in the MTC. Other than the devo and the bookstore being closed I don't think there's much of a difference in the schedule as far as employees working and such.  Hopefully next year I won't be in America for the 4th, but who knows when it comes to Argentine visas! (My teacher thinks I'll get my re-assignment next Wednesday but that's mostly just a guess) Hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

 

Con todo mi amor,

Hermana Pearson