It's P Day again, so here I am in the laundry room (NOT in a skirt for once) writing letters and taking my email time! This week has been extraordinary for me. I have had so many uplifting and spiritual experiences. The MTC is a spiritual incubator. Missionaries are being prepared to take the same spirit we feel here into environments completely opposite of where we are now!
Every Tuesday we have a devotional all together (plus missionaries in overflow classrooms in the other building). We never know who the speaker will be until his/her name comes on the screens a few minutes before. This week were so excited to see that the message would be from Elder M. Russell Ballard from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles! He has such a calm, peaceful, faithful, and genuine manner about him. He reminded us that we as missionaries have been blessed our whole lives to go to Sacrament Meetings, Primary, Sunday School, Young Women/ Young Men, Seminary, Relief Society/ Priesthood classes, and Family Home Evenings, so we already know the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He told us that because of these, we are already able to express the truths we know in our own words, but we also have Preach My Gospel, which has had an incredible amount of revelation and thought put into it, to help us teach. I am grateful for the spirit he brought to that meeting. We always meet with a member of our branch presidency and his wife after the devotionals to talk about what we learned. I am always impressed by the insights that the elders and sisters in my district gain from the devotionals, as well as when we share insights with each other after our "personal study time." I'm so grateful to have been able to meet such inspiring and fun examples here.
Hermano Hamilton, the teacher who has been with us chatting away in Spanish since day one, had to leave us. He's been asked to work on improving the Spanish teaching program instead of working with our district until we leave. It's sad, but I'm grateful for the example of teaching he has set for me. He did personal "coaching" with each of us, and for me he really took the time to research in his personal time things to share with me that have helped strengthen my testimony. I hope that I can have that kind of genuine care for my investigators. When I hear my teachers' stories from the mission field, I get really excited that I will be able to meet real people in New Jersey whose lives can be completely changed by the message of the gospel if they have the faith to take the steps they need to to come unto Christ.
We've pretty much memorized The Missionary Purpose and The First Vision in Spanish now. We are continuing to practice teaching our teachers/investigators and members of the Church in TRC. We're learning more complex grammar principles and how to apply the fundamentals of the gospel into teaching so investigators can gain relationships with God for themselves through revelation.
We also have a lot of fun working out or playing volleyball during gym time. On Wednesdays I can see through the windows the new missionaries getting dropped off at the curb by their parents. I think of Finding Nemo- "THE DROP-OFF?! He took them to the Drop-off? No one said anything about the Drop-off!"
I feel like the longer you've been in the MTC, the older and wiser you seem, even if it's only been a week
longer than the new missionaries.
A mission is such a great experience! Sometimes it doesn't seem real that I'm actually flying to New Jersey in 17 days!! I love it. The Lord has blessed us so much and entrusts us with the most important work we can to and to wear his name.
I love you all! Thank you for your prayers and support! (And thanks, Mom and Dad, for the chocolate-covered cinnamon bears! Love you!)
Your missionary,
Hermana Martin
Pictures:
1. My companera, Hermana Larsen, y yo
2. My district in front of the Provo Temple
3. Some of my hermana friends who are now serving in CANADA (can you see how they're spelling it out?)
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