4/28/17 MTC Week 3- Teaching, The Spirit, Choirs, Kenyan Sister, Volleyball
Dear Mere,
I am getting used to being called Soeur
Sellers and if anyone messes up and calls me Lindsay I almost don't respond! I
have two teachers, Soeur Kimball and Frere Vanderholm. Soeur Kimball has been
with us the whole time and Frere Vanderholm was our "investigator"
Tamatoa for the first two weeks. Soeur Kimball is super funny and crazy sweet!
Frere Vanderholm is really intense. I don't know how else to explain him. He is
super passionate about the gospel and loves teaching too. A normal class
involves lots of getting up and sharing with neighbors.
Sunday this week was bonkers. It started
out as just another Sunday, but Soeur Kendall and I watched a talk by
Elder Holland and it was TRES BIEN!!!!! I even wrote in my journal that "I
thought I wasn't going to get much out of today because none of the talks stood
out and now I know why. The Lord in his mercy knew I couldn't handle more of
the spirit than what I'm feeling now." That seems to be how it goes in the
MTC. You start getting caught up in the language or the drama and then BAM! The
spirit sneaks up on you and out of nowhere you're sobbing. At least that's how
it happens for me. ;) I can't remember what the talk was called, but never
fear, you can't find it anyway!!! Muah ha ha ha!!! Apparently they only show it
to us missionaries . Basically the main things I got out of it was that if
you come from a mission the same person you were when you left you're doing it
wrong. You need to let a mission change you and make you a better person!
Favorite quote of the night "Why is this so hard?... Salvation is not a
cheep experience. Why should it be easy for us if it wasn't easy for him?...
The road to Salvation goes through Gethsemane." Mic. Drop.
So then the week kinda went downhill from there. ;) I got
a little cold which only lasted for a few days, but it's incredibly difficult
to speak French with a stuffy nose. We
taught Noeline, a new "investigator" (who is in fact Soeur Kimball) and our lesson did not go very well. We just weren't teaching by the spirit
because we only know how to say so much! Good thing that when the day was at
its worst I got a letter from my super mama! (We sent a French Plan
of Salvation kit; You can print them in many languages for missions all
over)
At devotional on
Tuesday we performed in choir and I sat in a spot that was on camera A LOT
(I was singing alto because the cold made my voice so low, and they mostly film
the middle of the choir). They always tell us not to look at the screen because
we'll start laughing if we see we're being filmed, but I could always tell when
I was on the screen because I was wearing a bright blue shirt and I'd see it
out of the corner of my eye while looking at the director. It was the biggest
struggle of my life to keep a straight face.
The next day I got to host a really nice
sister from Kenya! As a district we were chosen to help the international
missionaries check in and get ready and it was such a cool experience! We got
to go out of the MTC (the horror!) to get her chest X-rayed at the BYU Health
Center across the street. It was super fun! I was split from my group because
this sister had more paperwork to do than others and we were super lost as to
what to do next. Someone told us to go eat lunch and try and find our group,
but we didn't see them. We actually ended up eating with a member of the MTC
presidency (the Gilberts) and his wife. They got us back on track and Sister
Gilbert being the sweet woman she is walked me back to class.
Soeur Kendall auditioned to sing in a
devotional or something and I think she'll be singing here pretty soon! She's
really good, but don't tell her I told you because she might hurt me. ;)
Speaking of hurting people, she has bruises all up her arms from playing
volleyball of all things, and I'm pretty sure everyone thinks I beat her up.
Little do they know that it's just from my super impressive spikes... ;) (As a
missionary I cannot lie so I must inform you that I still don't know how to
spike despite the vast majority of elders attempting to teach me).
We taught Noaline again, this time over
Skype (Soeur Kimball is on vacation). It was going ok (we're still REALLY bad
at French), and right when we were inviting her to baptism we lost our
connection! Talk about bad timing!
I apologize for the length of this
email... and the fact that there are only a couple pictures.
Thanks mom for the letter! And for
everything! Tell dad I think he should teach a college class! He's really good
at explaining things and lots of people could benefit from his brainpower!!!
;)
Love you!
p.s. It's starting to snow and I'm
wearing flip flops and a tee shirt. 😂
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