Birthday!

Hey Everybody!

 

Today is P-Day so I figured it would be good to send out an email and let people know how I'm doing. Mom and Dad have the inside scoop because I've already been able to send them a couple of handwritten letters. Honestly the best part about P-Day is that we get to go to the temple. Our zone does this really cool thing where we get up at 5 on P-Day and do our laundry before we go to the temple, then we all eat breakfast at the temple cafeteria before our session. I love the temple, and it was nice to be able to go again since I missed the week before I went into the MTC (CCM en Espanol).

 

Our district is amazing. There are 6 Elderes and 6 Hermanas. I love all of them so much. It's amazing how quickly you can get to know someone when you spend 13 or more hours a day with them. My companera is Hermana Clifton. She is so great! She has been really patient with me, and my little quirks like not liking food, and needing to go to the bathroom every 3 hours. The other Hermanas are also awesome. Hermana Hall is a dancer, and Hermana Barnes and Heramana Warren are both USU students and huge Aggie fans. We heard that they lost their basketball game to BYU by 2 points, and they were so disappointed. Hermana Dodge is from Texas, but she went to BYU-I for school. We're all a little crazy in our own ways, but it's nice becuase we balance eachother out. I'll try to tell you about the Elders and more about the Hermana's next time, but I have a couple of stories that I want to make sure I have time to share.

 

Story 1

My first 3 1/2 days in the MTC were amazing. I was having so much fun learning Spanish and learning about the gospel. I thought I might not like having to sit in a classroom all day after so long in school, but I loved it. It felt/feels great to be busy all the time, and for some reason learning Spanish and the Gospel so that I can help other people makes it feel less like work. Honestly it mostly feels like there's not actually enough time in the day. Anyway... like I said my first 3 1/2 days were great, and I was so happy. I had a little bit of homesickness a couple of times, and I felt a little overwelmed and unqualified a couple of times, but for the most part I felt great. Then Sunday came. Now most people had been telling me that Sunday was the truning point for most missionaries, and that that would be the day that everything kind of settled in. That definitely wasn't true for me, so it just goes to show that you shouldn't believe everything you hear. To cut a very long story short, we had a devotional that brought out a lot of insecurities and anxieties in me, and I cried all the way through it. I thought I'd controlled it and stuffed it back inside me (also a bad idea) by the time Hermana Clifton and I headed back to our room. When we got there I realized that I was not actually going to be okay, and that I had been getting and ignoring a prompting to go ask for a blessing. We thoguht about going up to our coordinating sister's room and asking her to get the elderes for us, but I had a feeling we should go back to our class instead.We went back to the classroom next to ours where our zone leaders and coordinating sister have class, and they were just walking out. We stepped into our classroom, and I just exploded into previously surpressed tears. I was crying so hard that I couldn't tell them what my full name was so I pulled out my ID card and gave them that instead. The 4 elders stood around me and our zone leader Elder Lange said the blessing. I didn't calm down immidiately, and I didn't stop crying right away, but I could feel that peace beginning to work in my heart. Elder Lange reminded me that God loves me and that I was doing what I know He wants me to do and that I had my sister and my companion here to support me as well as my family at home. Elder Lange said a lot of things, but the thing that stood out most to me was that he said God was pleased with my offering; He was pleased with my efforts.It reminded me that I don't have to worry about in the field or even tonight when we teach our first 'investigator' for the last time. As long as I am trying, and trying to put forth my best effort; even when I fail or don't work quite as hard as maybe I should He still loves me and is still pleased with me.

 

I was going to tell another story but I'm out of time so I'll have to end here for now. I am loving my experience here, and I love all of you. Thank you for your support and love. No matter how far away it comes from I can feel it here in the MTC.

 

Love,

 

Hermana Marin/Rin Hardy