We sing a lot here, so I thought I would share with you some of my favorite hymns with missionary work: Hope of Israel, Hark All Ye Nations, Called to Serve (which we sing at least once a week, and I love it), and my theme song, Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd.
My district was able to do missionary hosting on Wednesday, and it was so fun! I am proud of myself because I was able to host 4 new sisters--I pulled of doing 2 at the same time! :D It was so much fun to take them around and tell them stuff I wish I had known when I first came in. I had a blast.
Pictures are coming! Make sure you look at the captions on the back! They are grouped together in specific order!
Funnies
1) The "Do not drink the OJ" rumor is not true. I had been drinking it almost every day since my 3rd week here and nothing so far has gone wrong with my GI tract. It is a great source of vitamin C. [speaking of vitamins, thanks for those Mom. Don't worry about me though, I made sure I had plenty when we did our shopping. I gave them to the sisters that did not bring any. :D]
2) So there is some "MTC man-law" that Sister Cope and I have been trying to find out, and our Elders will not tell us. One day we were having a conversation about "man-law" and various forms therein (which Sister Cope and I think we known fairly well due to male family members), and part of the end of the conversation was this: Sister Cope "Where do you learn the man-law?" Elder Carman: "They implant it in our heads at birth." bwa ha ha ha ha ha!
3) Saying from the ever-stoic Elder Carman in reference to his and Elder Oettli's dorm room, which for a while now has been known at the "party room" b/c they like to party and they are the only ones in there (until this week when they got new roommates). He said it because we were all starting to go insane this week from being here so long and being so close to our departure date: "The party room is going to become the insane asylum"......and for a moment there we all really thought we would go insane.
4) Brother Cook, one of our teachers, is scared of Sister Cope's laugh. You should see his face every time she does, and he is so careful to try and not make her laugh. It is because her laugh is really loud and obnoxious....I do not know how to describe it. Anyway, it was really funny when he admitted this. He makes the funniest faces, which always induce laughter from Sister Cope and myself.
Spiritual
1) An epiphany I had this week: I was thinking about all of the scriptures that talk about how miracles follow those who have faith, and all the signs and wonders that are supposed to follow missionaries (the most recent scripture being the last verses in Mark). I realized that I should being seeing miracles on my mission all the time: if I am not, something is wrong and needs to change. I am so excited to see them, and I feel like I have already started to see them here in the MTC.
2) Sunday Fireside: President Brown (MTC president) showed us the Music and the Spoken word from that morning. I urge those who can to try and watch the 9/11 Music and the Spoken Word. It is so beautiful and wonderful--I love it!
3) Elder Ballard came for our Tuesday Devotional
4) I got a priesthood blessing last night from Elder Waite and Elder Su'a. I have been having a really hard time sleeping, especially in the past week. It was a wonderful blessing. I want to share some thoughts that I had about what happened: at first yesterday morning when I thought about asking for a blessing, I wondered if I shouldn't because I thought that maybe I was not having enough faith, and that for some reason I was being a bother to everyone, including God for asking. But last evening when Sister Cope returned to the room for daily planning I just had this feeling to do it. So I did. The Elders felt like I had come out of nowhere. I was talking with Sister Cope about my struggle through the day, and I shared with her my thoughts about it--It has been iterated to me many times in priesthood blessings that God is happy I am seeking blessings from Him. Why should I feel like I should not ask for one? That thought is not from Him, but from the Devil. Also, it is demonstrating your faith when you ask for a blessing--you are showing that you believe He can and will bless you, and that the priesthood holder really does hold authority from God. Sometimes we have to ask for blessings in different ways than just prayer--is that not one of the functions of a priesthood blessing? I am so grateful that I did ask.
TRC
Great, another 40 minute lesson with one person. The young man we taught had returned from his mission in the Philippines the day after we went into the MTC. So funny. We had a different kind of experience with him. We ended up talking to him mostly about necessity of sincere, heartfelt prayer, and how a mission is not only to serve the Lord, but it is preparation ground for what we need to become (like Him), and how that process needs to continue after the mission. I talked to him about what the Lord wanted him to be doing, and Sister Cope shared with him Alma 5:26 ) and after she shared with him Enos v. 4, and asked him to read the entire book when he returned home. I told him to Magalak! (rejoice!) This is meant to help you, and the Lord has great things in store for you if you will work for them. The Lord needed him to prepare now for things he would be called to do in the future.
I love you family and I hope you have been having a great week!
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