Hola everyone! I've only been at the MTC for a few days, but it's been so amazing so far! The few days before I entered the MTC I was SO nervous, I thought that maybe being a missionary was something that I couldn't actually do and I had somehow made a serious life mistake. But the morning I had to leave, I felt so calm and so peaceful, I was no longer nervous or scared. I knew that that was confirmation from Heavenly Father that a mission was really where I needed to be right now. I was so excited to get back to Provo; when my aunt was driving me up the hill I saw the Y on the mountain and thought "my home! there it is!!!" I don't even remember the lady putting on my name tag when I arrived, I was just so in awe and was so happy to be in such an amazing place.
I have the best district! So Hermana Lazelle and Hermana Davis are going to L.A., Hermana Smith is going to Calgary, Hermana Heindmarsh is going to Vancouver, Washington, and my companion, Hermana Davis (we have 2 of them lol) is going to the Idaho Falls Visitor's Center! The elders in my district are all going to L.A. as well, and everyone in our branch is going to Argentina (besides 4 missionaries going to Spain). I absolutely love being surrounded by other people my age who have such strong testimonies and are so devoted to the gospel, it's just the best.
My district at the Provo Temple
It is not a joke when people tell you they start speaking to you in your mission language right away; literally as soon as I walked into my classroom someone was trying to ask me all these questions and I had no idea what they were saying. I think my brain has been permanently wired to speak French because every time I try to think of a word to say or a question to ask my teacher I just automatically think of it in French instead of Spanish. I also keep saying "oui" instead of "si", "je" instead of "yo" and forgetting to pronounce the s on the end of words since we don't so that in French. My poor companion, Hermana Davis, is so patient with me and is always correcting me when I pronounce something wrong and always has to help me with my sentence structure. However, she said that for someone who has never learned Spanish before I'm doing very well, so that is reassuring lol. Also Hermana Lazelle speaks German so we'll lean over to each other in class and be like "do you know how to say this" " no but I know it in German" "no but I know it in French", so that is reassuring as well that I am not the only one struggling haha. Before my mission I was actually so upset and mad that I was speaking Spanish; I never had a desire to learn it and I'd much rather teach the gospel in French or English or another language that I find appealing. But now that I am here I know that Spanish is the language that Heavenly Father wants me to preach in, even if I'm not that good yet lol. It was so embarrassing the other day because we were teaching our "investigator", Claudia, and other than saying the opening prayer and reading a scripture, I did not say a WORD that whole lesson. There were so many things I wanted to say and so many questions I wanted to ask, but I didn't know how to say them. I did ask her to read something out of the Book of Mormon, and then proceeded to tell us that she COULD'T READ. yeah. thank goodness for Hemana Davis who actually knows spanish or that whole lesson would have been an absolute train wreck. we have another appointment with her on Monday so hopefully I'll be able to open my mouth and say what I need to say. oh yeah also! yesterday I was in spanish class for 6 hours (3 in the morning and 3 in the evening), and for most of that time i had no idea of what my teachers were saying. I was becoming discouraged and wanted to just leave, but in the last hour I had the impression to suggest to everyone that we should sing a hymn before we start class again. Everyone thought that was a great idea so we opened our hymn books to Senor, te necesito ( I don't know how to add the enye, sorry guys), and after we sang, i was much more in tune with the Spirit and was able to understand a lot of what was being taught finally.
Even though none of my classes are in the new MTC building, I still really like to go there to study. There are these beautiful paintings that are exclusive to the MTC, and one of my favorites is this one of Nephi heading into Jerusalem to obtain the brass plates. Besides the painting there is a a plaque that has 1 Nephi 4:6 on it, which reads "And I was lead by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do." Right now is a time in my life where I really actually have no idea what I'm doing (especially in spanish class), but I know that when I am led by the spirit I will never be led down the wrong path.
Sweet painting of Nephi
My favorite place to study
Some Highlights from this week:
- I saw so many of my friends from BYU!! hola amigos!
- on the first day when an investigator asked why mormon's get married so young, an elder told her that since we all have similar values, we all just go really well together, and then said that he could probably marry any sister who was in the room. haha okay elder if you say so
- in the MTC store I was looking at a french hymn book and an elder came over and asked if I could sing anything in french. I proceeded to sing a little bit of I Am A Child of God, and when he was like "oh you're going to France right?" and when i said no I'm going to Idaho the smile left his face and he immediately walked away
- I met a sister who is going to Arizona and speaking french? and some elders who are going to Germany but speaking japanese? so cool?
- i hung up a bunch of pictures, but they all fell down on top of me while i was sleeping, and they all stuck together and all the ink came off of them whoops
Sister Liang and her companion
Sister Morey
So i have an iPad while I am here in the MTC so if you guys want to email me I can read it whenever! I can only respond on saturday though. I hope everyone has a good week! i love you all and I love being a missionary!
-Hermana Peterson
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