Heeeey everybody!
I cannot believe that a week has already flown by!
Seriously it has gone soooo fast! I am so grateful and excited every day when I
wake up that I get to be here in the MTC and on the Lord's errand!
My first day was wonderful! My MTC President and his wife
(President and Sister Howes) are so amazing! I love them so much! We had
orientation when we first came in after I got my badge! I love my badge!
We had individual interviews with one of the MTC
Presidency and I was able to have mine with President Howes. It was such an
amazing spiritual experience for me. He asked me to open it up with a prayer,
and I didn't even get five words into my prayer and I just started crying. The
spirit was so overwhelming there was nothing else that I felt like doing. By
the time I finished (we were kneeling) I said Amen and looked down and I
literally had a puddle of tears on the table hahaha
President Howes casually passed me the box of tissues. My
interview with him was amazing. Before we finished he left me with two
invitations. He asked if I wanted the hard one or the easy one first. I said
the hard one. He invited me to read the White Handbook (about missionary
conduct) and to mark every time I see the work "never" and "always"
and to count them up. The second invitation he said would be easy but might be
hard at the same time. He asked me if i would be the Sister Trainer Leader. Of
course I said yes to both! My purpose is to help each Sister Missionary to
succeed at the MTC. I love all of my sisters so much! There are 32 sisters in
this intake and they are all such beautiful sisters with so much love for our
Saviour and they truly have been prepared at this time to serve in the Lord's
vineyard.
I wake up each morning and make sure the sisters are
awake and getting ready for breakfast which is at 7am, and I get to say
goodnight to all of them to make sure they're in their rooms by 9:45pm. I also
have to do some other things like turning lights on and off, running
devotionals and closing/opening laundry, blahblahblah but my favourite is
definitely the time I get to spend with the sisters!
My companion is my favourite! Her name is Sister Koy
(Sister Nuicakau) but she shortened it so it was easier for everyone. She is
from an Island in Fiji - Taveuni. I love her so much! She really keeps me on my
toes, she is so full of energy! And she is so selfless and helps me so much
with the responsibilities I have to do as STL. The sisters here are wonderful.
They all have so much love and their light is beautiful. The places where they
have been called to serve are truly blessed to have such beautiful young women!
I wish I could take them all to Sydney South with me. I am in the Joseph
District. I love them so much as well. I have had amazing spiritural experiences
and they have really helped me become a better missionary and a better daughter
of God.
My teachers Sister Falesii and Brother Poutoa and Sister
Lavelua have been amazing instruments in the Lord's hands to help prepare us
for the mission field. I have learned so much in this past week and I cannot
wait for my testimony to grow even more throughout the next 18 months! Our
schedule is really packed. Always busy! And I love it! Always having things to
study, investigators (people learning about the gospel) to prepare lessons for,
evening devotionals to prepare, companionship study and planning. I really love
it! The food here is amazing as well. And dang the portions are massive! One of
the Sisters, Sister Thompson and I do a circuit of running five laps and
walking another five (or until our physical time is up). It's really awesome
because it's such an awesome time to talk to her and get to know her. There is
another Sister, her name is Sister Liu from Hong Kong. She usually sits down
and reads during this time, and we invited her to run with us. She said she
would but I would have to carry her hahhahaha, but instead (because I'm not
strong) when we finished running we grab her to come do the walking circuits
with us! Yesterday was awesome because she ran a couple with us too!
The spirit here is so strong. During the first few days
there were times when I felt like bursting into tears because I was so happy! I
just want to share an experience I had the other day! So I had a dream that I
was standing on a dock, and there was a little boy swimming in the water. All
of a sudden a strong tide came and the young boy was being swept into a
whirlpool. I saw him but for some reason I couldn't move and then before I knew
it he was gone! I woke up so confused wondering why I had this dream?
Fast-forward to the middle of the day. My companion and I had a visit with one
of our investigators Tyrone. We were sharing our third lesson with him and my
companion and I had decided before we went in that we would invite him to be
baptised. However, by the time we left that appointment we never extended the
invitation. When we were evaluating how we went I had this feeling that I can't
quite explain but it just didn't feel right. I knew we should have extended
that invitation to him, but for some reason we hesitated.
As I was reflecting on that experience and also my dream,
I came up with a new motto. "Don't just stand there. Move! Act!
Save!" Just like the little boy in my dream that was swept away in
the whirlpool and just like my investigator Tyrone; we were too slow to act,
and that opportunity may never come again. I know that the appointments that we
have are practice ones but this feeling of regret and not extending an
invitation to be baptised to come closer to Christ is something I don't want to
feel in a real situation. My purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by
helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His
Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost and
enduring to the end. To put it in five simple words i am to "teach
repentance and baptise converts" and that cannot happen if I do not move,
act and save!
I love you all
I am so grateful for my Saviour! And all that he has done
for me and each of us to be able to return to live with our Heavenly Father
again. I am so grateful for my sisters here in the MTC for making this
experience more than amazing and for strengthening my testimony that our
saviour is always mindful of us and our needs. I am grateful to be serving in
the Sydney South Mission. I know that there are people there waiting for me to move,
act and save! to bring them to the knowledge of what can bring true
happiness not only into our individual lives but to the lives of our families
and all our loved ones! I am grateful to be a missionary for the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There is no place I would rather be right
now!
Sorry I'm running out of time! There is so much that I
want to share with you but I will try to get it all in next week!
I love you all!
Sorry we cannot send photos so you're going to have to
wait until I am in Australia for them!
PS: I’m like a grandma and don't know how to add all my
contacts onto my email so...i'm just gonna say sorry on here if you didn't get
it... not that you'll be reading it coz you won't be getting this email
bahhaha.
