MTC Week 3 - Journal
Juni 14
Today has been somewhat different from other days. This
morning Brother Cooper taught our class and we were just like dead and so
quiet, all of us. Then after lunch and exercise we were all like crazy hyper.
Brother Klippel was teaching our class after lunch and he was like "what
the heck... Brother Cooper said you were all super quiet..."
We also got to teach "Micheal" today. It was
interesting because it felt like he wasn't our teacher anymore, he was actually
Michael. Pretty cool. The new Huns come tomorrow! We're all SO excited. And
plus we're all hosting too! Today we've decorated the new Hun's doors with
decorations and pictures and drawings and little notes that say like "Time
is racing toward us... till the Huns... Arrive!!" So great. It's been fun
having everyone in our room making decorations. Plus, I got three letters today
and that was super awesome.
Woonsdag Juni 15
Today was super fun! Kind of! Today we hosted some new
missionaries in the burning sun. My district got to host some of the early
morning ones. We had like 450 missionaries coming in (although next week we're
supposed to have literally 700, plus 150 new Mission Presidents). I hosted two
missionaries and I almost teared up while they hugged their parents and said
goodbye and were crying. ;( It's crazy to think that I've been here for fifteen
days already, because I feel like I just got here but also like I've been here
for ages. Also, the new Huns are here!!! There's like fourteen of them!!! Nine
elders and five sisters. We might have overwhelmed them because we were so
excited for them to be here but we did bring them this giant offering of food
in this huge box.
Also, we have a LOT of things to do this week...I have to
prepare a lesson to teach Michael, our new Investigator Sam, Sam again, and
then we teach two TRC lessons and then we're teaching both our District Meeting
AND Relief Society on Sunday! AND my collega and I are going to sing a duet
during sacrament meeting. CRAZINESS. I'm super terrified of singing!
Fortunately my collega is fantastic at it.
Doonsdag Juni 16
Today I was really tired but I also had a lot of fun.
Breakfast was really full because they're building something in our cafeteria
for the new Mission presidents so there's limited seating and it is craziness.
Class was good and we taught Michael today. It didn't go very well I don't
think... We also learned past tense. Joyce was our teacher today also later in
the day and we had to learn the plan of salvation in dutch under three minutes
and then again in under one minute. Then I accidentally interpreted what Sister
Hannson (we accidentally call her Joyce all the time because that's what we
called her when she was our investigator) said when she was telling us to tell
each other the plan of salvation in dutch and I was like "wait, you want
us to pretend street contact random people outside?" and then the rest of
class was like LETS DO IT and I was like "AGH!" so we all went
outside and we would randomly find random missionaries walking past and speak
rapidly over the Plan of Salvation in dutch even though they couldn't
understand us. The guy I talked to was going to Guam and was like laughing so
hard. He was like "Where are you going? What are you speaking??" and
I was like "dutch!" and he saw me again a couple of times throughout
the day and he kept saying "hello dutch sister!"
Dinner was also crazy today. There were like no seats and we
had to stand and eat and watch for people who were leaving their tables, so
technically poaching for a spot. We also practiced our song for sacrament
meeting today. Zuster Lechtanburg is going to play the violin with us. We're
going to play "How Great Thou Art". Oh, and we're hosting again
next wednseday! It's going to be insane.
Juni 17
Today was interessant. We did a lot of language study and we
got to teach Sam. He wanted to know about the temples and it was our best
lesson ever, I think. We explained how in the temple we make promises to our
Heavenly Father and seal our familes together so that they can always be
together. We also taught him to pray, and it didn't feel random or anything but
pretty fluid because we first got to know him, then we asked if we could pray
and then explained the importance of prayer, like that Heavenly Father just
really wants to listen to us because he loves us. And then we asked him to pray
tonight and told him a little bit about the Book of Mormon to prepare for the
next lesson. We also practiced for our song today. I'm so nervous for it AGH!
We did our first TRC today, which is when we teach members
of the church of a lesson. Which is REALLY stressful because what can I teach
them in my broken dutch?? The first guy was cool, he was super nice and an RM.
The second guy though was SUPER SCARY. Like he was awesome, but really scary to
teach. He was super old and actually from the Netherlands, like came to America
in the 1950 after WWII (I wanted to ask him tons of questions about that but
obviously that would not be very appropriate). Plus, we couldn't understand his
English let alone his Dutch! It was really hard. Also our lesson we had
prepared happened to be "endure to the end".... Fortunately we read a
scripture and then asked him what he thought about it and he talked for
literally 20 minutes straight and it was fantastic, we didn't have to say
anything. It was overall very stressful though. Afterwards, Sister Hanson
talked a little to the old guy and even she had a hard time understanding what
he was saying! It was rough...
Zaterdagg Juni 18
Today was really exhausting but also super snel (fast). We
taught Sam again today and I think that it went really well. I spoke a ton on
my own without ever using my notes and enough to get my point across. I felt
really good about it. We excercised in this different fitness center today and
that was pretty fun because you could watch these movies at the same time (like
talks and Joseph Smith movies) and even though I couldn't hear what they were
saying, moving screens can be addicting anyway. I also study a lot while I'm
running on the elliptical or biking with my flashcards, which helps.
I can't believe that it is SATURDAY already! It was JUST
saturday! Like yesterday I thought! I'm worried about tomorrow though because
of how hectic it's going to be. Hopefully it all goes well.
Zuster De Moors and Zuster Smith are sick right now, which
is both sad but also kind of funny, because Zuster De Moors adamantly tries to
keep Zuster Leman and I from getting "the nasty". She has started
spraying everything she touches with what she thought was an antibacterial
spray but we later found out was air-deodorant, so it did literally nothing.
LOL. She's literally the funniest person I have ever met in my entire life,
like you need to hear the things that come out of her mouth. She is
hilarious.
Zondagg Juni 19
Today was really good! We sang "How Great Thou
Art" in sacrament meeting and I feel really good about it, especially for
someone who doesn't sing. Zuster Lechtanburg played the alto part with me on
the violin which was a huge help to make sure we sang in the right key. Zuster
Leman has a beautiful soprano solo voice and I think I'm pretty good at
harmonizing in tune with the alto part so we're a good duo. We sang the first
verse in dutch and the second in English. We got a lot of compliments and Elder
Jeanay (our super awesome and nice zone leader) was like "we're going ask
you to do that every week!" and we were like "NEI!" I'm really
proud of myself for branching out and doing something that I find pretty scary.
One of the Noveraks (that's the word for sisters in Hungarian) said that our
trio gave her chills! It was a really good sacrament meeting. We also went on a
walk up to the temple. I got to know a lot of the new Huns.
In church Zuster Leman taught about Recognizing the Spirit
for Relief Society and then I took over for the District Meeting and I talked
about Baptism and Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and I think that it went
pretty well!
We had a devotional today too and this guy invited four
recent converts to come up and talk about their conversion story which was
really interesting and a cool change of pace. Afterwards we got to watch our
"movie" and we picked Elder Bednar's talk about "recognizing the
spirit" and it was SO good. Here are some really cool points that he
said:
- If you want to feel the Holy Ghost help you know what to
do, you have to press forward not sit back! He will guide you as you
move, not as you wait around for an answer.
- Most impressions are quiet gentle ones that you don't
necessarily recognize until later.
- He told a story about how when he was a missionary, Elder
Packer came to his mission in Southern Germany. Elder Packer needed to go to
the airport but his plane was fogged in so Elder Bednar as a missionary had to
find a different way for Elder Packer and his wife to go to Berlin or
something. He got him on a train and gave Elder Packer 20 marks (which was kind
of a lot of money) because he thought that Elder Packer might be hungry. 30ish
years later, Elder Bednar found out what happened when Elder Packer and his
wife were on the train. The train went through Eastern Germany for a time and
an East German guard came to inspect their passports. Elder Packer's passport
was fine but his wife's was an extended passport, which East Germany currently
wasn't accepting. The East German guard didn't speak English and Elder Packer
didn't speak German, but he could tell that the situation was getting really
bad. He found the twenty marks in his pocket and ended up giving it to the East
German guard so that they wouldn't take his wife. Elder Bednar had had no idea
that what he'd done had been inspired, which just proves how soft the voice of
the spirit can be.
- Overall, he said that when trying to recognize the spirit,
you need to just stop worrying about it, and move forward. he will direct your
path, which I think is very cool.
This week is going to be pretty interesting! ALL of the
apostles AND the prophet is going to be here sometime this week!! We probably
won't see them but STILL I'm going to be on the same campus as the prophet!!
They are coming to instruct the new Mission Presidents that are coming so
they'll be walking around on the MTC campus. If we see them we can't go up to
them but still, I would love to see one! I probably won't though, haha.
I love you all! Tot ziens!!
