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!!