Hey Everyone!
So this is just a general overview of what I've been doing the past week!
Day ONE: My first day was so crazy, I rode down from the airport with 3 other elders and arrived a couple hours before my check in time. It felt so weird officially getting my name tag and for the first couple of days whenever some elders would walk into the room I'd think, "Hey look! It's the elders!...oh wait...." So that's been interesting getting used to. I now actually feel like a real missionary, it just took a couple of days to adjust. The first day we didnt have time to unpack or anything, we went straight to our classroom and started learning. Then that night we all sat in a class with probably 50 other missionaries and there was an investigator and we all got to raise our hands and teach her, although I didnt really like that because since there was so many missionaries, everyone would jump from one topic to another and I'm sure it was very confusing for the investigator. I should probably mention that everyone thought that the investigator was an actress. At the end, one of the sisters in my district walked up to her and said, "I just wanted to let you know that I thought you played your character super well!" and the investigator replied, "...wait...what??" so the sister said, "I just thought you represented what it would really be like in the field, you did a great job!" The investigator then said, "ummm....I'm an actual investigator........." The sister had the most surprised look on her face, but it was seriously so funny.
The whole entire day was just a whirlwind of activity and it made me feel out of place.
Day TWO: day two went so much better than day one! We sat in a classroom for most of the day so I was really antsy, but we learned so much! The spirit is so strong at the MTC! Even in less than 24 hours I feel like I learned so much and it made me realize just how far I still had to go to become the missionary that I want to be. We also picked out who our main "investigator" would be. (It is mainly practice and it's actually our teachers that take on the role of one of the investigators they had on their mission) As our teacher was talking, I had the thought that the investigator we should be teaching should be Alberta. but I just passed it off as a thought. My companion and I went into a different room and prayed to know which investigator it is that we should mainly teach and as I was saying the prayer I accidentally said, "She" when referring to them in the prayer. And afterwards my companion said, "well I think we should teach Alberta, what do you think?" It's funny how the spirit works sometimes!
Day THREE: There wasnt a ton that happened on day three, mainly just studying. Although one thing that was funny was something that happened right as we were about to meet our branch presidency. There were a couple elders that were running late and so they both walked into the room, but the first one stopped abruptly and the 2nd one accidentally ran into him and then said, "Whoa! Sorry Elder, your tail lights appear to not be working at the moment!"
Also, today was the first day that we could go to the gym and since I didnt have my running shoes, I went up in my slippers and was just going to work out on the machines as my companion ran around the track. As my companion started to run away I randomly said, "Waaaaaaaaait sister funk!!!!! I'm going to come!!!" so I ended up running in my socks since it felt too weird to be anywhere without my companion.
Day FOUR: I taught 2 investigators today! One of them was named Gustavo and was one of my teachers. And since it was my first lesson, it went decent, but definitely needed a lot of improvement! I tried to cover too many topics at once, instead of focusing on one main topic to teach them, but Gustavo did pray at the end, so that was good. My second investigator was actually an on the spot thing with no planning at all. We had a substitute teacher and decided to ask if he could be our investigator and he agreed. The investigator he played was, Michael. This lesson went a whole lot better than our very first lesson! We taught with the spirit and found out what kinds of things he needed and we asked him to say the closing prayer. The only thing that couldve gone better was if we had given him a book of mormon since he was so willing to learn and you could tell he wanted to come to know Christ.
Day FIVE: Today was our first sunday and it was great! At the end of the night we watched an amazing talk by Elder Bednar called, "the CHaracter of Christ" It was so powerful and made me realize how much I need to more exemplify Christ and I had so much farther to go before I ever became a great missionary. By the way, the MTC absolutely FLIES by. seriously. I wake up and before I know it I'm headed back to bed. It's the weirdest thing. Also, the food is pretty good, although most of it is unhealthy and since we sit down for 16 hours a day, It makes my stomach feel all gross.
Day SIX: Today we teach an actual real live actual investigator today! Her name is Carla Felici and she has 3 sisters that are all converts and served missions, her mom is a member as well. Carla and her dad are the only ones who arent members. She knows so much about the church and it's crazy how much the Lord has prepared her for this time! She knows so much and she has so much faith, but she feels like shes unworthy to pray and that she isnt pure. She feels distant from God. So we taught her about repentance and the Holy Ghost and asked her to pray that night and that night and to say the closing prayer. She did and it was great. We asked her to specifically pray about feeling the Holy Ghost and taught her how to recognize it because she had told us that she'd heard about the holy ghost, and she thought it was super cool, but she didnt understand it because she'd never felt it.
Day SEVEN: We did a service project today and cleaned the bathrooms, and I decided to have a great one man concert as I was cleaning. It was pretty great;) We taught Carla again and she had done all of the assignments we had given her, but she still hadnt recognized the Holy Ghost. So we kept talking and we taught her other things, and retestified about the holy ghost. As the lesson went on, we asked her how she was feeling about what we were saying. She said that she was getting "good vibes". I figured that it was the holy ghost, but decided to check, so we asked her to explain what she meant by good vibes and as she was talking I knew that it was the Holy Ghost teaching her, so I looked her right in the eye and said, "Carla. The good vibes youre feeling is the Holy ghost." and she just looked at me and she got a smile on her face and she said, "whoa. so that's what it feels like. That's amazing. I now understand" and she started saying she didnt think thats how it feel since it was so subtle and so small, but it was different.
It was so amazing!!
One of the elders in our zone today got sent home for health issues. It was so sad because this is the second time he came to the MTC, but both times he had to go home since he has epilepsy. So we decided that as a zone we would each write him a letter.
Day EIGHT: we taught Carla again today and it's still going great. We taught her about the restoration and about praying to know if the book of mormon is true, if the gospel is true and if Joseph Smith was called of God.
We also hosted some of the new missionaries that came to the MTC today! It was super funny. Some of them looked so scared as they got out of their cars and said goodbye to their families.
Day NINE: and today!! so we went to the temple this morning and did sealings.Tonight we teach Carla again and I'm so excited! tonightwe're going to invite her to be baptised. She is so ready for it. She doesnt feel like she is, but I can tell that she is. My companion and I are just waiting for her to find out for herself that the church is true. I'll have to let you know how it goes! I'm almost out of time on the computer, but Ill write you some letters as well and explain some things a little more! Also, my plane is on February 5th and I leave the MTC around 4:30 my time, so I'm not sure if ill be able to call you guys when I get to the airport since its so early, but I might be able to! anywho Im doing great and Ill try to write some letters to explain more fully!! Love you guys!!
-Sister Kaliana Quinton
