January 18, 2013 at the MTC

Hi!!

This week has been totally awesome :) I'm finally getting into the swing of things here at the Missionary Training Center. My companion, Sister Alcock, was called to be the Coordinating Sister over our zone; it's like a zone leader but for the sisters (I assume this is just at the MTC? I've never heard of a coordinating sister in the field). This week we had two new districts come into our zone and we were in charge of welcoming them. Sister Alcock is perfect for this calling - she's so good at making people feel welcome and comfortable. I love being able to see her flourish in this calling!! :) It's kind of funny that we've only been here a week and now we are telling the new missionaries how to do things and where to go, etc. They were all surprised when we told them how long we've been here. Probably abuot 75-80% of the new missionaries in our zone were affected by the age change, and one of the districts has more sisters than elders. WOW!! This week was the first big wave of misisonaries that were affected by the age change; the cafeteria is always jam packed now. The work is hastening!!! It's so exciting!!!

Our district has been getting to know one another better. At first we were SUPER quiet, but now our district leader has been having issues keeping us quiet during study times. It's nice to have a group of missionaries to be with the whole time here; there's sense of unity and comradery that is totally awesome :)
This week on Tuesday we had Elder Holland come to speak to us for our devotional!!!! We were all so excited!! No one knows who will be speaking at a devotional until they walk in the room, so we were all really really exicted that it was him. If you get a chance, PLEASE go look up the devotional online, it was absolutley amazing. He talked about how we are all going to have investigators or people we invite to come unto Christ (whether we have a nametag or not). But we are all God's investigators; we can't forget that WE have to be converted unto the Lord as well. Personal conversion is so essential to helping anyone else come unto Christ. Elder Holland also talked about how this is the final push before the second coming; all the missionaries we see entering the MTC are here because God is hastening his work and he wants to prepare the world for the Second Coming. This is so awesome to be a part of!!! I feel so blessed!! I can't believe i have the opportunity to be part of the missionary effort going on right now. I feel truly humbled. God loves each and every one of us and I'm so excited to share that with the people of New Zealand!!!!
Speaking of NZ, the travel office said that visa applications for NZ have recently changed, so we may be temporarily reassigned to a misison in the sates while we wait. If our visas don't go through in a certain amount of time we will be permanently reassigned. Pleeeeease pray for us that our visas will go through in a timely matter so we don't get permanently reassigned on our missions. We want to go to New Zealand so badly!!!

Love you all!!!

Sister Rose 

Jan 12, 2013

Hello!!

I'm here in the MTC! The first day felt like I was drinking from a firehose, but I felt loved and welcomed because everyone was so nice. When they put my nametag on me for the first time.. wow! I was so excited to finally be able to wear that beautiful black nametag :) It feels like a priviledge. My companion is named Sister Alcock. She is soooo awesome!! She went to hair school here in Provo and is so amazing. It has been such a tender mercy that she is my companion; I would have felt so alone if she had not been here (and i think vice versa). She's so kind and attentive and motivated, I feel really humbled to be able to be her companion. She and I will probably leave for NZ around the 27th of January. We are the first batch of missionaries that are on the new 2-week schedule, but there are still some kinks that need to be worked out so we may be here for a little longer.

The second day here was harder; it's hard for me to describe why it's hard here at the MTC. We feel the Spirit 24/7, which is totally awesome. But it can also be can be exhausting. One of the sisters in my district was saying this is like boot camp; we learn everything we'll need for a year and a half in 2 weeks. So you can imagine that we feel like we have a lot of information to digest here. But it's all worth it, because we get to help people come unto Christ. Yesterday we taught our first investigator, and it was so incredibly powerful, i was blown away. We get to be a mouthpiece for the Lord, which is such a tender mercy and a blessing. This opportunity to serve my Savior is fantastic, and I'm sure it will just get better. One of my teachers said that it probably won't get easier, it will just get better. And I'm okay with that :)
We have been focusing on our purpose as missionaries, and on how to teach with the Spirit. We have also been talking about being able to have a vision of who our investigators can become. It has been the coolest experience to focus on these aspects of missionary work. Our 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. What an awesome way to spend the next year a half!!! I would like to challenge you guys to also make this your purpose as well; when we come closer to Christ we can invite others to come unto Him as well. And a relationship with the Savior is the most fantastic thing ever :)
While I'm here in the MTC it's awesome to get letters on dearelder.com - they're free for you, and i get a hard copy of them and can read them before P-day (I only have 30 minutes on P-day to use email). 

The Gospel is true!! I love you all!!

Sister Rose