So it's officially been my first week here. I can't promise this will be short because I have so many things I wish to share.
I loved P day so much last week. My mom was so awesome and sent goodies for my roommates and I. Picture one shows the shelf of snacks and the second picture is sister kosorok in the box my mom sent it all in. I was a bit giddy carrying it back to our residents. I loved what we learned in class that night. We learned a lot about christ. I loved this video https://www.comeuntochrist.org/easter. I know I've seen it a few times but man I got chills. It's such a beautiful and powerful message.
Sunday was fast Sunday and it was the first time I've done a complete fast. I wanted to challenge myself though and so I pushed through. We had a great mission conference which was really amazing. I loved the mtc president and his wife's talks. Sister lesueur spoke about the importance of writing journals and keeping records. Something I feel very strongly about myself. She quoted a talk by Spencer w kimball about keeping personal journals stating, "Your private Journal should record the way you face up to challenges that beset you." I loved that quote because I definitely feel I show that in my journals. Here is the link for that talk https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1980/12/president-kimball-speaks-out-on-personal-journals?lang=eng
Elder lesueur spoke on the importance of conversion. How our first convert should always be ourselves. Conversion = A more joyful life. Conversion is an invitation to follow Christ and be like him.
My companion convinced me to join her for choir which was fun but hard with being hungry. Picture 3 is of us in choir. Dinner was amazing after fasting. Our Sunday night devotional was given by elder and sister zwick. They spoke on the importance of connections. We must first connect then convert. When our lives are rooted in the savior our lives are filled with fruit to harvest. It was definitely a very powerful meeting. That night we had the chance to watch a video/movie. It was called characters of Christ by Elder David A. Bednar. I so badly wish I could share it with you because the message and power was so astounding. He was extremely blunt with his message. He spoke about how a mission is not about you. True conversion in ourselves is the end goal. This spoke extremely strong to me as I've made this journey. I realized that going on a mission has been a major part of my personal conversion. He continued his address with talking about how when we face troubles in our lives that instead of turning inward we should turn outward. Help others in your time of need.
Monday morning was a bit rough. We had service at 6:25am and then were late to class. Luckily the day got so much better. Picture 4 is of my favorite mural here which is of Alma the younger. The murals here are so stunning. I'll have to share more of the pictures I took when I'm not limited to 10 pictures per email. We had a workshop where we learned there's an app just for the book for mormon. In the right hand corner of the app there's a question mark where you can easily search for questions and find scriptures to help with them. We had our first TRC (Training resource center) teaching. It went really well and my companion and I were able to learn a lot from it. Later in the day we had exercise time and played volleyball as a district. It was so much fun.
Tuesday we taught our other TRC. It was a little more challenging and we'll continue to meet with her until we leave the mtc. My companion and I are learning so thats good. We had an amazing devotional on Tuesday by sister Kathleen Andersen and Elder Wilford w Andersen. Sister Andersen spoke on a few things. She mentioned how when we choose to repent we allow jesus to transform us into our best selves. Satan's first line of offense is the mind. Be aware of what your mind is doing. Train your mind to love God with all of it. Elder Andersen then gave an extremely powerful message. He talked about truly loving the savior and following him. He gave three ways to truly love the savior. 1. Learn his language 2. Play his music. 3. Be willing to take upon you his name. He quoted jesus saying do you love me more than you love all this? This hit extremely hard for me because I knew that's what he asked me when going on a mission. If I loved him more than my life I had been living than would I serve a mission? Well here I am. We were able to share after the devotional our thoughts and feelings with our district and I have grown so much love for these people I get to call my brothers and sisters. We all just wanted to hug each other after. I'm so glad we all get a long. Picture 5 is of sister kosorok that night with one if our empty ramen boxes on her head.
I honestly don't have much to report for Wednesday. It was just a day of getting work done. We finished meeting with our first trc and wish we could keep teaching her. Picture 6 is of sister mittens just chilling by s1 building where we eat food.
Thursday was a much better day. TRC number 2 went better than our first lesson. I loved this scripture that was shared in class.
Alma 36: 27 And I have been supported under trials and troubles of every kind, yea, and in all manner of afflictions; yea, God has delivered me from prison, and from bonds, and from death; yea, and I do put my trust in him, and he will still deliver me.
I love this scripture because it's how I've felt at a few points in my life. He definitely will deliver us and help us through our hard times. I hit a bit of a low on Thursday. There have been a few times while here at the mtc that I have been reminded just how open I am. How much of the world I've seen and experienced. I might not be able to spout off scriptures like a lot of the other missionaries here but I am able to connect with people a lot better. I'm grateful for how unjudgemental I am. Its definitely been a major blessing for me.
Friday was a much better day. Had a bit more energy for the day. Class was okay. Called my brother for his birthday. During our second class we had a teaching demo that was really good. If we have exercise time in the evening we always seem to make it out to play volleyball as a district. Were working to get a picture all together and once I have that I'll share it. The 7th picture is of a mural much companion and o sat by for personal studies. The sun was just perfectly coming through the window.
Today is P day and man am I glad its here. Working on a ton of laundry. Going to visit the store because my companion needs to get a few things. It's nice to have a day to just take a break. Picture 8 is of my awesome mission shirt. I also got a necklace with my mission on it.
I'd love to hear how others are doing! Email me!
Love,
Sister Sydney Hanks ❤
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