The 3rd week at MTC

Hi hi hi Mom,

(mommy-dsaughter secret personal talk is always deleted here.., such as what she forgot to bring..... Lena's note)

Okay, so this week there is a lot of stuff going on. I can't believe I have already been here 2 and half weeks and I'm leaving in 1 and half week. It felt like I just got here. I feel like there is so much to learn still, but I'm also seeing that I learned a lot since I got here.

The fireside we had on sunday was awesome as always. Brother Allen of the church missionary dept came and spoke to us. He talked about landing an airplane on an aircraft carrier. How hard it is and how precise it is. If you don't follow the numbers exactly and adjust according to weather, then if you don't land right, you will die. He related it to us and said that we must be precise in following the Lord, follow all of God's commandments to the point. It was really inspiring.

This week we got one of the people we are teaching to set up a baptismal date. We know she might not even be a nonmember, since they do this in hte MTC for our practice, but we still was superbly happy. Especially since she said no at first and we convinced her to set up date at the end. So cool. I'm just thinking, if I'm this happy with a possibly fake investigator, wonder how I will feel in the field. :) It's different this week, I think, because I finally learned how to teach with teh spirit. Having the holy ghost with you as a constant companion I just usually took for granted, but I had to learn to leave a part of my mind open to the spirit when I teach, while listeining to the investigators and thinking of what to say in my own head. It's hard, but I like it. :) I'm finally getting things.

We had a thing called the in-field orientation yesterday, it's basically telling you how to do things when we get to our mission. We talked about how members are so important in conversion. Made me think about you, Mom. The ward missionaries are so important in taking the investigator in to the ward after they baptize and relating to them before they baptize. I don't know what our ward's lessons with the missionaries are like, but we really do appreciate comments and espeically testimony from a member throughout the lesson. It helps them see that normal people [non-missionaries] actually believe all we teach too.

We had a workshop on the Book of Mormon [BOM]. It's kind of surprising to me to realize that BOM is the center of our religion because God revealed BOM to Joseph Smith first, before anything else.

We also talked about how as a missionary, getting people to trust you is so important. They have to see that you are a representative of God, not just a person who wears a tag. Elder Bednar said he would not give a referral to a missionary unless they acted like one. Really made me think.

A scary thing we did yesterday. We practiced briefly teaching peopel at the airport and at a park, and on the bus. It's really terrifying. I don't like talking to people. But, at least I tried. It's really scary for me to think that next next wednesday when i fly out in the morning, I will have to talk to people at the airport, on the plane, and in Oakland. It's totally gonna be terrifying, hopefully I won't stumble over myself and totally ruin it. But it can't be too bad, right, I mean the worst is just that they say no and walk away... At least in the MTC, peopel are nice and never say no, unless it's my teachers when they try to pretend to be investigators...
Okay, I'll stop.

Love you bunch, Mom.

Don't forget to exercise, be happy, laugh, smile. Say hi to grandparents and our ward friends. They are great people and I love them too!