So, this week I figured I would tell you about the usual day in the MTC because not a lot of exciting things happened this week and I know Mom loves all the details so here ya go!
Every morning I am blessed to wake up and see all the love my awesome family and friends have for me! I love looking at all these pictures and cards!
Even the creepy cow card from Uncle Daren! It wakes me right up every morning! ha ha ha
So we like to brag about our Elders in our district a lot because of how sweet they are! They always take our trays after every meal!
And of course everyday we try and get Elder Teh to try something else from America that he's never heard of before. This week was his birthday and Les Soeurs bought him a goody bag of candy with Atomic Cinnamon Fire Balls in it for our "Dictator" haha we all thought it was so funny and so did he until he tried one! Those things are hot!!
We have 3 block schedules of classes - one after breakfast, lunch, and dinner for three hours. Yeah, that is 9 hours in the classroom. But it's a lot of fun! We have a box on our floor though and that's the only place where we're "allowed to speak English when our teacher is teaching". There is a lot of Franglish that happens but our French is really improving because of it!
We have AWESOME teachers that both come for one of the block periods. Soeur Chard and Frere Kellett. We absolutely love them! They both served their missions in Paris and tell us all kinds of great stories that get us so excited to go!
One of the only downfalls of this big influx of sister missionaries is that the buildings weren't really made for 40% of the MTC to be sisters so there is only 1 toilet for every 2 zones! My poor companions have to wait on me a lot!
And the three of us wait to use the bathroom a lot!
Ha ha - we keep ourselves entertained while we are waiting though...
Our district really is so awesome. We have so much fun together everyday! This week since it was Valentine's Day we all dressed up in Valentine's colors!
There's also A LOT of joking that goes on too. Thanks mom for sending my glasses in a package that I opened in front of everyone! Everyone was freaking out about my "coke bottle glasses" and trying them on. It was pretty funny. I guess I am pretty blind!
Then we usually have gym at night (or some days we have it in the morning) It's nice to be able to just run a mile or two on the track and then go play some volleyball!
On Sundays we have our treasured walks! We love them :)!! This week we decided to take a lot of jumping pictures ha ha I don't even know why but it was fun! Elder Nez was showing off his Missionary Power or something in this picture!
And us Soeurs were showing off how angelic we are! :)
This is Brother Burnah from our Branch Presidency - he's awesome! He is the only one who speaks French so he LOVES his calling and he loves to help us with our French!
And this is Soeur Anzi - one of the Soeurs from France!
We have become great friends - even though we hardly understand each other we have so much fun and lots of laughs! Every Sunday we have to prepare a talk for church because our Branch President calls on two random speakers for Sacrament Meeting and so this week I brought her my talk to ask her to proof read it - ha ha ha she scratched out about 89% of it and rewrote all my wrong words! She's so funny and it's really helping my French getting to know the missionaries from France and talk to them. I love it!
And this is my room -
We only get about 8.5 hours in here everyday but it's okay - I don't really care for bunk beds anyways!!
So, this week was Valentine's Day - thanks SO SO SO much for everyone that sent me something!! I got 5 packages and 3 letters! I felt so loved <3 I always do because I have amazing friends and family, but it really was a great day! I walked in to my night block class after picking up all my stuff after dinner and all of the Elders were like "woah, Sister Ridd, I didn't even know you knew that many people!" Ha ha then I bragged for a while about how awesome my family is! It's crazy here on Valentines Day in the mail room. It seriously looked like how the post office looks on Christmas eve on The Grinch - it was so funny!
This week was a HUGE milestone I felt like because on Wednesday, we had probably the worst lesson we've ever taught with our ami de l'eglise (investigator) because our companionship was so not in sync. We talked to Frere Kellett about it and he gave us the challenge to teach without any script or written parts - to just plan before we come in and bring our scriptures and testimony from then on. I had a little panic attack because that seemed impossible! But we accepted his challenge and then he said a prayer with us that was one of the most sincere spiritual prayers I've ever heard and after that we weren't afraid and have been teaching without scripts and everything ever since! It's amazing and the spirit is so much stronger when we do that now! I love it!
Oh, funny story about Frere Kellett really quick - he is one of amis de l'eglise and he is a really stubborn one who didn't want to be baptized and we just kept questioning him about it and he finally says (in English) "I'm tired of you harassing me all the time because I have not been baptizeddd" (from Nacho Libre) hahaha we just starting cracking up!! It was so funny.
Okay another funny thing that happened this week - a girl from Australia in our zone got me to try Vegemite. Don't EVER try it. It's disgusting. She had about half our zone throwing up haha.
This Sunday was so amazing I have to tell you all about it. We had Sister Oscarson, the YW General President, come and speak to us for Relief Society. She was so amazing. She talked all about missionary work and the spirit was so strong. Something she said that really stuck out to me was from Jacob 5 how the Lord labors WITH us in the vineyard (or the mission field) I loved that !! It brings me so much comfort and confidence when you think of the Savior as your 3rd mission companion.
And then that night - ELDER JEFFREY R HOLLAND CAME!!! It was such a special experience. He came because his son, Matt Holland, the President of UVU was coming to speak to us and it was Sister Holland's birthday. Wow! I thought the MTC had such a powerful spirit already but when an apostle comes it's like a whole other level! It was amazing! Elder Holland just introduced his son before he spoke but he did tell us "Don't worry about seeking the right person to marry when you get home from your mission, BE the right person and everything else will fall in to place." That is all he said directly to us, but I thought it was so cool for him to say that! The program that Matt Holland gave was so powerful. A choir came from UVU and they performed throughout the whole program about Joseph Smith that he gave. It was so powerful and he taught with such force that I believe ANYONE who went to that would walk away with a greater testimony of Joseph smith. He said "our entire case as missionaries rests on the fact that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God so don't EVER miss a chance to bear testimony of that!" After the program the whole MTC choir along with the UVU choir sang the Mack Wilberg arrangement of Praise to the Man. It was unlike any experience I have ever had. I felt like I was truly standing there singing my testimony about Joseph Smith along with hundreds of other missionaries. It was so cool!!
Then last night I said goodbye to Sister Stephanie Efnor before she left to go to Salt Lake! I am so glad that I got to be in the MTC with her. It was like having a real sister in here with me. I love her so much and I know she is going to be such an amazing missionary :)
Well, I love you all!! Thank you for all of your love and support! You are all so amazing! The Church is true!
Love,
Soeur Ridd
No comments:
Post a Comment