The Evidence of Christ's Love

I love the temple and I'm so excited to go today! :) i seriously look forward to it every day during the week. 

The language is coming along,and im not stressing as much.. But im not as far along as id like to be. We've been trying to study it a ton though. This week we started TRC lessons..where we teach investigators. Ours is named Diana. She's from El Salvador. we get 45 minutes with her on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. So we've had 3 lessons so far. They go pretty well. our Spanish is far from perfect... but we're able to teach her for 45 minutes three times a week...so we're doing alright. She said she really wanted to experience being cleansed from sin and feeling god's love, so we invited her to repent. She did, but said she didn't feel any different...  so we're trying to explain to her that its a process. Hopefully this next week of TRC goes well. We have a member coming with us on Wednesday. We also teach each of our teachers 3 times a week. 

So our studies mainly revolve around what we're going to teach them. I sometimes wish i had more time to just study whichever topics i want to. So me and Dixon decided that during companion study, we're going to read the book of Mormon together for like 20 minutes each day. that way we still have time to study the teaching lessons.. but we also get to treasure up our minds with the words of god

So on Sunday me and Dixon found out we have the same skirt, same shoes but diff colors, and then a really similar　shirt. So we decided to match that day... since everyone already tells us we're twins. You should have seen how people reacted. The looks, the comments, the stares!! Seriously so many people commented on it. Then on Sundays we go on temple walks.. so when we got there we had people in our zone record us doing our handshake.. ill send the video :)

It was so so sad on Sunday and Monday, because all the people in our zone who had been here longer than us, left. It feels empty without them here :/ But its going to be fun because on Wednesday, two new districts are coming into our zone! So we're gonna be the older, more seasoned missionaries  Im excited!

On Sundays after the night devotionals, they play "movies". Im using that term loosely. They play devotionals from BYU from Holland and Bernard, a Joseph smith one, and testaments. This last week we watched one called Legacy.. about pioneers and Joseph smith. I love getting to watch a movie.. no matter what it is haha. 

My district is getting really close! I love my whole district, even though a couple of the elders are a little strange haha. There's one elder that reminds me of one of my friends from high school. And he's someone that i would have been friends with before my mission. His name is elder Lumsden. 

During exercise time this last week, for the last 30 minutes or so, my zone plays volleyball. And its embarrassing because i SUCK at sports haha. I wish i would have developed athletic abilities at home, because im the worst one here haha.. its still fun though. 

Our investigator from the first week (Catalina) is our teacher now! And she is the best.. i feel the spirit so strong every time she teaches! 

I found a scripture this week that i loooove. Its 1Nephi 21:14-16. It basically says that God will never forsake us. If we every feel that he isn't present in our lives, its cuz we have forgotten him. He will never forget us.. the last verse says "behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me." I got the chills when i read that verse! He loves us so much... the evidence of his great love is on the palms of his hands. 

I got your package and I LOVED IT. IT MADE ME SO HAPPY!! it was funny because i was just telling Dixon the other day that i wished the mtc store had those weird listerine strip things. and then you sent me some! tender mercy haha. And i loved the muddy buddies... shared them with my district :) And thank you for the socks, they were very much needed. And the drink packets. The whole thing was just great. You are the best ever!

A few times this week me and Dixon have gotten up early to run. That way we can shower afterward, and during our day exercise time we can play volleyball! 

Easter, Elder Oaks and "Turn Outward"

Hollaaaaaa!!! 

So let me give the whole scoop.. My last Pday we did sealings at the temple.. which was cool! But I missed doing sessions, cuz i was used to doing them every week.  But today we get to go do an endowment session, so im excited. It weird, because when i was at home, i had to make time to go to the temple, but in the MTC i've been looking forward to going every day

Me and Dixon are still getting along so great. Everyone in our zone says its crazy that we got put as companions, because apparently we're like the same person. So we always do this thing where we'll look at each other and say stuff at the same time and everyone always dies. Also we made a long handshake one day during exercise time haha. So this guy in our zone drew a picture of us as a 2 headed person, i'll send a pic of it. 

My other two roommates are hermana grove (going to Bolivia) and hermana Lemke (Arizona)... we get along great!  We seriously have zero issues. 

One thing I've noticed is that i haven't missed my phone at all.. Which is surprising to me. I thought i was going to be slightly handicapped without it. But honestly, the only time i missed having my phone was 1) so i could google translate instead of using a Spanish dictionary 2) look up conference talks. This week i memorized the first vision in Spanish and Moroni 10:4-5 in Spanish. There is soooo much memorizing here. 

This week I felt so much more positive. I prayed a ton the first three days that i would feel good here, and then we had Easter Sunday, and i think ever since that day, I've been fine!

DALLIN H OAKS came to speak! I really liked his talk. And then that night we had a devotional by Sheri Dew! She talked about how we all have divine orbits. And there are some people who were meant to come into our life orbits. People we needed to meet, and people we were meant to teach or impact. After that I made a list in my journal of people who i think were in my divine orbit.. it was cool to see how many people have influenced me and people that i have been an influence to. She also said that she thinks we can call upon angels for help. Like if we're struggling, we can pray and ask for angels to aid us through our trials, or in our missionary discussions. So i thought that was neat.

Then after that devotional we watched this talk by Bednar called "The characters of Christ".. and i could go on about that talk forever. But the main idea is that to be like Christ we need to turn outward when the natural tendency is to turn in and focus on ourselves. He said that we aren't going to find our testiimony on our missions if that's our goal. But we find our testimonies getting stronger when we aren't looking for it, but instead losing ourselves in the service of others. That talk changed perspective for me and Dixon both!

The rest of the week, we taught our investigator (Catalina) every single day. It was so stressful to prepare a half hour lesson every day when you dont know Spanish haha. But we're able to get our point across in the lessons, 

and its only 10 days in.. so i think we're going to be okay. Then yesterday, Catalina came in our classroom and let us know that she's actually going to be our teacher now! Then we all picked a scripture that explains why we're here.. everyone shared theirs and bore their testimony. It was so spiritual! Which was something i needed, cuz usually everything is just so focused on the language. I chose Mosiah 2: 20-21. Then i explained how God has literally done everything for us. He supports us "from one moment to another", and lends us breath each day. Even if we were to serve him from the day we were born until the day we die, we would still be indebted to him. And so i said i just wanted to dedicate a small portion of my life to give thanks. 

This past week me and Dixon have been running 3 miles with one of the other Hermanas in our zone during exercise time. The food isn't very good... but it isn't very bad. Its just cafeteria food. Sometimes they'll have a really good meal.. and then sometimes its awful and all you can do is eat yogurt and fruit. But i can definitely see how people gain weight here. 

Every night in my journal writing, i've started to write 2 ways i've seen gods hand in my life that day. Its been great, because somedays you come home and your brain is fried and you're exhausted, but you're still able to remember fun and good things that have happened that day. 

We've been going to choir on Sundays and Tuesdays, and the other day we sang this song called "Hurrah for Israel", its from the movie called the other side of heaven. I loved it!! It was super powerful with all the missionaries singing it. 

Juan A. Uceda from the 70, came to give a talk. He talked about how we aren't called to teach people, but we're called to make disciples. Then he talked about how we can become disciples and how we all need to repent daily. Which i definitely haven't been doing.. So i've been trying to repent in all my nightly prayers now. 

On Easter, during choir practice, they do that thing where they have a camera and a jumbo-tron thing and show people singing from the choir. And it came on me and Dixon and we started laughing so hard for some reason. 

then all the elders from our zone started laughing, and they got put on the camera next. Luckily it was just during practice, and not the real thing. But literally so many people throughout the week have been like "Hey you're that girl from choir!".. so yeah i'm now MTC famous as the choir joke. hahah

One thing i love about the MTC is that you're able to get so close with your zone. Everyone in my zone is so different, and they are people who i probably wouldn't have been friends with in high school. But here, everyone just gets close and has fun getting to know each other even though we're all different. And i loooooove that we dont have phones, because people talk to each other during meals. They have no other choice :) haha i seriously love it. I'm so sad because all the people im close with from my zone that have been here for longer than me are leaving on Monday :( 

One thing that happened this week that made me feel a lot better about the language.. is that on Sunday i prayed in Spanish in relief society. And afterward, everyone was like "what the heck, you've only been here for 4 days?" and so the branch president and a couple of the older Hermanas came up to me after and told me that i shouldn't be worried about Spanish at all. So that was a huge comfort to me, because i think i've just been too hard on myself about Spanish. 

Love you all! 

First 3 Days

Hola!! Buenos Dias! 

     So my first day at the MTC i went through and got my nametag, did orientations, etc. My companion is Hermana Dixon! She's from Sandy, and actually grew up dancing with some of my best friends, Bella, Alexa, and Hannah! So we bonded over that.. she's super great. I prayed so hard that i would get a good companion, and i'm really grateful to have Dixon! My first few days here have been a little crazy, so she's made the experience a lot better than it could have been. 

Day one i went to class and the teacher spoke zero English. I guess they try to just immerse you in Spanish. It actually works more than i thought it would. But they're kind of teaching things in a weird order. Like they've taught us to pray and bear testimony in Spanish, but they haven't taught us conjugations or anything. And then yesterday we had to give a 25 minute lesson to an investigator... completely in espanol!!! And i was like,... i dont know Spanish yet, how are we supposed to do this. We made it through, but it wasn't super spiritual or anything, because we were both thinking so hard about the language. Spanish has been the main source of stress for me. I know its only day 4.. and people tell me to just be patient, but thats hard for me haha. I'm really trying though. And i'm really trying and praying to have more faith in the gift of tongues. This morning when i prayed i was able to do almost all of it in Spanish :) 

     We had a class called people and purpose, where we had a whole room of missionaries, and then one investigator. We had a couple of microphones, and whoever wanted one could converse with the investigator and stuff.. When we were told what was going on, i was like nooo way am i going to talk into the microphone. That is way too scary to teach her in front of all those missionaries. But i decided that if i had a thought come to mind, i wouldn't ignore the prompting. So when i thought of some things to say, i just took the mic. I actually had a really good conversation with her, and after my companion told me that she could tell i really got through to the investigator. So i was happy i ended up saying something. 

     I kind of wish i had more time to get into my scriptures and study it in depth. I think i will as time goes on... but the first week is just so crazy that i have had close to no time to study what i want for personal study. Especially because we've had to prepare for that first meeting with our investigator. They gave us millions of books... a lot of them are for Spanish. But also some are about adjusting to missionary life and stuff. But i haven't had any spare time to read them. So hopefully since its Pday i will have some time. Also we get to go to the temple at 1, so i'm soooo excited for that. And tomorrow's Easter, so I bet there will be an amazing devotional. 

     All of the zone leaders always say "obedience brings blessings. Exact obedience brings miracles." And so the other day me and my comp did something.. i dont even remember what... but we had made the decision to be exactly obedient. And Dixon said " exacto obediencia brings miercoles!" And i was like..... um, miercoles means wednesday hahaha. We got a good laugh out of that one.

     Our sister training leaders are so funny. We have devotionals with them every night. It always gets us to bed a little later, because we have to write in our journals afterward. And before we get to the devotional we all joke around a lot... but its worth it. They are super great. 

     i'm slightly jealous of the sisters who have ipads in their mission, because they get to email basically all day today. But we have to find computers and then only get like an hour. It'll be okay, but i left my camera cord in my room, and so i'll have to get it later and hope there are computers open to send pictures :)

     All in all, i'm doing pretty good. The first night i had a lot of anxiety and it took me forever to fall asleep.. but it really is getting better as the days go on. I hope you all have a fantastic week :) Speak lots of English for me. Love you all. 

-Hermana Hall 

MTC Drop Off

What a beautiful day....

It was spring break so Dayne was out of school.  Dad worked most of the morning and came home about 11:00am.  We packed up and headed for Provo.  The 4 of us had a delicious lunch at Chili's...complete with an Oreo molten lava cake.  Gotta splurge while you can.  We pulled in the MTC parking lot and within 30 seconds we had her bags out of the car and were hugging good-bye. Her sister missionary "host" cheerfully guided her across the way with her bags - and true to her nature - Skye didn't look back.  No tears this day.  It's been a long time coming and we were happy.