Sister Marsh: May 2013

HELLO FAMILY!!!!!!!

WOW! So the first week of the MTC is over! My p-day is Tuesday so I was super happy that we had almost a whole week before p-day so there was something to look forward too! So honestly driving up to the MTC was so weird! I was past the point of crying and I didn't cry until Emily started bawling but then it was just happy after that!! My host was a girl I knew from school so that was so nice to have someone who I sort of knew already! Then I got my badge and everything and saw that my companion was Sister Briggs and I had already met her and so I was sooooo excited!! She is the best! She is 22 but we get along sooo well and we work so well together! Our strengths and weaknesses are super different so teaching lessons works out super well!

My district is big! We have 12! So 6 sisters and 6 elders! The 4 sisters are going to Winter Quarters Visitors Center and all 6 elders are going to Australia and they leave Sunday ALREADY!! We are actually super sad about it! Me and my companion got called as "Sister Training Leaders" which are zone leaders but girls so we were like OH NO now we have to be like amazing missionaries and we have no clue what is going on! But tomorrow we get to be will all the new missionaries coming in and so that will be super fun!

So class time is soo long. I am not going to lie. It is amazing though I have learned so much in just the couple days I have been here but seriously class is like ALLLLLL DAY EVERYDAY!! Our teachers are amazing though! I have learned so much and they keep it interesting so that we don't fall asleep! I am amazed how scheduled everything is though! It is scheduled to like the minutes...and our teacher is like super ticked if we get out of a class and are like 3 minutes late! It is so funny!

We have done so much role playing. Mom, you probably would imagine I am not the biggest fan of it but it is crazy how much you really do think it is real life. We have been teaching this lady May who is really our teacher but she acts as a legit investigator she had on her mission. Anyway we have taught her 3 times and this last time we had learned a ton the day before and we have been praying so much about her and felt so good about our lesson to teach her the next day but then when we went to go teach her and say a prayer as a companionship we were like this doesn't feel right we need to just go straight spirit on this one. We were kind of nervous and we went in and taught her for 30 minutes and it was incredible. I have never felt the spirit so strong in my life. My companion was crying the whole time, I was crying the whole time and our investigator was bawling too. It was amazing! Then our teacher(not acting as an investigator) talked to us about how special and how strong she felt the spirit from our lesson. She was like May is someone dear to my heart and I am going to talk to her about what you taught tonight. Honestly we were like holy cow this is crazy and we were on a spiritual high all day!

Sunday was awesome! It is straight meeting after meeting after meeting but its not that bad because we are moving classrooms a lot. We had a devotional that night by Bro. Allen who is over all the missionary department stuff and he was just awesome he talked a lot about death and how everything is good. We listened to "come come ye saints" from the Tabernacle Choir and then we had to sing it after and everyone lost it. He was prepping us for watching Sis. Monson's funeral service that night! Her service was amazing. I felt like I didn't know much about her before but I learned a lot about her and she sounds incredible and my favorite was her great granddaughter who was like 10 sand the primary song "Whenever I hear the song of a bird" that one and it was the most touching thing I have ever heard. Watching that service was truly spiritual and seeing the look on Pres. Monson's face honestly made me cry. He looked distraught and so sad to say goodbye to his wife.

Anyway, on a more happy note, seeing people you know in the MTC is the best part! I see Lauren Sullivan a lot and Sara Wulfenstein and then so many people from MTV and from BYU! It is just the best to see and feel like you are not alone at the MTC! A lot has happened this week and we had to say goodbye to half of our zone this morning and no joke it was really sad and we only have known them for 5 days! It is unreal I understand how missionaries say they just get to love everyone and it is so true. I love everyone in our zone we have so much fun and our district is seriously awesome! We wish we had more time to just get to know each other and stuff but we really dont but it is still super fun! I am a little tired of the food already! I AM SICK OF SALADS AND WRAPS! Let me just say I am grateful that I am only here for like 2 1/2 weeks.

I honestly can't remember half the things we did this week but I did write them all down in my journal. I shared the most important things I thought but there is just too much to say! I love it here though. I have been so happy! I only get sad at night because that is the ONLY time that you can even have time to think about anything in the real world! The spirit is amazing here though. I am so blessed to have this opportunity to serve. Even the lessons that we have taught this last week and getting to truly feel the spirit in a lesson makes me soo excited to go and teach people. I love you guys and I miss you but I couldn't be happier. Missionary work is amazing and I know that it can truly bless and touch the lives of others. Talk to you all next week!!

Sister Marsh