Letter #6

6 Weeks in the MTC?

 

..and I thought I would be here for 3? Well oh well. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

Merry Christmas and happy new years!!!

Thanks for all the letters and packages everyone!

Tell Israel Congrats on the mission call. Leeds, England that is so great!!

Mom and dad- what is your address going to be in AD? I want to mail you something but I think you will be there by the time it would come.

I'm sorry I can't reply to your letter more specifically but I left them in the room and so I'm doing this from memory.

What did everyone get for Christmas? How was it? I missed you guys, but I had a good day here. I missed the food a lot too! They had a  turkey lunch for us but we got sack dinners. Actually I don't even mind sack dinners  since we can eat them in the residence and they give us fruit, sandwich, chips, etc. so it's  pretty good.

Hope moving goes ok! Tell them to treat the piano gently! Don't let them turn it sideways or anything stupid like that.

Visa update: nothing. 2 friends got visas to Brazil and Peru though so I must be next!!

Hna Ordonez is leaving tomorrow morning! :( I*'m gonna miss her. she has been so fun to be with. She's going on a temporary assignment to Houston TX East until she can get her stuff for Argentina. Since she was born in Columbia but has Canadian citizenship it has taken her a little longer. Starting tomorrow I will be joining my THIRD MTC district (this time I will go to intermediate since there are no other advanced sisters right now in our branch) and be companions with Hna Israelsen and Hna Leatham. They are my roommates and Hna Israelsen was my companion my first 2 days before Hna Fernandez and Hna Vasquez came to our district.

This week was totally centered on CHRIST! Being the week of Christmas. And it was so great.

Assignment for everyone: Watch the mormon message that they put out for Christmas. I think it is called Look to the light? Something with L's...?

Last week's devotional the speaker was Shayne Bowen of the 70. He talked about setting goals for the mission, and he gave a super inspirational testimony of Jesus Christ, using scriptures to go over his life. I've been studying what he said b/c I wrote down the references.

Christmas eve!! Was great. It was mostly a normal day til the evening. we had a devotional with the MTC presidency, and a lot of musical numbers. We sang together the 12 days of Christmas, MTC style, it was so fun. here are the words:

On the ___ day of Christmas, the MTC gave me:

a rock solid testimony!

2 haircuts free

3 new companions

4 chocolate milks

5 HOURS OF GYM!!!!!

6 30 wake up

7 lukewarm showers

8 hours of rest

9 vaccinations

10 more commandments

11 loads of laundry

12 hours of class everyday.

It was so fun to sing it with everyone in the MTC! We did hand motions and got really loud!

Then we watched Mr. Krueger's Christmas. It's so classic. And they gave all of us a little bag of popcorn to eat!!

I opened my big present on Christmas eve and my little present on Christmas morning. I love all of it! I got sooo many compliments on the dress~ I don't know how much I'll be wearing that walking the dusty streets of Bolivia but it is fun to have! So thank you ! I definitely felt my family's love on Christmas~!

And on Christmas ELDER RUSSEL M. NELSON came, and his wife! It was sooo great! He said that in the last 3 months, EIGHT countries have been dedicated for preaching the gospel! Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Kosovo, Bruni, and Angola. He gave us some mission tips and went over some Christmas scriptures with us and invoked a special blessing on us his "associates". that was pretty cool. The spirit was so strong in that meeting and I truly know he is an apostle of Jesus Christ.

Also on Christmas we had a talent show. It was almost 3 hours long but not boring since all the acts were short. A lot of missionaries did parodies on popular songs but changed them to missionary lyrics like "If i ain't got heaven" (If I ain't got you- Alicia Keys), but the best one by far was done by some Russian elders. They titled it "You missionary now!" And if that wasn't enough they set it to the words of Bad romance by Lady gaga! They danced and sang in their heavy Russian accents, in English, and it was soooo great! :"work, work, preach that gospel"...Hna. Ordonez and I see them all the time and say hi, they don't really understand when we say much else but it's fun. I guess when Hna Ordonez got here and got her vaccinations, one of them asked her if she was scared, and gave her a lollipop, and then for the next few days, he gave her a lollipop whenever he saw her around. funny huh!

Christmas in the evening we had some actors come and do a sort of readers theater thing of the story of scrooge. it was fun! E. Nelson gave some remarks after.

Sister Nelson gave the talk in relief society. She was so wonderful! Look up D&C 123:17.. Also DC 109:22 about the temple.Sheri dew was there, they are really close friends.

Running out of time! ugh!

We got an assignment from Pres Smith (MTC president) to read the following scriptures and then write our testimonies in our journals.

Isaiah 9:6

Isaiah 53

3 Nephi 1:1-23

Luke 2

2 Nephi 9:21-24

John 3:16-17.

Read these! And do it! I know that I truly learned that the savior is the best gift of Christmas. What he did for us is so important, crucial, to us. And what a sacrifice, but a blessing, for his mother Mary. That's something that I've been thinking about a lot this past little while. Also, it's so amazing that he lived a perfect life. I have a testimony that he did. And that must have been so hard! I have grown in my gratitude towards him.

 

Please keep praying for my visa (side note- Elder Reyes is an elder that is in my exact same situation, came from the same district before. He says he prays more for me to get my visa than for him to get it! Isn't that nice! He is so great)

 

Family- how far are you in Preach My gospel?

Time is up but I love you guys! I will write you again next week! have a good new years! I appreciate your support!

 

Hermana Tibbitts