Is it really p-day again? Where does the time go? In a few days we'll be hitting our half-way mark in the MTC and we're so excited about it. We can't wait to get to Germany. One of our teachers this week said, "I don't teach German here at the MTC, I teach the Gospel in the German language." We focus on learning German for the benefit of our investigators rather than for ourselves. Even though I'm glad I can learn German to talk to my family, it's more important that I can speak the language to invite the German people unto Christ.
Monday March 3
We did sealings this morning at the temple for the first time. It was so cool! As we were leaving the sealing room, the older lady who was in there with us, asked if she could give us all a grandma hug because we don't get many hugs as missionaries. It was really sweet and probably made my whole day:) We emailed and did laundry and had a picnic outside because it was so glorious. I got a letter today from one of my friends in Berlin right now.
Tuesday March 4
We taught D. again today and it was okay. Since p-day ended yesterday and all of today I had been feeling in a rut and was having a harder time than usual understanding German. Still not quite sure why.
Wednesday March 5
We started today off with TRC. Basically what you do is you teach a real member (they were all super old haha) who speaks your new language. It was nice to not feel the pressure of making sure you explain everything right cause they already have the gospel background. One of the guys we taught was actually from Germany but spoke in English half the time haha. He gave us some great advice. The part I liked the most was that we shouldn't say sorry for having bad German so early in our time here. It's hard for everyone so we shouldn't apologize. We taught our new investigator, T., today. Things started getting pretty crazy today with some of the Elders in our zone. We have been hearing these horror stories of things they are doing that you would NEVER imagine a missionary in the MTC would ever do. Just unbelievable things. Our teachers talked to us in our district (our district has the least amount of problems of the 3 districts in our zone) and they were just beside themselves about the things they were hearing the other missionaries do. They talked a lot about obedience and we watched Elder Holland's talk, The First Great Commandment. If you are reading this now, GO WATCH THAT TALK. It's amazing. Anyway, one of our teachers pulled us Sisters aside and just thanked us for being obedient when the people around us aren't. I hate being a part of a zone who is going to be notorious for disobedience when we, as sisters (and a lot of the Elders) aren't doing anything wrong. It's so hard to have the Spirit here because of the actions of others and it just breaks my heart that this kind of stuff is happening here. Anyway.
Thursday March 6
This morning we did the most random service. We washed trash cans and cleaned an elevator... Being a missionary is super weird sometimes (a lot). We took a half an hour nap before class and it was heaven. Lately I've only been eating fries at meals because the meals make us feel sick. Normally in real life I would just snack all day but here you just have three big meals. We've all been feeling the affects of the food here. You kinda just have to work around it and do what you can.
Friday March 7
Didn't write in my journal for today. This week we learned that right now there is the least amount of missionaries here in the MTC since the age change 18 months ago. I like it. In other news, we met a missionary named Elder Elder in the cafeteria hahaha. Poor guy.
Saturday March 8
Today started off super great but ended normal. My official release date is September 8, 2015, and Sis. B. has the same date, but Sis. B's date is August 4. Weird? If you guys pick me up, then I'll be released on August 4.
Sunday March 9
We were expecting today to be really tense with the Branch Presidency trying to fix the obedience issues we're having but nothing happened that we are aware of. In other news, I gave a talk in German in sacrament meeting about repentance. We taught one of the branch presidency members a lesson about the First Vision, in ENGLISH. Sis. B. controlled the whole lesson and Sis. B. hardly got a word it. It was great to teach in English but we weren't in unity so it was rough. We watched Legacy after devotional tonight and it was great haha I never knew how funny it was. We got to take a 2 hour nap today.
Welp. This week exploded with so many problems. There are 2-3 elders in particular who are the problem but the rest are just great. I don't want to complain or anything but when our teachers explained how bad they felt for us to have to work so hard to have the Spirit in a place where it should be so abundant, it really hit me. Wir brauchen den Geist (we need the spirit). Since then, I've been noticing more and more when I do have the spirit with me so it's been okay. I'm happy to be here but I'm even more excited to leave. Please pray for us obedient ones here so that we can rise above what's happening around us.
Thank you for all your letters, emails, prayers, and unspoken words of support.
Sister Seamons
No comments:
Post a Comment