Week 5 "ONE MONTH IN THE MTC"

September 2, 2016

My District Celebrating with Vitamins from my Dad

One month mark! How in the world did that even happen?!

Me and Sister Goold after the temple this morning.

This week was pretty exciting actually. Yesterday we had to evacuate our building and MOVE to a different residence hall because BATS have infested our building. They don't want us to get rabies and what not. Every day you just hear girl screaming because they find a bat in their shoe or in their room. It's pretty funny actually. So yesterday, we all packed up our entire room and had the Elders in our district come and help us roll our bags to a different building. Actually we just gave the Elders our bags and made them carry everything while we walked beside them lol.

Cleaning out our room

Moving out of our room.

Soeur Goold and I got to go on a little adventure this week and venture into the REAL WORLD. And by real world I mean Provo/ outside the walls of the MTC. But it felt like we were breaking the force field of the MTC. Soeur Goold got pink eye so we went in a little van to go pick up medicine in Rite Aide. While we were in line, we met a lady FROM FRANCE. We had no time so we had to hurry and say goodbye. But I asked her, "Parlez- vous francais?" And then she started blabbering off in fast french and my eyes got really wide and I had no idea what she was talking about. But it made me so exited to go to France and share the gospel with real people! It was crazy wearing name tags and speaking a little francais outside the walls of the MTC. Also- because Soeur Goold had pink eye, I made her a little eye patch so she could keep her eye shut.

Sister Goold and Sister Jones venturing out into the REAL world!

The eye patch I made for Soeur Goold. She is a pirate

Soeur Goold and I were walking around campus taking a study break on Monday when a woman named Jen walked by. She was wearing a gold tag that said "guest." So my comp and I asked her if she worked here. She told us that she was an investigator and that she wasn't a member of the church. We got talking to her and ended up asking her if we could meet with her the next day and teach her about the gospel. She agreed and we were pretty excited. And then we found out she was actually a member just acting. BUT- we still got the chance to teach her in English!

French Speaking District

We have taught her two lessons and have another one tomorrow. It's a lot of fun teaching lessons and praying in English because I haven't done that in a month. But I learned a little lesson for myself from this experience. The holy ghost is the one who converts. Still. Even in English when I understand and can speak just fine. The holy ghost is the one who converts. During the lesson, I found myself praying to know what to say next and how to help Jen. Even though our lesson flowed a lot smoother, the spirit the lesson was the EXACT same as when we teach in French. Such a good reminder to me that I must continually stay humble enough to let the holy ghost guide the lessons.

This pic is for madeline. Soeur Huntsmans mom sent us fresh peaches!!!!

This week I had some revelation about the relationship between missions and marriage. We build up this idea in our minds of what a mission is. In the back of our mind, we know it will be hard- but often times the superficial fluff clouds that vision. Clouds our REAL purpose as missionaries. The thrill of opening a mission call, the chance of going to a cool place in the world, the cute mission pics we'll take before departing, the amount of people who will attend our farewell, the yummy cupcakes at our going away party, the idea of being in a foreign country. Fluff fluff fluff flufff FLUFF. All fun stuff don't get me wrong, but fluff. When all this melts away, it's a mission. It's raw and it's real. So similar to marriage. After the cute engagement photos, fancy reception food, dream wedding dress, and honeymoon... it's marriage. It's great. But it's real. Are we getting married for the right reasons after ALL the fluff is taken away? Are we going on missions for the right reasons when ALL the fluff is taken away? A good question to ask ourselves. Serve a mission because you love the Lord. You love how the gospel has helped you in your life so you WANT to share it with others. Get married because you care about and love your significant other. Because you are willing to work together when times get hard. Clear away the fluff and focus on what matters most.

It's starting to get pretty real now. We received our flight plans today and I leave to France in 10 days. I am nervous because I still feel like my french is just the same as it was about 2 weeks ago. But I am ready and excited to start yet another new adventure.

Elder Pistole trying to fix the vent. Elder Perry helping him out lol

My top 5 favorite things about the MTC

1. I have the best teacher, Frere Kellet, who gives us so many words of wisdom. He encourages us to be better and work hard without being annoying or self righteous.

2. The desert here is honestly pretty good. HA! The peanut butter chocolate pie. YUM. Soeur Goold and I both love desserts. Grateful she is not one of those people that only eats salad and water.

3. I get to go to the temple once a week. And I get to WALK to the temple cause its so close.

4. My district is hilarious and all so diverse.

5. I have a companion who I feel like I relate to so much. She is real and has such cool insight on the scriptures and life. She also encourages me to be more athletic. We always feel much better after we run around the field every day. This week we ran about 10 miles all together! (We run 3 times a week)

SUPER SOEUR JONES

My Mom sent me this shirt

Funnies:

- On Sunday for our Sunday night film, we watched "Legacy." For those of you who have seen this film, you know the part when "David" and "Eliza" are about to kiss after their first date on the porch? Well right when they were leaning in everyone in the room stared off in a low, "ooooohhhhhh." And then they kissed.. and the ENTIRE MTC broke out into screaming and whooping noises. AAHAHAHHAHAH Sister Goold and I were dying. Just like- where even are we? I guess people here are just very deprived of romance lol. I just embraced it and laughed. Ohhhh the good old MTC.

- I am 87% convinced that the vegetables they feed us here are actually hamster food. Like little bits of corn, beans, peas... yep hamster food. Madeline, I think they stole it from Teddy's cage and snuck it into the MTC.