The MTC Play-by-play

I cant believe I have been here 3 weeks!! woot Woot!!! :)

 

A Magical Chance to see Josh

Oh my goodness it was so good to see Josh!!! So I was sitting in class and we were studying and then my name came over the intercome. I was freaking out as I went to the secretary I was thinking the whole time that maybe my visa was failing or maybe I broke one of the million mtc rules!! Hahah but then I got there and this guy came up to me and was like your brother who got home from his mission will be here at 11:30. I think I freaked the guy out cause I just started crying!!! I was so happy!! I made my whole week! Then the minute I saw Josh I was crying!! ha he went to give me a hand shake trying to be so obediente and I was like no way I am giving you a hug!!!!! It was so nice to see him!! He has grown so much! I am so glad that I was able to see and hear some of his mission stories!! I know that he was an amazing missionary and he is such a great example to me! Watch out BYUI girls because here come Josh Hickey!! :)!!! I love you Josh!!!! Send me his talk I would love to read it!!! :) I am sure he did an amazing job at that!   Also mom hahah sorry I realized how bad that outfit looked after I took a picture! It looks like I am pregnate but I promise it is my postger hahah I have not gained a food baby from the mtc yet!!! hahha I told my companions you would say something about my shirt! hahah :)

 

MTC Week Recap

So This week was great!! :)

Sacrament Meeting 

K I just want to tell you about our sundays first. Haha so each week everyone has to prepare a talk in portuguese and no one knows who will be giving one...until they annouce it in sacrament meeting. Haha it feels like the hunger games when they are calling out who is going to talk. Seriously it is the scariest thing ever!! Someone from our district had to speak this week! Ahh it is so scary!!!

 

Fooood

Also It is fun to see people from foriegn countrys here. Ha in the cafeteria they pile there food on!!! There plates tower with food! Hah and its crazy how much people eat! People really need to learn portion control! 

 

Teaching

Also we taught in TRC this week in portuguese... the girl was completely fluent! It was really scary! My companion started crying after because she forgot her lines. She actually is super stressed about the language!! She freaks out! She has never had any language experience! But I feel like she is doing great! When I see that her eyes start tearing up I hurry and try to make her laugh!! I almost started crying because I couldnt understand the difference between por and para they mean "for" but are used differently in different situations. I was so sad cause everyone else understood it. But I decided that I wasnt going to cry and that I was going to have more faith and that it wasnt worth crying over two silly portugues words hahahha :)

 

Also we taught our English and Portugues investigators this week! Adore is getting baptized :) hahah!! Helder is the portugues one and I love teaching him! Ha we have to help him stop drinking!!! :) I love teaching him! I feel like me and my companion are getting better at teaching!! But its still hard sometimes cause she has a set way that she wants to do it and I want to do it a different way hahah but we comprimise! Ha being with someone for so long is crazy!! Ha!!!

 

Also we are getting new teachers :( I love our portuguese teacher!! He was my favorite and spoke it so well and was so nice! He also served in portugual. We will now have two portuguese teachers which is good! One of them is brazilian portuguese though...

 

Also this week we learned about door approaches... hahah I thought about when me and caroline went and sold bagels door to door! :)

 

The Book of Mormon

ALso I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON!!!! I love reading it! When things are hard... READ THE BOOK OF MORMON! When things are great... read the book of mormon. When you are sad read the book of mormon. When you are confused... read the book of mormon. When it is busy read the book of mormon :) I love the book of mormon! Will you all please read it? Everyday!!! It has such a power and will help you with anything you need!!!! Our whole zone has to finnish it from the start before we leave... I am trying hard! I am a little behind but I am going to do it!!!

Elder Scott's Devotional on Prayer

Tuesday Devotional

Sorry I just could not wait to write you and tell you this!  so every Tuesday there are devotionals.  Everyone shows up like an hour early.  We were 45 min early and still way back waiting to get in.  They opened the doors and it was like the running of the bulls.  Oh my goodness everyone was pushing and running to get a good seat and get a seat so they wouldn't have to sit in the overflow.  there was such an excitement in the air.  It is always so exciting to see who will come speak.

Guess who spoke?!?! Richard C Scott!! Yes an apostle of the Lord.  It was the most amazing experience that I have had at the MTC thus far.  I was just tingling with the Spirit!  Oh my goodness I can't even express how amazing it was!  I learned SO much!  He spoke on prayer.  So to be honest when general conference came on Richard G Scott was never really my favorite and I would kinda zone out, which is sooo bad, but now he has a special place in my heart.

He first said how grateful he was for sister missionaries.  He said that this would bless us eternally. That everything good in his life came because of his mission.  This would bless our future husbands, children and lives.  He talked about not worrying about the language.

Highlights:

*I love that he said when we don't get an answer we should feel grateful that the Lord trust us.  He said Heavenly Father will never allow us to do something wrong without being warned.

*That we should not rush the opportunity to talk to our Heavenly Father.  I just was thinking about how I love talking to Dad and would never rush a conversation with him and to listen to him.  I need to be better about praying to my Heavenly Father

*Gave an Apostolic Blessing

The first thing he said that we would MASTER the language.   I started bawling and looked down the line of sisters and we were all bawling.  He said it would be hard but we would grow, that it will be a rich and rewarding experience and enrich our lives and be great wives.

Then we sang and then the girl came to say the prayer but then he jumped up and ran to the pulpit and said I am not done yet.

He said" REmember you have been called of God and our callings are inspired.  He will not abandon you.  He knows what he wants you to become.  Love serving.  He will help fit you to the task.  He did not call you to fail but to succeed.  

I know that he was inspired and the Lord was speaking through him. :)  Such a cool experience.

2nd Week in MTC

MTC teachers

So we still only have one portuguese teacher... and its because all the people going to brazil cant get their visas and go to the brazil mtc! Ha so they are taking our portuguese teachers hahah! But Its okay we just got an english speaking teacher. So we finally have two teachers. I like the english one cause he is really helping me learn how to teach. My ffavorite thing is that we really want to focus on teaching in a way so that the investigator can build their relationship with god and not just be converted to us. He is a great teacher! Next week we will be teaching alot!

 

Teaching in Portuguese 

We taught our first time in portuguese! Scariest thing of my life... I THINK YES!! hahah jk it wasnt too bad cause we could take notes in but tommorow no notes!!!! AHHHHHHHH! The language is soooo hard for me but I am trying to be patient and work hard!

 

No flirting at the MTC

Also I think that they have mentioned to not flirt with the Elders about a million times!!! But it really needs to be said because there is alot of flirting that goes on!!! There was a lady sister Edmands that spoke to us and she was like DONT TOUCH THE ELDERS!! haha then she said but keep track of the ones that you want to touch when you get home....hahahh then she was like then go to mission farewells and TOUCH!! hahah wierd but she was a way funny lady and said some things that really helped me!!

 

Characters of Christ

Also I watched on sunday Elder Bednars Talk, "Characters of Christ" THis was the best talk I think I have ever heard in my life!!!! DO whatever you can to listen to it! It changed the way I look at my mission and everything. He talked about how Christ turns out and the naturaul man turns in. He talked about how even when the savor atoned for alll of our sins and suffered so much he turned out. He also said that the mission is not about you. He talked about having a testimony vs. true conversion. Well it was just amazing!!!! Just listen to it ;) maybe for family night!

Natalie's first email from the MTC

My companion Sister Beard-- ILOVE HER!!!!! we are so simular it crazy actually how much we have in common. 

 

Okay so General conference WAS AMAZING!!! I was listening to the talks and thinking about you all! I thought about how blessed I am to have you as a family! I have been so blessed with worthy priesthood holders and a family that is just amazing!! I was missing watching it with you guys in pjs. But It was like johnny said... MTC version of the super bowl! Ha we were in the stands!! So many people here!!! Ha also I saw this kid with a tie that blows up into a pillow it was so funny!

 

Oh and in the rooms we found NArnia holes... :) thats where previous missionaries leave notes or candies.. So they are in the vents or on top of dressers! Ha I thought it was cool! We might leave something for the people that come in ours!

 

But I love the MTC it really is so great! I love seeing people I feel like my whole school is here! I see Elder.. Porter, Barker, Priest, loveless, endmands all the time and I see Sister Peays-- They are my favorite to see! Ha I love them!!

 

Also I went running for gym time! The first few days we didnt get to and I thought I was going to go crazy! The days are kinda long here... but its okay I still love it!

 

Thank you so much for the packages and notes and everything it reallly helps :)

 

Vocal point came and sang sunday!1 It was great also when the priesthood session was going sisters watched the younge woman broadcast and it was amazing! I want Ukdorfs Talk!!!!!

 

Oh things that surprised me about the MTC was that:

 

there is a schedule but you decide what you study

 

We only have one teacher because there are not enough portuguese teachers--so its a bummer and we havent even taught in portuguese yet

 

You dont have someone watching you all the time

 

There are alot of people that wear way short skirts... no one checks you it really up to you. But I would sudjest to anyone to just get long skirts and be 100% obedient because that way the lord will bless you and there will be miracles!

 

It is not as bad as I thought! I am glad I scared myself though before coming in cause it was better then I thought! I miss you all so much!

Leaving on a Mission

We dropped Natalie off at the MTC this last Wednesday. We had a picnic up by the Provo temple before, took a couple of pictures, and then said some teary goodbyes. Here are a few pictures from the day. We are so excited for you Natalie!

A Wonderful Farewell Feast

Natalie gave such a wonderful talk about sincere prayer with our Heavenly Father. She truly sounded like a missionary already. The spirit was strong testifying of the love that she has for her Heavenly Father and her knowledge that prayer is indeed a two way communication with God. She had many family members and friends attending the sacrament meeting and also the party afterwards. And somehow my mom had plenty of food to feed all the hungry farewell faces :). We are all so proud of you Natalie!