Monday, December 24, 2012

Merry Christmas!

Sister Tulley, Sister Harris, Sister Walsh.
 (but look who is NOT the shortest one!!)

Merry Christmas!
I hope that everyone is having a lovely holiday season.
Christmas at the MTC doesn't feel like Christmas at all. At least to me it doesn't. It just feels like winter with some Christmas lights thrown in. But maybe that's Heavenly Fathers way of helping me to not feel homesick, so it's a blessing I suppose. But I'm doing great! I finished my regular missionary training on Saturday, and I start my Visitor's Center Training on Wednesday! (We've been going back and forth from calling it tour guide barbie training and princess training.) I'm so excited to start it!  We're starting off by going to Temple Square on Wednesday and training there! It's going to be so cool!! Our new teachers seem really nice, so it'll definitely be good. I'll let you know what we do in training when I find out what we're doing :)
I've gotta get going now, but I love you all! I hope that everyone has a Merry Christmas!
Love,
Lucy
Elder Everett, Elder Reheis, Elder Bagley, and Elder Louis. And then the Sisters in the front!
ready for the day

Monday, December 17, 2012

The Week of the Bird

Day 12 of my captivity. We saw a bird today. The first sign of life on the compound.

Just kidding. But seriously, we saw a bird today. It shouldn't have been as exciting as it was. Sister Walsh screamed "BIRD!" (But it came out more like buud because she's English and all) We all ogled at the bird for a bit. haha anyways...


Hiya Everyone!!

Life at the MTC is good. It definitely has a lot of ups and downs, but overall it's been great. My companions are still awesome! (Which is good because we've been together 24/7 for two weeks now haha) I feel like we're always laughing at something, or singing some random song that popped into someone's head. Overall, it's just a good time. Ummm yeah. Our days are pretty intense here. We're always doing something, or rushing somewhere. This morning I had some free time and I didn't know what to do with myself. It was just super weird.

It's really fun being here with so many missionaries going all over the world! It's totally normal to be walking to class and see several groups of missionaries all talking in different languages. This morning walking to the book store, we saw 4 companionships walking around. One person in each companionship was covering their eyes while the other person was trying to guide their companion in their mission language.It looked super funny.

I'm learning lots! At the MTC we're focusing more on how to teach than what to teach. If that makes any sense. For example, we think about how to listen to people and be able to discern what they are actually saying so that we can teach them the things that will help them in their life. It's pretty awesome!

We have two class periods each day. Each class period is three hours at a time. So when we're in class, we focus on teaching skills. Or "fundamentals of teaching". We'll talk about that for a while and do a lot of role plays where we take turns teaching each other. We also have "progressing investigators". Which basically means that our teachers take on alternate personalities and we teach them the gospel. We got someone to commit to baptism on Tuesday night! So exciting. It was so funny when we asked him because none of us were expecting him to say yes. When he said "Ok" we all just had this awkward moment. I wanted to be like, "...are you sure?" haha but luckily Sister Tulley jumped in before I could blurt out that little gem.

And we do the TRC's too. TRC stands for teaching resource center (I think...) That's the one where you teach random volunteers. We have one woman who we work with two times a week, and then every other day we teach random people. It's definitely good practice. (Or defo and Sister Walsh would say. I'm slowly becoming British. Saweet!)

We're always in class, teaching, studying, or eating. Oh and we get gym time everyday as well. Gym time is the best! We can either play sports, or do all of the random cardio stuff that you would find at a gym. We can even watch TV while we exercise! But it's the MTC, so they have Mormon Messages play nonstop on one TV, the Joseph Smith Movie play on another, and things like that. But still. Totally awesome.

I also got a calling on Sunday. I'm the music coordinator for church. So basically I pick the hymns that we sing and who plays the piano.

It's been great! Love you all!

Monday, December 10, 2012

WEEK ONE!

First day -- SO excited!
 Hey everyone! I'm totally loving the MTC!  It feels like I've been here for forever, even though it's only been a few days. I feel like I'm learning so much already!

 My companions names are Sister Walsh (who is from England) and Sister Tulley (who is from Arizona). Sister Walsh is going to Temple Square and Sister Tulley is going to Nebraska with me! They are both so nice! There are four Elders in my district, and we have already become really close. We're basically together all of the time. They always open doors for us and they take our trays at meals. So they're pretty awesome.

My biggest surprise was how hard this really is. I wasn't ready for how difficult being a missionary would be! But it's so worth it. It's just emotionally hard. The MTC is a roller coaster. Sometimes I'm on top of the world, and sometimes I'm thinking, "Why am I here? Why am I doing this? Can I even do this? What was I thinking?!" But overall, it's worth it. I know that I'm supposed to be here right now! And I know that there are people in Nebraska waiting for me specifically to teach them about our Savior Jesus Christ.

I think the biggest thing that I have learned is that this mission isn't about me at all. It's all about the people in Nebraska who I will be teaching.

I don't have much time to write right now! Sorry! Next week I'll upload some pictures and try to write a better email with how I'm doing! Love you all!

Sister Harris