What a spiritually uplifting week! For starters, Didn't you just love conference?! Every talk was amazing but I particularly loved the Saturday Morning Session! The best moment was when President Monson made the big announcement and the entire MTC busted into cheers then he made the change for the sisters and the cheers were even louder. What a cool experience it was to be sitting in the MTC when this Historic announcement was made concerning missionary work. I am so excited for the change and am so excited for the increase in missionaries! I am so glad I am on a mission and hope anyone who has even a small desire to serve will serve! I don't think anyone would ever regret serving a mission! I have learned so much about myself, the Lord, the Gospel, the scriptures and Spanish and I wouldn't trade my experience in the MTC for anything! I'm excited for when the first 18 and 19 arrive in my mission! I also really loved Elder Nelson's talk about "Ask the Missionaries." It made me realize how much I need to know about different things. The areas that he mentioned that I need to really focus on is Family History and knowing the Bible. I definitely don't know either of those very well. I also loved the story about "The Boys on the Bike." President Uchtdorf's talk was also amazing. I loved how he said let us resolve to follow the Lord and become the people we were designed to be. I hope you received my letter this week about the different talks and my thoughts on conference. Because of conference President Brown let us use the time between sessions for journal writing and letter writing.
Our fireside on Sunday night was by Chad Lewis. I guess he was a football player for BYU then played for the Philadelphia Eagles for 9 years. He gave a really awesome talk about different experiences in his life. He went to Taiwan Mandarin speaking. He talked about how when he left the MTC he felt like he knew Mandarin really well and then he arrived in Taiwan and realized he spoke like a kindergartner. My favorite line from his talk was, "Those are my peeps." (referring to the little 5 year olds) I loved it!
On Tuesday night for devotional the speaker was ELDER DAVID A BEDNAR!!!!!!!! An apostle usually comes every 6 weeks and Elder Anderson came the day before I got here. So it had been 7 weeks so we were all hoping and expecting an apostle but everyone was so excited that it was Elder Bednar. Several people in my district have never had the opportunity to see an apostle and so it was really neat. I sometimes forget how blessed we are to live so close to Salt Lake and have the opportunity to attend conference on several occasions. Elder Bednar's talk was amazing! He talked about the importance of reading or watching the words of the prophets. He gave us his pattern of reviewing the things spoken at conference but said to find a pattern that works for us and do it. His pattern is of highlighting or paying special attention to three areas: 1. Doctrine 2. Invitation and 3. Promised Blessings. Elder Bednar also talked about the decision to lower the missionary age. He said it's funny how people will speculate about the decision when he was one of the ones involved in the counsel that made the decision. He said the reason behind the change is "The Lord can do His work and HE WILL HASTEN HIS WORK IN HIS TIME. The Lord is now hastening His work."
This week I finally finished memorizing the First Vision in Spanish! It took me awhile because I never made it a priority but I did this week. I've come to learn that it's easier to memorize things in Spanish if I have them memorized in English first.
I loved the letters I got this week from Mom and Dad. Thanks for sharing your conversion story with me Mom. I knew I had heard it before but just couldn't remember all the details. I also loved the letter from you Dad. It was so neat to read some entries from your MTC experience. Also thanks for the packages! My hair and teeth are already doing much better! I am getting a hair cut this afternoon and I'm super nervous of how it will turn out. All the sisters can get one free haircut while in the MTC so I figured I might as well so that I won't have to pay. My district and I also really loved the pumpkin bread and cookies. They were still so moist and fresh! They were perfect between conference treats. Mom, how did the RS meeting that you were in charge of go?
Both of our investigators have baptism dates now! It's was so exciting to hear them both say yes!!
All of this week our teacher Hermana Cutler is out of town. Her whole family is in Hilton Head for the week. It's been interesting to have subs this week but for the most part our sub has been Hermano Ellett. I can't remember if I've told you about him or not but he is awesome! He is our Zone Resource Teacher (ZRT). This means that he is a teacher but doesn't have a district so we sign up and meet with him for help on anything. Hna Andrews and I have gone to him a bunch for help with Spanish principles, doctrine and he has even acted as a member in our lessons with investigators. He is so helpful and has really helped Hna Andrews and I with our Spanish.
The past few weeks we have had the opportunity to do what is called Missionary as Investigator. Each of us take the role of an investigator and then we as missionaries teach each other. Elder McKinnon teaches me and I teach Elder Hunt as Matheo Baxter. It is such a neat experience to have the mind set of an investigator and be able to feel as an investigator. It's amazing how real the experience feels and how much I've learned from this experience. My investigator that I portray is a less-active member so it's been an interesting experience for Elder McKinnon since you don't have the goal of baptism or having to teach every principle of every lesson since they aren't being baptized.
Happy Birthday to Keegan and Brayden!!!!!
Remember that I only have 1.5 weeks left for DearElders so send them :)
I should be receiving my travel plans either tonight or tomorrow! If I get them tonight before P-day is over I'll send a quick email but if not I'll just let you know next Thursday on my last P-day in the MTC. It is crazy how fast the time has gone by.
I hope everyone has a fantastic week! I love and miss you all.
Con Amor,
Kim
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