I'm Alive!!

Hello everyone!!

Wow it's been a while since my last email... so much has happened!! From my last week in the MTC to my first week on Temple Square.. here are my favorite parts.

1) The Saturday before we got to Temple Square, we took a field triip there! It was really fun, and then we were challeneged to give away a Book of Mormon on our way back. So Sister Dossett and I were walking on the platform, and we had an hour to wait for our train. We saw this guy sitting in the corner, and we walked over to talk to him. His name was Darius and he was so sad. We don't know why he was so upset, but he was just so heavy. So we started talking to him about how Heavenly Father loves him. We all got on the train, and we kept talking to him. He asked us a question, he said"What made you pick me? Out of all the people on the platform for you to talk to you, why did you pick me?" I just said to him, Dairus we represent Jesus Christ and every day we go and find those people that He wants us to talk to. Today He wanted us to talk to you, and tell you He loves you. Darius just looked at us and was almost crying. He then said, I dont deserve that kind of love and he got up and walked away. We hurried and wrote little messages into a Book of Mormon, and then found him and gave it t him. THEN THE TRAIN HIT TWO COWS. It broke down, and was stuck for an hour. After that hour Sister Friel and Sister Madeux sat down with him and started talking to him. He was totally different, he was happy and smiling. And he said he was going to read the whole Book of Mormon and gave them his information for them to contact him later. So cool!!!! Not so good for Ben&Jerry though (the cows)

2) Our first day was crazy. We did some practices where we went and found the panic pulls and did all the security stuff to make sure we know how to be safe and how to contact security should a creeper try to creep on us haha. Then we got our companions! My companion is Sister Aguilar and she is amazing. She's from Guatamala and has been out for 8 months. Her English is so good and she's also the Spanish language coordinator. So that means we get to do cool stuff! Like give the tour of the Humanitarian Center to all the foreign dignitaries coming in to Salt Lake City next week to meet with the Quorum of the 12 Apostles! We're way excited! She's so funny, I'm so glad she's my compaion. It's a lot of fun giving tours, it's really cool how we can share the history of this place and also have the gospel still be ahuge part of it.

3)The Beehive House. My first assignment is the Beehive House, so I have a 2 hour shift there every day, even though when it is changes throughout the week. The Beehive House is Brigham Young's house, and it's so cool! The first tour Igave of it was with Sister Aguilar, and she thought Ihad already given a tour of it before... but in reality Ihad just read the site guide so Ialready knew a ton of the information about the house. Until we got to the last room... I hadn't read that page yet. So she started and then she stopped and it was my turn to talk more about the history... but Ihad no idea about anything in that room. I din't even know what room it was supposed to be! A living room?I had no idea. So I just pointed at the modern picture of Jesus on the wall and said, and my favorite part f this room is this painting of Jesus. Even if it wasn't originally part of the house. S.Aguilar almost died laughing. She kept it together really well but that's when she realized I hadn't given a tour of the place before ahahaha. 

4)So here's a little of how missionary work here is... let's take the tabernacle for instance. In the tabernacle we'll share some of the history of the building, do the acoustic demonstration, and then we'll say something like.. this building was so important for the early members of the church because it was here that they came to listen to the prophet. We believe in modern prophets and apostles, the same organization that Christ had when he was alive we have today. Namely a prophet and 12 apostles. Those leaders give us the information we need to be able to make it back to live with our Father in Heaven again... and then we talk about the gospel and about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. It's really cool how we do it. In the Beehive house yesterday, we gave away 7 Books of Mormon!Because after the tour people would ask us for them! We also do online. Yesterday I picked upa call and she was asking for a Finding Faith in Chrsit CD. I asked her if she'd ever heard of the Book of Mormon before and then got to teach the restoration to her all over the phone. I asked her if upon reading the Book of Mormon if she found it to be true would she get baptized and she said yes! We're excited to call her back next week and then work with her local missionaries to see how she's doing. So that's a little of how it works here. Feel free to email me questions:) 

5) We got a seriously golden investigator yesterday. His name is Leo, and he speaks Spanish. He told us this: he got to work and then they told him that it was his day off. So he started walking home, and walking home he passed Temple Square. Something in him told him he needed to go inside. So he did, and started walking around the Temple Grounds. The grounds are a little above the rest of the square, so while he was up there he saw Sister A and I holding our sign for the Spanish tour. He felt like he needed to be in that tour. So he came down, but passing us he decided he didn't want to anymore so he just kept walking. He got to the gate to leave TSquare when something in him said No. You need what they have. So he turned around to come back to where we were but we were gone!Then someone opened the door to the Tabernacle, which he thought was closed, and asked if he wanted to go inside. He said okay, and when he walkedi n there we were with the family that wanted to see our tour! So he walked over towards us, but not wanting to interrupt he stood a little away until we looked over at him and said, "Hola! Do you want to join our tour?" So he did. From our side, we had seen him walk past us and we had smiled at him and Ihad said Hola! To him and he just kept walking. So when we saw him come into the tabernacle we knew who he was and invitd him to join our tour. After the tour he told us this experience, and he took a Book of Mormon and gave us his information. He's coming to conference with us this Sunday! Woop woop!! We play it in Spanish in the Assembly Hall. We're so excited!!

6) I use Spanish every day here. I teach a lot in Spanish, possibly more than English. I got approvd for the Spain flag, so that should be getting here soon!I'm excited about that. Most of the people we talk to ask me if I'm from there and why I have the USflag ahaha. 

7) This is such a cool and unique mission. I really understand more greatly why Heavenly Father wanted me to come here, and I'm so grateful for this call to be on Temple Square. Now that I'm here, I wouldn't want to serve anywhere else. I love learning the history and being able to share the gospel at the same time. It's so easy to talk to people here, and it's something special to be on temple grounds 24/7. We have these cool access cards that get us into all thetunnels and fun hiding places around temple square. We have fun. 

Well, I love you all and I hope you have an amazing week!! I love this gospel and know it's true. I love the Book of Mormon, I love reading it every day. It's because of the Book of Mormon that I, and anyone else, can know that this church is true. I love my Savior Jesus Christ. I love being able to represent Him. It's a good life.

 Sister Black

Last Week in the MTC!

Hello everyone!!

My last week in the MTC is almost over!! Our Elders left us Tuesday&Wednesday, and we started our Visitors Center Training on Wednesday! Tomorrow we take a field trip to Temple Square, and then Wednesday we head out to Salt Lake to stay! It's coming so fast! It's a little crazy thinking my time in the MTC is almost over. I've got this weird mixture of feeling like I've been here forever and feeling like I just got here. It's crazy! Here are some highlights from the week....

1) I've grown to really love role playing. It's a lot of fun getting to practice on each other and see what they do well that we can incorporate into our lessons and getting to practice a few times on someone we can't mess up on ahaha. On Monday we were role playing and I was the investigator for Elders Kay and Bullock. I was sitting in a park watching my kids when the missionaries were practicing approaching me. They started teaching me a lesson, and they were doing such a good job! And then Elder Pace walked up in between us looked at me and said, "Honey are these guys bothering you?" It was so funny. It was so hard keeping it together, we're not sure what possessed him to enter the role play as my husband but it was so funny. The poor Elders that were teaching ahaha. It was fun though.

2) We started Visitors Center Training! There are a ton of us and we represent so many different countries and languages. We have Sisters in there with us from: Thailand, Japan, South Korea, China, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, El Salvador, England, and Nigeria! And then there's us lowly Americans. We try to feel cool too ahahaha. Most of us are going to Temple Square, and then there are 4 Sisters going to Winter Quarters, Nebraska, and one other Sister going to Washington DC North, Visitors Center.

3) We started online teaching this week. It's actually way fun! We love it! It's so cool, we get to teach people from all over! It's really fun. We answer calls, send emails, send text messages, participate in chats, call missionaries serving in other parts of the world to send and check on referrals... it's a lot and it's way fun. I had one guy named Jack call the other day wanting to know about the church's stance on gay marriage, and I had two sweet ladies from the south wanting free Bibles because there's had been lost in flooding. One of them even accepted a visit from missionaries and a Book of Mormon! It was cool because whenever we call anyone to see what they need or check a referral, we always try and share a message with them. We don't just answer questions, we share discussions and help them get closer to Christ. I was able to share the restoration with one lady who called from Florida wanting a Bible. She wants to meet with the missionaries now and is excited to get her Book of Mormon! I'll get to call her after the missionaries meet with her to follow up and keep helping her come closer to Christ. There's a lot more to online teaching than I originally thought haha.

4) My Visitors Center companion! Her name is Hermana Gonzalez and she's from Mexico! It's fun for me because she calls me Hermana and we get to speak and teach in Spanish together! Since I speak at a "native level" I'm allowed to teach online in Spanish! We taught a guy from Columbia on Wednesday! It was so cool!!! It's amazing to me how many people are looking for the truth and are able to find it online. The technology we have really is an amazing tool to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. How awesome is it that someone in Columbia wanting to come closer to Christ was able to talk to two 19 year old missionaries in Provo, Utah about how he can come closer to His Savior and find relief from guilt and sorrow. Pretty amazing. 

5) We got to give a tour of T4 and T3, the new MTC buildings, this week as part of our Visitors Center Training! It was fun! We got take investigators around the buildings. Our girl was named Aubrey, she was super sweet. She didn't think that Mormons believed in the Bible, so it was fun getting to show her T3 with all the huge pictures of Christ from the Bible videos with the Bible scriptures on the wall and tell her about how Christ is the center of our faith, the center of our name tags, and the center of our buildings ;) 

6) This week the Branch President assigned me to be the Sister District Training Leader. Basically what that means, is that since all our Elders left and we're now a District of Sisters, I'm the leader of our district now. So that's exciting! I get to go to Branch Council now and I'm in charge of the mail and making sure that all the Sisters in my district are doing okay. We leave Wednesday, but it will be a cool experience to get to serve for these next few days. 

7) Sister Madeux and I performed "His Hands" for the wives of the mission presidency. And they really liked it! So they asked us to perform it at a Welcome Devotional for all the new Senior Missionaries. We're excited!! It's this Monday, we're really glad that we get to perform it. 

8) Exercise is still rough lol. I ran a mile a few times this week and planked for 2 minutes straight so that's the highlight. Mind you, the plank was not without much suffering ahahaha. 

9) Elder Kearon from the Presidency of  the 70 came this week to talk to us. It was awesome! He's from the UK so that made it even more exciting. He talked a lot about things we can do to really be better missionaries, and overall better people that are more able to serve God. He said there are 3 things that the children of our Heavenly Father must do, and do like they mean it, if they want to be able to serve God to the fullness of their potential and ability. PRAY like you MEAN IT. STUDY like you MEAN IT. EXERCISE like you MEAN IT. If we fail to do any of those 3 things to the best of our ability, we won't be able to serve God like we MEAN IT. I really loved his talk. It made me think about how I can do better in all of those areas. How often have I just said a quick prayer before plopping into bed or night, skimmed a few verses or a chapter of the scriptures and called that my study for the day, or stretched for 10 minutes and called it exercise. If we don't perform the little things to the best of our ability, how can we expect to be able to help our God with the big things and perform them well? I loved it. Really made me think.

I love you all!!! Thank you so much for the emails!!! I love it. I'm sorry I don't respond to them all, but I read and cherish each one. Thank you so much for your prayers and support. You're all amazing! 

 Sister Black

Week 3 in the MTC

Hello everyone!

My time in the MTC is over half way done! This was our last week with our Elders, they're leaving for Ogden and Baltimore this Tuesday and Wednesday. We're actually pretty sad about it, we love our Elders! It's definitely going to be a different dynamic having a whole week with just Sisters while we go through the Visitors Center training. We're excited though! Here are some of this weeks highlights:

1) Sister Dossett and I got called as the music coordinators for our branch! So basically we're in charge of all the music for sacrament meeting. It's pretty fun, we get to pick all the hymns that we sing and put together the musical numbers. I'll be playing the hymns for the rest of our time here, and Sister Dossett is going to lead the music. It's so nice being able to play the piano. If you're reading this and your mom is currently trying to get you to practice and you don't want to... do it. You'll be glad you did later. Thanks Mom!

2) Since our Elders are leaving this next week, this Sunday our district is doing a musical number! We're singing I Know that My Redeemer Lives. It sounds really nice, I'll try and send a video but it might be too long. If it comes it does, if it doesn't it doesn't. My district had me sing His Hands for me this week. It was really nice, and it was probably the most reverent I've seen a lot of our Elders ahaha. A couple of them got really emotional, I love how the Spirit can speak to people in different ways. I definitely think that our God loves music. Music is just such a powerful conduit of the Spirit. 

3) This week we had an awesome devotional given to us by Dallin H. Oaks, one of the apostles of Jesus Christ on the earth today! He came to the MTC and it was fun because my companions and I were all in the MTC choir so we got to sing for him! He talked to us a lot about the importance of repentance. He talked to us about how a lot of times missionaries will be so excited to teach about baptism that they skip right from faith to the baptismal challenge. But that skips over a really important step - repentance. A lot of times we think of repentance as something that we do when we've done something terrible or as something that means God is upset with us and we need to confess. Anything we do, or don't do, that takes us further away from Jesus Christ is something that we should repent of. And repentance isn't a terribly scary thing, it's a gift from our loving Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ. Because of repentance we are able to be made clean through the Atonement. Because we can repent we don't have to carry guilt or shame or grudges with us through this life. Our Savior suffered for us so that we wouldn't have to. He didn't perform the Atonement so that we would never use it. He wants us to use it, He is pleading for us to use it. He has done literally everything He can to enable us to return to our Heavenly Father. But now it's up to us to use the gift He has given us, and repent of what we do wrong. It's not a bad scary thing, it's a gift from our Father in Heaven who loves His children. We watched a video about the Character of Christ this week from Elder Bednar, another apostle. It was awesome. It was all about how the Atonement of Jesus Christ wouldn't have been possible without the Character of Christ. The character of Christ is about how selfless He is. He turns outward when the natural man would turn inward. The Atonement is such an example of that, and there are others throughout His life. A thought I had while watching it is that "Christ chose to save us, when He could of saved Himself". I love that. I love how selfless our Savior is and how much He truly loves us.

4) This week we taught two girls, one is Kayla and the other is Kristina. They were both super nice. We only got to teach them one lesson because of schedule changes and class, but they're both super sweet. 

5) For exercise lately we've been getting together as a district and going to the field to play kickball or to the gym to play basketball. I'm really bad at both of those games, but let's just say I'm not the worst Sister out there so I at least feel good about that ahaha. Funny story though, the Elders were like come on Sister Black show us what you got and I was like okay all prideful like and then I shot the basketball from the free throw line and I DRAINED IT. Like legit no backboard or anything. I FELT SO COOL. The Elders were like whaaaaaat. (I was surprised too lol) Elder Pace said he bet I couldn't do it again and gave me the ball and I DID IT AGAIN. Then I walked away. There was no way that was happening 3 times in a row ahaha. I felt cool. Made my brothers proud that day. (In the half hour that followed though they quickly realized that I was actually not a good basketball player. It's fine though, I had my 5 minutes of glory ahahah) Also, Elders cant guard Sisters so when I was playing with them and my companion was running around the gym, I was the only Sister playing. So the Elders on my team would just throw me the ball and I would basically just get to shoot from wherever I wanted and take my own sweet time because the Elders on the other team couldn't guard me at all. Ahaha it's a good thing I'm not actually that great a shot lol.

Next week with Visitors Center training we will be spending Saturday on Temple Square with all the other Sisters called to visitors centers around the world! So Pday will be Friday! 

Thank you so much everyone for all the wonderful emails and surprises I get throughout the week. They really do bring sunshine to my soul and make hard days happier. I love you all!!

Sister Courtney Black

Strong Like Unto the Men

Hello Everyone!!! 

Crazy - my time in the MTC is just about half way done! It's been a really good week, much better than the last one ahaha. Here are the highlights.

1) Matt and Jessica. These are our two investigators that we've been teaching every day this week. It's been awesome getting to work with real people, we don't know if they're members doing role play for us or if they're real investigators, but Sister Dossett and I are both pretty confidant that both of them are legitimate non members. Matt is awesome. He's super receptive and is basically a golden investigator, his wife is a member but doesn't want to join the church just to make her happy. He wants to find out for himself and he's super willing to do everything we ask him so that he can come to know on his own. He's really cool, and we've gotten to teach him 4 times already. He's committed to a baptismal date on September 16! We're way excited. We'll be here until the 20th, so if he stays solid and we get permission from President Martino, we should get to go! We really hope so. Our other investigator is Jessica. We only got to teach her twice since she missed 2 appointments. This is a serious story of how love changes people. So when we met her, she was super anti. We tried to share a message with her, and she would basically roll her eyes at us and tell us she didn't agree with anything we said. The lesson didn't go anywhere, and basically everyone walked out frustrated. But Sister Dossett and I decided that we would just pray for Christ like love for her. It was really hard if I'm being honest. But when she showed up to the last opportunity we would have to teach her yesterday, we walked in there and just prayed to be able to love her. We didn't have a lesson plan at all. We just went in praying. She started out the same way. Super stand offish. But we just asked her questions and just let the Spirit dictate to us what to tell her. By the end of the lesson she was super open and super soft hearted. We were able to teach her about hope and faith. That it was okay that she didn't believe or know yet, but that she could start by having hope. She committed to reading the Book of Mormon and trying to have hope. We were so excited. There was such a difference between last lesson and this lesson. It was amazing how much Christ like love can change someone when they realize that you're there for them and not to teach a lesson or just try and get them to join the church.

2) The count of people I have found that I know here is officially 33. For those of you who may know who this is, I saw President Cusick! He was the mission president of the Tampa, FL mission. He's a branch president here at the MTC now! Anyways, the number of people I'm finding is slowing down, but still increasing. You could say I'm famous. 

3) Sad news. On Wednesday a couple of our Elders were playing basketball, and one of them jumped and landed wrong and totally broke his foot. Unfortunately he had to be sent home and is now in recovery. We aren't sure when he'll be back, it depends on whether or not he ends up needing surgery. We're sad about it. 

4) My bottom retainer popped off this week, so Sister Dossett and I got to break out of the MTC for a trip to the orthodontist! It was so fun being in the real world again! The dentist even gave us slushies!!! Picture to be sent later.

5) Sister Dossett and I are getting ripped. And by ripped I mean less weak ahaha. We can officially hold a plank for one minute straight!! And then take a 30 second break and plank for another minute! Our goal is officially to get to do 3 minutes before we leave the MTC. This is where the email subject comes from - we have to go work out with all these Elders that are doing many pushups and many pullups and lifting very large weights. Sister Dossett and I can do 3 pushups, half a pullup, and lift our 8 lb. weights. But you know what, it's okay. One day we hope to be strong like unto the men, but for right now we're improving and that's what's important. Our Heavenly Father doesn't expect perfection from us, but he expects us to start where we are and with His help get better each day. He isn't waiting for us to acheieve a certain level of righteousness or perfection to help us. Our Savior loves us and knows us perfectly, He knows where we are and He knows what we need to do to get better and come closer to Him. He is right next to us, wherever we are in our path of life. I heard once that our Savior is a lot like a really good spotter in the gym. He's right there to make sure that we don't get crushed, and even though it may not feel to us in the moment as if He's really doing anything to help and lifting our burdens is hard and sometimes painful, the second we start to falter or the second that we begin to be crushed He's right there taking a little of the weight for us. And if we listen hard enough, we can hear His gentle voice encouraging us on, telling us we can do it. We're so close. Just a little farther.

A HUGE thank you to everyone that has sent me letters or emails or packages this week. They seriously brighten my day and I absolutely love getting the little waves from home or little thoughts. Often times they come right when I'm most missing home and they really help me get through hard days. I love you all!!!

**To whoever sent me the industrial sized bag of chips and salsa from Los Hermanos(at least I think it was Los Hermanos).... you're my actual favorite ahaha. It didn't have a name on it, but I would love to know who it came from!! Thank you!!! 

I love you all so much, thank you for your prayers and support. They're real, and I can feel them. I know God lives, I know He loves His children, and I know He loves you. 

All my love,

-- 

Sister Black

PS - if you only get my letter or only get my pictures, let me or my mom know. I'm not sure why some people aren't getting everything. If something doesn't come through, you can check out the blog that my mom keeps updated with all my group emails and pictures though!! sisterblackontemplesquare.blogspot.com