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!!
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