Date
July 6, 2019
Area
Missionary Training Center - Provo, Utah
Companion
Hermana Toni Brown
Semana 6- Viva ESPANA
Hola mis amigos!
This week was my LAST week in the CCM! At 4 am on Tuesday morning, 16 sleep deprived, enthusiastic, and broken-spanish-speaking missionaries will leave spirit prison. And 25 hours from that moment, they will arrive in MADRID.
I have constant butterflies.
I've never done something more scary.
I've never done something more exciting.
I've never done something of such great importance.
I've never relied so much on the Lord.
Words can't express how grateful I am for the MTC and all the people we've met here. I've been so so blessed with amazing teachers and amazing missionaries in my district and zone. There will definitely be tears when we have to say goodbye to each other on Sunday night, but it's time to go serve the people the Lord has been preparing for us!
On Tuesday we had a devotional from Elder Kim B. Clark of the Seventy. It was probably my favorite devotional we've had here because the spirit testified so strongly that we don't have to be perfect in our languages to help people come unto Christ. He said that the Lord always works at the frontier of our callings-- the places where it's hard and uncomfortable. We need to follow Him in faith and be people that he trusts to do his work. Our confidence and trust is NOT in ourselves, but in the Lord. This is His work and if we are willing to work in those uncomfortable and challenging places, he will allow us to take part in it.
I've learned so much about faith in Jesus Christ while I've been here at the MTC. Joseph Smith said that faith and fear cannot exist in the same place at the same time. Elder Clark talked about how faith is a gift from God and how it can grow if we pray earnestly to increase it. Faith is action, and as we follow Christ and take those few steps in the darkness, trusting that he will help us along the way, our faith will grow. I'll be taking a lot of those steps in the next several months in Spain. I'm so grateful for the opportunity my mission has already given me to so fully rely on the Lord and build my faith in Him.
I have to pack today!! So no funny stories but here's a few things that happened this week:
- We got to stay up until 11 to watch the stadium of fire fireworks on the 4th of July
- Elder Whitacker broke his nose via Elder Graff's elbow in an intense basketball incident, and then got it hit again by a frisbee the next day.
- We rode the bus to UVU and got our passports and visas (woooh)
- Elder Esteadman is probably the healthiest person I've ever met... he runs ironmans and could probably give Chuck Noris a run for his money. Every morning for breakfast he eats a small bowl of oatmeal and an occasional banana. HOWEVER, on Thursday, Hermana Brown and I got him to eat not 1, not 2, but 3 donuts for breakfast.
- All the Hermanas in our room traded dresses the entire week so we didn't have to wear our own clothes once.
- I ran into Elder and Sister Ormsby!!
My favorite scripture I found from this week is in 2 Corinthians 1:
"Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort.
Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.
And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.
And our hope of you is steadfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye also of the consolation"
Because of Jesus Christ, we can be comforted in our sufferings, and as we "partake" of sufferings, we can also partake in the consolation of others, and bear one another's burdens.
I love you all! Thank you again for all your prayers. Con amor,
Hermana Ferguson