I freaking love the MTC! So many exciting things happened this week.
Number one. (The one most fresh on my mind.) I GET TO SING IN THE GENERAL RELIEF SOCIETY MEETING. WOOHOO!!! They selected a big group of sisters who will be here long enough to for all our practices and will obviously be here for the actual broadcast. But we practice every day and then next Saturday we get to go down there and SING! So keep your eye open for me! It is such a blessing and exciting opportunity to get to do this because basically only the foreign sisters who came on the same day as me have the right stay time in order to be eligible to sing. And they cut girls who didn't have any musical experience. It is a real honor to get to sing. Today was our first practice and the General Relief Society Presidency came to greet us and some sisters in my district and I got to meet them afterwards and we got a picture! But its on my Branch President's Wife's iPhone so I can't post it until next week. But seriously. I am so dang excited for the whole thing.
On the same note of choir, my two favorite sisters and I go to the MTC choir, we practice twice a week and sing at the Tuesday Night Devotionals in the Marriott center. Ryan Eggett is the choir director and he is the most fantastic musical director I have ever worked under. We sang "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" and as we practiced Sunday and Tuesday we would sing a verse and he would talk about the story of Joseph and how we should sing it according to the story. We talked about how both God and Satan had their eye on Joseph from a young age between his fever, his leg bone removal, the story where he almost got lost and died in the snow storm and ultimately leading up to the sacred grove. He contemplated which church to join for years and then finally came upon James 1:5. How we have multiple accounts of the story of the First Vision because when you tell a story you adjust the amount of details according the the listener. Brother Eggett gave the example of his daughter after her prom night told him that she had a great date and a lot of fun, and talked to his wife for two hours about how her friend's date smelled and the haircut of her waiter. Having multiple accounts makes it MORE real, because one same rehearsed story is very fake.
He said, "The way you sing should paint a picture that everyone can see." Pretty neat.
Our other major devotional is on Sundays and this week the main producer of 17 miracles, Ephraim's rescue, Only a Stonecutter and a few others came and talked about how making these films changed his life and allowed him to see the pioneers in an entirely different viewpoint. And we got to watch some clips from Ephraim's rescue! Here is some fun trivia about these popular LDS films:
1. Larry H Miller completely funded the Work and A Glory films costing him over $20 million dollars and received very little return back from his investment. One day, he recieved and email from a man who said "I was so impressed with your films that I converted to the Church of Latter Day Saints." Larry H Miller printed out the email, took it to his board and said, "Well we all know the worth of souls in great in the eyes of the Lord, and now we know that that worth has a tangible value: $20 million dollars."
2. In the Testaments films President Hinckley insisted that every member of the cast be a member of the church, which proved to be difficult. They accomplished for the task, except the man who played Korihor-the bad guy in the movie-they couldn't find a member bad enough to play the part.
3. In 17 miracles, 30% of the cast had direct lineage to the Martin Handcart Company, and 50% of the cast in Ephraim's rescue had direct lineage to the people they were playing.
4. Lastly, Ephraim Hanks had a few scenes in 17 miracles, but during the editing process they decided that he was such an amazing man that he needed his own movie, and it took off!
Twas a very neat devotional. I forgot how much I love film, and how great of an impact it can make.
Speaking of film, we spent a ton on time on Sunday watching Mormon Messages. They are so good! My absolute favorite is Mountains to Climb, it makes me cry every time. But the new one: Daily Bread: The Pattern is so good. It really makes you think. It talks about how our daily need for sustenance is a metaphor for our daily need for spiritual sustenance. Just how we can't go too long without food without suffering, we cannot go too long without divine conversation without suffering. This is exemplified in the story of Moses and Israel and Manna and how it came from God, but only lasted one day, you were required to depend on God each day for more, it could not be saved for later.
In other news, my district did our first English fast. We start and end with a prayer and go 24 hours without English. Its difficult, but really fun at the same time to already be able to go 24 hours without my native language.
EU AMA PORTUGUES!
Its a reminder of what I mentioned last week- that we are called to the mission and language in which the spirit can best speak to us. I am so excited to be fluent.
So between our study periods and class time we get to teach our teachers as they "act" as investigators they met on their missions so we can practice teaching in portuguese and molding the lessons to real people "teach people not lessons." A few days ago Sister Findlay and I got to teach our last lesson to Carlos. When we street contacted him he seemed very pensive and reserved, and he hardly spoke our first few lessons, though he was interested in the gospel. So for our last lesson with him I really wanted it to be a spiritual experience and I really wanted to know him and who we was and through sharing my personal experiences with broken families, we got him to open up. He is divorced, and both of his kids are in the hospital, one with cancer, and one was in a bicycle accident. It was the most spiritual lesson we have taught yet, and even though we weren't actually speaking to Carlos, I felt like I came closer to him and learned to love other people. After that lesson, during class, my teacher talked to us about how even though the investigators we currently teach aren't neccessarily "real" it doesn't mean you can't feel something and love that person, and he said(in front of the whole class) that during the lesson with Sister Findlay and I, he, as Irmou Williams beyond the mask of Carlos felt something and was spiritually edified. That really touched me, especially because I was getting down about the language, got a priesthood blessing from our great Zone Leaders and then taught that lesson afterwards. The MTC is a beautiful place, and I am happy to spend time here before getting in the field.
We learned this week that as Saints of Christ we embrace change. Repentance is constant part of our life-it is not just going from bad to good just like missionary work isn't going from non member to member. Sister Findlay and I, as members, got to share a special experience with Irmou Williams, also a member. Repentance is change, and improvement and going from good to better and better to best.
Sister Findlay decided to go home to marry a man she met a few weeks before she came into the mission field so I am now in a triad with the two older sisters and I love it! They are very on task and motivated and I have thoroughly enjoyed the last few days with them. I started going to the very very early morning exercise classes they offer for sisters in the mornings with them and its quite fun! It really does make the day go by better when I workout in the mornings, you were right mom. Who knew :)
I tried to send an email to Elder Brandon Carlson and accidentally sent it to an Elder Bradley Carlson serving in Germany, so I made a new friend! Ha, its quite funny really, but the more letters the better!
Ti ama!
Abracos!
Number one. (The one most fresh on my mind.) I GET TO SING IN THE GENERAL RELIEF SOCIETY MEETING. WOOHOO!!! They selected a big group of sisters who will be here long enough to for all our practices and will obviously be here for the actual broadcast. But we practice every day and then next Saturday we get to go down there and SING! So keep your eye open for me! It is such a blessing and exciting opportunity to get to do this because basically only the foreign sisters who came on the same day as me have the right stay time in order to be eligible to sing. And they cut girls who didn't have any musical experience. It is a real honor to get to sing. Today was our first practice and the General Relief Society Presidency came to greet us and some sisters in my district and I got to meet them afterwards and we got a picture! But its on my Branch President's Wife's iPhone so I can't post it until next week. But seriously. I am so dang excited for the whole thing.
On the same note of choir, my two favorite sisters and I go to the MTC choir, we practice twice a week and sing at the Tuesday Night Devotionals in the Marriott center. Ryan Eggett is the choir director and he is the most fantastic musical director I have ever worked under. We sang "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" and as we practiced Sunday and Tuesday we would sing a verse and he would talk about the story of Joseph and how we should sing it according to the story. We talked about how both God and Satan had their eye on Joseph from a young age between his fever, his leg bone removal, the story where he almost got lost and died in the snow storm and ultimately leading up to the sacred grove. He contemplated which church to join for years and then finally came upon James 1:5. How we have multiple accounts of the story of the First Vision because when you tell a story you adjust the amount of details according the the listener. Brother Eggett gave the example of his daughter after her prom night told him that she had a great date and a lot of fun, and talked to his wife for two hours about how her friend's date smelled and the haircut of her waiter. Having multiple accounts makes it MORE real, because one same rehearsed story is very fake.
He said, "The way you sing should paint a picture that everyone can see." Pretty neat.
Our other major devotional is on Sundays and this week the main producer of 17 miracles, Ephraim's rescue, Only a Stonecutter and a few others came and talked about how making these films changed his life and allowed him to see the pioneers in an entirely different viewpoint. And we got to watch some clips from Ephraim's rescue! Here is some fun trivia about these popular LDS films:
1. Larry H Miller completely funded the Work and A Glory films costing him over $20 million dollars and received very little return back from his investment. One day, he recieved and email from a man who said "I was so impressed with your films that I converted to the Church of Latter Day Saints." Larry H Miller printed out the email, took it to his board and said, "Well we all know the worth of souls in great in the eyes of the Lord, and now we know that that worth has a tangible value: $20 million dollars."
2. In the Testaments films President Hinckley insisted that every member of the cast be a member of the church, which proved to be difficult. They accomplished for the task, except the man who played Korihor-the bad guy in the movie-they couldn't find a member bad enough to play the part.
3. In 17 miracles, 30% of the cast had direct lineage to the Martin Handcart Company, and 50% of the cast in Ephraim's rescue had direct lineage to the people they were playing.
4. Lastly, Ephraim Hanks had a few scenes in 17 miracles, but during the editing process they decided that he was such an amazing man that he needed his own movie, and it took off!
Twas a very neat devotional. I forgot how much I love film, and how great of an impact it can make.
Speaking of film, we spent a ton on time on Sunday watching Mormon Messages. They are so good! My absolute favorite is Mountains to Climb, it makes me cry every time. But the new one: Daily Bread: The Pattern is so good. It really makes you think. It talks about how our daily need for sustenance is a metaphor for our daily need for spiritual sustenance. Just how we can't go too long without food without suffering, we cannot go too long without divine conversation without suffering. This is exemplified in the story of Moses and Israel and Manna and how it came from God, but only lasted one day, you were required to depend on God each day for more, it could not be saved for later.
In other news, my district did our first English fast. We start and end with a prayer and go 24 hours without English. Its difficult, but really fun at the same time to already be able to go 24 hours without my native language.
EU AMA PORTUGUES!
Its a reminder of what I mentioned last week- that we are called to the mission and language in which the spirit can best speak to us. I am so excited to be fluent.
So between our study periods and class time we get to teach our teachers as they "act" as investigators they met on their missions so we can practice teaching in portuguese and molding the lessons to real people "teach people not lessons." A few days ago Sister Findlay and I got to teach our last lesson to Carlos. When we street contacted him he seemed very pensive and reserved, and he hardly spoke our first few lessons, though he was interested in the gospel. So for our last lesson with him I really wanted it to be a spiritual experience and I really wanted to know him and who we was and through sharing my personal experiences with broken families, we got him to open up. He is divorced, and both of his kids are in the hospital, one with cancer, and one was in a bicycle accident. It was the most spiritual lesson we have taught yet, and even though we weren't actually speaking to Carlos, I felt like I came closer to him and learned to love other people. After that lesson, during class, my teacher talked to us about how even though the investigators we currently teach aren't neccessarily "real" it doesn't mean you can't feel something and love that person, and he said(in front of the whole class) that during the lesson with Sister Findlay and I, he, as Irmou Williams beyond the mask of Carlos felt something and was spiritually edified. That really touched me, especially because I was getting down about the language, got a priesthood blessing from our great Zone Leaders and then taught that lesson afterwards. The MTC is a beautiful place, and I am happy to spend time here before getting in the field.
We learned this week that as Saints of Christ we embrace change. Repentance is constant part of our life-it is not just going from bad to good just like missionary work isn't going from non member to member. Sister Findlay and I, as members, got to share a special experience with Irmou Williams, also a member. Repentance is change, and improvement and going from good to better and better to best.
Sister Findlay decided to go home to marry a man she met a few weeks before she came into the mission field so I am now in a triad with the two older sisters and I love it! They are very on task and motivated and I have thoroughly enjoyed the last few days with them. I started going to the very very early morning exercise classes they offer for sisters in the mornings with them and its quite fun! It really does make the day go by better when I workout in the mornings, you were right mom. Who knew :)
I tried to send an email to Elder Brandon Carlson and accidentally sent it to an Elder Bradley Carlson serving in Germany, so I made a new friend! Ha, its quite funny really, but the more letters the better!
Ti ama!
Abracos!