Fam fam fam... shmam what is going on?! I miss you!! So I can't believe Dals call!!!!!!!! No spiders thats perfect! I am so excited for him but I wish he was coming into the mtc THIS week! haha. I am also soooo excited for him that he is not learning espanol, lucky punk! I seriously am sooooo excited for him! i want to hear from him what hes thinking, what hes feeling, what hes thinking about what hes feeling, and what hes feeling about what hes thinking...lol but really. tate what did you think?
So this week was sooo hard and sooo good. the keyboard im using is dumb so sorry about the typos and errors. so another apostle came on down to little provo this past week....no biggie. elder l tom perry! this week was really hard b/c my compenera got really discouraged..which i totally understand and don't blame her...but it was just made it kinda lonely some days and I was laughing by myself a lot haha. I decided i want to read the BoM by the time I leave so i have been carrying around this little book of mormon and read whenever there is a little minute...i dont know if ill be able to do it but well see.
So this week our district got chosen for a little somthin somethin. we are now required...yes required...to be up and at the gym at 5;50 in the a.m to be the guinea pigs for this new exercise program they are testing for missionaries...haha! there are about 20 districts that got chosen...what are the chances! there were also three groups within all the districts chosen...one that is not required to go but can go if they want, one that is not get training just seeing they will do it and figure it out on their own.. and one that is required to go every morning! yes of the three we are in the required1 haha it is so funny tho the workouts are called things like the "stripling warrior" 'carry on" stuff like that. we also have to train our trainers in the field on this program and do it for a couple months...this is also in addition to our gym time which is cool but i am showering about 5o times a day...lol jk noth that much but extra times now.
I was really worried about getting up early because we can't go to bed earlier and i am exhausted already so getting up would be really hard1 but I am just learning that really when we are obedient the lord provides a way. like we only have a half hour to shower and be in the classroom....k...that is not long enough is what i was thinking. but Iwant to be obedient and was thinking about how i wanted to follow this but it didn't seem possible and i had this idea of how to do my hair..i know sounds dumb..but it works and is a lot faster haha. the spirit is so strong here at the mtc and i tried hard this week to just enjoy that. not stress out. which was something i had to conciously think about haha. but i noticed i really limit myself. when i am worried about the spanish or teaching skills i am worried about my capabilities. when really if i am trying to be obedient and doing my best thats all i can do...i should get out of the way and let the Lord work through me because he'll be able to do a lot more than i can.
My favorite quote this week "what we obtain too cheaply we esteem too lightly"
Sacrament meeting is so stressful here because we all have to prepare talks and then they just call two missionaries up to speak after the sacrament.. in espanol! that is the key....we have to speak in spanish! it scares me like no other! we decided it is a lot like hunger games. we also chose our district leader to be the one to volunteer as tribute if anyone from our district gets called up to speak.
Well man time goes by fast on here love you!
Hermana Mulliner
P.S. Also had a super cool experience this week in the trc....which is my least favorite thing here...which i know is wierd bc that is what ill be doing every day in the field! but we have to go teach lessons to members in spanish and this week was just a struggle...i was struggling to remember the words and wasn't conjugating right at all! haha. it was just not very smooth or anything at all...the last guy we talked to was a very recent rm and he could tell it was a super struggle and helped us a lot...he could tell we were exhausted when it was over and kind of discouraged that we just couldn't say anything. He stopped us as we were walking out and said sisters i just want you to know I hve sat here through 8 sets of missionaries and you are the only ones who testified to me. Just know you are bringing the spirit even though the language is a struggle...and know that sisters pick up the language faster than elders out in the field. I cried! haha just because I had putmy heart into trying to communicate witht his man and i didn't think i did nay thing right. I felt the spirit very strong that I need to stop worrying about the language...which is hard but im trying.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Still Here...
Family!!! You all sound like you are doing so well!!! I don't know if I have told you....but I'm lovin the letters!! Gracias!!!! Really it is such a boost to hear from someone and you are all so encouraging. Mom the packages are AMAZING! I felt weird getting a package from you on mothers day insteado f the other way around but wo that was the best because it was unexpected and mothers day was hard. I miss you.
Spanish makes me feel dumb. I am tired of feeling dumb! Half the time I really don't know what is going on and it is so frustrating to not being able to communicate everything I want to. There were some really frustrating moments this week. I am working hard at trying to learn spanish and trying to be obedient so it is kind of frustrating that I don't feel or see the improvement I want. At the same time...it has been amazing and such a learning experience tosee how when we have faith the Lord blesses us. We were "invited" to start going into our lessons without any spanish notes. Just go talk. That is a piece of cake for the rest of our district haha but pretty much seems impossible for us. But we realized we were scared to go in without notes, and fear isn't faith. So we decided we would try to rely on the Lord insteadof our notes. It was so crazy, we had planned to teach the plan of salvation..we went in and seriously our spanish is sooo horrible...it has got to be pain ful to talk to us! We take forever to get one thought across. so we realied we would not have time for the whole lesson. we had the thought to just share one scripture...so we did..and our investigator started crying. We looked at each other like what do we do! We didn't want to talk because it just felt so good. We testified...even though the words we were saying probably didn't make sense haha. We just realized that it is not our spanish that teaches them it is the spirit. And even though we did not teach the whole plan of salvation, we only shared one tiny part, the spirit was so strong there and our investigator came closer to Christ. I just feel like I am getting so much more out of this than I will give to anyone. I am so happy to be on a mission.
A branch presidency wife shared a story with us...of this convert who knew the church was true because of some missionaries. The sisters knoced on her door and started sharing a message, their spanish was so bad she had no idea what they were saying but she said she knew whatever they were saying was true. I was kind of bummed and kind of excited to ehar that story. Maybe I am needed in a situation like taht haha where someone needs to just feel something not understand it by the words haha! Elder Holland said, "Christ had the same wish, that it could be better,easier or different at times.If you are going to call yoru self his disciple or missionary how dare you ask to get by without some little price, a few moments in the garden with tears, a few steps toward calvary.it was never meant to be easy, it was not easy for the Son of God himself."
So the Lord seriously sends me humor to be able to make it through. This week though the humor was so random! We went to devotional and sat down inbetween some elders. The devotional started and this elder plops his foot up on his leg, like you know how guys cross their legs the guy way, but he had his shoe off! So that was on the left side. Then this foreign elder on our other side, idk if he was nervous or what but he was bouncing his leg, like he was in a hurry, wehn you move it moves the whole row. So we were bouncing up and down with a stinky foot in our face through the whole devotional. Sister Lynn the sister from Taiwan in our room is so funny. She has pretty good English but she will still say the funniest things. One thing that is hilarious is she doesn't have to shave her legs because she doesn't have "fur" haha. And her and I were the only ones in the room gettting ready one morning and I turn around and she has her arms up and tweezers out. Lol she plucks her armpit hair...ouch!!! Tate you will appreciate this one..The other night we were waiting on one sister to be able to turn off the light...she ws finally ready so we turn off the light then we hear this from sis Lynn, "now i can scratch my bum" lol! She always tells me I could buy the cutest shoes in Taiwan because I guess all the cute shoes come in the small sizes there. I am so grateful for a companion that will laugh with me, we physically could not keep running the other day in gym because we were laughing so hard. I am grateful the Lord makes our weaknesses seem funny instead of seem impossible haha.
We heard from Elder D. Todd Christofferson this week! Those talks are always soo good, but my favorite part is always the end. When you hear, see and feel an apostle bear testimony of Christ, it is so powerful. They also always sort of bless us at the end too and I like that, haha. My favorite thing he said is he was talking about how missionaries have the same commission as apostles, so they see us as their companions! Cool, but he was saying how important and grand our calling is, but the Lord will magnify us to be able to fulfill it, and (this was my fav part) ¨through angels and the spirit He will be with us." They always just make any feelings of inadequacy or fear go away and you have this excitement to go talk people!
Mothers day was brutal! We look forward to Music and the Spoken word but someone should have warned us that it is all about families on mothers day! It was just this chain reaction, those lil kids made me miss Ella and Reese, and then it was all about moms so I was thinking about mom and ....man we were crying through the whole thing haha. Hermana Walker and I are embarrased to cry infront of eachother for some reason, so we were both like tilted the other way in our chairs crying haha!
A sister came up to us and told us this story...of two lil twin boys. one got placed in a room with a bunch of toys and cried. the other got placed in a room with manuer and was so excited because he knew their must be a pony in there if there was that much poop! Lol then she gave us a handful of milkduds and said you need to have a good attitude about everything...even poop! haha.
The kung fu elder is doing really well. From all your letters sounds like he is part of the fam now. We asked to take a picture with him, we wanted a ninja pose with him...obviously ... and we wanted to look legit so we asked him to teach us a few moves that we could do in the pictures. It was so funny cause he started do all this crazy moves even though we just wanted a picture so he just needed to choose one and hold still. Holy cow though...He could have talked for hours about this. It got our whole district up and practicing these punches and stuff haha, but I think it made him feel really good and we got to know him a lot and our whole district became better friends. We just realized how when you sincerely ask someone about something they are interested in you really get to know them.
Everyone in their letters keeps saying...its ok if you write in spanish I can translate it on the computer or something...haha like you all think i am not writing in spanish for your sake. I do love you guys and want you to understand me but also I just am not at that point yet! I only have one day to write so I need to do it fast! So maybe in the future I will be writing in spanish! Lo siento! I love you all!!! Hope you have a good week!! I would love some pics if you get the chance :)
Love,
Hermana Mulliner (sha)
Spanish makes me feel dumb. I am tired of feeling dumb! Half the time I really don't know what is going on and it is so frustrating to not being able to communicate everything I want to. There were some really frustrating moments this week. I am working hard at trying to learn spanish and trying to be obedient so it is kind of frustrating that I don't feel or see the improvement I want. At the same time...it has been amazing and such a learning experience tosee how when we have faith the Lord blesses us. We were "invited" to start going into our lessons without any spanish notes. Just go talk. That is a piece of cake for the rest of our district haha but pretty much seems impossible for us. But we realized we were scared to go in without notes, and fear isn't faith. So we decided we would try to rely on the Lord insteadof our notes. It was so crazy, we had planned to teach the plan of salvation..we went in and seriously our spanish is sooo horrible...it has got to be pain ful to talk to us! We take forever to get one thought across. so we realied we would not have time for the whole lesson. we had the thought to just share one scripture...so we did..and our investigator started crying. We looked at each other like what do we do! We didn't want to talk because it just felt so good. We testified...even though the words we were saying probably didn't make sense haha. We just realized that it is not our spanish that teaches them it is the spirit. And even though we did not teach the whole plan of salvation, we only shared one tiny part, the spirit was so strong there and our investigator came closer to Christ. I just feel like I am getting so much more out of this than I will give to anyone. I am so happy to be on a mission.
A branch presidency wife shared a story with us...of this convert who knew the church was true because of some missionaries. The sisters knoced on her door and started sharing a message, their spanish was so bad she had no idea what they were saying but she said she knew whatever they were saying was true. I was kind of bummed and kind of excited to ehar that story. Maybe I am needed in a situation like taht haha where someone needs to just feel something not understand it by the words haha! Elder Holland said, "Christ had the same wish, that it could be better,easier or different at times.If you are going to call yoru self his disciple or missionary how dare you ask to get by without some little price, a few moments in the garden with tears, a few steps toward calvary.it was never meant to be easy, it was not easy for the Son of God himself."
So the Lord seriously sends me humor to be able to make it through. This week though the humor was so random! We went to devotional and sat down inbetween some elders. The devotional started and this elder plops his foot up on his leg, like you know how guys cross their legs the guy way, but he had his shoe off! So that was on the left side. Then this foreign elder on our other side, idk if he was nervous or what but he was bouncing his leg, like he was in a hurry, wehn you move it moves the whole row. So we were bouncing up and down with a stinky foot in our face through the whole devotional. Sister Lynn the sister from Taiwan in our room is so funny. She has pretty good English but she will still say the funniest things. One thing that is hilarious is she doesn't have to shave her legs because she doesn't have "fur" haha. And her and I were the only ones in the room gettting ready one morning and I turn around and she has her arms up and tweezers out. Lol she plucks her armpit hair...ouch!!! Tate you will appreciate this one..The other night we were waiting on one sister to be able to turn off the light...she ws finally ready so we turn off the light then we hear this from sis Lynn, "now i can scratch my bum" lol! She always tells me I could buy the cutest shoes in Taiwan because I guess all the cute shoes come in the small sizes there. I am so grateful for a companion that will laugh with me, we physically could not keep running the other day in gym because we were laughing so hard. I am grateful the Lord makes our weaknesses seem funny instead of seem impossible haha.
We heard from Elder D. Todd Christofferson this week! Those talks are always soo good, but my favorite part is always the end. When you hear, see and feel an apostle bear testimony of Christ, it is so powerful. They also always sort of bless us at the end too and I like that, haha. My favorite thing he said is he was talking about how missionaries have the same commission as apostles, so they see us as their companions! Cool, but he was saying how important and grand our calling is, but the Lord will magnify us to be able to fulfill it, and (this was my fav part) ¨through angels and the spirit He will be with us." They always just make any feelings of inadequacy or fear go away and you have this excitement to go talk people!
Mothers day was brutal! We look forward to Music and the Spoken word but someone should have warned us that it is all about families on mothers day! It was just this chain reaction, those lil kids made me miss Ella and Reese, and then it was all about moms so I was thinking about mom and ....man we were crying through the whole thing haha. Hermana Walker and I are embarrased to cry infront of eachother for some reason, so we were both like tilted the other way in our chairs crying haha!
A sister came up to us and told us this story...of two lil twin boys. one got placed in a room with a bunch of toys and cried. the other got placed in a room with manuer and was so excited because he knew their must be a pony in there if there was that much poop! Lol then she gave us a handful of milkduds and said you need to have a good attitude about everything...even poop! haha.
The kung fu elder is doing really well. From all your letters sounds like he is part of the fam now. We asked to take a picture with him, we wanted a ninja pose with him...obviously ... and we wanted to look legit so we asked him to teach us a few moves that we could do in the pictures. It was so funny cause he started do all this crazy moves even though we just wanted a picture so he just needed to choose one and hold still. Holy cow though...He could have talked for hours about this. It got our whole district up and practicing these punches and stuff haha, but I think it made him feel really good and we got to know him a lot and our whole district became better friends. We just realized how when you sincerely ask someone about something they are interested in you really get to know them.
Everyone in their letters keeps saying...its ok if you write in spanish I can translate it on the computer or something...haha like you all think i am not writing in spanish for your sake. I do love you guys and want you to understand me but also I just am not at that point yet! I only have one day to write so I need to do it fast! So maybe in the future I will be writing in spanish! Lo siento! I love you all!!! Hope you have a good week!! I would love some pics if you get the chance :)
Love,
Hermana Mulliner (sha)
Monday, May 14, 2012
HELLO!!!!!!!!!!!
FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!
How is everyone?!?!?!?!?! Tate get feeling better dude!! Dal sounds like prom was awesome!!! Can't believe you are graduating, so sad I am missing it! Mom your class sounds no fun haha! The lil chicks are sooo cute! We are supposed to tell you we will not be able to call on Mother's day. :( I miss you so much!! We get to run outside for gym now and we run past the street where I made you guys turn in before you dropped me off to cry. It makes me laugh! and makes me miss you a lot.I love you so much and appreciate the letters and packages and dearelders so much. We were hitting the pinanta the night of cinco de mayo and a we had a knock on our door....we thought we were in trouble...it was a branch presidency wife and we thought o no...she came in looked at what we were doing and then said..well i need a turn to hit it! lol so she hit the pinatat with us! When you send a nother sd card I'll send ya the picks and there is one video but i found out I don't think we are supposed to video so ooops. Thanks for the package it was awesome! Do you guys have plans for the summer already? When is school out? Sorry your call hasn't come yet dal! That might partly be bc of me haha...it is kind of nice to have something like that to look forward to each week...and once it comes I won't have that news to look forward to anymore haha! YOu would crack up at this one elder in my district. He is hilarious but doens't know he is hilarious! He is this skinny latino boy from arizona going to boise on his mission and he is into karate. When he is walking around he does random karate chops and stuff as he goes.Haha its great. At dinner another elder poked a hole in his pie (no se why...elders can be so weird!) and this elder got way made and said, "If you ever touch my pie again i'll karate chop kick you in the face!" and he was serious. Haha it was soooooooooo funny. Hermana Walker and I get a kick out of the things he says bc we are always thinking, who says that! We get kind of loopy around dinner time, everything becomes funny! We just sit there and talk about all the dumb things we have said and done that day...which is usually a lot!! haha but for some reason it all becomes HILARIOUS at dinner time! so it is the best to sit by him at dinner because then everything is even more funny!
How are Ella and Reese? Are you guys doing anything new and fun? Thanks for the pictures from the girls! LOVE THEM!
So wow!! This week was so good!! I was humbled a lot this week. Sunday was mission conference and President Brown told this story of this missionary in the MTC last year whose mom unexpectedly passed away while he was here. then his dad died of cancer of few months later when he was in the field, and he stayed on a misison. Then later that nightwe got to watch the movie called Joseph Smith prophet of the restoration or something, and I was jut blown away. You see what he and his family, and all the early saints went through. I recommend watching that movie...with a box of tissues! I just realized I am complaining about learning spanish and people have gone through much more for this gospel. It was just a day of feeling the spirit and realizing I am nothing compared to this whole work, and what some people have gone through.I am more committed to the gospel and to become the best missionary I can after that day. One of the speakers told us "you are opening the doors to the celestial kingdom to the children of God." I liked that perspective a lot. And then to top it off there is ice cream in the cafeteria on sundays! With brownies to mix in!
I think the shell shock of being at the MTC kind of wore off this week. We are getting into the routine of things and really learning a lot. Today a whole district of elders in our zone are leaving which is way sad because that is a lot of familiar faces that wont be around at meals, gym, devotionals etc. any more. But we are supposed to get 4 sisters this week! So the whole comfort zone thing....guess what I got assigned to be this week? Haha the music coordinator for our branch! lol I don't think the branch president knows how much of a joke that is! But he'll probably find out when he sees i can't lead music in english...I REALLY can't lead music while trying to read/sing the song in spanish! And that is probably one of the most scary things I could think of to do.
So I just wish mine and sister walker's (which by the way i never have to say or write my own name ahah so i think i mightve signed some letters sister walker last week...haha it was really me, sister mulliner, that wrote them lol) lessons could be recorded so you could see them, cause it is quality entertainment. This week we had the most hilarious lesson...it wasn't supposed to be funny though. So our investigator didn't see why she needed to be baptized again because she was already baptized in another church so we were practicing our lesson in another room and the resource teacher came in to "help" us. sometimes they are so eager to help that they overhelp so its not really help. He basically told us to change our whole lesson and we were teaching in ten minutes...that is a lot of spanish to remember in ten minutes! But he showed us this cool object lesson with a paper. The paper represents the gospel, in its fulness like how it was when Christ was on the earth, then when He and the apostoles died we didn't have the priesthood and there was no prophet so people took bits and pieces of the gospel and formed their own churches. At that point you rip up the paper in to little pieces and form piles to represent the different churches. How they are all good and all have parts of the gospel but not the fulness. Then you tell the Joseph Smith story and gather all the papers together to show that the gospel has been restored to its fulness just like how it was when Christ was on the earth. Idk if that makes sense. so we were going to try to explain and do this little demo in spanish with only a few minutes to prepare. We were very nervous!
It ended up going like this. "El evenagelio" (the gospel) as we held up the paper. Then we got nervous and panicked... so we just started ripping it up. Then we just said "iglesia...iglesia...iglesia.." (church, church, church) as we put the papers randomly around. Then we looked up at her....then we started into the Joseph Smith story and my companion said "Dios y Juesucristo se le aparecieron a Jesucristo" God and Jesus Christ appeared to...Jesus Christ. At that point I could not hold it in anymore, I started laughing, our investigator started laughing, and we all just laughed haha. So we basically ripped up the gospel in front of her!
My favorite quote from this week was, "We see ourselves in terms of yesterday and today, God sees us in terms of forever." -Elder Wirthlin
I just have to tell you yesterday was the happiest day so far in the MTC. Hermana Walker and I were talking during gym and we were both telling each other how something was jut good today. I just had the thought....people are praying for you. I have never felt the prayers of other people for me before. But yesterday I could feel it. We have been trying to only speak spanish to eachother outside of class...but we forget or get discouraged after two words when we realize we can't say anything in spanish! (our conversations sounds SO foolish and probably don't make any sense to anyone else b/c we know eachother and know what we are kind of trying to say haha) so we get discouraged before we even get to breakfast. But yesterday we did not forget to speak it to eachother, and i don't know exactly what was different because we still talked worse than a two year in spanish but we kept doing it and we just felt like we learned a lot yesterday. Thank you for thinking of me and praying for me. Even though spanish has not gotten much easier I do not feel alone and my faith is strengthened by you even though I am not with you! I feel so much support and I realize I could not do this without that. Thank you. Thank you so much for your letters and dear elders! I really can't tell you how exciting it is even if it is two sentences to hear from somebody!! Please keep writing!! I love it!!
Love you so much! And can't wait to hear from you guys!
Love, Hermana Mulliner
p.s. mom im not expecting packages every week haha! but if you send another one done iwth tates teach or something beofer I leave the mtc it would be nice to have a box of granola bars and some reg size sticky notes. The werther lil things and jolley ranchers have been my fav! and i love the nut mixes things youve sent! really your packages ahave been the best!!!!! thank you!!!! Love you!! Happy mothers day!!!!
Thursday, May 3, 2012
May 1, 2012
HELLO
OUTSIDE WORLD!!!
So...BAM the gospel is so true!!! Last tuesday after I wrote we had devotional and it was Elder Nelson! Wow two apostles already we feel so lucky. And it was soo good! I immediately felt so bad for complaining so much about spanish in my letters last week. The best part was at the end he invoked an apostalic blessing upon us and that is probably the strongest I have felt the spirit since being here at the MTC, and that is saying something because the spirit is so strong here all of the time. I just felt the Holy Ghost bear witness to me of the doctrine of of the Gospel and of our potential. He explained how it is a commandment to be perfect and many times that is overwhleming or daunting to us, but really that should be so exciting that that is a commandment. God commands us to be perfect because he sees that potential in us! Isn't that so cool?!
I also read this quote by Elder Samuelson "just as we should not lower the standards that the Lord has established for the conduct of His servants, we are also not authorized to raise them..Be sure that you do not have higher standardsfor yourself or others than the Lord has established." I just realized so much this week that I was setting standards for myself. Maybe it isn't God's plan for me to know a lot of spanish by the time I leave the MTC (even thought I really wish it was!). I am the one putting that standard on myself. The Lord is just asking that I work my hardest and do my best.
Oh, also Hermana Walker and I were studying out in the hall this past week and three elders came up and starting talking to us which we were kind of annoyed at first because we were trying to study...not talk. They asked us what language we were learning and we started into how hard the spanish is (haha like you have heard way too much from me!) and they asked us to bear our testimonies to them in spanish, we were thinking who are these elders and so annoyed they were taking up our study time. But they wouldn't let us not do it so even though we still are really bad at it we did it and the spirit just came so strong. Then we asked them to bear their testimony in their language...get this...they are learning hmong!!! It has 8 tones! They sounded like Dori from finding Nemo when she tries to speak whale haha only there were no recognizable words at all. So we were humbled a lot because these elders were so willing to share their testimonies in their super hard language and that they are learning that language! I am grateful to be learning spanish!!
Did anyone watch music and the spoken word? they talked about how work that seems beyond our capacity is a blessing because it brings a happy exhaustion at the end of the day. It is possible and awesome to be physically tired but emotionally renewed. I just loved that because I am sooo tired at the end of the day, my brain is fried! (Like the other day I asked my teacher how to say taco in spanish!!) but at the same time I feel so happy and so content when I go to bed. We had to teach in the TRC this week and we also had to teach an investigator that same day so that was 3 lessons in spanish in one day! Holy cow we were so nervous for that day becuase that is a lot of talking in spanish haha. But once we pray to start a lesson the nerves go away because the spirit is there, and even though our spanish is bad we are somehow communicating with the person. We taught this really old guy with a horrible memory! He seriously asked us the same question three times right in a row and did not even realize he did it, we felt bad cause we had to take turns looking away to laugh and we could not look at each other the whole rest of that lesson, but it was great practice, ask me to tell you about after Christ's ressurrection in spanish now and I have that down!
So this whole mission thing has been a game for the Lord I think, called, How to push Shalee the farthest outside her comfort zone as possible. Haha, so we do deomstrations and practices A LOT here. We learn a concept and then the teacher of the workshop or whatever will call on someone to come up and do a demo with them...I hate doing this! I am so bad at pretending to be an investigator and it is not my favorite thing to be up in front of a lot of people. Especially missionaries where everyone knows a lot haha. But somehow I get "invited" to come up! That is the other thing, teachers don't tell you or ask you to do things, they "invite" you haha we are always laughing because they "invite" us to memorize a bazillion things everyday but we realize they are not inviting us they really mean memorize this scripture by tomorrow. Anyways I got "invited" to come up and do a demonstration about how to teach an investigator to pray and it turned out to be a really good experience. It was the first time I really felt the spirit working through me while I taught. Afterwards I sat down and thought I don't even know how I just did that. Hermana Walker and I also got assigned to be coordinating sisters, which is pushing outside our comfort zones because part of that means we have to "invite" the sisters in the residency halls to obey the rules, we feel very awkward doing this but we also just laugh because the Lord is having us do a lot of things we probably wouldn't have done before :)
Thank you so much for your letters!! I honestly cannot express to you the support I feel and how much that has helped me!!! Thank you thank you thank you thank you for writing and dear eldering. Dear elders are so good to get! If I haven't written you back I will and please write again! I feel like I am in a little bubble here at the MTC and it is really nice to hear about life. Thank you for your support I felt very loved this week :)
Love,
Hermana Mulliner
P.S. Mom those packages were AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!! holy cow i wish you couldve seen Hermana stulls reation!! she has never felt so special before i don't think! She has been asking me for make up tips all week and is loving it. She especially loes the little bag....that was a cute touch. their visas didn't come so they havent left yet don't know when they will be able to. Thank you thankyou!!!!! please tell the bishop thank you for his letter, made me cry:) Thank you soo much for the packages the food is great! And we got 2 new sisters in our room this week one from taiwain and one from af haha they are both going to germany. now our room is starting to be stinky iwht six of us in there...ugh. But they all love you haha!!! I am not going to write everyone hand written this week becasue I don't have time so this is it :) I love you and miss you and can';t tell yo uhow grateful I am for your support. I am not much better at spanish...serisouly hahah...but I liked your grateful idea. please keep updating me on dals mish!! love all your dear elders! and the choc covered almonds were my fav!! you can use my checks if you need to buy anything for me. um rick and sharon sent me a check ill send it home can you deposit it? thanks! or use it for whatev! the sd card is a great idea. I din't get any pics of the flowers i did of jean and ben and emily though so cute! Thanks again for the pakcages!! also they stopped printing pics here so no more pics for a while...lol.tell lys to send pics in her package.also i could use another journal....but it could be super cheapy one :) ok love you missyou!!!! it is so hard to say goodbye in emails!!! But time to go do laundry!! I think my letter sounded very down last week bc i got so many encouraging letters this week I am so grateful for them I am going to try to write people back but tell anyone you see/hear I really appreciated it, i seriously get mail everyday and I need it!! it is so nice!! it is such a blessing bc not every missionary gets a lot of mail. ok really love you bye!!! oh i wrote tate a letter so he isn't getting an email so tell him not be left out!
So...BAM the gospel is so true!!! Last tuesday after I wrote we had devotional and it was Elder Nelson! Wow two apostles already we feel so lucky. And it was soo good! I immediately felt so bad for complaining so much about spanish in my letters last week. The best part was at the end he invoked an apostalic blessing upon us and that is probably the strongest I have felt the spirit since being here at the MTC, and that is saying something because the spirit is so strong here all of the time. I just felt the Holy Ghost bear witness to me of the doctrine of of the Gospel and of our potential. He explained how it is a commandment to be perfect and many times that is overwhleming or daunting to us, but really that should be so exciting that that is a commandment. God commands us to be perfect because he sees that potential in us! Isn't that so cool?!
I also read this quote by Elder Samuelson "just as we should not lower the standards that the Lord has established for the conduct of His servants, we are also not authorized to raise them..Be sure that you do not have higher standardsfor yourself or others than the Lord has established." I just realized so much this week that I was setting standards for myself. Maybe it isn't God's plan for me to know a lot of spanish by the time I leave the MTC (even thought I really wish it was!). I am the one putting that standard on myself. The Lord is just asking that I work my hardest and do my best.
Oh, also Hermana Walker and I were studying out in the hall this past week and three elders came up and starting talking to us which we were kind of annoyed at first because we were trying to study...not talk. They asked us what language we were learning and we started into how hard the spanish is (haha like you have heard way too much from me!) and they asked us to bear our testimonies to them in spanish, we were thinking who are these elders and so annoyed they were taking up our study time. But they wouldn't let us not do it so even though we still are really bad at it we did it and the spirit just came so strong. Then we asked them to bear their testimony in their language...get this...they are learning hmong!!! It has 8 tones! They sounded like Dori from finding Nemo when she tries to speak whale haha only there were no recognizable words at all. So we were humbled a lot because these elders were so willing to share their testimonies in their super hard language and that they are learning that language! I am grateful to be learning spanish!!
Did anyone watch music and the spoken word? they talked about how work that seems beyond our capacity is a blessing because it brings a happy exhaustion at the end of the day. It is possible and awesome to be physically tired but emotionally renewed. I just loved that because I am sooo tired at the end of the day, my brain is fried! (Like the other day I asked my teacher how to say taco in spanish!!) but at the same time I feel so happy and so content when I go to bed. We had to teach in the TRC this week and we also had to teach an investigator that same day so that was 3 lessons in spanish in one day! Holy cow we were so nervous for that day becuase that is a lot of talking in spanish haha. But once we pray to start a lesson the nerves go away because the spirit is there, and even though our spanish is bad we are somehow communicating with the person. We taught this really old guy with a horrible memory! He seriously asked us the same question three times right in a row and did not even realize he did it, we felt bad cause we had to take turns looking away to laugh and we could not look at each other the whole rest of that lesson, but it was great practice, ask me to tell you about after Christ's ressurrection in spanish now and I have that down!
So this whole mission thing has been a game for the Lord I think, called, How to push Shalee the farthest outside her comfort zone as possible. Haha, so we do deomstrations and practices A LOT here. We learn a concept and then the teacher of the workshop or whatever will call on someone to come up and do a demo with them...I hate doing this! I am so bad at pretending to be an investigator and it is not my favorite thing to be up in front of a lot of people. Especially missionaries where everyone knows a lot haha. But somehow I get "invited" to come up! That is the other thing, teachers don't tell you or ask you to do things, they "invite" you haha we are always laughing because they "invite" us to memorize a bazillion things everyday but we realize they are not inviting us they really mean memorize this scripture by tomorrow. Anyways I got "invited" to come up and do a demonstration about how to teach an investigator to pray and it turned out to be a really good experience. It was the first time I really felt the spirit working through me while I taught. Afterwards I sat down and thought I don't even know how I just did that. Hermana Walker and I also got assigned to be coordinating sisters, which is pushing outside our comfort zones because part of that means we have to "invite" the sisters in the residency halls to obey the rules, we feel very awkward doing this but we also just laugh because the Lord is having us do a lot of things we probably wouldn't have done before :)
Thank you so much for your letters!! I honestly cannot express to you the support I feel and how much that has helped me!!! Thank you thank you thank you thank you for writing and dear eldering. Dear elders are so good to get! If I haven't written you back I will and please write again! I feel like I am in a little bubble here at the MTC and it is really nice to hear about life. Thank you for your support I felt very loved this week :)
Love,
Hermana Mulliner
P.S. Mom those packages were AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!! holy cow i wish you couldve seen Hermana stulls reation!! she has never felt so special before i don't think! She has been asking me for make up tips all week and is loving it. She especially loes the little bag....that was a cute touch. their visas didn't come so they havent left yet don't know when they will be able to. Thank you thankyou!!!!! please tell the bishop thank you for his letter, made me cry:) Thank you soo much for the packages the food is great! And we got 2 new sisters in our room this week one from taiwain and one from af haha they are both going to germany. now our room is starting to be stinky iwht six of us in there...ugh. But they all love you haha!!! I am not going to write everyone hand written this week becasue I don't have time so this is it :) I love you and miss you and can';t tell yo uhow grateful I am for your support. I am not much better at spanish...serisouly hahah...but I liked your grateful idea. please keep updating me on dals mish!! love all your dear elders! and the choc covered almonds were my fav!! you can use my checks if you need to buy anything for me. um rick and sharon sent me a check ill send it home can you deposit it? thanks! or use it for whatev! the sd card is a great idea. I din't get any pics of the flowers i did of jean and ben and emily though so cute! Thanks again for the pakcages!! also they stopped printing pics here so no more pics for a while...lol.tell lys to send pics in her package.also i could use another journal....but it could be super cheapy one :) ok love you missyou!!!! it is so hard to say goodbye in emails!!! But time to go do laundry!! I think my letter sounded very down last week bc i got so many encouraging letters this week I am so grateful for them I am going to try to write people back but tell anyone you see/hear I really appreciated it, i seriously get mail everyday and I need it!! it is so nice!! it is such a blessing bc not every missionary gets a lot of mail. ok really love you bye!!! oh i wrote tate a letter so he isn't getting an email so tell him not be left out!
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Week 2
FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ah! Yesterday was sooooooo hard! Our schedules changed this week and our pday got changed to Tuesday...we didn't know this until Sunday evening so it was such a let down because we have been looking forward to it then we found out we would have to wait another day to email and have a lil break... yesterday was seriously sooooooooooo long and hard and discouraging. But now it's Tuesday so that's good!
Where to start!!! Something funny that happened was on Sunday we get to go on a walk around the Temple. Hermana Walker and I were so pumped for that because it was sunny! We were looking forward to it all day, we decided to go change into some cooler clothes because it was really hot when it was our turn to go. So we went back to our residency and changed. Then we went to go look at the full mirror outside of our room, check ourselves out ya know, we went to go back into our room and we got denied! We had locked ourselves out! I didn't have my shoes on yet we could only find two other sisters in residency. They offerred to lend me some shoes to go down to the office. This sister actually had the exact same shoes that I did...just twice the size! So I had to walk clear across campus in these shoes way too big for me and we hadn't put our tags on yet either, haha. Also this week a fire alarm went off at 1:30 in the morning!!!! We thought it was a drill but it wasnt. We had to sit in the gym for a little while then we got let back in, but we still had to wake up at 6:30 the next day. Also our branch president's wife came to check up on us in our residency one night and I had just gotten back from brushing my teeth and whatnot, Hermana Bambrough and I decided to put this white face mask stuff on our faces that night so I'm sure branch president's wife gave an interesting report to the president that night haha.
Spanish is coming.............slowly..........ver..y......s..........low...........ly!!! Spanish is still not really my friend. I don't feel like I speak it any better than last week. It is kind of frusterating because a few elders in our district are not very obedient, they write letters to their girlfriends, sleep and talk during study time, and yet they are speaking spanish so well! I am studying my tushy off and I am struggling so much! So honestly I appreciate your letters so much! You can't write too often!
Sister Dibb was the speaker in relief society on Sunday and that was sooo cool! She just told us about her dad (the prophet!) and some advice he would give to us. Sunday was such a boost. It was cute, she said she loves coming to the MTC because there probably isn't a place in the world where more prayers are being offered in one location. She thinks the Spirit is so strong here because we are all doing something new and often times when we do something new we are humbled. I think that is so true.
You should all go to lds.org and watch the Witnesses of Christ videos, they are so good! I love Elder Holland's. My favorite thing he said was, "the atonement of Jesus Christ is the compassionate foundation and central fact in God's eternal plan for our salvation and our happiness." I just loved that he called it the "compassionate foundation" and the "central fact." That is so powerful!
Elder Stephen Allen talked at Sunday devotional and told a story about what he did at a drinking fountaing he waited for this little boy to get close to driniking and then pushed the button of the other fountain so it would squirt the kids face. And that is what satan is going to try to do with us. Push our buttons and frustrate us. But that we need to recognized discouragement and negative thoughts are from satan. I needed to hear that because I have been discouraged this week that I will be able to learn the doctrinces plus the great way to teach them plus spanish. But I liked when he said this, "God wants us to be exhausted at the end of everyday! Work your hardest everyday! It will all be worth it."
The italian sister never made it. Everyone around campus tries to speak the language they are learning, so when we say hi to people in the hall or just around we say hi and whatever in spanish. We were laughing how we are not even communicating with people because no one even understands the language they are speaking! So we decided we could just speak jibberish to people around campus and they would just think wow they must be going to some crazy country haha. So when elders get our doors or we say hi to sisters in the residency we just say random sounds.
It is hard not to overeat...serioulsy after sitting in class i am exhausted and hungry and they ahve so much food here, it takes a lot of self control haha. We say "God be with you til we eat again" because we feel like that is what we look forward to around here haha! and that is when we talk to the rest of our zone. You can tell this zone hasn't had any sisters yet, we have a lot of help in our classroom a lot...too bad they don't really know spanish either.
So Hermana Stull is in my district and one of my roomies, her mom didn't really teach her about make up or doing her hair etc. So we have given her eye liner and she likes using that now but I was wondering if we had an extra flat iron lying around? If not don't worry about it bc she is going to peru so she shouldn't take somehing real nice anyway but if we do could we let her have it? we straightened her hair and she liked it a lot so that would be cool if whe had her own flat iron. She leaves to the peru mtc on tuesday. and maybe a lotion if you have an extra. other things that would be nice are some pics :) I haven't figured out how to get you pics yet. Also a water bottle...like just one you have lying around a cheapo one. Some almonds :) But i really am doing well! Loving here a lot even though it is hard at times. I am grateful to be here for 9 weeks, I need it! Oh mom my room number is building 17 M room 351. It is the building by the gym, room is on the third floor. My friend Garrett sent a whole box of peanut butter bars!! That was so good!!!!!!
I have learned how to get ready super fast. I've only had to take one cold shower..on sunday when everyone showers at the same time. Mom I just love your letters, they are just so good. Wish i could reply more. Thank you thank you. I miss you and love you tons. I never realized how much missionaries need letters . i want to write to missionaries the rest of my life. I am sorry it is so scrambled and crazy! it is hard to wait a week to get everything out there is so much I want to know about you guys and telll you. Love you guys so much!! and I miss you so much!! I feel like i have been gone a lot longer than a week and a hlaf!!! Sometimes 18 months seems short sometimes it seems long. Either way I just think everyone shoudl go on a mission! Lvoe you please write! Oh another cool thing would be like a calendar or something with important dates...like bdays or things so I don't have to worry about remembering them. I can feel the hugs from your prayers mom. and I found a few more things you had stuffed in my bag haha a few dollars and ibprofen etc. LOVED it! sometimes i don't get teh dear elders the same day you write them but I am getting them. and am LOVING them.
Love,
Hermana Mulliner
Ah! Yesterday was sooooooo hard! Our schedules changed this week and our pday got changed to Tuesday...we didn't know this until Sunday evening so it was such a let down because we have been looking forward to it then we found out we would have to wait another day to email and have a lil break... yesterday was seriously sooooooooooo long and hard and discouraging. But now it's Tuesday so that's good!
Where to start!!! Something funny that happened was on Sunday we get to go on a walk around the Temple. Hermana Walker and I were so pumped for that because it was sunny! We were looking forward to it all day, we decided to go change into some cooler clothes because it was really hot when it was our turn to go. So we went back to our residency and changed. Then we went to go look at the full mirror outside of our room, check ourselves out ya know, we went to go back into our room and we got denied! We had locked ourselves out! I didn't have my shoes on yet we could only find two other sisters in residency. They offerred to lend me some shoes to go down to the office. This sister actually had the exact same shoes that I did...just twice the size! So I had to walk clear across campus in these shoes way too big for me and we hadn't put our tags on yet either, haha. Also this week a fire alarm went off at 1:30 in the morning!!!! We thought it was a drill but it wasnt. We had to sit in the gym for a little while then we got let back in, but we still had to wake up at 6:30 the next day. Also our branch president's wife came to check up on us in our residency one night and I had just gotten back from brushing my teeth and whatnot, Hermana Bambrough and I decided to put this white face mask stuff on our faces that night so I'm sure branch president's wife gave an interesting report to the president that night haha.
Spanish is coming.............slowly..........ver..y......s..........low...........ly!!! Spanish is still not really my friend. I don't feel like I speak it any better than last week. It is kind of frusterating because a few elders in our district are not very obedient, they write letters to their girlfriends, sleep and talk during study time, and yet they are speaking spanish so well! I am studying my tushy off and I am struggling so much! So honestly I appreciate your letters so much! You can't write too often!
Sister Dibb was the speaker in relief society on Sunday and that was sooo cool! She just told us about her dad (the prophet!) and some advice he would give to us. Sunday was such a boost. It was cute, she said she loves coming to the MTC because there probably isn't a place in the world where more prayers are being offered in one location. She thinks the Spirit is so strong here because we are all doing something new and often times when we do something new we are humbled. I think that is so true.
You should all go to lds.org and watch the Witnesses of Christ videos, they are so good! I love Elder Holland's. My favorite thing he said was, "the atonement of Jesus Christ is the compassionate foundation and central fact in God's eternal plan for our salvation and our happiness." I just loved that he called it the "compassionate foundation" and the "central fact." That is so powerful!
Elder Stephen Allen talked at Sunday devotional and told a story about what he did at a drinking fountaing he waited for this little boy to get close to driniking and then pushed the button of the other fountain so it would squirt the kids face. And that is what satan is going to try to do with us. Push our buttons and frustrate us. But that we need to recognized discouragement and negative thoughts are from satan. I needed to hear that because I have been discouraged this week that I will be able to learn the doctrinces plus the great way to teach them plus spanish. But I liked when he said this, "God wants us to be exhausted at the end of everyday! Work your hardest everyday! It will all be worth it."
The italian sister never made it. Everyone around campus tries to speak the language they are learning, so when we say hi to people in the hall or just around we say hi and whatever in spanish. We were laughing how we are not even communicating with people because no one even understands the language they are speaking! So we decided we could just speak jibberish to people around campus and they would just think wow they must be going to some crazy country haha. So when elders get our doors or we say hi to sisters in the residency we just say random sounds.
It is hard not to overeat...serioulsy after sitting in class i am exhausted and hungry and they ahve so much food here, it takes a lot of self control haha. We say "God be with you til we eat again" because we feel like that is what we look forward to around here haha! and that is when we talk to the rest of our zone. You can tell this zone hasn't had any sisters yet, we have a lot of help in our classroom a lot...too bad they don't really know spanish either.
So Hermana Stull is in my district and one of my roomies, her mom didn't really teach her about make up or doing her hair etc. So we have given her eye liner and she likes using that now but I was wondering if we had an extra flat iron lying around? If not don't worry about it bc she is going to peru so she shouldn't take somehing real nice anyway but if we do could we let her have it? we straightened her hair and she liked it a lot so that would be cool if whe had her own flat iron. She leaves to the peru mtc on tuesday. and maybe a lotion if you have an extra. other things that would be nice are some pics :) I haven't figured out how to get you pics yet. Also a water bottle...like just one you have lying around a cheapo one. Some almonds :) But i really am doing well! Loving here a lot even though it is hard at times. I am grateful to be here for 9 weeks, I need it! Oh mom my room number is building 17 M room 351. It is the building by the gym, room is on the third floor. My friend Garrett sent a whole box of peanut butter bars!! That was so good!!!!!!
I have learned how to get ready super fast. I've only had to take one cold shower..on sunday when everyone showers at the same time. Mom I just love your letters, they are just so good. Wish i could reply more. Thank you thank you. I miss you and love you tons. I never realized how much missionaries need letters . i want to write to missionaries the rest of my life. I am sorry it is so scrambled and crazy! it is hard to wait a week to get everything out there is so much I want to know about you guys and telll you. Love you guys so much!! and I miss you so much!! I feel like i have been gone a lot longer than a week and a hlaf!!! Sometimes 18 months seems short sometimes it seems long. Either way I just think everyone shoudl go on a mission! Lvoe you please write! Oh another cool thing would be like a calendar or something with important dates...like bdays or things so I don't have to worry about remembering them. I can feel the hugs from your prayers mom. and I found a few more things you had stuffed in my bag haha a few dollars and ibprofen etc. LOVED it! sometimes i don't get teh dear elders the same day you write them but I am getting them. and am LOVING them.
Love,
Hermana Mulliner
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Week 1
FAM!!!! I logged on and no emails....what is this? remember me....your favorite daughter/sister!! Your long lost friend who you saw last week but it feels like months ago!
When we got here the first day was so overwhelming!!!!!!!!!! Everyone told us to make it to Sunday than it gets easier....and it's monday!!!!!!!!! We did it! Thanks to everyone who has written me so far, it is so nice to get mail. We get mail twice a day, our district leader checks it at lunch and dinner, so dearelder is the best because you could send a lil something somethin ereday (hint hint). Everyone here says the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days. I can see how that is true the days feel so long. At night we will be talking about stuff that we liked or what ever and we will have to ask ourselves wait was that today?! That feels like last week!
So basically this is how describes the MTC or CCM en espanol.... spanish is HHHHHHHAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRDDDDDDDDD!! My companion (Hermana Walker) and I are by far the worst in the class lol. But we feel lucky that we got a companion who doesn't know anything either because we cannot rely on each other at all. We both feel the responsibility and nerves to learn it all before we go into our investigator. What is cool about knowing absolutely nothing is the gift of tongues is more noticable. I had a cool experience. So really, spanish is so hard if I didn't mention that already. My companion and I seriously know nothing so we are starting from the very basic. Our district is 4 Elders and 4 Hermanas. The 4 Elders all have a little background in Spanish so they are doing well and one Hermana knows quite a bit so she and her companion are doing fine. And then there is us, we are working our guts out! Every spare minute we are studying flashcards and learning phrases. We didn't go to the Sudnay night movie yesterday to study. And yet we still know so little haha. It's funny because we pray in spanish together now and we only know how to pray for a few things, so we pretty much thank Him for our companion and our families and the atonement, then thing ask for is the gift of tongues. So anyway the cool experience was on Friday I just felt like crying during class. We have two 3 hour blocks of class a day. Nothing in perticular just needed to cry haha. But I was trying to stay focused...because I have to focus really hard because our teacher only speaks spanish. She is so nice though. We were learning how to testify. She told us to practice a few phrases, I was tempted to just sit there and take a personal minute. But I decided to practice even though I didn't feel like anything was getting absorbed into my brain. Then she told us to write down our testimony, I tried to write it down from my brain not just copy phrases from the book. I was able to do it. Then she said we were going to have a testimony meeting. We knelt to pray and then nobody got up....so for some reason I felt like I should even though I am the worst in the class! And I got up there and bore my testimony without any problems and I knew what I said!! It was really awesome. The rest of the class memorized their paper that they wrote their testimony on but I just got up there and tried to say what I wanted to say. Then I understood everyone elses testimony. At the end Hermana Verwer, our teacher, testifed that the gift of tongues es real! It is so cool when she says it and the spirit was so strong. Then I had an interview with her right after that and she asked me how I was doing and I expressed how spanish is hard! And she told me that grammatically, my testimony was perfecto! She said that is awesome but that isn't even what matters, it was also very powerful.
So I know it will come little by little. We feel like if we are working our hardest the Lord will bless us when we need it. We are not comparing ourselves to the others in the class and are getting excited over little, and I mean tiny haha, things. We also laugh at ourselves a ton because we are always messing up! We had to teach an investigator our third day here...haha we were soooo nervous and scared!!! His name is Jose, and we just love the guy. Even though he is not real haha we are trying to pretend he is. So he is volunteeer, but he is a progressing investigator. So we don't just teach him once, he comes back everyday so its like we are teaching someone for real. Our first visit was hilarious! We were so nervous , we asked him the questions we had prepared to get to know him but couldn't understand anything he said so we just said "si" and "bien" a lot haha. And he asked us a question and we heard donde so we thought he was asking us where we were wfrom so we answered haha and then he said somehting but we udnerstood that is not what he asked. He also invited us in because we forgot how to ask if we coudl come in so we said hola and then just stood there in silence!! HAHAHA! We just laugh a the way down the hall after we teach cause we make so many mistakes, Jose probably cracks up after leave. I prayed at the end of the lesson and I'm pretty sure I said we ask thee for when I was really thanking him. But one thing I have learned is what makes a successful missionary is bringing the spirit. So even though we did not have the words to extend any committments and the words we said and the words in the prayer were totally wrong, I felt the spirit. Haha so we just cried for a minute together.
Oh...so cool!! Every sunday and tuesday nights domingo y martes is MTC devotional. Last night guess who showed up.....Elder Ballard! It was an awesome deveotional! It was just a boost. Our MTC president spoke first and he sounds a lot like Pres. Hinckley so I love listening to him. Then Elder Archuleta sang which was super awesome, especially since he sang one verse in spanish and I understood it. Then Elder M. Russell Ballard got up and just blew us away. What I basically got from it was human interaction in missionary work is one of the most important things. missioanries will never be replaced by just technology. So connecting with the investigator our countenances and attitudes and using our personalities and creativity and being ourselves is part of missionary work. That made me feel like I could make a difference. He said we are not asking you to be perfect, we are just asking you to do the things we've told you to do. So we know we need all the blessings we can get and all the help so we are in bed with lights out at 10:29 and up at befoere 6:30.
The food is great, I feel like we are always eating though. It is hard to make good choices cause so there are so many. Gym is the best! We had fun playing speed and four square this week. We are the only sisters in our whole branch. And I haven't met anyone going to my mission yet..:( I am just praying that I will get sent to a spanish speaking area very first so I don't lose the spanish I've learned.
The elders in our district are funny. Two really don't get a long and i sit right by them...so I get a little entertainment during the day.And I've seen a lot of people I know here.
Thank you thank you for writing me!!! It is so nice to get a little pick me up during the day! doing well love you guys!!!!!!! hope you are doing welll!!! please write often even if it is just a little hey. 18 months seems pretty long right now...but I am taking it one day at a time. I love the MTC so far! I only get 30 mins on comp so sorry if typos or deosn't make sense it all just came out when i sat down!!
When we got here the first day was so overwhelming!!!!!!!!!! Everyone told us to make it to Sunday than it gets easier....and it's monday!!!!!!!!! We did it! Thanks to everyone who has written me so far, it is so nice to get mail. We get mail twice a day, our district leader checks it at lunch and dinner, so dearelder is the best because you could send a lil something somethin ereday (hint hint). Everyone here says the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days. I can see how that is true the days feel so long. At night we will be talking about stuff that we liked or what ever and we will have to ask ourselves wait was that today?! That feels like last week!
So basically this is how describes the MTC or CCM en espanol.... spanish is HHHHHHHAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRDDDDDDDDD!! My companion (Hermana Walker) and I are by far the worst in the class lol. But we feel lucky that we got a companion who doesn't know anything either because we cannot rely on each other at all. We both feel the responsibility and nerves to learn it all before we go into our investigator. What is cool about knowing absolutely nothing is the gift of tongues is more noticable. I had a cool experience. So really, spanish is so hard if I didn't mention that already. My companion and I seriously know nothing so we are starting from the very basic. Our district is 4 Elders and 4 Hermanas. The 4 Elders all have a little background in Spanish so they are doing well and one Hermana knows quite a bit so she and her companion are doing fine. And then there is us, we are working our guts out! Every spare minute we are studying flashcards and learning phrases. We didn't go to the Sudnay night movie yesterday to study. And yet we still know so little haha. It's funny because we pray in spanish together now and we only know how to pray for a few things, so we pretty much thank Him for our companion and our families and the atonement, then thing ask for is the gift of tongues. So anyway the cool experience was on Friday I just felt like crying during class. We have two 3 hour blocks of class a day. Nothing in perticular just needed to cry haha. But I was trying to stay focused...because I have to focus really hard because our teacher only speaks spanish. She is so nice though. We were learning how to testify. She told us to practice a few phrases, I was tempted to just sit there and take a personal minute. But I decided to practice even though I didn't feel like anything was getting absorbed into my brain. Then she told us to write down our testimony, I tried to write it down from my brain not just copy phrases from the book. I was able to do it. Then she said we were going to have a testimony meeting. We knelt to pray and then nobody got up....so for some reason I felt like I should even though I am the worst in the class! And I got up there and bore my testimony without any problems and I knew what I said!! It was really awesome. The rest of the class memorized their paper that they wrote their testimony on but I just got up there and tried to say what I wanted to say. Then I understood everyone elses testimony. At the end Hermana Verwer, our teacher, testifed that the gift of tongues es real! It is so cool when she says it and the spirit was so strong. Then I had an interview with her right after that and she asked me how I was doing and I expressed how spanish is hard! And she told me that grammatically, my testimony was perfecto! She said that is awesome but that isn't even what matters, it was also very powerful.
So I know it will come little by little. We feel like if we are working our hardest the Lord will bless us when we need it. We are not comparing ourselves to the others in the class and are getting excited over little, and I mean tiny haha, things. We also laugh at ourselves a ton because we are always messing up! We had to teach an investigator our third day here...haha we were soooo nervous and scared!!! His name is Jose, and we just love the guy. Even though he is not real haha we are trying to pretend he is. So he is volunteeer, but he is a progressing investigator. So we don't just teach him once, he comes back everyday so its like we are teaching someone for real. Our first visit was hilarious! We were so nervous , we asked him the questions we had prepared to get to know him but couldn't understand anything he said so we just said "si" and "bien" a lot haha. And he asked us a question and we heard donde so we thought he was asking us where we were wfrom so we answered haha and then he said somehting but we udnerstood that is not what he asked. He also invited us in because we forgot how to ask if we coudl come in so we said hola and then just stood there in silence!! HAHAHA! We just laugh a the way down the hall after we teach cause we make so many mistakes, Jose probably cracks up after leave. I prayed at the end of the lesson and I'm pretty sure I said we ask thee for when I was really thanking him. But one thing I have learned is what makes a successful missionary is bringing the spirit. So even though we did not have the words to extend any committments and the words we said and the words in the prayer were totally wrong, I felt the spirit. Haha so we just cried for a minute together.
Oh...so cool!! Every sunday and tuesday nights domingo y martes is MTC devotional. Last night guess who showed up.....Elder Ballard! It was an awesome deveotional! It was just a boost. Our MTC president spoke first and he sounds a lot like Pres. Hinckley so I love listening to him. Then Elder Archuleta sang which was super awesome, especially since he sang one verse in spanish and I understood it. Then Elder M. Russell Ballard got up and just blew us away. What I basically got from it was human interaction in missionary work is one of the most important things. missioanries will never be replaced by just technology. So connecting with the investigator our countenances and attitudes and using our personalities and creativity and being ourselves is part of missionary work. That made me feel like I could make a difference. He said we are not asking you to be perfect, we are just asking you to do the things we've told you to do. So we know we need all the blessings we can get and all the help so we are in bed with lights out at 10:29 and up at befoere 6:30.
The food is great, I feel like we are always eating though. It is hard to make good choices cause so there are so many. Gym is the best! We had fun playing speed and four square this week. We are the only sisters in our whole branch. And I haven't met anyone going to my mission yet..:( I am just praying that I will get sent to a spanish speaking area very first so I don't lose the spanish I've learned.
The elders in our district are funny. Two really don't get a long and i sit right by them...so I get a little entertainment during the day.And I've seen a lot of people I know here.
Thank you thank you for writing me!!! It is so nice to get a little pick me up during the day! doing well love you guys!!!!!!! hope you are doing welll!!! please write often even if it is just a little hey. 18 months seems pretty long right now...but I am taking it one day at a time. I love the MTC so far! I only get 30 mins on comp so sorry if typos or deosn't make sense it all just came out when i sat down!!
LOve,
Hermana Mulliner
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Headed out....
Entering the MTC on April 11! My address while in the MTC is:
Sister Shalee Jo Mulliner
MTC Mailbox # 267
CA-SFER 0613
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793
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