I am weak, but with the Lord I am STRONG!

Sister Britter

Brittni's companions

Hola!

 

It's been another great week here at the MTC! This week starts my fourth week. That means I'm almost half way through. I'm totally in denial, time has flown by so fast!

 

My Spanish is really coming along. As a companionship we're getting a lot more confident in lessons, so we can now focus more on our teaching methods rather than our Spanish. :) One day this week we had a substitute teacher and he had us teach him as a new investigator. When we first went to go talk to him it took a few tries for him to let us in. Dude. That rejection is not a good feeling! I'm not really excited for that in the mission field, but I guess I better start preparing myself for that now! There were definitely lots of highs and lows this week, but the Lord is teaching me so much. I'm realizing that sharing the gospel is way more important that any trial I am faced with. In many ways I am "weak," but with the Lord I can do anything! (Alma 36? Sorry, I don't have my scriptures with me.)

 

Estudiando el Espanol!

 

With Sergio this week we went over the baptismal interview questions to help him prepare and be fully ready for baptism. We had two elders in our district go in and act as a ward member and another as someone who is also getting baptized soon. They insisted that their names were Mario and Luigi. We had a hard time being serious at first :) It went so well though! It was a big testimony builder for me that missionary work doesn't end once they get baptized. New converts need a good support system of friends and church members to keep them strong in the faith.

 

If ever we have a tough lesson, my companions and I go visit some of our favorite elders. They all have a physical disability of some sort so they are all serving an "internet mission." They share the gospel over g-chat, Facebook, and other ways online. Isn't that so cool! Technology is such a powerful tool. One of the elders introduced himself to us as "the happiest man on the world." I love it! He said he's never had a bad day because once he starts feeling down he chooses to be happy and tries to learn from the challenge. I hope I can keep that kind of attitude throughout my mission. :)

 

The 3 "senior hermanas" in our zone left for the mission field yesterday. (Which makes us the old, "experienced" ones.) It was hard to say good bye, and I'm realizing that those goodbyes are going to be one of the toughest parts of serving a mission because you get to know them so well! You get to know them spiritually, so the friendship runs deep. The MTC is very efficient because they left first thing in the morning, and then a couple hours later we got 3 new hermanas! They are all going state-side, but they will also be going spanish speaking. One of them actually went to AF High and another one was in my Food Science class at BYU last semester. It's fun to see familiar faces. As the coordinating sister I was able to help give them orientation and show them around the MTC. It's crazy because it seems like it was just yesterday that I was the one getting lost every day. :)

 

 

 Russell M. Ballard came and spoke to us during the devotional on Tuesday. It was awesome! Normally they only have one general authority come every couple months...but since I've been here he's the second one!! He had a wonderful message. He talked about the importance of always standing up for the gospel. He talked about the importance of goals. He said "you can be good. You can be excellent. If you set the goal to do it." I love that! Success as a missionary only comes through persistent hard work and dedication.

 

Life is great when you're serving the Lord! I love you all. Have a great week!

 

-Hermana Vawdrey