Dear Family!
Wow. One week left. Who is excited? I am. More than you. I can't believe it. Last week went by like crazy. The devotional was Mervyn B. Arnold. It was lovely. He gave us five points:1. Understand who you are 2. Each of us have been given specific gifts and talents.3. Understand the sacredness of your call and what you covenanted to do when you accepted that call. 4. Understand and observe the law of obedience. 5. Understand your purpose. At the beginning he said that sometimes our best efforts are rewarded with disappointment. DON'T GIVE UP. I know that I will face disappointments and rejections, but I AM NOT GOING TO GIVE UP. That would be silly and wasteful. It was historic because it was the very first devotional at the MTC in the Mariott Center. There were A LOT of missionaries. So I made history. Later that night my branch president came to talk to our district and he told us how 30% of RM's fall away. We talked about how we could keep our discipline and our habits from the mission for after our mission.
Wednesday I got to host new missionaries! It was fun. I'm an oldie now. The first girl was from Scotland and yes, she had an awesome accent. She is going to the Alpine German Speaking mission. Super sweet girl. The second was from American Fork going to Scottsdale, AZ. If you think I had a lot of luggage, think again CALVIN. I was struggling getting her suitcases around. Wednesday's are always really fun because so many missionaries are coming in and they look scared like I did, but I just smile and say "Bienvenue a la MTC!" It's fun. It's so crowded here. Especially on those days. I get to host again this Wednesday too :) YAY! Maybe I'll get to host Jacquie or Jennifer.
We are gettng to our last few lessons teaching. We only teach Delphine once a week now, just my companionship and another which kinda stinks, but oh well. We teach Raphael twice still. So that was Wednesday. We were planning on talking about the law of chastity which is scary! but you gotta do what you gotta do. He lives with his girlfriend sometimes. Anyway, we go in and do the usual beginning stuff. I asked if he had any questions and he said "well in mass on Sunday my pastor talked about fornication, etc. What does your church think about that?" Perfect right? Yes. We taught him the law of chastity and he received it very well. He said he would talk to his GF and they will change. I was like wow. That was easy. He didn't know it was a commandment so when we taught him it was he immediately changed. I Hope all investigators are like that............ Our next lesson with him was Friday. We had asked him to read 2 Nephi 31 and so our lesson was naturally on baptism and the Doctrine of Christ. It went soooooo well. I asked him to be baptized, he said Idk. My family.... Background: His brother is a member but they are catholic and it has really been hard on their family. So I testified to him that if he was baptized I knew his family would be okay and that he would be blessed. I was about to ask him again, but sister B took over and thankfully she asked him and HE SAID YES. After we got feedback like we always do and Frere M said that in the real Raphael story before this lesson he had talked to his brother about his conversion and his brother told him that the missionaries told him that if he was baptized, the whole family would be. So He told us that when i testified that everything would be ok with his family, the real Raphael felt a confirmation that that was going to happen. It was super cool. Even though he is a mock investigator, I couldn't stop smiling when he said yes :) I hope I feel it at least 12 thousand more times in France.
On Thursday we went to TRC to talk to members in French. We got paired with these adorobale 10 year old girls who are in a french immersion program. They were so cute and way better at french than me, but it was fun. We taught them a few church terms. Their mom said that the sisters (us) taught better than the elders. Boo ya. I said it's because Sisters are just naturally more prone to be better with kids. No offense to all the men out there.
Funny thing. There is this girl named Sister C from France on our floor and I like to talk to her a lot. She doesn't speak English very much, but I love it. The other day sister B and I were talking to her and I asked her how to pronounce squirrel (which is a very difficult word to pronounce) and so then I did and I pronounced it perfect! She told me I had a great accent! This week has been a confident booster in the language. Sister Beeny was having a hard time pronouncing it at first, but I helped her and now we can both say squirrel right in French :)
Stephen B Allen Spoke last night and he showed us some cool old Mormon commercials. He emphasized following the spirit and heeding the promptings ALWAYS. It can save our life. Also, yesterday I conducted the hymns in Sacrament and gave a talk on baptism in French :) It was fun. And we taught Sunday school on the Book of Mormon. Also fun.
Anyway, time is short, but I love you all! One week left. This is my last email from the MTC. Crazy. I know the gospel is true. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I know God lives. I know Christ is our Savior. I love Him. Be Happy. Be you because being you is being great. Endure to the End. Even when it's almost over. Endure. I love you all!!
Love, Soeur Roberts
