Hello family and friends!
So, I have successfully made it through the first 48-ish hours of the MTC... Woohoo! And I am happy to report that it has been a great experience so far! When I first said goodbye to my family at the curb, I admit that I might have felt a little sad and may have teared up just a bit. However, right as I was walking in, I saw one of my friends from my freshman ward at BYU and that instantly made me feel better - it was so good to see a familiar face!
I have been blessed with an awesome companion, Sister Clark, who is from Kaysville, Utah. She has an amazing testimony and is already an incredible missionary (interesting side note: she went to high school with my cousins Christian and Kaela)! The other two sisters that live with us, Sister Pavone (from SoCal) and Sister Slavens (from Idaho Falls), are also way cool. We all get along extremely well and that has helped us all transition better to missionary life! The nice thing is that it is just the four of us in our room, so we have two extra beds for storage of random stuff. (:
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| Sister Clark, me, Sister Slavens, and Sister Pavone on our first day. |
Our Zone is AMAZING! I don't know how I got so lucky, but I can't even imagine having a better zone than the one I have! The other four sisters are super sweet and sooooooooo fun! We also get along really well. And the Elders are very funny and they have given us lots of reasons to laugh! It's only been not even three full days, but by the time we leave here we will probably be super close to each other.
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| My zone sisters... they are the BEST! |
Our Zone has missionaries going to a variety of places. There are four sisters and two elders going to Ohio Cincinnati (me and my roomies and Elders Swainston and Howland - who are our favorites!), and then the rest of the sisters are going to New Mexico Albuquerque, and the other Elders are going to either the Washington Federal Way Mission or the California Irvine Mission. Super cool! And our zone has the amazing opportunity of using iPads! To my understanding, we are the only English-speaking MTC zone to use them. The Japanese speaking missionaries get to use them as well, but I believe that's all. And one of our branch leaders said there is a good chance that we will be using them in the field as well.
Sister Clark and I have received our assignment for Sunday, aaaaaaaaand...... we are the Music Coordinators! Sister Clark is a great singer, and so we were thinking I could (attempt to) play I am a Child of God on the piano while she sang, but Elder Swainston suggested we do the EFY medley, which is a combo of As Sisters of Zion and Bring the world His Truth. So Sister Clark and I are trying to get the materials so that our entire Zone can sing that for our special musical number. It should be beautiful!
I'm loving the name tag! Sometimes I just have to look down at it to remind me that my mission has begun. It still feels slightly surreal that I am here. I have to remind myself that I am in Provo, because the MTC feels like it's own little world. We have attended some of the best workshops ever though! Yesterday, we were instructed by Sister Porter (not to be confused with our mission president's wife - two completely different people) and after those wonderful two hours, I felt like I was on cloud 9. She testified of the Atonement and of the importance of really understanding and loving people, and trying to see them through God's eyes. If we can view all of the people that we will come in contact with through God's eyes, then it will be more easy to love them and to teach them. Understanding the people we teach will be essential to our missionary work. Sister Porter also emphasized that the only way we can access the full Atonement is by baptism. That is why we aim to baptize others; we want them to have that full access because they can not receive it any other way. When she shared that, I immediately had an over-whelming urge to go straight to Ohio and begin teaching... Only TEN days more and then I CAN!!!
Sister Clark and I are preparing to teach our first lesson to our investigator today. Her name is Davia, and she doesn't believe in God so we are going to try to help her understand and recognize God's hand in her life, in an effort to help her come to a knowledge of the truth. We will see how that goes! We are kind of nervous to teach someone who doesn't believe that there is a God, but it is perfect because this practice will be great for us! We will probably be in this same (or at least similar) situation many times in the field!
Anyways, those are my thoughts and feeling of the first 48 hours of missionary life. I know that I am in the right place, and there is nowhere else I'd rather be than here. I miss my family LIKE CRAZY but I am happy and truly feel their love and support.
Love you all!
Sister Feil
P.S. Okay, so for some reason this computer will not let me upload any more pictures... I am so sorry but I will have to send the rest of them next week!
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