Week 2 in the Missionary Training Center

Sister Ogletree and I at the Provo Temple

I think the MTC is in a time warp because I feel like this past week lasted 2 days, but at the same time I feel like I have been here for months. The days have kind of run together.  On Saturday we went down to the west end of the MTC and listened to the BYU game. We sang the BYU fight song and Call Me Maybe and I loved it. All while studying our scriptures. Haha. My life. I love being a missionary! Our district leaves on Tuesday morning. I am going to miss them so much. We have really grown a lot together. Sister Wilson, Sister Ogletree, and I will be on our own for a day and then we have visitor center training next week! I am actually really excited. We will be on temple square in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Sept 19, and Saturday, Sept 22.  It will be nice to get out of the MTC bubble.  Hopefully, I will see my friend from home, Lauren Jarvie, who is serving a mission on Temple Square.

This week we had the funniest lesson in the TRC. The TRC is where people come and you teach them lessons. Sometimes they are members, sometimes they aren't, but you never know who or what you'll have to teach. So Sister Ogletree and I knock on the door and before we even tell her who we are she invites us in. Its the cute little Polynesian lady. Usually you have to ask some questions to get to know the person, but she just starts going off on her life story and how her brother died and Sister Ogletree and I are like, duh, we will teach the plan of salvation. So then we start talking about it and she is like "oh, you mean the plan of salvation, I wrote a poem about that. I actually have a copy for you both." And we were like wait? What? So the whole lesson was hilarious because she kept saying things like she was a member but then remembering that she wasn't supposed to be. Basically she just wanted to teach us and was rattling off scriptures she knew. We left with three hand crayola-ed handouts and a two page poem on the Plan of Salvation. It was the best.

I love being on a mission! I am seriously so jazzed about the gospel. We have the amazing opportunity to bear our testimony every day, multiple times a day. When do we ever get to do that? Never. And when you aren't bearing testimony you are studying the gospel. My testimony has grown so much. I've done a lot of really awesome things in my 22 years. I've gotten to live in two different countries. I graduated from college. I taught school for a year. I can honestly say that I know that my mission is better than any of them. Already in these two weeks I have grown more and progressed more. I have learned SO much and felt myself growing in ways I didn't even think possible. IN TWO WEEKS! I am grateful for all the experiences I have had because I know they will help me throughout my mission, but I am so grateful to have the opportunity to be here and to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ. It makes me so happy. I know that our Heavenly Father loves us so much. Because of this the gospel has been restored to the earth. We have a living prophet who leads and guides our church. I love the Book of Mormon. It can help answer any of life's questions and I learn something new every time I read it. I am so grateful for the power of prayer. We pray all the time here, because we constantly need the guidance of the spirit. I pray probably 10 times a day, at least. I love it! I know that Heavenly Father personally answers our prayers. I am so grateful that he loves us so much to have the fullness of Christ's gospel restored once again on the earth. It has given me every happiness that I have in my life.

We are all going to the Independence, Missouri Mission

My district at the MTC

Cleaning duty at the MTC