Ups and Downs at the MTC

Well hello sweet family!

 

It's so good to hear from you! I love reading your emails and DearElders. Thanks for being so thoughtful and always keeping me in your prayers as well. I know the Lord hears our prayers and answers them!

 

This week has been great! I have definitely had a few bumps in the road, but Sunday is always a great way to finish out the week. And as always, without Sestra Compare I'm not really sure I would be even standing right now. She is such a caring and supportive person. We both had our first breakdowns this week, a day apart. haha It was great that it worked that way because then each of us could be there to support each other. Something that we realized is that we both are prone to compare ourselves to each other. Her strenths are my weaknesses and vice-versa. Luckily we're such good friends that we can talk about this all to each other and realize that we can learn so much from the strenths of our companion, and the adversary is definitely trying to use that part of us to pull us apart. It's been a topic of many prayers we have had and we are going to keep buildling each other up!

 

One of our districts in our zone left on Wednesday and in that district were our Zone Leaders. Since the Branch Presidency didn't want to call new Zone leaders until they had met the new missionaries on Thursday, Sestra Compare and I were asked to give the new orentation meetings to the new missionaries in our district, like the Zone Leaders would have done. It was a daunting task, especially since two of the new sisters didn't show up until 30 minutes into the meeting! You really don't realize how nice texting/calling is until you don't have a phone! The orientations went really well though. The new missionaries are going to Mesa, AZ, Everett, WA and the four sisters are going to temple square! We have one sister from New Zealand and I could listen to her talk allllllllllll day. It was fun to get to teach them about the ways of the MTC. It felt like EFY all over again. It's funny to see the new missionaries faces when we tell them that we will welcome them into the MTC and say goodbye to them here because we still have 6 weeks left. haha We're going to know the ins and outs of this place!

 

So, my funny language moment for the week (don't worry there are hundreds of others during the week too.): We were teaching a new investigator (one of our teacher's aler-egos) and I volunteered to say the opening prayer. I was a little flustered because I didn't exactly feel ready to teach the lesson so I quickly bowed my head and began the prayer. "Drago me je.." then I stopped. It didn't sound right. I opened my eyes and my teacher was on the verge of tears he was giggling so hard! "Drago mi je" means "nice to meet you". I was meaning to say "Dragi Nebeski Oce" but I had just gone into auto pilot after the first word! I was SO embarrassed. I let out a little giggle but for the rest of the time I couldn't look at my teacher because he was having a hard time keeping composure. hahaha Seriously, I say things like that everyday, but man. That's when I felt the dumbest.

 

Sestra Compare and I got your Croatian package in the mail and LOVE IT! We've been running a mile or 2 every day and we got your package right before gym time so we wore your shirts running together and everyone kept trying to read it and not know where Croatia is. :) THANK YOU! We seriously are so lucky to get packages from you so often. Both of my teachers keep saying that I've gotten more packages in the last 3 weeks than they ever got on their whole missions. You're the best, Mom!

 

In this week of ups and downs, I've really had time to think about why I'm here and what I feel when I'm here. I'm being humbled EVERY DAY. That was something that I prayed to recieve here on my mission and I am definitely experiencing it. I'm realizing the importance of the Atonement and the real significance it has for each of us. It's not that we just need to turn to Him in trials, we need to turn to Him is every fear, in every want, in every pain. When Sister Porter came and talked to us in Relief Society she talked about "wearing out" the Atonement. We need to not let it just hang on our walls and be grateful for it. We need to use it until there are tears stained on it, holes worn through it and we have felt comfort come from it. I've been thinking about that a lot and realizing that I really need to work on that! Whenever we are feeling weak, or discouraged, or alone, or afraid, we need to humble ourselves enough to fall down to our knees and pray to the Lord for His help. He wants to give it to us, we just need to be willing to submit to his help: Swallow our pride and turn to Him! Muliple times a week we sing "We'll Bring the World His Truth". They have changed the words to "We are as the army of Helaman, we have been taught in our youth. And we are NOW the Lord's missionaries to bring the world His truth." My time is now. OUR time is now to share the gospel with all the world. We have been sent to the world in this day and time for a reason. We have people we need to share the gospel with and we have the tools and resources to do it!

 

We all just need to remember what the stripling warriors said, "...Behold, our God is with us, and He will not suffer that we should fall.."

 

I love you all! Miss you!

Sestra Giles

 

PS. 

A few things: I don't mean to not send you pictures, they have disabled the ability to attach pictures on the computers here! They don't even have somewhere where we can print them! I'm going to be sending my camera memory card home soon so you can upload all the pictures from it and then just send it back to me. I'm sorry!

 

I love all the blessings that have come from the Croatian sisters staying at your house. I'm glad they felt the spirit! Make sure I get their contact info so I can find them!

 

Also, We've been told that the baptism rate is EXPLODING all over our mission, so we're really excited! Also, our teachers are really suggesting that we will probably be in Serbia, so that would be crazy!!!!