I’ve realized that every journal entry I ever write starts with today was a day, so we’re gonna start this letter with this week was a week. Time honestly doesn’t exist at the MTC. I feel like I have been here for so long when I have only been here for two weeks. Everyone says the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days, and I couldn’t agree more. But this week was full of amazing experiences!
Sunday night we had a devotional by Elder [Richard] Holzapfel of the Seventy and his wife. The main part of Sister Holzapfel’s address was, “Start noticing the hands of the Lord in your everyday miracles.” So I took some time to reflect on that this week.
On one particular day when I was getting down on myself about how quickly everyone was catching up to me in their language abilities, I felt like giving up. It was at this moment that one of my teachers said something so profound. He said, “When you can’t run, you can’t walk, and you can’t even crawl, get on your knees and pray, and then get up and keep running.” It was exactly at that moment that the Lord knew I needed a little extra motivation, so I smiled, said a prayer, and kept on pushing.
One other miracle I have noticed a lot while at the MTC is the gift of tongues. I was able to memorize Joseph Smith’s First Vision in Mandarin in 30 minutes and can still say it perfectly. I never thought I would be able to do that considering a lot of the time I struggle to remember all the parts in English.
The last little miracle I noticed was when I wondered if I was actually listening to the Spirit or if all my actions were simply my own doing. That Sunday we had a lesson and my mission president said, “When you sincerely pray to receive an answer to a question, a lot of the times, the first thought that runs through your head after your prayer is typically an answer from the Spirit.” I, of course, was like, oh my goodness that makes so much sense. That night we also listened to a talk given by Elder [David A.] Bednar (of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles) where he said, “If you are ever wondering if your thought is just from you or if it’s from the Spirit, stop worrying. Honor your covenants. Keep the commandments. Do your best. Keep pushing forward. And if you are good, every good thought is inspired.” I love how the Lord continues to answer my questions.
As of today, I can also say that I have officially done ordinance work in all of the temples in Utah. My last one, Provo, was completed this morning with my fabulous district! I love them all so much! Even when they don’t like taking as many pictures as us Sisters would like to make them take haha.
Fun things that happened this week at the MTC:
1) My district fights over the thermostat in our classroom. The elders are always boiling and the sisters are always freezing. The Australian elder and I sit right next to the thermostat control. So we slyly try to change it without the other knowing. When it gets too warm this elder takes a huge breath, flicks his head towards me, and goes, “FEEL MY HEAD *Australian accent*!!!” When after three times of him trying and me refusing he turns to his companion and goes, “FEEL MY HEAD *Australian accent*!!!” Which his companion politely does while saying, “My hands are freezing anyways so your head will always be hot” and then the Australian elder turns the thermostat all the way back down.
2) We taught the Mongolian elder in my district who doesn’t speak much English Disney quotes. So he now walks around all the time going, “Honey, where is my super suit!?” In very broken English.
3) There’s an elder in my district who doesn’t blink. He once told a story for over five minutes and only blinked 3 times…it’s rather creepy…and he makes eye contact the entire time, so it looks like he’s trying to stare through you.
4) Every sister in my room twinned on a day this week haha and it was so funny!! So now we are going to start Twinner Tuesday.
Sister Kara Andersen 