December 15, 2018

Hiya, guys! This week has flown by! It's hard to remember everything that happened because everything blurs together.

Here are a few funny stories for you:

So in class this week we were teaching a mock lesson to one of our teachers, and each companionship was supposed to sign up for a time slot on the whiteboard. I signed up for my companionship, and I decided it would take to long to write out all of our last names, so I wrote P (Priest) M (McCullough) S (Sclafani) on the board. When I sat back down Sister Sclafani looked over at me and she was laughing super hard and just pointed up to the board, and then I realized I'd accidentally spelt out PMS. Brother Dewey (one of my teachers) saw what had happened and lost it. He laughed so hard his face turned bright red. It was pretty embarrassing but also funny.

Tuesday night was ice cream night so I decided to try the strawberry ice cream with whipped cream on top, and it tasted super good, but as soon as I finished it I felt so sick! We had class after dinner so I went feeling really gross and had to run out in the middle of class to puke in the bathroom. I felt fine afterwards but it was awkward because everyone in class knew that I threw up. Funny story now but embarrassing at the time. One of the elders in my district took a picture of me in class after I threw up and edited it, and I do not look happy hahaha! If I remember I'll send that picture.

Also,we were walking to class after breakfast and we were behind a group of sisters who are learning Spanish. One of them was walking in the wrong direction, so the other sister was like "Hey, Sister, we're headed over here" and the sister who was walking in the wrong direction was all like "Oh, tambien! I mean lo siento!" After they were far enough away we started laughing a lot because tambien and lo siento are very much not the same at all. So now as an inside joke we say tambien instead of sorry.

TRC's this week went pretty well. (That's when we teach people who come to the MTC to learn more about the gospel.) I've been learning more and more that every person needs to be taught differently and that you need the Spirit to guide what you should teach and certain things that need to be said. We taught a woman named Margaret who is about 50 years old and has a daughter who will be getting married on the 21st. She believes very much in God but didn't understand why we need Christ. She said that if God is all powerful, He should just be able to forgive us for our sins. We tried our best to explain to her that because God is God, if He didn't stay true to His promises/what He has told us He will do, He would cease to be God. So because He has told us that we need to repent of our sins and become like Him, if He were to just flat out forgive us because He can, He would be going against something He has told us. This is why we need Jesus Christ to be our mediator, like our spiritual lawyer. We can only repent, be forgiven of our sins, and progress because He performed the Atonement and understands every single little thing we go through. Margaret said she understood everything we were saying and that she could feel the power of our testimonies, but that she needed to come to know the importance of Christ for herself. We asked her to read in Luke 22 and 23 about Christ's Atonement and crucifixion, and then to pray to know if it really happened and to know that only because of Him can we become more like our Father in Heaven. She said she wouldn't stop praying and reading the scriptures until she got an answer, so we were very happy to hear that.

We were had our departing interviews with the branch presidency yesterday, and one of the counselors, Brother Hodson, interviewed me. He told me that if I just remember that Christ always walks with me and have faith that I will be able to teach effectively I will be able to stay happy and find success. He's a super wise person. Also, I was meaning to ask Dad for a blessing before I left, but I totally forgot about it until I was on the plane here, so he also gave me a blessing for comfort and strength. He told me to pray and ask for the gift of discernment to help me to know what each person needs to hear and learn about.

I've been learning a lot here at the MTC and the days have been so jam packed with spiritual goodness, but there is so much more to learn! I can't wait for what's to come!

LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! Next time I email you guys I'll be in Ohio!! AHHH!