FAMILY!!!!! 4-4-13
Oh my goodness, I cannot believe another week has gone by. Over half
way done! In less that 3 weeks I will by in Chile. Can we just talk about that
for a second? Madness! But I am so excited!!! Holy cow, I am so excited to meet
the people and start teaching them! :) I miss you guys so much!!! I about die
of happiness every time I get a letter. Can I just say that I was blessed with
the greatest family ever?? Because really I was. I was showing my whole district
my picture book with all of you in it the other day and just kept thinking...
seriously, I am so blessed! I love you all so much!!!! :)
So this week has been awesome! So many things happen at the MTC it
is so hard to even know where to begin! On P-days, we always go to the temple
really early in the morning and do a session and then eat a Celestial breakfast
there. It is great! I love the temple so much and I finished all my family
names this week! Woot woot! So Grandma, I will be sending them to you soon!
P-days are awesome, but they go by so fast haha. There is always so much to do!
The temple is my favorite though :)
So one of the investigators we have been teaching, Yira, is 16 and
he makes me so happy!!! We had intercambios last week and I wasn’t with my
comps when they invited him to be baptized (pretty much I was super sad about
it), but he had to ask his parents and yesterday when we met with him after he
asked them we discovered his mom was baptized a member and he didn't even know!
Haha it was awesome. So we are working on a "baptismal date," and it
is just the greatest. Lessons with him are always so happy and it is so
exciting to watch his knowledge and desire to learn more grow! We have another
lesson with him tonight and I am super excited. It is amazing to watch people,
even fake investigators, start to be converted unto the Lord. That seems to
have been a huge theme this past week... helping your investigators (and
yourself) become converted unto the Lord. We have to teach clearly enough and
with the power of the Spirit so that they desire to keep commitments on their
own, without our prodding. It is super difficult to master how to do that, but
watching it with Yira is awesome! :)
Easter was basically the greatest day of my life! Let me explain a
little about how it went... we had a big "mission conference" for
Sacrament Meeting, which means that the sacrament was being passed to over 3000
missionaries at one time. It was the coolest thing ever! I felt like we
belonged in one of the Bible stories. Then the speaker for that meeting was
Bishop Chause, of the presiding bishopric. He gave such an awesome talk on the
Savior and coming to know him better! Then we had a branch testimony meeting...
I was up bearing my testimony in lovely Spanish (baha... super basic!) and who
walks in but Bishop Chause?? It was crazy! Everyone turned around and got all
excited, but I kept my cool and continued with my testimony. Haha I can
officially say I have borne my testimony for a general authority! :) We had an
awesome afternoon, and then for devotional that night, Sheri Dew came and spoke
to us! Okay, that woman is seriously amazing. And then after that, we usually
watch some sort of movie and that night it was a devotional Elder. Bednar gave
a couple Christmas's ago at the MTC entitled, "The Characters of
Christ." Talk about a life changing day!!!!! And then Tuesday another
general authority came! Seriously, I received so much revelation and
spiritual upliftment that day I felt tired haha. Our whole district felt about
like how King Lamoni feels after Ammon taught him and at that moment I totally
understood why he and his whole house passed out for hours hahaha :) I love the
Spirit so much!!
I wish I could tell you everything that I learned that day, and this
whole week! It seriously has been an awesome week. But every week is like that
here! The Spirit is absolutely incredible. One elder in my district said that
the MTC in Provo is kind of like the epicenter of the Church... so don't you
think that there are prophets of old walking the hallways and angels up in the
spirit world come here to learn, side by side with us, how to preach the
gospel? I wouldn’t be surprised! This place is amazing :) Like I said earlier,
one of the huge things I learned this week is the importance of conversion
not just testimony... and how we achieve that by striving the develop the
characteristics of Christ and enduring to the end. And the more I learn the
more I realize I have such an incredibly long way to go haha. I feel like I
have just barely, barely begun my conversion process! A couple things that
stood out to me are these: first, the Savior. Without Him, we can't change. He
was always focused outward, never inward, and even when He went through the
worst things he was thinking of others. I need to be so much better at this,
especially as a missionary. I know as I focus on others, their conversion and
mine will come at the same time. Another speaker talked about how "the
most important work is done within the walls of your own home," and if so,
why are we here?? Because we are preparing ourselves for that work. By enduring
to the end of our mission, we are learning how to endure to the end of our
lives and how to help others do that. His mission president told him he would
know he was a successful missionary if the grandchildren of his convert were
converted... think about that. The grandchildren! I love comparing that to our
family. If I am truly converted, so will my kids and their kids and their kids
and it goes on and on! It is such a cycle and I think the importance of being
converted is just going to become more and more in the going years. I am so
grateful to you parents for teaching my the gospel! Oh man, I seriously don't
know where I would be without your examples and guidance. And because your conversion,
I can go teach people in Chile who will teach their kids! It is such a huge
ripple effect! I love how we all need each other to get back to heaven :) I
love the gospel!
Anyway, running low on time... other news. This week I was called as
the coordinating sister in my zone. Pretty crazy haha. It is kind of like
the sister equivalent to a zone leader. I am in charge of all the sisters in my
zone and making sure they are doing well, and training the new districts with
the zone leaders and conducting weekly interviews and such. I feel so lucky to
get to serve as the sister for a little bit! I can't wait to get to know the
other sisters better. There are so awesome sisters that just came in, and I
can't wait to help them and learn from them! :)
It sounds like you all have had an awesome week!! :) I LOVE LOVE
LOVE your letters!!! And thank you so much for my package! I loved it so
much!!! And have basically been on a sugar high ever since haha. You guys are
the best! Also, I haven't seen Brandon yet but I hope I see him soon! I did see
Phil Babbit though! Haha he is awesome. Our classrooms are in the same
building. Oh, and I got the sweetest letter from Sister Searing! Will you tell
her thank you for me? It was so nice :)
I just want to share one last thing with you... last Friday, on
intercambio day, this hermana and I were having a pretty rough time haha. But
our awesome teacher, Hermano Zuzunaga shared this scripture with us and I just
loved it so much! Read 3rd Nephi 17:7 and then verse 10 too. I know that we all
have wounds and things that we want to change in our life, but through Christ,
He can heal us of anything. Whether it is a sickness or trial or characteristic
we want to change. And just like the people of Nephi in verse 10, we will be so
happy and thankful when we see him again! One general authority (can’t remember
who) said, as he was close to dying, that he wouldn't know his Savior any more
when he finally saw his face than he does now. That made me realize that I have
a long way to go to get to know my Savior!! I love you all so much and I know
that the Savior loves all of you too and no matter what you are struggling with
He can help you if you come to Him. This gospel is amazing! And so are all of
you!!1 Have the greatest week EVER! :)
Until next week, your favorite missionary
Hermana Teeples :)
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