Anna's Mission: Learning to Dance in the Rain: Week 2 at the MTC

September 8, 2017
Hey everybody!! I've officially been a missionary for 10 days now! and I have grown more in these past 10 days then I have in my whole life. Each day has been packed with spiritual experiences and crazy stories and I don't even remember half of them.There is no better way to describe how it feels at the MTC then to say that the days go on for weeks and the weeks fly by like days.

Sunday really was the turning point. Up to sunday people would ask us how we were adjusting and tell us to just wait for sunday, that sunday would make everything better. I didn't really believe them but it did. Even though sunday has been one of the hardest days so far, i'm calling it my breakdown day because I just couldn't stop crying. I feel now like I was given the "gift of tears" in order for me to break out of my shell and confide in my companions my feelings. We really bonded as a companionship after that and my stress levels have been decreasing. But the main reason why sunday was so great was because of Choir practice and watching a film called "The Character of Christ" which is a devotional given by Elder Bednar. It was amazing I can't even describe, or remember what exactly was talked about but I just remember the promptings to come closer to Jesus Christ and strengthen my relationship with him. Choir practice was great because it felt good to sing again and the choir directer Brother Eggett is amazing. He is a seminary teacher, so very funny, and some how manages to teach a spiritual message while helping us learn the song. We sang Lead Kindly, Light at the tuesday devotional which they didn't tell us until that night was going to be broadcasted live to all the other MTCs around the world. It was also amazing because Elder Dallin H. Oaks and his wife came and spoke to us, WE GOT TO SING FOR AN APOSTLE!! This was the first time in a couple months that they have had one of the twelve come and speak. So it was super exciting. But super hard not to look at the screens while singing.

We also started TRCs (Teaching Resource Center) this week. What they are is basically you are assigned an "Investigator" to teach and go to the building and meet and teach them throughout the week. Most of the "Investigators" are students from BYU pretending to be investigators but some of them are real investigators, so that is nerve racking because they never tell you. BUT its pretty easy to tell who is real or not. Our first TRC was a girl named Ericka, I'm pretty sure she wasn't a real investigator. Ericka in our first lesson was very distant, she was yawning the whole time and never really took it seriously. Well in our next lesson we really tried to rely on the spirit for what to teach, showed her a video called Prince of Peace about Christ and we "Broke her down". We teach her one more time on Saturday I'm excited to see how it goes.

One thing you should know, Sister Johnson's companion never showed up so our Trio was split. So I just have one companion now. though we still all go everywhere together, but I've been teaching now with Sister Unferdorfer.

Our second TRC is Alexander (I can't stop singing Hamilton when I hear his name!) He is a very sweet guy who just got here a couple months ago from Peru so he has a pretty thick accent still. He is going to school at UVU and his roommate who is Mormon said he should come here to learn more about the church. The moment we walked into the room with him I felt the spirit tell me "This is a real investigator, take it seriously." We had just had our flop lesson with Ericka that morning and I wasn't really excited to teach again, but the spirit was just so strong in his lesson and we left him on the first meeting to read Alma 7 and pray. He eagerly accepted and when we left Sister Unferdorfer and I couldn't contain our excitement. We practically skipped down the hall. It was honestly a feeling of Joy that I had never felt before, I don't think I ever understood up to that moment what true joy felt like, or even understood that the spirit can be felt like that. I couldn't stop smiling, and my cheeks felt like they were on fire. People have always told me that you will come to love your investigators so much and I really wasn't sure how that was possible, but having just met Alexander I can tell you honestly that I feel such love for him and I know of Gods love for him. Our last meeting with him was yesterday and it was so hard to say goodbye, we asked him if he would go to church with his friend on sunday and he said yes. We also asked if when he came to know that the things we were telling him are true if he would be baptized, he also said yes. Hopefully he will keep coming and a different set of missionaries can help him continue on his path to conversion.

I've just been learning so much everyday. One of the most important things I'm learning is how to rely on the spirit while teaching. It is impossible to teach without the spirit. I've felt times in my lessons when things have been going great and I think to myself "ya I've got this!" then instantly the spirit is taken away and we crash and burn, and I have to humble myself and just pray that the spirit will come back. a scripture I've really come to understand and love here are the MTC has been Alma 29:9-10....
"I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy.
and behold, when I see many of my brethren truly penitent, and coming to the Lord their God, then is my soul filled with joy; then do I remember what the Lord hath done for me, yea, even that he hath heard my prayer; yea, then do I remember his merciful arm which he extended towards me."

Its been hard leaving my family, my music (I just randomly hum sections of my favorite songs), sleeping in, and comfy clothing. It's been physically exhausting, emotionally draining, the food lines are insane, and there is no alone time but its also been so amazing already and brought me closer to my Savior then I've ever been and I wouldn't give up this experience for the world.

I love you! God loves you! Everything is good :)
-Sister Peterson

Photos:

Sister Hill caught us studying at the temple.

Both of our TRCs went really well so we just had to celebrate with a selfie

Because we just had to do a cheesy map photo

The whole district + our teacher who just started school so she had to leave.

Ok these need a little more of an explanation... When you walk down these steps they are practically invisible. We say "STEP" everytime we walk past them. We have almost tripped on them so many times and a new sister actually tripped and broke both her ankles on them so we had to take an angry pics with the step. Then yesterday we noticed they added blue tape to help people see them so we just had to take a happy pic...