Salut everyone!!! Another great week here at the MTC. I sure have a lot to tell y'all. (I like to use y'all as much as possible in e-mail because no one here says that).
First thing y'all need to know: WATCH THE MTC DEVOTIONAL TONIGHT ON BYU-TV!! It's at 7 Utah time I believe. It's going to be broadcasted because we will have an Apostle speaking to us! Not only should you watch it for that reason, but guess who is singing in the choir and who you will probably see on TV if you watch it?!?! ME!!! Just thought you'd like to know :) Let's see, where to start. Week 2 was definitely better than week 1. Not that week 1 was bad, but it's a lot better once you get into the groove of things, know your way around, and French doesn't completely fry your brain anymore. Even the mattresses and pillows here which I once thought felt like rocks, have somehow become the COMFIEST things on the face of the earth. Maybe I'm just more tired now :) I've learned that the hardest part of the MTC is not saying "guys" haha. You can only refer to people as Elder/Sister/Brother, so it's super hard to break the "guys" habit. I've learned quite a few life lessons this past week. One is this: our world is so filled with distractions. I can't explain how much I've loved not having a cell phone, computer, TV, radio, etc. I thought I would miss those things, but honestly I never think twice about them. Not that any of those things are necessarily bad, but I've realized how much time I wasted on those things when I could have been doing something BETTER. It's the good, better, best principle. By eliminating those distractions, it's amazing how much more work I can get done that is actually for the benefit for myself, and for others. My thoughts are also a lot more positive and Christ-like when I eliminate those outside influences, because all my time is focused on Him and His work. Another thing I've learned is how much your attitude affects everything. Here at the MTC, and on missions in general, you could easily get angry, frustrated, overwhelmed, annoyed, sad, etc. There is a ton of work, and it's not easy work, especially with learning a foreign language. We have 16 hour days, in which all but an hour and a half of that is spent studying. You kind of go crazy being cooped up in this campus. You miss home. Others around you might do things that annoy you, and you have to be with them 24/7. There are a lot of factors that could make you have a negative view on missions. Your attitude is everything here. You have to CHOOSE to be happy. CHOOSE to work. CHOOSE to love others. I've found so much happiness and peace from just deciding that I'm not going to be overwhelmed, I'm not going to let little things that people do bother me, I'm going to focus on the work so I don't miss home, I'm going to devote all my time to my studies, etc. It's amazing to me that when you just choose to look at things in a positive way, as Christ would, you really are so much happier. But that comes through a conscious choice of our own. Things that would have once bothered me about people, don't. I look at them as a child of God, and that He loves them. It's so much easier to love someone when you think about the fact that they are a son or daughter of God. I can honestly say that I have not had one instance here where someone has bothered me, or I thought I couldn't do this anymore, or that it was too hard, etc. There have been times where the thought has started to emerge, but then I just think to myself "don't." I push the thought out before it gets a chance to take root in my mind. I push that thought out by thinking of my Savior, and that I am on His time, doing His work. If He were here Himself doing it, goodness knows He wouldn't be thinking that it's too hard or that someone did something frustrating. Since I am working on His behalf, as His instrument, I need to be thinking in the way that He would. That has been so amazing for me, because that outlook on things makes me happy literally 24/7. I'm not kidding, I'm literally happy every minute of every day here, because of that. It's so cool!! I recommend trying that to everyone, because being happy is awesome :) Another principle I learned this week is about faith. Missions are a test of your faith. Learning a foreign language on your mission is an extra test of your faith, in my opinion. There were times this week when French was very difficult. I saw others progressing faster than me, I saw others having success with our "investigator", and I would ask myself why I wasn't doing those things as well as them. But like I just said, I tried to look at the positive in it. Soeur Tippett and I were talking about this, and she gave me some wonderful advice. Maybe I am going at the pace I am because the Lord wants me to grow closer to Him by praying extra hard for help, and relying on Him extra hard for the Spirit. That was very profound in my opinion. Because goodness knows, I've been praying harder and harder every day for the Lord to help me with this language, and to help guide me as to how I can best help our investigator come unto Christ. So I can definitely say I've been growing closer to Him, and relying on Him a lot more. I'll tell you a story from this week of an example of this. On Wednesday night, our lesson with our investigator was rough. I didn't trust that I knew enough French (aka wasn't trusting that God would help me speak it) and so I looked at my notes a lot during the lesson. Because of that, the lesson was devoid of the spirit, and we really didn't feel like we helped her at all. That following morning, we had a lesson on putting our full faith in God that He will help us speak our language, if we do our part and prepare. We read D&C 84:85, and that gave me so much comfort. It finally hit me that if I study and work hard, when the time comes to teach, if I put my trust in the Lord, He will put the words in my mouth that He wants me to say to His son or daughter. So, the next night, when we went to teach our investigator again, we decided to finally completely put our trust in God. So, for the first time, we left our notes in the classroom, and brought nothing into our appointment except for ourselves, and the Spirit. That made ALL the difference. The Spirit was there, and after all, the Spirit is the teacher, not us. The French flowed pretty well, and there were some points where my mouth kept moving and I kind of thought to myself "wow, is this really coming out of my mouth right now?" The Spirit can really work miracles. Then the best part came, I challenged Brigitte to be baptized, and she accepted. I just want to say that that was the most wonderful feeling in the world. Even though it wasn't a real investigator, in my mind, it was. I thought about when something like this will happen in France. I wish I had words to describe how happy it makes you to see someone finally understand their divine identity, and to want to come unto Christ, all because of the words that you were able to give them through the Spirit. I got a little glimpse as to why people say missionary work makes you happier than anything else. It's so true. It's also evidence of what putting faith in the Lord will do, because through Him, all things are possible. There have been so many great messages that I've heard this week as well. On Sunday night, we got to watch Elder Bednar's devotional called "The Character of Christ." If you ever get a chance to watch it--do it!! My mind was blown. It was one of the most powerful messages I've ever heard about how to become more Christ-like. Let's just say that after you hear that talk, you'll never want to whine, complain, be selfish, or not serve others ever again. It really inspired me to just always want to look outside of myself and do what I can to be more like Christ and only care about the well-being of others. Think about it: When Christ was in the middle of atoning for the sins and pains of EVERY person on this earth, think of what happened to Him. His Apostles, His closest friends, fell asleep on Him. One of them betrayed Him. He was crucified, beaten, and mocked. He was doing things like healing the ear of the guard's ear that Peter cut off, He was asking His apostles to care for His mother, and He was asking Heavenly Father to forgive the people who were doing this to Him. Those are just a few of the examples of how Christ never ever thought about Himself and His own problems, and only thought of how He could help others. How wonderful it would be if we could all be a little more like that. I know I'm definitely going to try harder to be like that. So tomorrow is going to be pretty cool. We have our first TRC, where we get to go meet French members and teach them. I've heard it's a great learning experience, so I'm excited. Also, my companion and I get to train the 4 new sisters coming in tomorrow! That's going to be fun. It's funny how they have us train when we're still rookies here ourselves. Oh, one more cool thing, the 3 sisters and I in my district all sang a musical number in our Sacrament Meeting on Sunday called Suviens Toi. It's beautiful. You should listen to it! Funny story of the week: The Polynesian sisters here are my favorite. They have major jam sesh's in the showers every night, usually to Disney music. It's awesome. Second, in French, there are 2 words that are very similar. L'amour, which means love, and l'mort, which means death. L'amour is pronounced "amoore" and l'mort is pronounced "amor". I definitely told us that God kills us, several times this week. Haha. Gotta love French. Well, that's all I have time for now folks. Let me just say I am so, so, so grateful to all of you who have been writing me letters and e-mails. I wish so badly that I had time to write every one of you back with the responses that you deserve, but I just don't usually have the time. If I get a chance though, I will. Your words of encouragement and support mean SO much to me. Thank you for all of your prayers, you don't understand what they do for me. I can feel an amazing power and strength from them, in a way that I never have before. I really mean that. I love this work, and I love my Savior. Au Revoir! Soeur Shields
First thing y'all need to know: WATCH THE MTC DEVOTIONAL TONIGHT ON BYU-TV!! It's at 7 Utah time I believe. It's going to be broadcasted because we will have an Apostle speaking to us! Not only should you watch it for that reason, but guess who is singing in the choir and who you will probably see on TV if you watch it?!?! ME!!! Just thought you'd like to know :) Let's see, where to start. Week 2 was definitely better than week 1. Not that week 1 was bad, but it's a lot better once you get into the groove of things, know your way around, and French doesn't completely fry your brain anymore. Even the mattresses and pillows here which I once thought felt like rocks, have somehow become the COMFIEST things on the face of the earth. Maybe I'm just more tired now :) I've learned that the hardest part of the MTC is not saying "guys" haha. You can only refer to people as Elder/Sister/Brother, so it's super hard to break the "guys" habit. I've learned quite a few life lessons this past week. One is this: our world is so filled with distractions. I can't explain how much I've loved not having a cell phone, computer, TV, radio, etc. I thought I would miss those things, but honestly I never think twice about them. Not that any of those things are necessarily bad, but I've realized how much time I wasted on those things when I could have been doing something BETTER. It's the good, better, best principle. By eliminating those distractions, it's amazing how much more work I can get done that is actually for the benefit for myself, and for others. My thoughts are also a lot more positive and Christ-like when I eliminate those outside influences, because all my time is focused on Him and His work. Another thing I've learned is how much your attitude affects everything. Here at the MTC, and on missions in general, you could easily get angry, frustrated, overwhelmed, annoyed, sad, etc. There is a ton of work, and it's not easy work, especially with learning a foreign language. We have 16 hour days, in which all but an hour and a half of that is spent studying. You kind of go crazy being cooped up in this campus. You miss home. Others around you might do things that annoy you, and you have to be with them 24/7. There are a lot of factors that could make you have a negative view on missions. Your attitude is everything here. You have to CHOOSE to be happy. CHOOSE to work. CHOOSE to love others. I've found so much happiness and peace from just deciding that I'm not going to be overwhelmed, I'm not going to let little things that people do bother me, I'm going to focus on the work so I don't miss home, I'm going to devote all my time to my studies, etc. It's amazing to me that when you just choose to look at things in a positive way, as Christ would, you really are so much happier. But that comes through a conscious choice of our own. Things that would have once bothered me about people, don't. I look at them as a child of God, and that He loves them. It's so much easier to love someone when you think about the fact that they are a son or daughter of God. I can honestly say that I have not had one instance here where someone has bothered me, or I thought I couldn't do this anymore, or that it was too hard, etc. There have been times where the thought has started to emerge, but then I just think to myself "don't." I push the thought out before it gets a chance to take root in my mind. I push that thought out by thinking of my Savior, and that I am on His time, doing His work. If He were here Himself doing it, goodness knows He wouldn't be thinking that it's too hard or that someone did something frustrating. Since I am working on His behalf, as His instrument, I need to be thinking in the way that He would. That has been so amazing for me, because that outlook on things makes me happy literally 24/7. I'm not kidding, I'm literally happy every minute of every day here, because of that. It's so cool!! I recommend trying that to everyone, because being happy is awesome :) Another principle I learned this week is about faith. Missions are a test of your faith. Learning a foreign language on your mission is an extra test of your faith, in my opinion. There were times this week when French was very difficult. I saw others progressing faster than me, I saw others having success with our "investigator", and I would ask myself why I wasn't doing those things as well as them. But like I just said, I tried to look at the positive in it. Soeur Tippett and I were talking about this, and she gave me some wonderful advice. Maybe I am going at the pace I am because the Lord wants me to grow closer to Him by praying extra hard for help, and relying on Him extra hard for the Spirit. That was very profound in my opinion. Because goodness knows, I've been praying harder and harder every day for the Lord to help me with this language, and to help guide me as to how I can best help our investigator come unto Christ. So I can definitely say I've been growing closer to Him, and relying on Him a lot more. I'll tell you a story from this week of an example of this. On Wednesday night, our lesson with our investigator was rough. I didn't trust that I knew enough French (aka wasn't trusting that God would help me speak it) and so I looked at my notes a lot during the lesson. Because of that, the lesson was devoid of the spirit, and we really didn't feel like we helped her at all. That following morning, we had a lesson on putting our full faith in God that He will help us speak our language, if we do our part and prepare. We read D&C 84:85, and that gave me so much comfort. It finally hit me that if I study and work hard, when the time comes to teach, if I put my trust in the Lord, He will put the words in my mouth that He wants me to say to His son or daughter. So, the next night, when we went to teach our investigator again, we decided to finally completely put our trust in God. So, for the first time, we left our notes in the classroom, and brought nothing into our appointment except for ourselves, and the Spirit. That made ALL the difference. The Spirit was there, and after all, the Spirit is the teacher, not us. The French flowed pretty well, and there were some points where my mouth kept moving and I kind of thought to myself "wow, is this really coming out of my mouth right now?" The Spirit can really work miracles. Then the best part came, I challenged Brigitte to be baptized, and she accepted. I just want to say that that was the most wonderful feeling in the world. Even though it wasn't a real investigator, in my mind, it was. I thought about when something like this will happen in France. I wish I had words to describe how happy it makes you to see someone finally understand their divine identity, and to want to come unto Christ, all because of the words that you were able to give them through the Spirit. I got a little glimpse as to why people say missionary work makes you happier than anything else. It's so true. It's also evidence of what putting faith in the Lord will do, because through Him, all things are possible. There have been so many great messages that I've heard this week as well. On Sunday night, we got to watch Elder Bednar's devotional called "The Character of Christ." If you ever get a chance to watch it--do it!! My mind was blown. It was one of the most powerful messages I've ever heard about how to become more Christ-like. Let's just say that after you hear that talk, you'll never want to whine, complain, be selfish, or not serve others ever again. It really inspired me to just always want to look outside of myself and do what I can to be more like Christ and only care about the well-being of others. Think about it: When Christ was in the middle of atoning for the sins and pains of EVERY person on this earth, think of what happened to Him. His Apostles, His closest friends, fell asleep on Him. One of them betrayed Him. He was crucified, beaten, and mocked. He was doing things like healing the ear of the guard's ear that Peter cut off, He was asking His apostles to care for His mother, and He was asking Heavenly Father to forgive the people who were doing this to Him. Those are just a few of the examples of how Christ never ever thought about Himself and His own problems, and only thought of how He could help others. How wonderful it would be if we could all be a little more like that. I know I'm definitely going to try harder to be like that. So tomorrow is going to be pretty cool. We have our first TRC, where we get to go meet French members and teach them. I've heard it's a great learning experience, so I'm excited. Also, my companion and I get to train the 4 new sisters coming in tomorrow! That's going to be fun. It's funny how they have us train when we're still rookies here ourselves. Oh, one more cool thing, the 3 sisters and I in my district all sang a musical number in our Sacrament Meeting on Sunday called Suviens Toi. It's beautiful. You should listen to it! Funny story of the week: The Polynesian sisters here are my favorite. They have major jam sesh's in the showers every night, usually to Disney music. It's awesome. Second, in French, there are 2 words that are very similar. L'amour, which means love, and l'mort, which means death. L'amour is pronounced "amoore" and l'mort is pronounced "amor". I definitely told us that God kills us, several times this week. Haha. Gotta love French. Well, that's all I have time for now folks. Let me just say I am so, so, so grateful to all of you who have been writing me letters and e-mails. I wish so badly that I had time to write every one of you back with the responses that you deserve, but I just don't usually have the time. If I get a chance though, I will. Your words of encouragement and support mean SO much to me. Thank you for all of your prayers, you don't understand what they do for me. I can feel an amazing power and strength from them, in a way that I never have before. I really mean that. I love this work, and I love my Savior. Au Revoir! Soeur Shields