Hello all
A brief overview of some of the thing that happened this week.
I neglected to mention in my last email that there are 48 missionaries here. Nine sisters and thirty-seven elders. We have just two zones and four districts (one of which is entirely German). I love haing such a small MTC!!!! Ther isn't any competition between anyone and we get to know everybody!!!!
They gave us some legit skittles yesterday...k....these skittles are AMAZING! These Skittles are SkitTELS!!!! They aren't just generic sugary pockets of sunshine. These are like giant fruit explosions of joy and euphoria!!!!!!!!! Pretty much blew my mind and made me want to open my mouth really wide and do an ugly dance! I do ugly dances when i'm really excited, like when we:
-Went on a church history tour through Lancashire.
-When I found out that the Preston Temple was opening up today!!! They prayed for the missionaries and you should have been there to feel the spirit. Man, there honestly was not a dry eye in the whole place....not even with the Elders....heck...not even with me!
- When I found out that my Mission President is coming for dinner tonight
-AND whenever I see an animal. (It's a well known fact with everybody, from the kitchen staff to President Clegg, that whenever Sister White sees a woodland creature, she squeals, "I want it!" then proceeds to give it a name and assign it a fanciful article of clothing. :D Everyone asks me about the Animal of the Day. K....they do not have spherical birds in Utah. What am I supposed to do? Leave it be to live in peace in the wild? I think not!)
I can tell you one instance when I did not do an ugly dance.....when I found out that we were being shipped off to the train station to catch a train to the Manchester station and street contact....uh........say what now!!?!?!? From the 2nd day at the MTC when I controlled the majority of the mock teaching to my successful "milestones" with Sister Duston (video taped mock teaching tests), Ifelt like I could talk to anybody about religion, but when our teachers told us what we were about to do, I nearly dropped a load in my pants!!!! I was so scared! They gave us our train tickets and £5.00 for lunch and sent us on our merry way. The moment we stepped on the train, there was a tangible shift in mood. Everyone knew we were there and nobody wanted to speak with us. It was a bizarre feeling. It was funny to see all the music earbuds being shoved into ears, and it was hilarious to see people smash themselves against windows and doors so they wouldn't have to be close to us. As funny as it was i was still uber nervous so I said, "Ok God, here I am. Let's do this. You promised me that if I open my mouth you will fill it. Here I go." So I started talking to people. I was the only one! Come on Elders!!! Speak! Many many people got off my car after I spoke with them and I watched them moved to other cars. There was one man who got on who asked me what my deal was. We chatted for a bit and he aggreed to let me practice on him. He made it very clear he wasn't going to get sucked into anything I had to say. "OOOOHHHH Yay! You're gonna be hard! Perfect!" He tried to be all scientific with me. Bah! I hate arguing but I just bore simple testimony of my love for the savior, as I bore testimony (this happened many times that day) but I watched this man's expression change from "I'm just doing this chick a favor." to him actually paying attention to what i had to say. The spirit was bouncing around in my ribcage and i was all sorts of sweaty. At one point found myself saying, "I know and feel these things to be true, and I can see in your face that you feel it too."
"Feel what?"
"You're telling me you can't feel that?"
He got all shifty and said, "What!....It's just warm on this train. There are a lot of people in here. I don't feel anything."
mhmmm....ok...sure :)
It was just interesting to see the shift in people's expression when they listened to me, but not everybody listened to me. Lots of people yelled at me, telling me to mind my own business. It was bizarre to be yelled at...not because I haven't been yelled at before, but because I liked it. I'm still entranced by all the accents so when they yelled I was like, "YEAH!!!!! That's right! Keep yelling, I'm loving this." I don't think they appreciated that very much! I'm running out of time now, but I want to try to tell you about John. He called out to Sister Duston and myself. He was so ready!!!! Our teacher told us that we would meet people who God has prepared. I didn't know how prepared someone like that could be. He accepted everything we presented him with, and said, "yeah, I've always thought that's how it would be....how it should be." He told us how he'd just quit drinking, but he was trying to quit smoking...just then he pulled out a little piece of paper and tobacco and carefully assembled his tiny cigarette pinch by pinch. It was a crazy feeling to watch someone you've grown to love in just a couple of minutes carefully prepare this death stick, and not be able to do anything about it. We pleaded with him, prayed with him, did everything we could but knock it out of his hands. We had to catch our train, but I watched him roll it in his fingers as we ran away. As I rounded the corner I watched him light up......ughh......He was so ready! Bah ! I have to go!!!!!! Love you! BYE
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