Week Two

Sister Melling is busy preparing for the day she leaves the MTC to head to Tempe (which is this coming Tuesday, the 18th). We just received another update from her along with some cute pics.

Here are some parts of her email, directly copied and pasted:

"...I have the best district ever. Seriously. All the sisters are super close and even though the elders are all younger than me they're all so focused and spiritual. We sit together at meals and spend basically all of our time together. We've grown pretty close and it'll be hard to leave them when we get to Tempe, especially since our mission is spliting and some of them might get sent to the new mission. But one sister in our district is from Hawaii and we've decided that in a few years when we're all back we're going to have a district reunion at her house. Haha.

I also have awesome teachers. Sister Card, Brother Morriss, and Brother Derenthal. I have learned so much from all of them. Aparently Sister Card used to be a model in NYC. Brother Derenthal told us to ask her about it, so we did. I guess High School Musical was filmed at her high school and she was an extra-she danced in it. And she got to meet all the stars! When she told us she met Zac Efron all the sisters might have freaked out. Haha. Anyways, I guess someone there mentioned that she should be a model so she went to NYC with her mom her junior year of high school and got hired. Then she moved to city ALL BY HERSELF! How crazy is that?!?! She finished high school online and got to travel to Japan, Singapore, Italy, and lots of cool places. When she turned 18 she left the industry because as she puts it, they wanted her soul. haha. And then she started college. She modeled for some pretty legit places too-Lucky and Gucci and such. So yeah, my teachers are awesome. And even though Brother Morriss and Brother Derenthal don't have an awesome double life they're still super spiritual and great teachers.

Yesterday we had in-field training. It was really cool. We talked about how setting goals and planning are really important to use time productively and be successful. We also talked about working with members in the wards where we serve. Missionary work won't be successful unless the members are willing to help make the converts feel welcome. I want to challenge all the members of the church to be more welcoming to investigators and converts. I also want to challenge you to have referrals for the missionary when they ask for them. It can be hard to give them the name of your friends, because you don't want to offend them, but remember this is the gospel of Jesus Christ! When you give their name to the missionaries you are really showing your love for them because you want them to be as happy as you are with the knowledge of the gospel. You never know who Heavenly Father is preparing to receive the gospel. Be bold! Give the missionaries a referral, go with them to teach lessons to investigators. You may not be on a mission, but be a missionary. I can promise you that it will feel amazing, and who knows what the results will be? Show your friends you love them by sending the missionaries to them! The missionaries will be grateful. And your friends will too.

Sunday was really cool. Sacrament was really small-just our zone so like 20 people. But relief society was all the sisters in the mtc. A ton of people! We had Anne Clegg from the general relief society board. My favorite thing from her talk was that she told us to expect miracles. She told us some cool stories. We got a definition of what a miracle is-a natural result of the appication of true principles (or something like that). So basically, if we're living right we can expect miracles to happen. How cool is that? We also had a devotional that night. But my favorite part was after the devotional-we have the chance to watch a movie (a church related one). We watched a talk Elder Bednar gave a few years ago about relying on the Holy Ghost. He told us that the inspiration of the Holy Ghost won't always be super obvious, but if you are a good boy/girl, honor your convenants, and keep the commandments the spirit will guide you. It may not always be obvious, but it will happen.

On Tuesday we had a devotional. It was in the Marriott center-the first time it's been held there in the history of the MTC! How crazy is that?! There were like 4,000 missionaries! I went early with Sister Gannon to sing in the choir, which was about half the MTC. It was really cool. We heard from Mervyn Arnold and his wife. He's in the 70. He talked about a lot of great stuff, but mostly I just realized once again that this is what I need to be doing. I need to spend 18 months in the Lord's service. After all he has blessed me with and given me I can give him 18 months."

Here are the pictures that she sent us:

Being goofy...

Companions: Sister Walker and Sister Melling

The Elders in the district

The sisters in the district

The entire district...being goofy.

Watch out Tempe, here she comes. :)