Hello again from the MTC!!

So this is my last P-day in the MTC! Its crazy how fast time goes by. This time next week I will be on a bus... hehe- that still makes me laugh. A BUS to Ogden! I don't know if I will get a chance to e-mail next week, but I will write letters while we are driving for sure! So just look out for that!

Anyways, I love my roommates I am with the "always crack me up [companions]"! We have been having a riot here in the MTC. I mean a spiritual riot! And mom you are very right, I have learned so much already. It is amazing the answers the scriptures hold for us. I love going to the referral center too. It's where everyone calls in with questions about the church and we missionaries with our cute little phone head sets get to do our best to answer them. There have been many great experiences already. Missionary work is AMAZING! I talked to a girl from Georgia named Gloria. We talked for a long time. She shared how she has seen God's hand in her life. It was wonderful to testify that God knows who she is as a daughter! She wanted to learn more so we sent the missionaries to her house!

Then there was Phil. He was great too. He is from New Jersey. We were talking via chat. At first I was weary because he started off asking, "Do you 'Mormons' believe in alien life forms?" I was like... what the???? But we ended up having a great converstaion for an hour or so. I got to teach him a lot about the plan of salvation. He was very interested in that. It was also great how scriptures would pop into my head as we were talking. God really blessed me with rememberance, even from things I learned in freshman seminary Book of Mormon classes at BYU etc.... It was great. It makes me really excited to head to Ogden.

In the TRC (Teaching Reasource Center), volunteers from the community come in and act like investigators. Sister Sutter and I had a great lesson there about the importance of baptism. Wow, did we learn a lot! I learned a lot from the investigator too. He was a convert himself about 15 years ago. He was so genuine and real. There definitely is a difference between missionary lessons and DISCUSSIONS! I really like the discussions. It is real. We are real people looking for real answers! I never thought at the age of 21 I could help far older people, and help them discover who they really are!

It's sad about people saying we got it all wrong. I know in the field there are going to be hard days and lots of opposition, especially in Utah where everyone has at least heard of the church. They either love it or hate it. We have a great MTC teacher named Brother Kearns who served his mission in SLC south. He has told us some of his experiences, but he has really tailored his lessons to "Utah missions" because he says they really are a unique experience. The things that will occur in our mission will be unlike many others. Pros and Cons both, but it will be wonderful. To those people who say we have it all wrong, we must treat them with kindness and the love of God, but don't let them get to you. The power of God is real, but so is the power of Satan.

We had Elder Holland come to the MTC last week. It was amazing! He talked a lot about how his mission changed his life. How we may be scared or frightened, but the Lord wants us to succeed. This is His work. His hand is in it and we need not to be afraid. He told us to take advantage of EVERY opportunity and learn all we can! This sunday devotional was from an old mission president of the Houston Texas Mission!! YEAH! They were great! They were really enthusiastic about mission work so it pumped us all up. I love sitting in a room with 2000 other set apart missionaries... many of which are ordained as an Elder. That is powerful! Especially when we sing.

Speaking of singing, Sister Sutter and I sing in the chior. That is an amazing experience! I love it! We sang "This is The Christ" for Jeffery R. Holland. Talk about amazing!