MTC Week 6 - It's Getting Real

*Hermana Bree just realized this was never sent on p-day. I got a chance to talk to her this morning  on her way to DC while she waited in the airport. She asked me to send it out to all of you.  Her next letter will probably not arrive until next Monday - we think that will be her new p-day.  Sorry it's late! And she sounded terrific on the phone, in case you were wondering.

Well, first news of the week, we got our flight plans on Friday! I just have a straight flight to DC and I'm with 6 other missionaries but I haven't met any of them yet, so it's gonna be a lot of fun getting to know them, I'm so excited! It makes it all seem so real. I still can't believe that I'm leaving in 5 days. Where does time go??

We said goodbye to Hermana Johnston Monday morning when she left us for Trinidad so now our trio is down to two. I'm so grateful for the many lessons I learned from her these past two weeks, and I wish her the best in Trinidad.

Other than that our week has been rather uneventful in stories (it's always eventful in learning and spiritual experiences). We had our last lesson with our investigator Mercedes on Friday and it went great. She bore her testimony to us and she is just such a strong person. I love her so much! But yeah, so we haven't taught anyone since then other each other during study time. It;s been a little hard not to have anything specific to plan for but I'm also grateful I have the time to study the lessons in general so that I can teach better when I get out to DC. 

An experience from this week that has really stood out to me and Hermana Shaw is the reality of the scriptures in our lives, specifically Ether 12:27  

And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them. 

Heavenly Father has definitely shown us our weaknesses these past few weeks. It's funny that almost as soon as you recognize something that you're not great at, He shows you something else.I can just imagine Him up there thinking, "Alright come on! One down let's work on something else now." I'm so thankful to have a loving Heavenly Father who wants me to improve and be the best I can be and I am thankful for my Savior Jesucristo who makes improvement and change possible. Me encanta este Evangelio y se que es la verdad. le bendici mi vida otra vez y otra vez. I love the MTC and all I have learned and I can't wait to get out in the field and apply it!

Con amor,

Hermana Bree Johnson

 (A text message photo received from the MTC of Hermana Bree's departing district.)

Phone Call!!

So I was a nut and forgot to bring my flight plans with me, but I leave the MTC at 4:35 AM tomorrow, so I should get to the airport around 5:30-6. Give me probably half an hour or so to get through security and find my gate, so I should call sometime around 6:30-7 Mountain, so 7:30 your time. Also of course there is a very limited amount of phones at airports so there might be a delay if I'm waiting for other people/missionaries. My flight leaves at 10ish, so I'm sorry for the big window, but I could call anytime between 7:30-10. Yah!! I have a call card, so I have plenty of money so no worries there. Les amo!! I have plenty of space in my suitcase, so weight is also not an issue. Anyways, I'm super excited! It's finally real!! But I will talk to you tomorrow. I think I'm supposed to take around 30 minutes, so not too much time, and I'll try to call as soon as I can so I can talk to some kiddies real quickly maybe.

 Les amo,

Su hija Hermana Bree

MTC Week 5 - Familia

*Email to the family

Hola mama!!

 

 This week has been pretty darn great. As I said, travel plans. I leave Tuesday morning at like 4:35 am and then my flight is at 9 something, but I get the chance to email you on Saturday and let you know when I'll call.  Our trio is back to 2.  Also this week felt a little less progressive since we haven't really been applying any of the things we learn since we're not teaching, but that's all about to change! That's about all I have for you. I hope all the kiddies are doing well in school!  As for my schedule it's pretty much the same every day. I eat, go to class for 4 hours, eat, go to class for 3 hours, gym, eat, class for 4 hours then bed. Nothing too crazy. Devotionals on Sunday and Tuesday. No Sunday nap, I'm very jealous mom. And service on Friday. Todos os amo!! I hope you have a wonderful week and I hope to hear from you! I won't have a big letter for maybe a week and a half since I leave on a Tuesday, but I love you all!

Hermana Bree

MTC Week 4 - Still Here!

As usual time is going by so fast and I can't believe how fast its going! I've been here a month and we get out flight plans on Friday which I'm super pumped for. I still haven't met anyone going to my mission so that's pretty neat. Everyone I meet is going to the south mission but I'll have to keep an eye out for English speakers cause they'll be coming in today.

So this week has gone like most of the others. Lots of class, lots of Spanish, but its a miracle to me how fast 4 hour class blocks go by. I remember how difficult it was to focus in 45 min college classes so I'm just gonna assume that time doing by fast is one of the blessings of being a missionary.

 

The Spanish is coming along slowly but surely still. You learn a little more everyday and I'm super interested to see what it'll be like one I get out in the field since it's stateside. I'm super excited to find out. I'm just really excited in general to get to the field.

 

My zone has basically the greatest elders y hermanas in the MTC. Since Hma Shaw, Johnston and I are the sister training leaders we get to spend time with the other districts which is really fun for us cause we get to know them all really well. But they're all just the best. We get the chance to have devotional kind of things on Sundays and after Tuesday night devotionals where we all get up and share what we liked and our testimonies, etc and the Holy Spirit is just so strong in those meetings. Something really does change when we're set apart as missionaries.

 

I can't think of any funny stories right now, this week has been more of a spiritual learning week for me which I have loved! It's been awesome. But my companions are still great, we laugh really hard everyday and it's always a good time. Hma Johnston leaves us for Trinidad on Sunday so that's gonna be really sad, but I guess that's the story of a mission.

 

I absolutely love being a missionary. It's the greatest thing I've ever done. I get to talk with people about the gospel of Jesus Christ, something I love more than anything, every minute of every single day! Like how neat is that?? But that;s all I can think of right now. This gospel is the truth on this earth and I am so blessed every single day to have it in my life and I can't wait to go and share it with others so that it can help and change them like it has helped and changed me. I am so thankful to be here. The atonement of Jesus Christ is real and it is for everyone, even us missionaries! I think a lot of missionaries forget that we need the atonement too. We'll never be perfect teachers, but if we listen to the promptings of the Spirit and really love the people it'll all work out.

 

Te amo!! Hasta luego!

Hma Bree

 

 Me and Hermana Shaw

 All the hermanas in the zone minus Hermana Johnston

 Companions plus Hermana Schaat

With Sister Knight, Bree's freshman summer roommate.

(Thanks Sister Knight's mom!  I "borrowed" this from facebook.)

MTC Week 3 - Halfway There!!

I really can't believe I'm already halfway done with the MTC. Time is so weird here haha. Spanish is coming along slowly but surely, and it's all good cause I'll basically be starting from ground zero once we get out to DC. Still haven't met anyone going to my mission in any language, so I'm really curious to see who I'll be flying with when they give us flight plans in like a week.

So Hma Shaw and I got a new companion this week! Her name is Hma Johnston, and she's so great. She's been here 6 weeks and has two more with us cause her mission to Trinidad (in the Caribbean) got changed from English to Spanish the night before she came into the mtc so she has to stay for 8 weeks to fit the transfer dates. But we are so happy to have her, since she's been here longer and has had different teachers she's taught us a lot about teaching and how to improve our appointments and such. She's been a great example to Hma Shaw and I. She's also from Gilbert and lived in Provo the past year, so she and I will definitely be seeing each other sometime after.

 

The Lord still teaches little by little, and it can be a little frustrating sometimes. Sometimes you just want the teacher to tell you the answers or tell you what to fix, but that's not the point. The point is to learn how to listen to the inspirations of the Spirit so you can teach people and not lessons, and that really is a lesson that is learned though practice and over time. You just have to have faith in the Lord's promises. "Those he calls he qualifies."

 

Hmo Nordfelt our teacher is also great. He really does a great job of focusing on how we can invite and help people to become converted rather than just join the church. Those are two very different things. Someone can be baptized into the church, but if they don't take the steps to really change their lives, they'll never stay. It's an important lesson, and I love that he focuses so much on that. People can't just accept the Gospel of Jesucristo. They have to live it.

 

Story of the week, so last week we had a lesson with our investigator and Hma Shaw and I had been on splits all day because of the confusion of having random people move in our room due to scheduling errors and her getting asked out of the blue to host new missionaries while I was in the shower. Basically it was a crazy preparation day and we didn't see each other much until that night when we had to teach. I had the impression that we should totally change our lesson plan that we had had planned all week and this was like 20 minutes before we were supposed to teach. Now Mercedes is not a fan of the Book of Mormon, and since that is essential to getting people to come unto Christ, we had planned on talking about that and reading the introduccion with her. We instead felt that we needed to teach about the plan of Salvation, god's plan for us in this life, and focus on why we have trials and the freedom to make choices. It was an awesome lesson and she cried as we read in 2 Nephi 2 about our ability to choose to have joy in this life and in the life to come. Another thing is that she only had 10 minutes, and our original lesson plan would have taken way longer. The Spirit is real and Heavenly Father really knows each of his children and will do anything to bring them unto Christ, all we have to do is listen and he'll tell us what to say

.

Missions are great. I love being out here, and am starting to get sooo excited to go to DC. Se que Jesucristo vive y ama todos de nosotros. He wants us to come closer to him, and I'm so excited for the chance the share that with other people! Until next time!

Hma Bree

 

Also lo siento, I totally forgot to bring my camera so I'll have to double up on pictures next week!

MTC Week 2 - The Soviets are Everywhere

I can't believe its already been a week!! Every day gets better and every day goes by faster. The Spanish is coming along slowly but surely and I learn more about teaching every day. Missionary work is still humbling but I love it so much. So there's 4 hmas in my district and we all share a room and we have gotten so close these past 2 weeks. Actually the whole district has gotten really close these past 2 weeks. These elders and hermanas are family to me. They're basically my brothers and sisters. We laugh so much over the stupidest things. I love seeing how much each of us brings to the mission field with our individual testimonies.

So, like I said I love the MTC. Our teachers are so incredibly patient and loving. Hma Boza who's from Peru is literally the funniest/cutest person ever. She picks on Elder Nelson  (our District Leader) relentlessly and it makes the 3 hour classroom blocks go by way faster. Hma Boza has a super cool story.  She converted 6 years ago, served a mission, and then taught at the Peru MTC for like 4 years and now she's here. She's such a great teacher and really makes sure we all understand our role as missionaries. To invite people to come unto Christ not to teach lesson. 

We've started teaching an "investigor" (she's actually a member but pretends to be an investigaor for our sake) named Mercedes and she is awesome. We've struggled a little with her since she has no interest in the Book of Mormon and kind of turns off whenever we mention it, but we're teaching her again today and we're hoping to help her be a little more open to it.

We also got to teach members yesterday just to practice talking about the gospel in Spanish and there was this one man who's wife died from cancer 2 years earlier. He has such as amazing testimony of the atonement. I am also amazed by my companion. Hma Shaw has the strongest testimony of eternal families and and that we will see our loved ones when we die and she shared that with him. We were all in tears.

Like the title says, there are Russian missionaries everywhere! Well American missionaries going to Russia. And today we had two Russian sisters move into our room, which I'm not gonna lie we were a little bummed about because we love our just having hermanas in our room, but they seem nice. We don't think that they'll be staying long cause Hma Shaw and I are getting a new companion, Hma Johnston (yeah I know we;re all laughing) on Monday and there's no more room in our room, so we'll be making a trip to the scheduling office tomorrow to figure that out. Side note, one of the new Russian sisters has pneumonia so that's fun. 

Other than that, mission work is going great. I'm learning so much every single day! I love my companion and the other hermanas that are basically my companions as well. Until next week,

Hma Bree

And pictures!!!

Back in the Motherland

Wow this past week has been crazy. I'm officially at the MTC (Missionary Training Center) and it's definitely true what they say about the days feeling like weeks and the weeks feeling like days. I have no idea where this past week went, but the days all felt soo long. Regardless I love it here. I have the same view of the mountains that I had at BYU cause it's like a mile down the road and it makes me so at home even though its all new. My class/disctrict has 6 elders y 4 hermanas and I love them all so much. Its amazing to me how easy my life has been after talking to some of the health, family, etc struggles that many of them have gone through. We all have so much fun together which really makes the time just fly. I've laughed so much in this past week! The Spanish is coming along. I continually feel super blessed that languages are something that I'm good at cause it's almost all we do here haha. Okay so that's not true. But they start by teaching language and then they start teaching you how to teach investigors. The past few lessons have been a little frustrating to me since they do it in that order, and also cause they kinda want you to learn by making mistakes. Figuring out the balance between being their friend and teaching the lessons have been a little bit of a struggle for me, but Hermano Nordfelt (one of our teachers) said it comes with practice. I can't think of too many specific stories to tell, we just laugh a lot as a district, especially us hermanas. Hermana Shaw is my companion and she is just awesome. She's from Seattle and just graduated high school, but also is somehow older than me which we laugh about all the time. Hermana Schaat is from rexburg and she's definitely the responsible one of the hermanas. Hermana Kinikini is just hilarious and super social. Like stops to meet random people and learn their life stories all the time. Shes visa waiting right now, but we really hope we get her for the whole 6 weeks. Like a couple of my friends have said, missionary work is exhausting. Despite getting 8 hours of sleep we are all just tired all the time. It's super funny to just look around during class, devotionals, lunch, etc and see who's falling asleep. I've seen so many friends here from BYU which has been such a blessing, including Talon (my brother who works at teh MTC). Our zone is awesome. All the hermanas are just the nicest people and have great stories to tell. I'm gonna miss all of them when we all leave. Other than that, P-Day is great! I'm so glad to be here, and to my family members I'm loving the letters! The gospel is true, love you all!

Hermana Bree

so the pictures aren't working on any of these computers so I'm sorry. I'll try again later

First Letter and a Surprise Photo

(Sent by Sister Bree at 11:51am)

I Survived!

So, we only have about 10 minutes to quickly write to our families, but so far the MTC has been great! Only 3 people in my district are going to the same mission, the rest of us are going all over, but mostly stateside. My companion is Hermana Shaw and she is also great. She's from Seattle and is going to South Carolina so she keeps asking me about the East Coast since the furthest east she'd ever been is Chicago. She underestimates the power of humidity haha. Spanish has been going good so far. It's surprising to me how much I remember.  Our room is surrounded by Russian speaking sisters so that's been lots of fun! They always seem very surprised when an Hermana walks up and greets them in Russian. I've run into a handful of friends so far from BYU and it has been such a blessing to see familiar faces. It started when I ran into Sister Pinnock only 5 minutes after I got into the MTC (she's been in my ward all three semesters). The other two hermanas in my district are Hermana Schaat and Hermana Kinikini. Hermana Schaat is going to Las Vegas (Kaila's mission) and Hermana Kinikini is here waiting for her visa before she goes to Guadalajara Mexico. We don't really know each other super well yet, but they seem pretty great to me. Can I just say that missionary work is humbling! It seems like every time you feel confident you're shot down, but the spirit is strong and the whole point of being here is to learn so I'm not too worried. The church is true, and I'll talk to you on Wednesday! Love you!

Hermana Johnson

 

(And back to me.....)

 

From this we glean three important pieces of information. One, I should have named this blog Hermana Bree in DC - didn't think that one through very well.  Two, her preparation day must be on Wednesday, so that's the day to look for letters!  Three, she is happy and learning and her first day has gone well.  Smiles all around!

A little later today I received this fun photo series:

Sister Bree, henceforth renamed Hermana Bree,  has a brother going to BYU who happens to work at the MTC and was there for his shift when she came in to eat. Of course, all greetings with opposite gendered persons have to be at arm's length, although I don't think her brother would have counted.  They will get to see each other quite a few times during her MTC stay.  Please make her dinner extra delicious, Talon! 

 

Happy Day 1 Hermana Bree.

It's Official

At 1pm today it was officially official.  Sister Bree entered the MTC for her 18 month mission to the Washington DC North mission.  She will spend 6 weeks here learning Spanish and preparing to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with anyone who would like to hear it.

I got to hear from her one more time before she walked in the doors.  First the good news: her luggage had been found, yes in Fargo, and flown back to UT.  It was set for arrival by the end of the day.  Terrific!  And the bad news: boy am I going to miss this girl!!  She will be wonderful and courageous and strong and bubbly, like always.  But I will miss her terribly.

Marvelous Mary once again paid me a kindness with a parting shot:

 

I won't hear her voice again until Christmas.  That seems like a very, very long time.  And yet, I wouldn't have it any other way.  

Be amazing Sister Bree.  Adventure awaits!!