Sunday, October 20, 2013

Alex's Fifth letter! only 10 more days in the MTC!! October 18th

Hola familia,
Como estas? 

Well my 5th week in the MTC is coming to a close. WOW, time has really flown!! My companion actually leaves a week earlier then me so I will have to move districts because I can't be alone with just elders! This will be hard for me, I love my district so much and they are all amazing but I guess it will just give me an opportunity to meet more people.

Okay, this week was amazing AS USUAL (when is it not a good week in el CCM) There are ups and downs everyday, but when I write in my journal at night (yes mom don't worry I am writing in my journal every night :) ) I can't seem to remember the negatives....only the positives. It's great! Life is wonderful! I am so happy to be here!
On Saturday, my companion and I had a hard day. My companion and I were tired and we kinda just wanted space from each other. It was just one of those days. We had to teach though so we went in and the spirit was not present. Our investigator asked me a question and I didn't know the answer at all. I didn't even know how to describe it in English let alone Spanish. I just started to cry. I tried to cover it up but it was not working. After the lesson my teacher, who is the investigator, pulled me aside and asked me what was wrong. I just explained today was just not the best day. He told me that people will ask me questions all the time, and I may not even understand the question but everything will be okay. The spirit, if it is present, will tell you what you need to say in a moment when there are no words in your mind. He told me that I could always tell the investigator that I will come back the next time and answer their question. After my meeting with my teacher (Hermano Park) I was determined to find out the answer to the question. The question was, "What is baptism by fire?" I searched everywhere, scriptures, PMG, even True to the Faith. I wanted to find out how I could explain this to someone. I ended up coming across the phrase, "Refiner's Fire." I have studied that out too. I have gained such a strong testimony about what a refiners fire is. 

Being here in the MTC is a "Refiner's Fire." You are becoming a new person and you are maturing, at a really fast rate I might add, and becoming more of a missionary. You are becoming a tool in the Lords hands. In my studies, I came across the scripture 1st Nephi 20:10 which basically says that you will be refined by your trials. Heavenly Father only gives you trials that you can handle and if you come out "on top" you become closer to your Heavenly Father and you become more like him. I have seen myself change and all the other people in my district. It is amazing what even a little time in the MTC will do to you. When you are studying the scriptures all day and you don't have the distraction of social media you really see change in yourself. I am so lucky to be a missionary right now, there is no place I would rather be, even thinking about who I was 4 weeks ago is really strange.

Being here, my testimony of Joseph Smith has grown so much! I have memorized the first vision in Spanish and on Sunday nights we watch films and I always watch Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration. I love that movie, if you haven't seen it, I know that it is on YouTube. Every time I watch it, I cry at the end and just think to myself, "How could anyone not believe that this is true?" This church and the gospel bring me so much joy, I am just so excited to tell the people of Dallas Texas all about it!

On Tuesday, we had a very special guest for our devotional. They wouldn't tell anyone who it was so my zone got there an hour early to get the best seats possible. Well all that waiting was totally worth it, the special guest was Elder Dallin H. Oaks. When he walked into the room, everyone stood up and it was silent. The peace and the feeling of the spirit was so strong it that room. It was amazing! He gave a fabulous devotional about change in the mission and also about what makes our church different than others. I took a lot of notes in my journal. It was a really cool experience to be in the presence of an apostle. 

The new districts are great, but sadly we are all moving to West Campus next week. They want West Campus to be ALL Spanish, so now anyone coming to the Provo MTC that is speaking Spanish will go to West Campus. We are kind of excited for the move, I am just a little mad cause I have to pack up and then unpack and then I leave 5 days after we move...oh well.

Funny moments this week:
Everyone has to mess up really badly at Spanish at least once. So this week we had a few experiences with that. The first one was Elder Tai. He was trying to explain that, "Through Christ we can be clean from our sins." The word for sins is "pecados" and the word for fish "pescado", so he ended up saying, "Through Christ we will be cleaned from our fish." The investigator was very confused. Then Hermana Boyce and I went to teach our lesson. She tried to ask the investigator, "Why have you kept making appointments with us?" The word for appointment is "cita" and the word for AIDS is "cida" so our investigator got really confused (if you insert the word in that sentence, it is just an awkward moment) and then just laughed at us. Well, everyone has to make their grammar mistakes at least once, but it was really funny! 

I love the MTC, but I am ready to move on to Texas! I got my travel plans finally and I will be leaving the 28th! I am going to email my mom my new address so if any of you need it (after the 28th) my mom will have it! Love you all and thank you for all the letters and dear elders, they are so fun to get!! 

Have a wonderful week,
Hermana Cattich

COME WHAT MAY AND LOVE IT

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