Reconstruction in the MTC!

Hi family!

I hope you all are having a great week!  Today has been crazy so far because Soeur Johnson and I are helping S. redford get ready to leave for Madagascar on Monday!  So it's her last P Day.  she's actually serving on an island off the coast of Madagascar (Reunion).  Speaking French.  It doesn't get more exotic sounding than that right?  We also got two new sisters as roommates this week.  and they showed up this time!  I love them both, they are so much more on top of life than I was when I came in my first week. Example: they got up at 5:45 AM this morning on their P Day to go do Yoga.  This defines them in a nutshell.  I love them, they are so much fun.  They're both going to Jacksonville Florida mission.  What is this rumor about weird sister missionaries?  So far *almost* every single sister I have met here is so fun and normal.  haha

  

Well, they're doing lots of construction in the MTC this week.  I tell you, it's like a war zone out here sometimes.  It's like you're walking to the laundry room and suddenly there's this crane lifting some foreign object over your head and you're thinking, "wow, I’m lucky I didn't just die right there."  Okay, that's a huge exaggeration but there is construction.  A few weeks ago, I was so mad because we were asleep and there was some construction going on outside, so loud it was ridiculous.  Until 12 midnight!  I was so close to walking outside and telling them to please stop drilling directly outside our window in the MTC at 12 midnight on a Thursday.  but, all is good now.  Somehow you still get enough sleep. :) 

This week in class we started a new thing, we make up our own investigator to be (based on someone we know) and two of the other missionaries in our district are teaching us the discussions as if we are investigators.  I don't believe in God and am at university in Paris.  We just had our first lesson yesterday.  It's a totally different perspective being the investigator, I think I actually lean more taking on a role and trying to understand what it's like being from that perspective instead of the missionary. 

Also, it's so incredible to watch everyone in my district improving in the language.  I was lucky and at least had a few years of French as a basis (although it wasn't very much at all) but some of the people in my district really started knowing no French at all.  And, wow.  It's so incredible to watch everyone improving so quickly.  It really is just a miracle.  We make tons of mistakes all the time but I know we're not learning alone.  Because, I took French for three years and I'm telling you we did not learn nearly as quickly.  It's amazing for all of us together to be blessed to be learning so quickly.

I spoke in church on Sunday.  We have to prepare talks every week and don't know who will be speaking until the bishop announces it over the pulpit.  That morning I said to my companions, "I really hope they don't ask me to speak today because I just didn't prepare as well as I could have." and then, they asked me to speak.  haha it went alright though.  It was on the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Soeur Johnson and I also taught the Plan of Salvation lesson yesterday (we finally got through the whole thing in one lesson) and we're doing Gospel of Jesus Christ tomorrow.

Elder Scott came and did the devotional on Tuesday.  He called missionaries out fo the audience and would ask them questions about how they receive personal revelation it was awesome.  He said, "don't go anywhere without the ability to write down impressions of the Spirit."  Then he explained how we can know if the impressions we are receiving are from God.  Ether 12:6.  If it's bringing good, that is a prompting.  I liked what he said about it: "Have your antenae out all the time and capture the promptings of the spirit.  Treasure it.  Cherish it.  Apply it."  He also talked about how one of the most important aspects of prayer is to listen.  To have a conversation with God, not just talk to Him.  At the end he bore his testimony and said, "As a witness of Christ and one of the fifteen people on earth with all the priesthood keys.  I know that He lives.  I don't wish, I don't hope. I know."

It is so incredible here.  The spirit is so strong and I just feel so happy almost constantly.  I love it, I'm learning so much, the spirit is amazing, I love the scriptures, I love learning here. 

I love you all and am thinking about you!

Love,

Soeur Shard (I think the C has permanently disappeared... for now. :) ).