We received letters yesterday and an email today with an awesome update on Sister Jones at the MTC! Her email is pretty long, but definitely shows her personality and how much fun she is having. She hasn't been able to send us pictures yet, but I'll post a few from the airport last week when she left. Enjoy her letter!
-Lexi
Officially a Sister Missionary!
From Sister Jones on July 27, 2011
So my first week at the MTC was awesome! This week flew by! I have had a ton of awesome experiences so far and have met a lot of people. My first day went really well. I felt comfortable from the start. I was like a giddy little girl being in a new environment with lots of new people to meet. I seriously couldn't stop smiling the whole day. Although I miss the family, I never was sad or had thoughts that I wanted to go home. Sorry guys! haha! But it was a comforting feeling knowing that this is where I'm supposed to be. Some of the other girls were kinda sad the first night and it sounded like when of them was crying when we were laying there at night after lights out. Even though I got 3 hours of sleep the night before I felt wide awake the whole day. What a blessing!! We had an orientation, met our companion and our districit, had a welcome meeting with the other 400 new missionries, had dinner, then called it a night.
My companion is amazing! Her name is Sister Bergeson and she's from San Bernardino Mountains, California. She is really nice, has a strong testimony, is kinda quiet but I wouldn't classify her as shy. We get along great! She has a great sense of humor as well and laughs at my jokes- so that's a bonus! We have a great time together and really compliment eachother. She thinks it's funny that I talk a lot but likes it because it reminds her of her sister and it helps her feel more comfortable during our lessons. She's cute too! I'll send pictures sometime soon. The place has been closed where we can get pictures printed. What a bummer! She's also serving in my same mission so we get to fly to Nebraska together! Yay!
I have 2 other roommates and they are really nice as well. Sister Bowers is from New Jersey and Sister Spencer- Kealamakia is from New Zealand. I love her accent. They are both serving at Temple Square! Us 4 girls get along great! Sometimes after we turn the lights off (at 10:30) we stay up talking for a little bit and we all are dying laughing! I was laughing so hard 2 nights ago that I was tearing up. Everybody is hilarious! Especailly Sister Spencer. She's a little more on the loud and outgoing side so normally we are the ones talking the most. Sister Bowers is on the shy side but still is funny. All the Sisters sing "Me and Sister Jones" (Me and Mrs. Jones from MIchael Buble with their own version of the song. It's pretty funny.) Unfortunately both Sister Bowers and Spencer have been sick the past few days. I'm really hoping that my companion and I don't get sick. They've just had to stay in the room for the most part and sleep and study. We bought airborne the other day and are eating healthy so hopefully we avoid that.
I love our district. This is the group we spend most of our time with and 6 hours of classes with a day! We have 8 elders and then us 4 sister I just mentioned. All of the Elders are serving in Anaheim, CA. They are a nice group of guys and also are really funny! They all have such different experiences and personalities. I feel like they are my little brothers! All of the Elders make fun of me because I have recieved the most mail out of everybody, by far. lol! Even though it's all mostly from the family (good job guys! Keep it up!) they still make fun of me saying I have a ton of guys waiting for me and what not. Two people from my district have a connection to Cedar City: Elder Taylor Tait is from Cedar and had Jeff as his institute teacher! Pretty cool! Alex, do you know Elder Zane Hales? He went to SUU his freshman year. Alot of the other Elders are from Norther Utah.
The 2nd day at the MTC they already had us teaching. I was pretty nervous but it went well! We do a TON of roleplays where we partner up with another companionship and one set pretends they are investigators and the other set teaches them the first lesson: about how God loves us, how we can pray to Heavenly Father, how the gospel blesses families, how we have prophets, talk about Christ on earth, the apostacy, the restoration and then the Book of Mormon. After a week my companion and I can comfortably and more confidently teach the first lesson to people. We also have to give lessons to people who volunteer or are paid to be an investigator. We roleplay by knocking on the door, getting to know them, and teaching them a lesson. The first couple days I would get nervous beforehand but now it's a lot easier and more natural.
The food is awesome! I don't know why people compain about it! It's WAY better than the food I would be making myself at my apartment. My companion and I have been eating pretty healthy so far! Lots of salads! But they always have a good variety of food. Every now and then we'll have some pasta or a burger.
SO far i have seen about 11 people I know! Kailei SHelley, kevin Rowse, Day twins, Carlini, Rex Bale and Jepson plus others i can't think of.
The only time I ever think about technology like phones or the internet is when I can't think of a scripture reference to a scripture I really want to find! haha! Other than that we don't even have time to think about things outside of the gospel and the MTC. They keep us super busy!
We wake up at 6, have personal study for an hour, have class for 3 hours, lunch for an hour, gym for an hour, then class for 3 hours, and personal study, dinner, and then meet with the zone and do role plays. It's not always in that order though. That's what we do but the order mixes up each day. THere's really no free time except around 9:30 where we can then get ready for bed, write in our journal, and plan for the next day. Some days can be kind of stressful but by the end of the day when you look back it seems to have gone by incredibly fast.
I love the gospel and I truly love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I love teaching people of these truths, even if they are just pretend people. Well time is up! thanks for all of your letters, love and support! I have the best family ever!! Please send this to Dave and other family that I didn't have their emails saved to the system. I love you all!!
Talk to you next week!
Love,
Sister Jones
