Surprise! I forgot to press send so I was unaware until today (11/10) that none of you have heard from me yet! Here's my first letter:
So far here at the MTC I've eaten mystery cafeteria food and have felt the spirit here.
Okay actually the food here is pretty great, but anyways.
The MTC has been a difficult but rewarding experience so far including seeing old friends. I was able to see one of my best friends, Elder Diniz, at the MTC (Missionary Training Center) before he left to the Texas Fortworth Mission! There's a policy for the Elders and Sisters here not to hug each other to help keep the relationships here completely platonic since we are just preparing to serve the Lord. When he called out my name and when I turned around and he was right there I impulsively yelled out "NO HUGS!" It was more to remind myself-he already had his hand extended to shake mine. I definitely made people jump within 200 yards of me.
I've also seen my actual wonderful sister, Sister Jane Petty at the MTC. She is also preparing to serve a mission and came to the MTC a week earlier than I did. As me and my Dad pulled in front of the MTC, I spotted her immediately walking around campus. The car windows were down,and I accidently hollered " OH MY HECK!"A lot looks were shot my way from many people. I obviously have problems yelling.
The District that I'm assigned in, which is the set amount of Elders and Sisters (Elders are the titles given to male missionaries, Sister is the female missionaries) I study with daily are phenomenal! I only have time to write about some of them, so I'll share more about them later.
There's Sister Colborne from Scotland Ayr. She's funny, beautiful, has a lovely thick accent, and a beautiful laugh that she gives freely. Sometimes when she uses some of her UK slang and others don't understand her I usually do.This is because I've grown up hearing my Dad use similar slang since he's from New Zealand. (Thanks Dad!)
My companion, Sister Fugal is amazing! For those who don't know what a "companion" is, it's a sister who is assigned to stay by my side and I hers the whole time we're at the MTC and later on the mission field. It's for safety, more growth for the both of us when we learn together, and having more strength for when we teach. She's extremely kind and Christ like, and I feel so blessed for her to be my companion. She's actually from Pleasant Grove too but we only briefly met before we got here and we barely recognized each other. She's actually going to the same mission as me, the Chicago West Mission! When you're assigned a companion they don't have to be going to the same mission as you. I'm happy I'll be able to see her around in the future even after this.
After a week of lessons and other activities for us to grow close to Christ and how to help others learn about him, an amazing thing happened! On Tuesday night, Russell M. Nelson, President of the twelve apostles, came and spake to the 1,000 missionaries here at the Provo MTC.
Every Sunday and Tuesday we have devotionals, and usually on Tuesday's we have guest speakers like general authorities and such. Every once in a while we're lucky enough to hear from an apostle.
We knew that our upcoming guest speaker would be an apostle or someone else huge once we heard we'd be bringing out the big guns by singing "Praise To The Man" in the MTC choir.
Me and my whole district decided to join the MTC choir. Basically everyone in the MTC is invited to join the choir, and a lot do, but it's been special because everyone of us is doing it, and as far as I can tell other districts don't do that.
The Spirit was so strong as we sang- but that wasn't a big surprise to me because for every time we sang it in rehearsals, even just for a measure, and than stopped I felt the Spirit ring through my whole body.
The whole thing was broadcast live to MTC's around the world, so there were camera shots of the choir, us, singing. We were told not to look up at the screens, so the broadcast wouldn't be missionaries gawking at themselves. I still saw some dumbstruck faces though 😅
I would steal quick glances and proudly see my lovely fellow district Elders and Sisters, and my beautiful sister Jane throughout the crowd.
The talk Russell M. Nelson gave was short, only 20 minutes long, but it was beautiful with it's simplicity. I feel so blessed to have heard his words, and to live in such a time as this. I work around and with hundreds of other missionaries who all have personal testimonies of Christ.
I testify that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the true church of Christ. i'm grateful to be here and am grateful for all of your support.
-Sister Petty
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