April 25, 2012

Hello!

Looks like you guys had some fun! I am glad you were able to use your camel packs. This week we got a new schedule so everything I told you last week is wrong. We still do the same things but on different days and at different times.  Today the new missionaries came.  Greg, I meant to tell you happy birthday last week...HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  and Todd, HAPPY BIRTHDAY this week!! I hope it is fun!

 

Sunday, as always was the most exciting thing of the week.  For relief society Sister Ann M Dibb came.  The night before she came she went on a drive with her dad and asked him what he wants the sister missionaries to know.  Half of her talk was that, so although it wasn't the prophet, the prophet's daughter was pretty cool.  Sister Beatie and I went and met her after wards and she stopped and talked to us for awhile.  She told us, "you will learn Russian!!" I know everyone has told us that, and I know that I eventually will, it was just comforting to hear it from her.  Sister Damron, one of the sisters in my residence, has a friend who left for Germany this week.  Anyway, Elder Scott is in her home ward and when she got her call he congratulated her, and said, "the number of sisters going on missions has increased 250% in the last year".  She asked why he thought that was.  She said he got all serious and said, "because the men aren't stepping up and the lord needs his work to be done" WHOA. pretty cool, huh?

 

The field opened up this week.  it was fun to be able to be outside. there is only 4 other sisters who were interested in soccer (we can't play with elders...).  We tried to play but it was lame.  I just started juggling by myself. 

 

Elder Nelson came on Tuesday of this week.  We thought for sure that it wouldn't be a member of the 12.  So far we haven't had a week without hearing directly from the apostles.  That is pretty sweet.  In one of Elder Holland's past devotionals at the MTC he said the members of the 12 fight, scratch, kick gouge, and any other church like practices to be able to come speak at the MTC.  Elder Nelson Spoke about The Doctrine of the church.  OR basically what we are going to be teaching everyday. It was very basic, but it is always an incredible blessing to be able to be taught by an apostle. 

 

I don't know if I have anything else to tell you...all we do is sit in a classroom and plan lessons mostly.  We do learn some Russian, I guess. hmm...well I guess that is it.  Can someone write me next week so maybe I have some questions to answer? Mom and Dad, you are forgiven, you were on vacation.

 

Well, I love you all!!

Have a great week!

 

Sister Pearce

April 18, 2012

Family!!

I hope you are all doing well! I love hearing from you!

On Sunday M. Russell Ballard came for the devotional. Usually members of the 12 don't come on Sunday’s so it was pretty cool. He so far we have had an apostle every week we have been here. Alright maybe general conference doesn't count but I think it does. David Archuleta sang at the fireside, and it was awesome!! He sang the Spirit of God. Sundays here are always great, this week was the last week of the older districts being here, so we didn't have to speak, but now they are gone there are only 14 in our zone. Next Sunday I will be singing and the likelyhood of having to pray or speak is pretty high. We will only be small for this week though because next week we will be getting 24 new missionaries into our zone. I remember thinking that the older districts knew so much, and now we are going to be the older district...I don't know that much. Oh well, it should be interesting.

Mondays are usually long, but this Monday was great! One of our teachers, Cectpa Jones, has been taking each of us to plan, study, and teach together to prepare for a lesson. It was great! 1. She knows Russian, 2. She has been a missionary. Basically she was the senior companion and we prepared a lesson. Here all of our study is separated so it is hard to have them all focused in the same direction. Monday was awesome until we were going to bed. The sisters that live in our residence had to finish packing and getting ready so they could leave the next day at 5. They didn't finish until like midnight so our light was on, aka, I didn't sleep. And then at 1:30 in the morning the fire alarm went off. It was the angriest noise I have ever heard. We went out to the parking lot and then they said we could go into the gym. We got back into our residence at 2:00 and then slept until 4:00 when the other sisters got up to get ready to leave. Somehow none of us had an alarm set for 6:30 so we all woke up at 6:45. It was a crazy night. We found out the next day that some wiring in the heat register just spazzed out, but they got it all fixed. Tuesday was a rough day. We were all really tired.

On Tuesdays we have workshops. Really they are just like a teacher led discussion, and then you get to practice teaching other missionaries about a topic. Last week it was the sacrament and this week was the atonement. Anywho, workshops are awesome! And then we have another devotional on Tuesday evenings. This week Larry Gibbons of the 70 came. He spoke about the role members should play in missionary work and how to work with them. It was really interesting. I loved it.

Today in the temple we did some sealings. One of the couples in there was really great. I don't have enough time to tell you all their stories but they have just had some awesome experiences in the temple. Basically they bore testimony that being a missionary is going to allow these people to do their own work rather than wait to have someone do it for them. That doesn't sound as cool as they said it but...oh well.

Thursday through Saturday through Saturday are pretty boring...we just go to class and attempt to shove a lot of Russian in our heads. Last week I told you about one of our investigators kicking us out? Well, now he is getting baptized next month. We had some awesome lessons with him this week. While it is simulated teaching our investigators is probably the most worthwhile part of our day. Some of the time I dread it because I want to really share something with them but I don't know how. It is frustrating.

Hmm...what else...the MTC is really pretty in the spring. They have loads of tulips and poppy's. And it is nice that it hasn't been that hot. The AC at the MTC is subpar, so on warm days it gets pretty toasty in our classrooms.

Well, I don't think I have anything else to tell you. I love all of you!

Love,

Liz

April 11, 2012

Family,

Alright Dad, I don't think I understood your cryptic message. Unless of course you meant to use capital letters, then I will try my best but I have a clock to keep up with so forgive me if I don't. Thanks for all of your letters! I love reading about home, it breaks up the days a little. Well, this week started off awesome! For Easter Elder Boyd K. Packer came and spoke. We had sacrament meeting all together in the gym and he spoke to us. It was a pretty incredible experience to partake of the sacrament with so many missionaries who are willing to serve. And then on top of that partake of it in the presence of the President of the 12 Apostles was awesome in the true sense of the word. For the devotional on Sunday the BYU mens choir came and sang. It was nice just to sit back and enjoy the spirit of the meeting. After devotional we have the opportunity to watch a church movie or a devotional. My companion and I chose to go to a devotional given by Elder Bednar about the "Character of Christ." His message was so simple and understandable but really insightful. I loved it. It helped to rethink the way I do things and the reason behind them. Sunday was just an incredibly spiritual day and I loved every second of it.

Monday on the other hand was rather rough. We had another lesson with our investigator and we invited him to be baptized. We had talked about it before and he said he was interested if he knew it was true, but this time he just started speaking like he was frustrated and told us that if he did get baptized his family would disown him. I didn't know what to do so I just said I’m sorry, and then bore my testimony. We prayed and then left. Usually he would stand up and shake our hands but he just stayed sitting and told us to leave. I am sure this is great preparation for the field but I just had no idea how to deal with it. I actually still don't know what to do...The rest of the day I was just in a funk. My Russian was like the first day all over again. Gross.

This week our teachers have challenged us to memorize the first vision in Russian. I just don't really know how to memorize in Russian, but I guess I will try! I just feel like I am memorizing sounds rather than a really powerful passage of scripture. I have until next Friday so I guess we will see how I do.

Dad, thanks for keeping me updated on RSL. I kind of forget that there are normal things going on outside of the world of the MTC. I am excited for you to go to Capitol Reef! Take some pictures and then mail them to me. I haven't ever been there so I don't know what it looks like. Also, does Kurt retiring mean that you will be working with someone else or that you will just work more closely with your boss in Denver?

Mom, Thanks for the socks, you're a life saver. Also the chapstick thing is genius! I gave the other one to another sister. If you have any free time 2 other sisters in my district would like one. Also, for packing purposes those bags I got from Denny would be great, so sometime before I leave if you could send those that would be great. I think they are in my dresser. Also, if you haven't gone to get that other journal I asked for don't worry about it, with the red one you sent I should be great.

Well, I can't really remember what else happened. We go to class every day. Study a lot...I suppose we are learning quickly it just feels like we are struggling a lot. We don't really have any language class, our teachers teach us how to teach using preach my gospel and will teach us a grammar principle and some phrases to help us. Most of our Russian is left up to us though. We build our vocabulary and attempt to apply the grammar we know. But most of it is not teacher facilitated. I mean, we can ask questions. I think we were all surprised how little time is spent learning Russian, but I guess it works...I don't know. It's just frustrating teaching because even IF I understand I usually have no way to explain the answer to them. I guess I will get better.

Have a great week! Have fun in Capitol Reef! Remember take some pictures! I love you all so much!

Love, Sister Pearce

April 4, 2012

Dear Family!!

Well, it is a good thing they make you wait a week to write because the first couple of days was rough. They say if you can make it to Sunday the worst is over and I definitely think that is true. However, because of general conference all of our teachers had mission reunion so our first couple of days were a little more stressful than normal. We had I think 6 different teachers from Wednesday to Friday, and since everything was new I don't think we accomplished very much. the first day they only spoke in Russian so we were all just confused. They explained things to us the next day using some English so that was good. All the older sisters that are in the first pilot program say we are learning quickly so maybe we are, I just don't feel like it. This week has been much better though, mostly because we have a set schedule and we know what to expect. Last week was just crazy. beh. My district is pretty great, I like them a lot. There are 3 companionship's. 2 of Sister and 1 Elder. Our Elders are pretty awesome. One is a convert and around 26 and decided to go and the other comes from a less active family. They are both just really excited to be here and it is infectious. I feel kind of bad that they are stuck with a bunch of girls but I think they are OK with it. The other companionship of Sisters I get along really well with. We have a pretty good time together. Anytime we are together as a district we are having fun, or having a spiritual experience or both. They are great!

Saying goodbye to all of you was rough. I think i have the best family in the world. I might be biased. who knows :)

On our first day here we had these workshops where we got to teach with a roomful of missionaries to one investigator. Anyway, their were rumors that David Archuleta was there but no one had seen him yet. Lo and behold, he walks into our classroom and sits right behind me. It was sweet. You probably already know he was in the MTC because they had a nice close up of him in the choir. And then, in case you didn't know it was him they got a nice shot of his name tag. We all thought it was pretty funny.

I feel like every day I wake up excited and ready to go. Personal study is the bomb. I think it is my favorite part of the day. Then we usually have gym or just class, depends on the day. Usually, in the after noon I begin to feel frustrated or panicky about Russian and then by the end of the day I feel pretty good. It is a roller coaster. But I feel like the days pass pretty quickly, and the weeks. It has already been one whole week!

The MTC is saturated with the spirit. I love it. Because of that conference was awesome! It was great to watch it with so many missionaries. I found out that if I came on my original date I could have been in the choir. That would have been so cool!! Oh well... it was still great to watch and see some people I know and see regularly.

Just so you know, I can print off my emails read them and then get back on to write, so time isn't an issue. But dear elder is cool because I can read those during the week. So... use dear elder it's cool.

We have an investigator we are teaching, really just one of our teachers, but we have taught 2 lessons so far. Both in Russian. The first one was rough, we only knew how to say "I know..." like to bear your testimony. And while that is great, it is hard to explain things. That and we couldn't understand what he said, so it kind of turned into a game of charades and pictionary. I felt awful after our first lesson. It was terrible, but we taught on Monday and I feel pretty good about that lesson. We knew how to extend commitments and how to ask him to read. Really I don't feel like we knew that much more but I guess we knew hoe to ask some questions and how to pray. That helped a lot. Any who, we have another tonight. Hopefully it goes well.

Well, the MTC is crazy. Sometimes it is great and the best place in the world. Other times you just want to curl up into the fetal position and cry in the corner. I think the more time I spend here the more I will love it.

Well, I love you all!! Write soon!!

Love

Cectpa Pearce