Visa Check and MTC Friends

We had a visa check this week, which means I got to see all of my MTC girls!  

Early Morning Airport Drop

Nothing like leaving for the airport at 2:30am!!

We're off to Mexico and this is getting for reals now!!

Sister Randall

I have to document .. Tamsyn and I together at the MTC!  Who would have thought when we first met as BYU Freshman that this is where we would be today.  I love this girl and I know she is going to be an awesome missionary in Indiana!

Farewell to the MTC -- Vamos a Mexico!!

So our Branch Presidency let us email home before we head tomorrow since it'll be until next Monday before I have another P-Day!  Mexico here I come!!

My last block of class with our homeroom teacher Hermano Hopoate was really significant to me. He was having a rough day and we could tell he was a little off. He eventually told us that he had a lot on his mind and that he needed some help. He gave us two minutes as a companionship to come up with an inspired question. He had every companionship ask their question and he answered and then we all sat in silence for a few minutes. The Spirit was so strong and I felt nothing but pure love. Our message was centered on Christ and His Atonement, but our whole district gave strong, heartfelt messages in just a few minutes. All of the messages were inspired and there was so much love in that room. Hermano Hopoate bore a powerful testimony after and by this point our whole district is in tears. He prayed that we might always have motives as pure they were today. The reason our lessons were so powerful was because they were motivated solely by love. I was a little nervous and this experience helped me so much. I just got really excited to be a missionary. I felt like I could do it, like Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ would help me. I felt like I would come to know Spanish and that I would be supported in all things. I felt that I would always have the companionship of my Savior. I loved it and have loved all of my experiences here. 

Last night one of our teachers asked if they could leave a blessing on our district. He blessed each person individually through prayer and I was blessed that I would have a desire to learn and study the gospel and to always be searching that I might have power and become the person that Heavenly Father needed me to be. 

Last night we had some elders in our zone give us blessings as we head out into the field! About three days ago, I felt like I really needed to ask Elder Neider. He gave me one of the most powerful blessings. It was so unique and I've honestly never heard things so straightforward before. He talked about how important my calling is and how I've been called of God. I have been found worthy and called by a prophet of the Lord. My blessing talked a lot about my influence. I was told that I would walk down the street and influence people that I would never even meet. I was told that people would develop their opinions and feelings about the Church solely on how I chose to act. Wow! Talk about a big responsibility! I was blessed that through scripture study and sincere prayer, I would come to learn the language. I was also blessed in regards to y'all. To be honest, I haven't had a lot of family worries since I've been here, but my blessings offered peace in regards to family. I was told that powers of heaven were directly to me and my faithfulness and would have a direct effect on you all. Isn't that so amazing?! I was also given a fervent warning in my blessing. I warned that Satan did not want me to have success on my mission and that he would set up pitfalls for me. I was counseled to turn to my Savior more fully. I was blessed with power for the second time that day as well.

I am so grateful for all the missionaries I have met here in the MTC!  I love Hermana Daniel and am so grateful we were put together as companions.

 

I love all of you. Thank you for the Dear Elders and packages and all of the support. I promise to be honest about my adventures! But really, I have been raised with the most incredible family and I hope to always make you proud, but also to be a source of strength and support when any of you need it.  We're all in this together, right??!!

Love you! Wish me luck tomorrow! 

El Equipo De Sueno

 

I am so grateful for the time I got to spend in the MTC. I have truly loved it here and it has flown by. I have been blessed with amazing teachers and surrounded by other equally amazing missionaries. 

We planned a zone wide basketball tournament during our last gym time! Literally our whole zone has become crazy unified and it was so much fun! 

Here is the last picture of the Equipo de Sueno -- Long live the Dream Team!!

Hercules and Me

Okay, this is going to sound so cheesy, but this is exactly how I feel. So I feel like teenage Hercules .. for real.  I'm trying to do the right things but I have no idea how I'm supposed to become this great hero or all of these things that I'm being told I will become. Then there's Hades who's had it for me since I was born and tries so hard to put things in my path that will deter me.

I have these earthly parents that love the heck out of me and are doing everything they can to support me and teach me about life.

 In addition to these earthly parents, my Father in Heaven needs me to be something greater. He needs me to forget myself and become a powerful missionary. I was also told that I've been given divine attributes that that as I develop them, I will move closer to my full potential.  I'm totally not sure how this will happen or what the timeline looks like.

 I know that my Savior, Jesus Christ, is aware of me and that I need to have more faith in Him. I need to always turn to Him and trust Him with my all. I want to gain knowledge and a greater understanding. I want to be worthy of all that He has. God intends for me to be a powerful person in my life.  I need to always realize in humility that this power comes directly from Him and always strive to use it in the way that He desires.  If I can somehow figure this all out, then I can return to live with Him one day.

So tomorrow this begins for real .. Tomorrow I head to "Thebes" to learn all that I can about being the "hero" that my Father in Heaven wants and needs me to be.  I can't wait to meet the people who are going to help me along this journey .. we are going to move mountains!!

Someone To Watch Over Me

   

Thank you Brad and Laura ... Because my pillow pet made my whole week!! That moment when Dad tells you no, but then Brad and Laura send you one! ;)

Laura said I needed someone to watch over me and Sulley was just the guy to do it!!  

I LOVE HIM!! 

Week 5 -- Getting Ready For Mexico

Querida Familia!!  How are all of you?! I hope that you had an excellent week! 

Last week Hermana Daniel and I had our lest lesson with Daniel and it was by far the best lesson we've ever taught in the MTC. We were teaching about the Atonement and Repentance, but we mixed it up a little bit. We read Alma 36, the entire chapter, together. We stopped and asked questions and talked, and his whole countenance changed. His voice was softer and he was really taking in the scriptures. He was asking about how he could grow closer to Christ, and he committed to be baptized. We were bearing testimony and flowing so well. I know that the Book of Mormon has real power. It changes lives and it brings people to Christ. I know that our Savior lives. I know that repentance is real and effective. Ahh, helping people to come to realize how much their Savior loves them and how they can have His influence in their life is just awesome! 

Hermana Daniel and I also taught Hermano Hopoate as Ezekiel this week. He is portraying his roommate who is a member but is thirty and hasn't been to the temple yet. Although we are progressing him toward baptism, our teacher is using the experience to receive revelation on how to help his roommate get to the temple. He's been a little bit of a tricky investigator because he is such a great person and he knows the church is true. He wants to be baptized, just in the future. As we were teaching him from Alma 5, we learned that he just doesn't feel worthy of baptism, he has weaknesses and he just doesn't feel good enough yet. This really touched my heart and I had this burning testimony that covenants are power. I knew that Heavenly Father loves this man, I knew that He was so proud of Him and wanted to bless him. I just bore my testimony that baptism was power. The influence of the Holy Ghost in your life is true power. Access to the Atonement is real power. Hermana Daniel bore her testimony too and then we just sat in silence for a long time. Ezekiel spoke up and said that he was going to talk to his bishop and girlfriend and that he was willing to talk about a baptismal date. The Spirit was so strong in that lesson and it was really special to me. 

Hermana Daniel and I were teaching one of our teachers as himself in English the other day...kind of a different activity right? We ended up helping him with girl problems, but anywho, we asked him what the highlight of his mission was. He said "Well, I could never really pick one moment, but when someone looks you in the eye and says I want to be baptized and then you watch them walk into the baptismal font." I had chills and honestly caught a legit fire to go to Mexico! 

On Sunday night after devotional, we always watch films. We watched "The Testaments" which I've actually never seen before! I really loved it and it was honestly very powerful for me. I realized how real my Savior is. I started thinking about how He and my Heavenly Father have real bodies. Do I really believe the Atonement happened? Do I really believe that He experienced everything? Do I really believe that He can be with me all the time? It amazing to think about and I'm noticing that my testimony of the Savior increases every day. I love Him and I'm coming to know Him. I can't wait for the day that I can embrace Him and be with Him. I want to be worthy of that experience. I want to come to know my Savior as a real person and then strive to be someone worthy of being His friend. I've started reading Jesus the Christ and it's really really insightful. I just love learning! 

Yesterday I had a pretty neat experience in class. Hermano Hopoate told us a story about how in his mission he and his companion were given stewardship over the young men in the ward. He was given the responsibility to getting the boys on missions. I had the most powerful feeling that I could do the same thing with the Young Women. I could work with them on Personal Progress and prepare them for temple marriage. I feel such a strong connection and love for this age group and I want to help them build strong foundations. I want them to have great lives. I love them so much and I don't even know them yet! I can't wait to see what work the Lord has in store for me. 

We hung out a bit with our Branch President and talked about getting ready to leave the MTC.  They are such great people and I'm really glad we got to know them better!

So to wrap this party up, what they heck, I'm going to Mexico on Monday. The time honestly flew by so fast! I'm riding a serious roller coaster of "heck yeah let's do this!" to "wait, what did I get myself into again?" I think my biggest fear is that I'll give into the fear to be discouraged. I want to be upbeat and positive and let jokes about how I speak roll off my back. I want to always trust in the Lord and know that He is with me. I just fear that I might give in to the temptation to get down. I really don't want to! Today I realized that as long as I am pouring my heart out to the Lord in prayer, I'm studying hard, I'm working hard, I'm loving people and my companion, it will all work out. I know that the Lord trusts me with His work and is going to help me with it, I know that He will support me in all things. I know that He will pick me up on the hardest days and that if I'm willing, He will help me to have the best possible attitude. 

I love you all so much! I pretty sure I thank Heavenly Father like twenty times a day for y'all. Every time I hear people tell stories about how they grew up .. I'm just learning more and more and I realize how incredibly blessed I've been. Thank you for all of the packages, letters, emails, Dear Elders, etc...it's all great! Please let me know if there is anything I can help any of you with! 

Love you to the moon and back! Wish me luck in another country!

Love You To The Moon And Back

 

I hope that you know just how much I appreciate all of your support!  I absolutely LOVED my packages this week! Hermana Daniel was so pumped she was included in a package!

That book made my whole week. Thank you so much to everyone that took the time to share stories and their testimonies. I started reading this week and I feel such a strong Spirit when I read it. My whole district was jealous and they think I have the greatest family!!

The Valentine's package was perfect! That alien ice cream was to die for! We all love the themes and y'all are seriously the sweetest. Oooo and my V-Day cards were pretty adorable too!  Muchas gracias! 

Week 4 -- I'm Trying To Be Like Jesus

My familia!! I hope you all had a fantastic week! I miss y'all and love you too! 

To fill you in on the rest of my week, I saw Tamsyn, uh Sister Randall, at Devotional on Thursday!  Holy flip she leaves on the 11th! She is loving the MTC though and it's so good to run into people :) 

You'll be pleased to hear...Hermana Daniel has started teaching me how to play the piano! We found a simplified Hymn book and I've been practicing.  I'm really slow, but I love the way that it makes me feel.  It's really something I want to stick with!  I practically died when I opened my package today and saw my Hymn book from home in it!  I'll be practicing this next week and a half and I hope that I'll be able to use it in Mexico.  So I'm really not musical but I hope that Heavenly Father helps me out with this one because it's kind of becoming important to me :) 

Speaking of music, after lunch and before class one day this week, we pulled out the Children's Hymn Book and my whole district sang like 3 or 4 of them in Spanish. We were all sitting on the floor just singing, and the Spirit was so strong. I know that there is power in these children's songs. I love how simply they are phrased and we are reminded of the core messages of the gospel. I just can't wait to hear and teach these songs to kids in Mexico :) 

Today at the temple, we decided to do sealings which I've never done before! It was an amazing experience and pretty much sealed the deal that I can't get married anywhere else! I  feel so blessed that you and dad were sealed in the temple and that our family has the opportunity to be together forever, in an never ending state of joy with our Heavenly Father. I am so grateful that these blessings are in our home and I want them in my home as well.  My old bishop, Michael Jackson, from last semester was in our sealing session.  It was good to run into him and to be able to catch up.  He is so sweet and he's going to say hi to Em for me!  I also had the impression that I would be able to go to the temple with a family in Mexico.  Not sure if this was a real prompting or just my wishful thinking but I hope it's true. That would be so incredible. I guess we'll have to wait and see. 

In class one day this week, Hermano Hopoate talked about the personal power that comes from perfect obedience. He talked about how when we are perfectly obedient, the Lord is bound and we can say "you promised."  As I started thinking about what personal power really is, I realized that personal power is the power to not get irritated and instead think kind thoughts.  It is the power to have enough energy to make it through class.  It is the power to HSI (Habla Su Idioma).  It is the power to be patient in learning.  I have been striving to be more perfectly obedient and I am seeing the results.  This personal power is real! 

  

   

Since I love Hermano Hopoate, here's another story for you. One night we were talking about companionships and he was asking us what do we do when our companions don't want to be obedient? What do we do when they won't get up in the morning? What do we do when someone else effects how perfectly obedient we can be? His was answer was love-learning or how to love the way that the Savior does. I know that I can come to know Christ as I stand proxy for Him in other's lives. 

Hermano Hopoate also decided to meet with each of us individually to see what he could help us with. I went back to a classroom with him and he asked if he could open with a prayer. I said of course! As he started praying, he prayed for some incredible things.  The part that really stood out to me was when we said "Please bless Hermana Rawe that she might have the heart in order to love others the way they need to be loved."  He talked about praying for eyes to see and ears to hear that I might be able to learn how the Spirit talks to me.  I need to listen to what people say, but also what the Spirit helps me hear.  Once I believe I've received revelation on how to help, I need to pray before I act in which way to follow the Spirit.  I really want to love people; I want my heart to be full.  I want to do what I'm supposed to do with the Lord's trust.  I really look up to Hermano Hopoate a lot. It became my new goal to become like Him.  To truly love people, to be able to just listen to the Spirit and know what people need to hear, to know what I need to do.  

The next night after this experience, Hermana Daniel and I were conducting interviews with all of the hermanas.  I was interviewing an hermana from a lower district and at times, I would feel prompted to share certain advice or even just bear my testimony on different things.  She began really tearing up and I realized that Heavenly Father is using me as an instrument in His hands.  I'm definitely not perfect, but as I strive to be better, He will use me to bless and help His kids.  This is just something I really want to work on and strive for. 

I love you all! Every single person that reads this! I know that Christ is our Savior and that through Him, all things are possible. I know that Heavenly Father has a real plan for our lives and it is the only way that we will be truly happy. 

I love you all and hope you have a great week!