Hola Mi Familia!
Only a week and a half left and then I will be in A.L.A.B.A.M.A.! SOOO crazy! The MTC has flown by and I can't believe we're the "old" ones here now. Well I guess we'll start with the 4th of July. After our fabulous p-day, we had class for only 2 hours and then we went to a devotional. There was just one speaker, a musical number, and then we got to watch 17 miracles! Oh, and we sung lots of patriotic hymns. It was awesome! Then we went outside, had ice cream bars, and watched the fireworks. Definitely a highlight of the MTC. So that didn't get over till like 11 or something, already way past our bedtime. Then our service project every week is to put away all the chairs, stands, podium, mats, and tarps in the gym after devotionals so we had to do that and didn't get to bed till after midnight! It was pretty crazy, but seriously such a fantastic day :)
On sunday, everything was a little bit different because of fast sunday. We had a mission conference with the whole MTC which was way good. Then Hermana Torgersen and I had to teach our district meeting on faith in Jesus Christ. It was so fun to prepare a lesson in English and just have a discussion with our district and everyone participated which was awesome. We based a lot of it off of a talk by Richard G. Scott called The Transforming Power of Faith and Character. It's a good one so you should definitely read it! I even made cute little handouts with a quote and a picture on it :) So we didn't eat until 5:20 which is a long time to wait when you get up at 6:30 haha but it was all good. We sat by the MTC president and his wife at dinner and it was way awesome to meet them and talk with them. Kind of a big deal ;)
On tuesday our devotional was L. Lionel Kendrick whose son is the mission president of the Carlsbad mission right now! He had all the missionaries going there stand up and told them to be nice haha! I also got an email from President Hanks and it sounds like they enjoyed their first week in Alabama.
Hermano Ralphs has challenged us all to memorize D&C 4 in spanish. I was working on the Articles of Faith so there is lots of memorizing going on. But I think it, I think that's how I learn best. We didn't do a ton of teaching this week but the lessons we did have went really well. Juana is continuing to progress and is still getting ready to be baptized. We committed Carlos to be baptized so that was good! Hermano Ralphs has been having us practice inviting people to be baptized on the first lesson before we even say the opening prayer! How crazy is that??! I think I had my first awkward spanish moment in a lesson though yesterday. I asked Carlos if he would read Alma 34 tonight and he said yes. And so I said, "el libro es por usted" (this book is for you) and I handed it to him but he didn't take it, he just said how? and so I thought he was asking how the book was for him. And I started explaining that he will be able to find answers to his questions and Hermana Torgersen started saying that it was another testament of Jesus Christ. So then I asked him again if he would read it and he said yes and I handed it to him again and he said, "¿Oh, el libro is para mi?" And I was like, "Si!" So after the lesson he was gave the book back to me and said "El libro is para usted, Hermana Blackner" Gracias Hermano Ralphs....so essentially por and para mean the same thing but you have to use them for different purposes so por would mean the book is by you and para is the book is for you. So he thought that I was saying that he wrote the book...false haha! And most people would totally know what you were saying and it wouldn't be a big deal but Hermano Ralphs was just trying to make my life complicated and said, it's ok, that's how we learn" thanks a lot haha! So we got a good laugh out of that one!
Other funny moments of the week...actually probably too many to count because we're always laughing. So our district kind of struggles with singing hymns acappella. Like, it's bad. Individually, everyone has pretty nice oices but you put them all together and it's bad news bears. There are notes flyin' all over the place. And I always have to contain my laughter and stop singing because it's just awful. Paro esta bien! One day we'll get it I'm sure haha! We also changed seats in the classroom. Big news. I know! But really, it doesn't take much to please missionaries and we are all enjoying our new view, especially since we spend so much time in there. Elder Holman is super short, like 5'5" and to remember his name we just said he's a whole (hol) man in a half man's body hahaha!
Well I would just like to end by sharing a little bit about the Book of Mormon. Probably the greatest thing on the planet. I absolutely love reading it and learning more about it. So here's the coolest thing about the Book of Mormon. You should all try it. Just make a list of questions, seriously anything. Just things you're wondering about, "questions of the soul". Write them down and then look for scriptures that answer your question. I know that you will be able to find it! We've done that a couple times in class and its the most awesome thing ever! There is just so much power in the book and it really can help us through anything. We also wrote a list of topics on the board for our lessons, like faith, love, baptism, repentence, atonement, profetas, and then we just searched for scriptures on every topic and then I compiled a list for our whole class so we have list of scriptures to use during the lessons. One of the most helpful things ever! And then you can just pick your favorite one to use out of all of them. SOO convenient. I know the Book of Mormon is true and I am so grateful for it! I'm almost done reading it and I'm pretty sure 3 Nephi, Ether, and Moroni are my favorites. They are just filled with so much good stuff! I love reading about when Christ came and I just wish I could've been there. How awesome that he talked to them one by one, and spent so much time being with them, teaching them, and praying for them. I cannot wait to meet my Savior. The church is true, the book is blue!
Hermana Eyring left this week on vacation but she showed us pictures of her mission and I'm so excited to get out there and teach real people! She made a cute little book that would be fun to do when I get home. We've had some different substitute teachers recently and it's way awesome to experience other teaching styles and learn from tons of different people. They all did different things on their missions and have different ways of helping us and I love it!
I hope you all have a great week! Only one more p-day in the CCM!
Love you lots! Con amor,
Hermana Blackner
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