May 29, 2013
FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm alive. :) But Nicole and Brad are my only favorite people right now because I got in last Wednesday and couldn't email until my P-day today and the first 4 days of the MTC are the hardest and I got letters from them yesterday. JK! I love you all and know you're busy- it was way fun to check my email just now and be flooded by your love and support. :) I feel like I've been here for 20 years already- I don't know how people do the MTC for more than 2 weeks. It gets hard after a while to sit in class for so long and eat the food (Jord, the MTC believes in agency, so they don't just serve healthy food- they serve food that will give you a heart attack as well, so USE YOUR AGENCY WELL! The wrap bar is the only safe bet.) I fly out Tuesday morning and it's a straight flight to Boston (they love Sisters) so I'll miss Jord by a day. (SO CRUEL!)
So let me give you a recap. I feel like I have no time here- they're like, "Study Preach My Gospel!" and I'm like, "You mean, read it all in the 15 minutes of quiet time before lights out...?" :) It's crazy! But so good to be on a schedule. I know I'm on the Lord's time, so it makes me very anxious to make the best of it. It hasn't been too hard to get up at 6 so far, but today I feel like it all caught up with me. #sleepyinthetemple
My companion, Sister Hobbs, is from Preston, Idaho and is set to start the Ballroom Tour Team when we get back. She turns 20 on June 5th. Most of the sisters in our zone are 19/20, but I feel like they're all older than me. They are all gospel rockstars, especially Sister Hobbs. Listening to these young sisters, I have felt some serious doubts that I have a strong enough knowledge and testimony of the gospel, but I've also learned over the last week that conversion is a process and I need to be patient with myself. I feel like for a while now I've struggled to feel like my relationship with my Savior is personal, but I realized at last night's devotional that I'm making it harder than it needs to be. I think I've been looking for some big answer, but the gospel is always simple and so for me, the answer last night was "become more like your Savior to gain a more personal relationship with him." Elder Holland talks about how if we are asking our investigators to pray more fervently, WE have to pray more fervently. If we are asking them to come unto Christ, WE have to try even harder. It was awesome.
I've also realized that it's not me that will convert these people- it's the Spirit. So, I need to do my very best to be exactly obedient so that I can have miracles in my life as I'm teaching investigators. I actually just read about the 2,000 stripling warriors and they were blessed with miracles because 1- their parents honored their covenant, even if it wasn't convenient and 2- they themselves were exactly obedient. Pretty amazing!
Speaking of exact obedience, I'm technically only supposed to email family while I'm in the MTC, so can someone forward this to Brad and Trish? #loopholes :)
Speaking of the war chapters, guys.... MORONI IS THE MAN! (Am I acting like I've never read the Book of Mormon before?) :) Reading the description of him made me teary because it reminded me of all the righteous men in my life. Also, when he calls Ammoron a "child of hell" I'm like, "AMEN!" :) Also, I just love that Moroni completely understood that liberty is absolutely dependent on obedience and did his best to prepare his people against the Lamanites and preach righteousness. I read this chapter somewhere around Sunday and Sunday morning we were able to watch Music and the Spoken Word which was patriotic-themed because of Memorial Day. It totally caught me off guard (I forget what's going on in the real world) and I started crying before the first note. Patriotic stuff gets me so fast. I absolutely believe that our land is a land of promise and liberty and that we are kept free based on our righteousness. (I realized this is why I cried so hard on election night...) I was a mess for the entire MATSW and I think Sis. Hobbs thought I was having a breakdown. During the song "This Land is Your Land," every time they said "From California to the New York Island" it was like the only thing they could think to represent California was the Golden Gate bridge, so they showed it like 6 times. I would just get composure and then they'd show the picture again and I would burst into a fresh bout of tears. It was awesome. :)
So my district is fantastic- 3 of the Elders are going to West Virginia and 3 are going to the island Vanauatu in the South Pacific. They have to give beer to the chiefs there to gain passage to teach in a village... ironic? :) And to say "Book of Mormon" there, it's "Buk Blong Momon." Crazytown. All of the sisters in my district are going to Boston. In fact, there's like 30 of us right now in the MTC and 2 Elders. I have a feeling I will get whitewashed on my first transfer and that I will be training new sisters by the end of June. (Please pray extra hard for me!) For a detailed description of my district, ask Trish for a scan of the letter I mailed her this week- I drew them all as stick figures. :) Elder Paialii is one of the Elders going to Vanauatu and he's half Samoan or something and is ridiculously funny. Keeps us all laughing.
Our teachers are also great! Brother Makahilahila (so humble) and Brother Fairclough (funny in a almost-sarcastic way). We've been practice teaching with them and it usually goes pretty well. We practice taught with Sister Bostwick, another teacher, yesterday and it was SO powerful. I had been having some pretty powerful personal revelatory moments in class that were strengthening my testimony of Joseph Smith and my confidence in my ability to teach because I'm got my Savior on my side, so the lesson with Sister Bostwick as "Paola" was amazing. She started crying as we were explaining that our whole purpose was to help her. After the role-play, she told us that she doesn't usually cry when role-playing, so we should thank our Heavenly Father for that miracle. We did ASAP. But remember how missionary service is like 50 years of church service condensed into 18-24 months? Yeah... we had TRC right after that and we were flying high on the Spirit, so we thought it was going to be great. But our "investigator" (we're not sure if she really is or if she's a convert or what- it's like the Hunger Games- real or not real?!) was very strongly Catholic and started throwing questions around about how she thinks the authority never broke because Peter passed it on to the guy who started the Catholic church. I didn't want to Bible bash and I felt completely at a loss for scripture references, so I just sat there completely embarrassed while Sister Hobbs did some damage control. It was definitely a humbling experience and I needed it because HELLO?! Boston is going to be like 90% Catholic. So I've been studying like crazy. :)
Okay, time's basically out, so I'd better go! Nicole- thanks for the email and letter- tell Lindy and Jenna their coloring skills are phenomenal. Nat- thanks for the email, too! And thank you both for exchanging emails with Brad and putting him on the family Facebook page- warms my heart! :) Tell him thanks for the Dear Elder yesterday- it made my week! Forward this to anyone in the family that I couldn't remember email addresses.
Guys, the gospel is so true and we are so blessed to have it in our lives! Don't keep it for yourselves! Share it! :)
I love you all so very much!
Sister Wheeler
P.S. Mom, this is a list of requests. Take it out when you forward the email.
I need a hard copy of my driving record- can you mail it?
I'd love a hand towel.
Jump rope
2 white cap sleeve half tees
the boxes my scriptures came in (under my white side table)
more of those no-show socks (in black and nude)
LOVE YOU!
P.P.S. Jord - bring a lanyard. It will help. :) You are going to grow so much in the MTC next week. Be so excited and know that you can do it because you're on the Lord's side! Can't wait to hear about you!
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