Time is weird, but especially in the MTC. It feels like I'm in a constant time warp. Every night we all think "Wow, it's bed time already? I guess I am tired." And then when we write in our journals and ask each other what happened that day and we all think "Was that today? I feel like that was last week." The weeks are getting a lot shorter, and the idea that I've already been out for more than a month. It's terrifying to think that I might blink and miss my whole mission. I guess the same thing happens in life for everyone though. It's still weird to me that we're not in 2010. What I'm trying to focus on is working hard, and using every second wisely. Which means that when I play, I play hard, and when I relax, I relax hard (oxymoron?), and when I study, I study hard.
I had the hardest day of my mission so far this week. Don't worry, it was just one hard day. Basically someone in my district was having a really hard time and I felt like everything I tried to do to help didn't work. Which was so hard for me, because I love them so much. And I have a tendency to put the world on my shoulders and blame myself if anything goes wrong. So above all, Friday taught me to rely on the Lord, and that I can only do my best. There is literally nothing more than I do, after I've done my best. But the Lord takes my efforts, and sanctifies them. Through Him, I am enough.
Besides Friday, the most stressful thing that happened this week was they changed the seating arrangement in the classroom. Now none of us have any extra space to put our million and a half grammar books. How could they do this to us?
After Friday being a hard day, I went to class and found 2 dozen Krispy Kreme Donuts!!! Thank you. That was such a huge blessing.
On Saturday we had district inventory, which is where we talk about everything that we think our district can work on. No one wanted to go first, so eventually our district leader said "Sister Hugo will go first, and get all of the blunt out of the way." Yep :) that's me
Usually our grammar book is stellar. But sometimes it teaches us how to say some very *useful* sentences. This week we learned "My dad, compared to your sister, rather likes going to church" and "I only like to play ball all day, nothing else." So now I feel very prepared for my mission. What a blessing it is to have such wonderful grammar materials that teach me such valuable sentences.
(This picture is from a missionary grammar book)
During a grammar lesson Elder Chapman said "People changed Christ" instead of "Christ changes people." Lao Ji Muih corrected him but he didn't want to back down so he said "Yeah! We changed Him to dead!"
Easter in the MTC is my favorite thing. I think Easter might be my new favorite holiday. We didn't know who was going to be speaking at the Easter Devotional, but I was so excited. Just 3 minutes before the devotional was set to begin, Elder and Sister Ballard walked in the room. We (the choir) started the devotional by singing "Jesus once of Humble Birth." It was amazing. My branch president said he thought that we would all be translated by the end of the song. In the devotional Elder Ballard did 2 things that really stuck out to me. First of all, he told the story of his grandfather's vision of the Savior. I don't have time to type it all out, but I'm sure that you can find it if you google it. I noticed in the story that there are 4 things the Savior did.
- Smiled (The Lord LOVES US)
- Called me by name (He knows us individually)
- Reached out his hand (He's always reaching out to us)
- Blessed him (The Lord wants so badly to bless us, but it can only happen after we accept his outreached hand)
The other thing that Elder Ballard did that was amazing, was he blessed us. He blessed everyone in the room. He blessed us that our testimony of Christ would be strengthened, that we would have strength, courage, and determination. The nothing would stop us from witnessing that this is the only true and living church. That we would have health of the body and the mind. That we would be attuned to the past and present witnesses of Christ. That we would have an awesome missionary.
(Joanna assured her mom that after this picture she took her hair out of pigtails)
I'm still a new missionary, so I'm still learning how to do this. So in case you're missing it, let me bear my testimony of The Living Christ. He is my Savior, and your Savior, and is a Savior for ALL OF US. The most important thing that I can tell you about Jesus is his infinite love for us. He had forgiven me of my sins. He has given me comfort. Through His everlasting atonement, I am a better person. Because of Him I shall live again. I shall live again with my family and Heavenly Father. And I KNOW that all of us can have these gifts. That's why I'm on a mission. Because I love Him and His message sooo much. I love it so much, I put college on hold, so much I wear a skirt EVERY DAY, so much that I'm learning Cantonese and going 7000 miles away from my family. Because ultimately none of that matters if I can find anyone who will listen to this message. Please don't close your ears. Please don't harden your hearts. Just listen. Just try. He loves you, and is right around the corner. I can promise you, this if you listen and try, you will be blessed in ways that you can not begin to understand. You will be closer to your family, have peace, comfort, and a purpose. You will have strength. I know this, because I receive these blessings every day. I can't imagine life without my Savior. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
--