Sister Jorgensen : HALFWAY DONE! with the mtc....

WEEK 3: OCTOBER 3, 2016

WOW. SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED THIS PAST WEEK. For starters, conference was absolutely amazing. Along with women's conference. And especially the MTC choir!!! They killed it! Hope of Israel was SOOO good. It was a bit difficult being in church clothes all day without my blanket and pillow (yes, they specifically told us not to bring that stuff..lol) but it was honestly so good and I got so much out of both meetings. I was bummed about not being in the choir, but it was super cool to see Sisters and Elders from my district singing their hearts out (: I felt like in general conference they all talked so much about finding joy and happiness in Christ and in His plan. A couple of my fav talks were Carl B. Cooks & Ronald A. Rasband's. Elder Cook talked about church callings and how they're specifically from God. He said, "accepting and fulfilling callings is an act of faith in and of itself." I loved how at one point in his talk he stated, "Just Serve." I think that's super applicable to all of our lives, and no matter what calling we have or where we might be in our lives, we need to just serve others and have faith that both us and the people we are serving will receive blessings and eternal happiness. Elder Rasband talked about how important our 'personal testimony building experiences' are, and how we should never forget them. He said, "we first have to strengthen our own testimonies before we can strengthen others." This talk meant so much to me. When I have challenges in my life, especially out here on my mission, I try my hardest to think back on experiences when my testimony was strengthened and when I felt the spirit testify the truth to me. Whether they occurred back during my years at girls camp, or simply just listening to music that helped me feel the spirit, those experiences shaped who I am today and they continually help me realize why I'm here and why I am a member of this church. Life is hard, and I always have doubts about the unknown, but thinking back on things like this and "never forgetting them," helps me endure through trials and gain a stronger testimony. All in all, this weekend was SO good and I hope I can listen to conference out in Cape Verde.

Starting back at the beginning of the week, I finally memorized the baptismal invitation and 1st vision in Portuguese!! It only took me like 3 weeks, but hey we good now. We had our first TRC last Monday night as well, and both lessons went surprisingly well! Sis. D forgot the lesson plan back in our classroom so we had to completely wing it haha. It was really awesome though because we were both given the Gift of Tongues and were able to mostly understand our "investigators" and tell them what we felt impressed to say. Super cool experience. Ever since then we have left our lesson plans in the classroom, and have had some of our best lessons this past week. The gift of tongues is real people.

Thursday was an incredible day for me. I wasn't feeling so hot that night due to the AMAZING food supplied here, and was overcome with stress and worry. I thought for sure I had the flu or some other sort of disease running it's course through the MTC... And for those who really know me, germs are not my thing. I was so upset because I had tried so hard the past 3 weeks to wash my hands and take airborne 3 times a day, and now of course I was getting sick haha. I didn't know what to do and wanted more than anything to be home with my family. But then I had the thought to ask for a priesthood blessing. I was kinda apprehensive about it, seeing as my district leaders were two 18 year old boys who knew nothing about me and what was going on. I decided to ask them for one though, and I am so beyond grateful that I did. It was the most spiritual experience I have had at the MTC since being here. My district leader, Elder Goes, proceeded to give me a blessing. It was short and sweet, but exactly what I needed to hear. He said things that only God could've known about me and in that moment my testimony of priesthood blessings grew so much. I definitely cried, which I know is crazy for some people to believe, but it was such a cool experience. I'm grateful for the obedient young men who continually decide to serve missions and are worthy priesthood holders. Priesthood power is so real and I was lucky enough to be reminded of that this past Thursday night.

Friday was pretty cool too. We gotta go to the clinic across the street from BYU campus and it felt like we had just been released from jail. There were like real humans on the sidewalk without a name tag on and couples holding hands. It was weird, but quite the experience. I can't wait to actually get out into the field and talk to real people! Other than that, this week was same old same old! To keep ourselves sane, we pull pranks all the time. The prank of the week was when I sat in Dot's (Sister Smith's) closet and then scared her to death when she went to go grab her clothes. She peed her pants so you could say I got her pretty good. Made me think of Les Vogs. Love you girl (; hahaha The language is getting better each week. I can definitely understand more than I can say, but we're getting there. Also, VOCAL POINT CAME LAST NIGHT. I know you're all jealous. They did so good though!!! I wanted to record their songs so bad, but no cameras allowed :( Anyways, things are going well and I'm halfway done here. WOOT. I hope you all have a great week! Remember who you are! xoxo