Friday, October 30, 2015

We Got our Itinerary!

My district just got our itinerary and WOW we are going crazy. Where has the time gone? One more full week here at the good ole MTC. :)

So last week after I finished writing I had a great P-day and apparently it was so great that we all forgot to set alarms last Saturday! Woops. :) Luckily my comp woke up around 7:30 and we all started panicking (just imagine 5 hermanas panicking...I have to admit I was just laughing the whole time) and somehow we made it to class on time Saturday morning, even though it started at 7:40. God really works miracles sometimes!

OH MY HEAVENS. An Apostle of the Lord came this week and it was incredible! Elder Neil L. Andersen came and spoke to us. I always imagined when I was growing up that I would sing Called to Serve in the MTC but who would have thought it would be in front of an apostle? It was such a cool experience. He talked a lot about sacrifice and how we have each sacrificed something to be here. He also said, "We must give something up to become something better." I loved that so much. It makes me think about what I am willing to give up to become a better person! 


I am so grateful to be a missionary. Even though my first couple weeks in Nicaragua I will only communicate through smiling and waving because I'll have no idea what's going on, I am pumped. I'm realizing more and more that the simple truths of the gospel are the greatest knowledge we can have. I hope you all have a great week and enjoy halloween tomorrow! (I'll be studying the scriptures while everyone is trick or treating..so who is the real winner here?)




Hermana Willes


Flight information?!  What?! We also found another sister that is going to our mission!  She just got here this week though so she will be a transfer behind us!



Cassie!!! I saw her Wednesday from the window while my comp was getting ready and I started jumping up and down and knocking on the window.  When she walked up the stairs, I ran and we hugged and cried. Such a blessing to have her here...


The new hermanas in our room. L to R: Me, Hna Rowing, Hna Speas (my comp), Hna Roahner. They are so amazing and I love them so much. Sweetest girls ever. Hna Rowing
is from Utah and the other two are from California...


The whole gang...


This is Hna Partridge.  She left this week for the Nicaragua South Mission and she is amazing. So wish we were going to the same mission...


And look who I ran into :)...


Friday, October 23, 2015

Officially Hit My Halfway Mark in the MTC!

I have officially hit my halfway mark in the MTC. SO CRAZY. I am so excited to be back in the real world again (its hard to remember that there is an outside world when you are stuck in a classroom the whole day). But I also love the MTC so much and I wish I could rewind and be a newbie once again. (we always laugh at the newbies because the don't know how to open the doors with their keys)

On Sunday our Devotional was given by a man named Chad Lewis. It was awesome! He used to play for BYU. And he brought Taysom Hill! As soon as he said Taysom's name all of the Elders were like "TAYSOM IS HERE" haha. Taysom talked about how even though he's played in cool places and for a lot of people with a lot of exciting moments, none of them compared to the experiences he had as a full time missionary. :) Also at one point Chad Lewis was talking about his mission to Japan and I guess Elder Oaks visited his mission and at one point Elder Oaks said, "Well, I know the Lord loves Asian people because He sure made a lot of them!" That moment was priceless because everyone just lost it.

One funny experience from this week...so we were teaching one of our investigators and we're just talking about how we believe in the Bible and the Book of Mormon and Prophets of Old and all that good stuff. So we're like ok who are some people in the Bible? And Our investigator names a few that we know and then she says, "Pedro!" And Hna Speas and I are like...who the heck is Pedro? So automatically I panic and I'm like oh no she believes in a different bible than we do how am I supposed to explain that? So we just are like "sorry but we don't know Pedro!" WELL come to find out Pedro is Peter in Spanish. We had another moment like that when we were talking about Joseph Smith reading in James because you don't say James with a spanish accent...apparently it changes to Santiago. Oops :)

We got three new hermanas in our room and they are serving in Canada. They are really sweet but we are on different schedules so we won't see them a lot except for the night time. We try to impart as much wisdom as we can during that hour ;)

SO my best friend cassie comes to the MTC this week and even though that doesn't apply to anyone I am STOKED. Also some Birthday shout outs to Uncle Mike, Aunt Wendy, Uncle Matt, and Adam! Hope you all have amazing days.

Love you all and you are all in my prayers!


--

Hermana Willes



The hermanas in our zone. L to R: Me, Hna Speas, Partridge, Playstead, Bushman, and Browning...



Our District...


One of Mamoo and Boppy's missionaries.  I don't know her name, but she's the sweetest ever.  Every time I see her she says "Hermana Willes, I love you so much!"


I love Hermana Browning!  So hard to say good-bye to her...


Lisa's caption: I love that face...


Two of my favorite elders!  Elder Marquez is from Brasil and loves to sing.  He is so cool.  (He left this week). Elder Chambers leaves this next week and is going to N.Y.
He is hilarious!...


Elder Cornell (dark hair) and Elder Peters ((blonde curly). They left this week for President Franco's mission...


Friday, October 16, 2015

I Love it Here at the Good Ole MTC

I can't believe another week has gone by. I love it here at the good ole MTC. There is always someone singing the hymn Sunshine in my Soul and I love it. This week there was a lot of emphasis of Joseph Smith. 

President L. Whitney Clayton came and talked about Joseph Smith and how important that moment in history was. We also sang Joseph Smith's First Prayer in choir and it was AMAZING that song is so beautiful. The choir director is the coolest man ever so he would tell us stories about Joseph Smith while we learned to sing it. And I memorized the first vision!! Woohoo! I love saying it because of the power behind the words.

I got a new teacher this week, Hermano Roberts. He is the older brother of the Hermano Roberts that taught us the first week :) He is awesome! He is perfect at teaching and it gives me hope that one day I will be able to teach like that.This week one day Hermana Speas and I went outside to walk around and for some reason we went in a door we don't usually go in to get back to our classroom and we were really turned around. We walked into the wrong classroom thinking it was ours and I've never been so confused in my whole life. Luckily some teachers showed us back to the right place :)

In my personal study I read about when the Lord told Nephi to build a ship and right now I can totally relate to how Nephi was feeling. Like WHAT? You need me to build a ship? I've decided that the ship is my mission and when I wake up everyday I have no idea what to expect or how I'm going to build this ship for the next 18 months but with the Lord's help in 18 months I will be looking at the most beautiful time in my life 
so far.

I love and miss you all! The Church is SO true. Have a wonderful week!

--

Hermana Willes

Friday, October 9, 2015

I Love Being a Missionary!


This week has been AMAZING. We are teaching investigators pretty much every day now and it is the greatest thing ever. My spanish isn't very good but when I really need the words when I'm teaching I somehow figure out what to say. 

We have two investigators right now, Remundo and Hely. We taught Remundo how to pray earlier this week (He doesn't believe in God) and I thought my heart was going to explode from the Spirit. Teaching a lesson brings the sweetest joy I have ever felt in my life. There are no words to describe how amazing it feels when the Spirit testifies of what is being said. I also told Hely about how the Spirit communicates differently with different people and for me it's like a burning in my heart..and she totally thought I used the wrong word and her face was so funny. She was like, "He speaks through fire in your heart?" haha but later in the lesson she felt it. 

I think my favorite thing I've heard here in the MTC is, "Hey Elder, have I shown you a picture of my girlfriend yet?" I've heard that more times than you would believe. Elders are really funny. 

The days are long but at the same time they fly by and mail time here is the best time! Dear Elders are always welcome because any knowledge of the outside world is amazing. 
Have a great week!

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY.
-- 
Hermana Willes



Classic MTC Pose...


Hermana Willes and her companion, Hermana Speas...


Hermana Willes and her MTC district...


Our red Spanish book. 
 "It's basically the most amazing thing in our lives right now...


Packages!!!!...



Friday, October 2, 2015

A True Rollercoaster

Family and Friends!

I know I have only been here a few days but my P-day is on Friday so here we are! On Wednesday my cute family dropped me off here at the MTC (it was so hard to leave them) and I was taken straight to class. And without knowing said "Adios!" to speaking any English until after dinnertime. (perks of the Provo MTC not everyone is learning the same language so other meetings with all missionaries are in english) My teachers are Hermano Roberts and Hermana Bond! They are the COOLEST. Goal in life is to be like Hermana Bond. The MTC has really made me appreciate Lundy and all of my friends that have gone to foreign MTC's to learn a language because that first day was really discouraging. The days are really long here so by the end of the first day I was like, "Sarah why aren't you a fluent spanish speaker yet?" haha. But it's a good kind of discouraging because then everyone pumps you up. One second you're down and the next you're ready to take on the world!

My companion is Hermana Speas and she is from Livingston Montana! She is super nice and we get along really well :) She is also serving in the Nicaragua Managua North Mission along with one Elder in our district. The Elders in my District are HILARIOUS and I've decided to take advantage of the fact that we can hang out with them here. Yesterday at dinner we were cracking up because we were bearing our testimonies in spanish and kept confusing the word pecados (sin) with pescados (fish). We were also super tired because class was all morning and afternoon so if it doesn't seem that funny..it was :)

It is really funny here because someone will be giving you all of this amazing advice and then you ask how long they've been here..the answer is usually only 1 or 2 weeks! But the days are so long here and you learn so much that I totally see where they are coming from.

Yesterday I was kind of discouraged in class and I think Hermana Bond could tell we were getting down on ourselves and she shared with us the scripture in Ether 12 where the Lord says that He will make our weaknesses strong if we have faith. Some moments I think I will never learn spanish but I am putting all my faith in the Savior and Heavenly Father and I know that one day I will be able to speak spanish. It is such a beautiful language! Also, go look up the Mormon Message called lifting burdens..or something about burdens. When we watched it yesterday I thought I was going to explode the Spirit was so strong. 

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week! Aunt Sue make sure to tell Sydnee Happy Birthday for me today!

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!
-- 
Hermana Willes