Week 2 - MTC

Bonjour everybody!

This week has been a pretty good one! Time is slowly starting to pass like normal again and I'm settling into MTC life. 

So on Monday we started teaching our first "investigator" in TRC (teaching resource center). Most of the investigators in TRC are actually members who are just acting like investigators to give new missionaries practice teaching. Our investigator's name is Sarah, she's 22 and from Nevada but moved to Provo at 18 to get away from her family-- her parents aren't members and they drink and fight a lot. She lives with her aunt in Provo, who is a member and suggested she meet with missionaries to help her face some challenges she's having lately. It's been pretty good teaching her, we do it in English so I understand her at least, haha :) She's really sweet; we haven't made tons of progress with her yet but she has hope that the Gospel can help her life.

When I first left on my mission I was honestly sort of terrified of teaching-- I was worried about saying the wrong thing or just being awkward. But I've found that's not the case; I'm always able to explain what I need to clearly and bear my testimony. I give credit to the Spirit to that, it's one of the greatest blessings of missionary work. You have the Spirit with you all the time as long as you're worthy and have the desire. I love it :) I also have great teachers (seriously, I love them!!) who help me SO much. They explain things well and help me feel more confident in myself and my abilities.

Sundays in the MTC are really busy, but also really great. My favorite part of Sunday was probably singing in the MTC choir-- the conductor is so incredible. The MTC choir at this time of year is twice the size of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and I just feel the Spirit so strongly when we sing. One of the Elders in our district cried because he said we sounded like angels, haha. It was funny, but also true-- it really is a powerful experience.

On Sunday night all the new missionaries get to watch a talk given by Elder Bednar that's shown exclusively in the MTC-- it's AMAZING! It's all about the character of Christ and always looking outwards, it had a huge impact on me.

Something else exciting-- our companionship is a trio again!! On Wednesday, Sister Ainu'u joined us! She is from Samoa and is serving in the Arizona Tucson mission. She has to stay in the MTC for an extra 2 weeks because she's experiencing some health problems. She's already been here for 3 and all the others in her district left, so she's in our district now. She has lots of personality and is really fun. Zuster Roberts and I are helping her work on her English, which has been a cool experience as well!

I'm also getting to know the other sisters in my Zone better, they're really fun! The sister from France (Sister Simoes) has been helping me work on my french, which has been extremely helpful! :) We started doing language studies as a district as well, whe

re we go around and teach each other different phrases in our mission languages. It helps us practice and we also get to learn a few other languages as well, which has been fun :)

Right now I am super sore from our exercise time-- one of the Elders in our district, Elder Veliz, is teaching us how to lift weights, and I am definitely feeling the burn!! My whole body is in pain, but it's a good way to get out all the stress that comes with the transition. 

Well that's about all I can think of for now! All in all, it's been a good week, my testimony is growing so much. I want you all to know how much love our Heavenly Father has for each of you-- I've felt that so strongly here. Teaching others about the Gospel causes you to have a taste of how much love God really does have for each of us. I wish I could put it into words, but just know that it's a LOT of love!!! He knows what's going on in each of your lives and wants you to turn to Him in times trial and in times of joy.

Sending you all lots of love!!
Soeur Gardner


Last night I configured my own spoon out of an ice cream lid since we didn't have any... it was great to eat BYU Creamery ice cream again :)

(Mom note for the above pic: I believe "SYL" stands for Speak Your Language - although I can't read the details so I could be wrong. But what is funny about that is that these missionaries are speaking different mission languages. If they SYL, the dinner conversation won't be much!)