Week 1 MTC

Wow, it feels like its been forever since I've seen you all! The MTC goes by slow and fast...I can't even describe it, haha.

  The first day was great! My companion, Sister Brooks is the best! We met and I instantly knew we would be great friends! The first day was a lot of orientation. But holy cow, what a small world that Sister Clark is my MTC teacher! So there are 6 sisters in our district(Zufelt, Nichols, Vellinga, Clawson, Brooks, and Me) and 4 Elders(Carter, Shurtliff, Clinger, and Davis). The Elders are all going to Jacksonville, FL. Sisters Vellinga and Clawson are going to Anchorage and the rest of us are going to Anaheim. I was so happy that I would be going to the field with other sisters! I am surprised when I walked in the first day and saw her there! Our STLS and Zone leaders came to us later that evening and talked to us and threw A BUNCH of information at us....and the crazy thing was...THEY HAD ONLY BEEN HERE A WEEK! We thought they were so much older and wiser than we were. But the rest of our zone is great! Some of them can be a little exclusive, but it's fine. Janice, there are two Sisters( Taylor and Holladay) that are going to the Chespeake VA mission. Look out for them, they're hilarious!

  The first couple of days I didn't sleep well. I kept waking up super early because I hadn't adjusted to the time zone yet. About Friday of last week I started to catch a cold or get allergies or something. I'm finally starting to get over that now. But it's amazing, the Lord blesses His missionaries! I definitely was sick, but I was still able to have the adequate energy that I needed to get through the long days! Anyways, another thing is the Lord is trying my patience....and I'm actually okay with that. Sister Brooks admitted that she is not good at time management. Here at the MTC you are on a very strict schedule and you're expected to be everywhere on time. And, if you know me, you know that I am a very punctual person, but the Lord has blessed me with patience and just understanding that I'm her companion and we're going to work through it together. We've arrived late to PLENTY of things, which has been a struggle for me, but we've been getting better. I just love Sister Brooks and knowing that she is working through the time management is good enough for me.

 OK BUT SERIOUSLY! My testimony has grown so much stronger and so much deeper this past week. We study and attend classes from 8:30 AM-9 PM. It is exhausting, but it's good work. Anyways, I want to share a few things that I've learned this week that have really stuck out to me:

    During our orientation, we watched this video of 2 elders. One of them was an amazing pianist and the other didn't know anything about pianos. The speaker at the conference they were attending had the experienced pianist teaching the inexperienced elder how to play a simple song. After a few minutes, it was time for them to perform. The inexperienced elder started playing and a few times he made a few mistakes, but the experienced elder was right beside him and giving him encouraging pats on the back. After a minute, the experienced elder joined in and they played together and it was a beautiful song! They paralleled this story with Christ. Christ is the experienced pianist and we are the inexperienced ones that need help. But Christ is always right beside us and helps us along the way. With Christ, we can make beautiful music! He can transform us into something more than we could ever imagine. I truly loved that analogy.  ME + CHRIST= MORE    not  ME+MORE= CHRIST

   We've also talked a lot about the Doctrine of Christ(Faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End). The gospel is so simple! Since we've been here, we've memorized our missionary purpose, which is to INVITE others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through those 5 aspects of Christ. That's what a missionary does! I was nervous when in class the other day we talked about inviting others to be baptized. I've always thought missionaries are crazy, thinking they can just invite someone to be baptized during the first lesson. I always thought that was a little pushy. As we talked more about it, we talked about as we BEGIN to see an investigator start to show an increase in faith and repentance, a desire to change, etc, we shouldn't hesitate to invite to baptism. They are already beginning to show a desire to follow Christ and your job is so extend that invitation. I hope this is all making sense. Those things just clicked for me as I was studying more about the invitation to baptism and what all that entails. After that lesson, I no longer felt scared to extend that invitation. 

  A quote that I've been hearing a lot around the MTC is "You must be your first convert before you can convert anyone else". That's SO TRUE! And I'm still converting myself, that process never finishes. I need to know that this is true before I can begin teaching it to other people. And Elder Oaks also says that you need to baptize converts. CONVERTS. You should baptize those that are converting themselves to Christ. Ah, the MTC is so clear and simple.

Anyways, I need to think of some funny stories. The second day, Sister Brooks and I got lost for about 30 mins. The MTC is starting to transfer over to the new beautiful buildings and so there has been some miscommunication going on. We didn't see anyone from our district,no one was in our classroom, etc. We found some nice ladies that helped us find our class over in the new building. PHEW. That was close! haha

 Ok, but those new buildings?! THEY ARE BASICALLY TEMPLES! They have the most beautiful murals and paintings everywhere. They have these ponder rooms where they play church music quietly in the background as you study. It is amazing! I know I saw a video going around Facebook about it a few weeks ago. Check it out! It's so awesome! We were some of the first people to have our classroom in that building. The spirit is incredibly strong in those buildings, it's amazing.

  Another thing our STLS told us the first day was to make it to Sunday. And boy, were they right. I was getting so burned out the ended of last week, running on little sleep and being sick on top of that. Sunday was AMAZING! It was the most exhausting Sunday I have ever experienced. But it was filled with so many great things! We arrived to Sacrament 30 mins early so that we could prepare for it properly. I came to Sacrament meeting looking for peace because I was just feeling a little overwhelmed with all of the new changes that go along with being a missionary. I read a few scriptures that really helped comfort me and to feel of God's peace. I wish I could find them right now to share with you, but I am so scatterbrained because there is SO much to tell you and my fingers can't type fast enough. Anyways, and an Elder performed a solo and it was "Redeemer, Savior of my Soul" by Rob Gardner. HOLY MOLEY, that spirit was so strong there! Church was fantastic as usual! We also sang hymns together as a one so that we could feel of the Spirit and just speak our testimonies through song. I participated in the MTC choir later that night and we sang a beautiful arrangement of Be Still My Soul, which helped comfort me as well. The choir director told us, "You're all missionaries and the Lord loves His missionaries. Just tell your soul to be STILL!" True true true Mr. Choir Director! 

   Also on Sunday, I SAW PRES UCHTDORF. Well, kinda. Sis Brooks and I lost our district and we saw a bunch of people running around the new buildings, but we just thought ok, they went to dinner. Um, no, apparently they were all meeting Pres Uchtdorf, which we didn't realize! Everyone came into the cafeteria talking about it and we were so distraught. But as we were leaving the cafeteria, we saw everyone congregating and waving. We actually had to walk down the hallway Pres Uchtdorf just went down. We turned and saw him admiring the art on the walls. So yeah, I pretty much saw Pres Uchtdorf.

  This week we began our TRCs, which are basically investigators that we get paired with for the week. We don't know whether or not they're members, but 99% of the time, they are. We were a little nervous to begin teaching, but it was okay. We've been striving to teach with the Spirit. I have never felt happier in the MTC than when we are teaching our TRCs. We taught this girl, Jess, and she was a super chill girl from Texas and she goes to BYU. Anyways, I don't think she is a member. But we talked with her an shared more about God and prayer. I testified to her about the Atonement and how Christ would take on her sins and would do that if she was the only one on earth. He does it for you and for me individually. I felt the Spirit so strongly and that was definitely a highlight of my week.

  Yesterday, we hit a bit of a rough patch. We taught our teacher, Brother Potter, who acted as an investigator and we really struggled. He was a hard investigator to get to know. We definitely chucked the cake in that lesson( which means we just threw information at him instead of really focusing on him and his needs). I felt so discouraged after that. Sis Brooks usually does most of the talking in the lessons because she just knows how to say things so well. Seriously, I have been learning so much for her. I've been trying to be more confident in sharing and asking questions, but I think Sis Brooks just really likes to talk. But it's okay, because we're teaching together. But yeah, I get discouraged because sometimes I think I don't have anything good to contribute to the lessons sometimes. I struggle. But that's what I'm here to do is to practice, fail, and learn from it. We were so tired yesterday and I was just ready to throw in the towel for the day. We still had one more TRC to teach and we decided that we were going to put it all on the Lord. We prepared to teach her about the Restoration, but we were really trying to practice trusting in the Spirit to guide our teachings. Lemme, just say, the Spirit listens and guides! The lesson went so well and we were so happy! We really got to know Sarah and her needs and went from there. We left her with Moroni's promise and we'll meet with her again tonight and follow up with how it went. I was just so happy that the Lord heard our prayers and that we were able to put that trust in Him as we taught.

 Wow, there are so many little details that I wish I could share with you all. I've shared the most important parts I think. OH, another funny is that we aren't allowed to say "you guys" and that is SUCH a struggle for us all. We always catch each other saying it and reprimand each other. But Sister Taylor said if we can go the hold day without saying it, that she will get us something from the vending machine. Today is the day. I'm not going to say the "g" word.

I check my email a few times everyday so write me whenever! I can read them anytime, I just can't respond until P-day!

The church is true. God loves you. You are great!

Love you all, 

Sister Burton