Friday, February 24, 2012

Sister Davis's Last E-Mail from the MTC

Some missionaries in my zone tried out for a musical number the same day as me.  They sang "Brightly Beams" at a fireside and it made me think of Trevor.  The sister next to me is my roommate Sister Porter.

I only see Sister Hillman if I go by her room.  Next week will be different though.

Me, my companion and sisters in our district.   To my right, Sister Castellano going to Independence, MO.  Next to me left is Sister Brox going to Kennewick, WA and to my far left Sister Hollingshead going to Eugene, OR.

Family and Friends,

I can't believe that my next e-mail will be from California! I cannot wait. Of course to be in the field, but also to get out of this cold weather. We started visitors' center training this week and so far it has been awesome. We had the opportunity to visit temple square earlier this week to just observe and tomorrow we will be the missionaries :) Being in a classroom with all girls all day has been an interesting change. I miss our Elders so much. Is anyone surprised that I bond more easily with 19-year old boys than I do girls my own age? Just kidding. The sisters here are amazing and of course Sister Hillman is now in my classes! In this week's training group the sisters are going to Kirtland, Heide Park, London South, and Los Angeles. I was so glad to find that there are other sisters going to L.A. next week. I was beginning to think I was flying solo. The sisters going to my mission are Sister Bell from Seattle, Sister Cole from Phoenix(both spanish speaking), and Sister Kim from South Korea. Her companion actually left last week so we are now a trio(Sister Castellano, myself, and Sister Kim). I don't know that she will actually be leaving with us on Wednesday because her Visa didn't come through and she has to go back to Korea. At least I think that's what she said... She didn't know any English before coming here and she is doing very well, but I can't understand her 90% of the time :s We started in the referral center this week as well and it is a lot different than I was expecting. Apparently I will be chatting live with investigators throughout my mission. We started yesterday talking to actual people and it was good, but also a little scary. When people go on Mormon.org and click on "chat live with a missionary" or whatever it says, they end up talking to us! Along with the missionaries here that are called to do it on a more regular basis. Anyway, I wasn't really expecting to be chatting on my mission I guess. I feel like I'm breaking a rule. Our trainer shared a lot of neat scenarios with us and it's actually a genius concept. Our whole purpose is to get the missionaries into people's homes, so we answer their questions and start teaching them the lessons. Then, once they give us their address and information we let the missionaries in their area know, but continue to teach them online until they get there. And apparently in some cases by the time they do, the investigator has already had most of the lessons and a testimony of the Book of Mormon! Isn't that cool? The only problem is that people get on just to cause problems. We have only done one day on our own, but I can tell that it is also going to be difficult to talk to people who are interested but not, if that makes sense. We had some people yesterday that had a lot of questions, but didn't really want to talk about the doctrine. Some just want to talk about polygamy and baptism for the dead etc. Hopefully it will get easier to distinguish if they are trying to waste our time or not. People also get on and ask random questins like. "How do magnets work?" to which I relpy, "this isn't cha cha." Just kidding. We have scripted responses for things like that and if people are being inappropriate. The more I learn about being a visitors' center sister the more excited I am about it. I'm heading out this coming Wednesday at 5 am and I have mixed feelings. The MTC is my new comfort zone and I'm a little nervous to go out into the "real world" but I can't wait to share the gospel with people and learn more from experience. It seems odd that I have been out for almost a month now. Thanks for all your letters! Keep in mind that my address is soon to change. Love you!


Sister Davis

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