Hailey & her companion, Sister Tauteoli
Hello everyone!
This is my second week being here at the MTC, and it has been a roller coaster full of emotion! But I am still having lots of fun.
So, on Sunday the 21st, we had a sacrament meeting with my zone, the Branch President and his counselors. Everyone had to write a talk and then they would decide that day, who is giving it. Since it was our first Sunday, the "newbies" didn't have to give their talk. Instead, the Branch President had one of the zone leaders and sister from the older District give a talk. Elder Faamoe and Sister Lewis were the Missionaries they picked. The talk was about 'Recognizing and Understanding the Spirit'. They were really good talks. The Spirit was really strong. In his talk, Elder Faamoe mentioned how he plays rugby and is really good. He got a ton of scholarships to Universities to play, and he had tons of contracts to sign with professional rugby teams. He told us that he wasn't sure whether to go ahead and sign the contracts and play rugby, or go on a mission. He prayed day and night for an answer asking God what he should do. He then was driving to the store to go shopping and he pulled up to a stop sign, looked up in the sky, and noticed a billboard that had quotes/sayings about Jesus. "Now is the time to serve your Lord," is what the billboard read. After reading the little quote, Elder Faamoe knew what he had to do. He had to serve the Lord.
I thought it was so awesome of him to choose the Lord over his favorite sport, which he is amazing at! Elder Faamoe is the definition of unselfish and kind. He has helped me grow so much while I've been here. He and his companion Elder Dapat are such awesome Elders. They're so kind, and so sincere. You can really tell they care for people. They have their silly moments, but when it comes down to it, they're here to serve the Lord, not to play games. I just love that about them.
After Sacrament we split up to do Relief Society and Priesthood meetings. And then the new Sisters stayed after and had a meeting to go over the rules of being a Sister missionary (i.e. what to wear/not to wear, how to act, etc.). After all of our meetings, we got to watch a movie before heading back to our residences. The movie was Elder Ballard giving a talk at the Provo MTC during Christmas time. He talked about how to have Christ-like attributes and become closer to God. It was a really good talk. I learned a lot from it.
The next day my companion and I taught an investigator named Felicia. The sucky part was that the lesson had to be in Cebuano. Felicia only understood Cebuano so we couldn't really speak English to her. It was so hard! We taught about the Atonement, and I felt like I kept repeating the same thing over and over in Cebuano. Felicia said our Cebuano was pretty good for only being here a week, but I just felt so frustrated that I couldn't speak full-on Cebuano to her. The good thing is, she wasn't a "real" investigator, just someone pretending to help us out. If she had been a real investigator, I would have felt even worse because I kind of butchered everything I said.
Then on February 24th, my zone and I did service assignments, where we go around cleaning buildings up. It was super easy because I'm used to doing chores. All I really did was clean the bathroom sinks/mirrors on all 4 floors in the residence. In the evening on the 24th, we had a Devotional. It was really good. Brother and Sister Causse from France gave a talk about our roles as Missionaries. There were so many great quotes and stories by the two of them, but one quote that I really like was by Brother Causse. It says, "Look at yourself the way the Lord is looking at you." I always have trouble looking at myself like I'm good enough. I sometimes don't think I'm smart, pretty, or funny. After hearing this quote, I'm definitely trying to look at myself the way the Lord looks at me.
So, two awesome things have happened this week:
One: I got called to be 'Senior Companion'. My role as Senior companion is just making sure my companion is on time places, calling meetings, etc. Also, my companion and I got called to be 'Online Coordinators'. We just have to tell our zone the rules of computer/internet use, and we have to monitor people's computers sometimes to make sure they aren't doing anything they shouldn't be. It doesn't seem too hard!
Two: one of the sisters in my zone, Sister Vono (from Figi), had lost her voice for a week and it wasn't coming back. She tried everything to get her voice back but nothing was working out. The Elders in her District along with the Branch President finally gave her a blessing the other day. The moment they said the words "Amen", Sister Vono started talking.... and her voice came back!! Isn't that amazing!? It just doesn't sound like something that would happen in real life. It sounds like something from off of a movie. It was insane! It just goes to show how strong blessings are and how powerful Heavenly Father is.
Lately, the days have been kind of boring because I'm doing the same things over and over everyday. But I still have a lot of fun and learn a lot about not only myself, but my companion and other missionaries.
If you're ever having trouble in life with something and don't think you can move on and do it, just remember this little saying in Cebuano, "Kaya ninyo!". "You can do it!"
I love you all and hope you're having an amazing week!
Love,
-Sister Johnson
Hailey & her zone