Hi family and friends!!
First off for Mommy - just forward this to people on the e-mail list, and other fambam who'd like to hear about my adventures:) Also, don't be sad, be happy I'm out serving the Lord, and know that I am SO happy. (And direct Decker family)
OKAY. So week 1 in the MTC. Crazy. Honestly, the first day was an absolute blur. A BLUR. No kidding. I only remember I kept thinking to myself, "what the?! I'm on a mission now?! No way." And I remember saying multiple times to myself...yeah...I want to go home. This is too hard. And I'll tell you what - I probably said that to myself 30 more times the next few days.
But the elders and sisters who'd been in the MTC for a while already kept telling us greenies "Make it through until Sunday and you'll be able to make it through your entire mission." And guess what?! I made it through Sunday and I feel SO much better and I don't want to quit anymore:)
So fambam, you'll be comforted to know that right after I got through security and walked to my gate, there were probably 12 other missionaries sitting together and we all were puffy-eyed from crying and we bonded and talked and it made us less sad and more focused, so that was good!
And after Camel and Riley picked me up and we ate Zupa's Camille dropped me off at the MTC (we ended up crying...of course), and my "host" took my luggage and we got all my supplies, then I found out that I'm not going to be at the main MTC but the West Campus MTC...so I had to get in a bus and pack my luggage with me and got bussed over to Wyview Apartments. I found out that they converted half of Wyview and most of Raintree Commons Apartments into "West Campus MTC" since there's just not enough room in the main MTC anymore. It's actually really nice though because I live in an apartment at Wyview with 3 other sisters and we get to walk about 10 minutes to Raintree Apartments for class and meals and such, so I don't have to stay cooped up inside like people sometimes do at the main MTC.
Honestly...I don't remember the rest of the day. I'll tell you though, the MTC is a ROLLER COASTER of emotion. On Saturday, my companion Sis. Shurtleff (and for family, imagine Megan Tyler going on a mission - that's exactly Sis. Shurtleff's personality and she also looks like Megan a little bit) and I were DYING laughing at dinner. Here's what happened:
*I drop a piece of cantaloupe on the ground "Darn my cantaloupe escaped!"
Sis. Shurtleff: "Give it a spanking and put it to bed!"
...WHAT?!
Haha we died laughing. Also she speaks Hebrew, so sometimes she'll start speaking to me in Hebrew and won't realize it and then she goes, "Oh...right...I said..." and say what she said. We recently started doing this thing where after lessons we teach our "investigators" if it went well we say, "Baru Hashem!" Or "Praise the Lord!" And when we're walking places we usually knock water bottles and say, "Leh Hime!" or "To life!" and take a swig, then knock bottles and say, "Leh Hime!" and take a swig over and over again until we DIE laughing.
She's awesome I love her!
My district is awesome too. I'm with 4 other elders and another companionship of sisters, so it's 50-50 girls and guys. The set of sisters we're with are awesome, they're our zone's (a zone is a group of districts - we have 5 districts in our zone) sister district leaders.
I wish I had more time to e-mail! I only have 9 minutes left so I'll try to sum up some awesome things going on here:)
Well, Saturday my companion and I completely bombed one of our lessons, and after really talking it over (and let's face it, bawling in our room and staying up past 10:30 because we just really needed to talk about how hard things are and how frustrated we were), we came to this conclusion: we were being selfish. We kept thinking, "I'm not very good at teaching. I don't know how to do this. It's hard for me." But it's NOT ABOUT YOU. It's about others. The missionary purpose is: "Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end." Nowhere in there does it say "I, me, we, you." It's all about OTHERS.
So we made a goal to not be so selfish and that when we feel weak, to read Proverbs 3:5-6, Ether 12:27, D&C 1:23, and refer back to Elder Bednar's MTC talk, "Character of Christ" (which was a life-changing talk we watched on Sunday - future missionaries, watch it - it is INCREDIBLE and so powerful. He basically says, "Who cares what you want? The natural man (see Mosiah 3:19) Get over yourself. It's not about what you want. It's not about you."
Very humbling, but very true. This mission isn't about me - it's about thinking outside of myself and serving God and His children (Mosiah 2:17).
Also, here are some scriptures that have been AMAZING for me the past few days, and I'd encourage you to look them up and read them:
D&C 11:21
Alma 40-42 - Plan of Salvation
John 14:27
Alma 38:8
Mosiah 28:3-4
D&C 31
2 Nephi 9
2 Nephi 31
3 Nephi 27
I love you all, thank you for sending me letters and packages, I appreciate every single one:) Write me a letterrrrrr!!!! Until next week,
With love,
Sister Decker
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