Week 2 :D

Hello, family and Friends!

I hope that you're all doing well. All of your emails make me smile (and, not gonna lie, tear up a lil), and I love them with all my heart, so thank you muchly!

Since last P-Day, it feels like it's been at least a month. I feel like I'm growing so much so fast, every day feels like two! On Sunday, we had a devotional and the speaker was Donny Osmond. I of course had no idea who he was, but other people were f r e a k i n g out. His talk was not great. A lot of it was just him talking about his career and famous life, like he was bragging and stuff. He had a few good nuggets of spiritual wisdom, but way too much of it was "whaaaaat? You guys don't know who I am???? I'm famous tho!!" Afterwards, people S W A R M E D.

But after Donny, we got to watch The Character of Christ by Elder Bednar and it was amazing!! I forgot to bring my notes, so Sister Woodcock and I are going to watch it again on Sunday. Sadly, it's only legal to watch in the MTC, so I can't get it to Y'all. 

Monday was super full and we had three investigators to teach (we're hitting the ground running, yeah?). We had two TRCs which means "teaching resource center", and my companion and I taught a girl about our age named Alicia and then a woman who's a bit older than us (who's Pregnant!) named Paula. The other person we taught was named Kristin, but our teacher Sister Roberts was role playing as her. Sister Woodcock and I have taught the restoration, the plan of salvation, and the gospel of Jesus Christ so far, and it's been really stretching me. We got the farthest with Paula, who committed to be baptized during our third lesson!! She is such a cutie and I love her so dang much. Next week we get two new investigators, so I'm sad to not teach Paula and Alicia next week, but I've learned a lot about this gospel and about myself. 

Tuesday and Thursday were really hard. I broke down on Tuesday night, but not because of homesickness! It was because I felt like I was inadequate and selfish!!! Fun heckin times :) It's just been a lot of up and down, back and forth with that kind of stuff. It's hard, but it's so good for me. [section redacted]

But getting past that, it's been super fun at the MTC! In our room, we have three sets of sister missionaries and it's so fun to chat and just be girls before we go to bed. We accidentally stayed up until 11:00 pm last night, but it was so fun that I didn't care too much.

We've been doing a lot better with our Elders!! They're actually talking to us now, but I think it's mostly because of the other district in our zone (bless em). We invited our Elders to play volleyball in the sand pits outside (which we had been doing with the other district for a couple of days), but they were like "oh no, we're going to the weight room" But it's okay because the other Elders in our zone talked to them and got them to come out on Thursday and today to play. The Elders on both sides keep getting super competitive, but the rest of us are just there to have fun :) And it's SO dang fun! I have a low-key sunburn, but it's been so great.

I made sure to take pictures this week so I could send them to you!! In the first four pics, the other Sister is my companion, Sister Woodcock. She is so wonderful!

That's all I have time for today, but I love you all so so so much!!

Sister Carlson

P.S. - please dial down my sassiness for the blog, thank you!! - [Sassiness remediated - Dad]

P.P.S - Mama, if you find any of those floral dresses that literally every missionary has that's like a high-ish collar, short sleeves, and long length, I would greatly appreciate it :) They're kind of like Ivy's red floral dress, but made of a more t-shirt like fabric. Or really long pencil skirts. Bless :D

First Preparation Day at the MTC

2017-06-16

Hi everyone (or shall I say, Brother and Sisters)!

These first few days in the MTC have been a bit crazy. When I first got here, I was crying and hugging grandma, and I felt really scared. But as soon as we said goodbyes, I was swept away by my host and I didn't have any time to feel homesick! As of now, I still haven't cried at all (except for when bearing my testimony). 

My host took me to get a few things, like my name tag and a bag of booklets, then we went to my residence to set down my stuff, and then we immediately went to class. In the class, I met my district and got my companion. Her name is Sister Woodcock, and she's awesome! She's 20, she's gotten her bachelors degree in dental hygiene, and she's from New Mexico. There are four other companionships in my district, with two sets of sisters and two of elders. There's Sister Oscarson and Sister Kroger, Sister Gardener and Sister Foth (pronounced like both), Elder Hewitt and Elder Woodruff, and Elder Andersen and Elder Christensen.All of the Sisters are going to Boise, and the Elders are going to Seattle. All of them are wonderful too, though we're working on more unity within our group (like having meals together and being together outside of class). But we're getting there. 

After meeting our teacher and district, we went to the first big orientation meeting. It was held in the new building, and as soon as we sat down, I saw Sister Alder in my row!! I've been seeing a ton of Sisters that I know, mostly from college, and a few Elders as well. It's been very encouraging to see friendly faces. The orientation was just a lot of information that I vaguely remember - it was a lot to take in. But there were a few talks that were wonderful, and there's a choir program here!! They rehearse on Sundays and Tuesdays, and even though Sister Woodcock isn't super inclined towards singing, she said that she'd be willing to participate if I wanted to! She's really the sweetest, and I'm so excited to participate in the choir. 

After the orientation, we had a class where we had to answer the questions of investigators. This is only day one! We had the 3 investigators come in, and then two sister missionaries would come and ask him some basic get to know you questions. Through those, we would figure out what the person wanted to know about the church and we made comments and tried to answer their questions. The point of the exercise was to start feeling the pure love that Christ has for those people. It was amazing how, in less than 20 minutes, I loved every one of those people, and I was invested in their conversion. I desperately wanted them to understand the love their Heavenly Father had for them, and how much joy they could receive from this gospel. It was a really cool experience!!

Later that night, we met our zone. There are two more sets of Elders who I believe are all going to Boise as well, and then a set of Sisters going to Boise and a trio of Sisters going to the Saint George visitors center mission. All of the Sisters are so wonderful, and you can tell that almost all the Elders are fresh off high school.  That meeting was mostly just a welcome/getting to know you/what you'll need to know immediately. 

Going to bed that night was rough. I was completely exhausted, but I kept waking up in the middle of the night. It was a little annoying, but I was thankful for the rest I did get.

Thursday was interesting. My companion and I were a bit of a mess and had to return to our residence twice in the morning (even though we were told we really shouldn't go back to our rooms until 9 pm). But it was okay! At 7:15, we had a scheduled planning time. Even though almost our whole schedule is already planned, we had a couple things to talk about like when we wanted to do personal study and companion study. After a class where we talked about our purpose as missionaries, we studied. My room wanted to make a goal to read the entire Book of Mormon in 15 days, I read it for the hour, but I only got from 1 Nephi 1 to 1 Nephi 7. I've decided that instead of doing that challenge (since I did just read the whole Book of Mormon), I'm going to go back to places in the Book of Mormon where I had questions or where I was just spacing out and really study those sections.

After personal study and lunch, we had a class with our district where we actually taught an investigator two on one. My teacher, Brother Coutu, was the investigator, but he modeled his answers off of the first person he taught in the mission field. We got a short bio about the investigator "John", and then Sister Woodcock and I had the opportunity to prepare a lesson. We taught about faith and prayer. The lesson went okay. Afterward, I felt myself being really harsh and mean towards myself. I kept thinking about what I could have done better and really beating myself down. At the time, I think it was all subconscious, but this morning while I was studying Adjusting to Missionary Life, I realized what I was doing and some feelings I had last night made a lot more sense. Last night, I really felt like there was a wall between me and my Heavenly Father. Like I had put up my steel umbrella, and I was so frustrated trying to figure out how to make that go away. I'm going to get a goal to stop negative self-talk as soon as it enters my brain, and I think that will help a lot.

There's probably more that I could say, but this email is already about a mile long. I just want to say that I love you all so so so much, and I miss you. I hope you're all doing well, and I can't wait to hear back from you :)

And sorry dad, I don't have any pictures yet. I'll make sure to be better about that this coming week!

Love you all so much!!!

Sister Carlson

Avery getting ready to go to the MTC Tuesday!

This Sunday Avery was set apart.  She has almost finished with the Book of Mormon again and is ready to go out and share the Gospel with everyone she meets in the Boise Idaho area.

Tuesday morning we take her to the airport to fly to SLC to visit with Grandma Joanie and her uncle Doug & Family.  Wednesday afternoon she enters the Missionary Training Center!

God speed Sister Carlson!