Hello!
This week has been
great! I have seen miracles and my faith has grown!
On Tuesday, I went
to the temple and then to choir practice. We sang "Be Still My
Soul" and it sounded angelic. I am so blessed to be able to sing in
the choir each week! The devotional speaker was Elder Dube from South
Africa. He spoke and the Spirit was strong! I took from it that I
am so blessed to be one of the 75,000 missionaries in the world! This is
such a unique opportunity, and I need to enjoy every moment!
Wednesday was a good
day! I had class and played volleyball and had class and ate and had class.....it's
a great life. Our teacher challenged us to learn Joseph Smith's First
Vision in Mongolian. It's about 2 verses long, and I have been working on
it! He challenged us to have it memorized in 7 days! It was a leap
of faith to commit because it is long and challenging, but I know I can do
it! If I have learned nothing else while being at the MTC, I've learned
that without God's help I can do NOTHING, but with His help, I can do anything!
Thursday was
great! It started with service, which happened to be sweeping and mopping
bathrooms again! Only this time, Sister Hansen and I were much more
efficient, and we finished with enough time to vacuum the entrance!
Then, we got changed super fast and headed over to the main building.
Sister Hansen and I decided to audition to sing a special musical number at a
devotional. So we auditioned, and it happened to be in a conference room
with only us and the three wives of the MTC presidency. They are kind of
like celebrities here, so it was pretty exciting. The audition went well,
so I'll keep you posted and let you know if I end up singing at a
devotional! After the audition, we had class as usual. I scored 2
points in volleyball! I'm pretty excited about it. :)
On Friday, we had to
plan 5 lessons in 2 hours. But it went well, and luckily I have some
outlines from previous lessons to draw from. We taught 2 lessons that
went really well. We are teaching another companionship in our class, and
sometimes it's hard not to laugh. I mean, we don't really speak
Mongolian, and neither do they, so when we are sharing something and they don't
understand, we just basically try not to laugh. There's a teacher in the
room watching, so it would be bad to laugh. We hold it in until we leave.
hahahaha
Saturday was awesome
because I got packages! And I LOVED them! Thank you!!! We
also taught TRC and it went really well! I usually teach other returned
missionaries who served in Mongolia, and if we're lucky, they share a personal
experience from Mongolia at the end! :)
Valentines day was
packed with LOVE! I opened cards from my family and Sister Hansen and I
performed our song in Sacrament Meeting. We skipped the temple walk
because the weather was bad and we weren't feeling great, but we watched Mormon
Messages, which inspire me and make me feel so happy! Choir was amazing,
as usual, and we started singing Nearer My God To Thee, and learned the story
of Jacob and Esau and Jacob's ladder. It never clicked that the song is
basically that story! Look it up in Genesis if you get the chance!
And then look up the song (with all the verses) and you'll feel uplifted!
The devotional speaker brought his son and sidekick, Russell, who is probably
about 12. He has Down Syndrome, and he's super cute! He got up and
shared his testimony, which was so pure. It went like this, "I know
Christ lives. I know missionaries are important because they help
me. I'm grateful that my dad gets to travel to your missions for his job
because he brings back gifts for me. I know the church is true."
I was so happy! The speaker, his dad, did a great job, and he
brought up two missionaries from the congregation to share their stories about
converting to the LDS church. It was really amazing to see how the Gospel
of Jesus Christ changed their lives.
Yesterday was
miraculous because I woke up with a cold coming on. I felt like I just
needed to sleep it off. But I tried my hardest to work through it, and
after prayers and some medicine, and a quick nap during gym time, I seriously
felt like a new person! I had no more symptoms of a cold, and I was able
to go through the rest of the day feeling normal! Miracles happen, and I
know that God is watching out for me! I also taught a lesson last night
overs Skype. We are going to start Skyping to teach people in
Mongolia! The person we taught wasn't in Mongolia because there weren't
enough people who signed up, but the lesson was great, despite technical
difficulties. I'm just so excited to be a part of this great work!
I'm learning so much!
Other than that,
things are great! The language is coming line upon line. I have the
first vision almost completely memorized! We are doing a test tomorrow.
Our teacher will take us in the hallway, one by one, and we will recite
it! I have about 5 words left to memorize. After that I just need
to solidify my fluency of saying it. See? Miracles really do
happen! They happen every single day!
I hope everyone is
doing well! I love you all!!
Sister Bottorff
Sister Bottorff and the Temple.
Sister Bottorff and Sister Hansen at the Temple.
"I found a smiley face in the scriptures! :) Scriptures make me happy! :)
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