What I mean by my subject is that everyone here says the time goes by super slow until the first Sunday and then after that ITS SUPER FAST! It’s so true. I promise the emails won’t be this long every week. Just the first one haha. THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR EMAILS AND LETTERS! THEY MAKE MY DAY!!! I can’t respond to them until Tuesdays (my preparation day) but I am just grateful to have people praying for me, so thank you! Before I start I gotta talk about my district (the people I have class with!) they are amazing. There are 8 elders (the guys in my group) and three other sisters (the girls in my group). They are going to either Hawaii, Colorado Springs or Canada. Oh and then there is me haha. Yeah I’m the only one at the entire MTC going to Zambia, but that's okay! I know I am here for a reason. MY companion is sister Schirle! she is from Utah. Literally the sweetest girl ever. She teaches me so much about loving people. Okay so I just want to share some of the most powerful experiences I've had during my first week here at the MTC! The funnier ones are at the bottom the best ones are in the middle!
Wednesday I said goodbye to my family It was by far the hardest thing... but I was told before I left that everyday I would be reminded of why I am here, AND God has definitely done that every day. We had a big fireside when we got there and the most amazing part was when all the new missionaries sang "We’ll Bring the World His Truth Truth" but instead of saying in the song "we will be the lords missionaries" we sang "we are now the Lords missionaries" and it was just so cool to realize that this is actually happening. I'm a missionary!!!
Thursday we started teaching our first investigator named Tyler. So what is an investigator? It means that our teacher Brother Berryman pretends to be the person we are teaching. He goes into full character though. We are given a bio of the investigator and then plan with our companion about what we feel that Tyler or the investigator needs. We pray before we do this to ask God what Tyler needs because God knows him way more than we do!!! Me and my companion sister Schilre taught the lesson and to be honest... it was so hard. we didn’t do very well. We were devastated after and the elders in our district were trying to gives us advice and it wasn’t helping. But we moved on and it got better because....
Friday we taught Tyler again and this time it was amazing. I could tell that The Spirit was in the room and that Tyler could feel at least a part of Gods love for him. The elders I guess were listening the whole time and after they said that it was amazing!!! Definitely an answer to prayer. Me and companion learned this entire week that when we have bad times and hard moments God always finds a way to lift our spirits up and remind us that we aren’t prefect but we are trying! We had classes focused on people and my purpose that day too. We basically learned about how as missionaries we have to truly LOVE the people we teach and try to see them as Christ sees them. We also talked about how the reason we are all here is because our purpose is to bring people to Christ! I love the MTC so much!!!! Every class and every teacher is just amazing. And learning about how to be a better missionary just makes me even more excited to go out and meet the people in Zambia and Malawi!
Saturday was General Conference where we get to hear from the apostles of the church (It happens twice a year). It was amazing to be in a room full of missionaries watching conference. And conference has never meant so much to me before then it did this week. Every talk seemed to tell me how I could be a better missionary. My favorite talk was Elders Zwick when he talked about looking at people how God sees them and how sometimes the natural man judges too quickly. It made me think how the people I meet in Zambia will be very different but if I just focus on loving them the way god does then i will be able to help them the best I can. Our little quadpanionship is amazing too. That night we were really tired and we had noticed some of the elders in our district were struggling so we decided to stop in a random classroom and say a prayer. We prayed that the elders would be comforted and that we would be able to know how to help the other sisters in our zone that are struggling. Later on that night we had a testimony meeting were we shared our thoughts and every one in our zone got to talk about what they learned. Most of the elders testified that they were really struggling and found peace in the messages and realized that this is a hard thing that we all choose to do but that God sent us here for a reason. They all bore strong testimony of their Savior and I was so impressed and humbled by the ability they have to overcome trials. I bore my testimony about how grateful I am for a loving Heavenly father who has a plan for me. I wouldn’t want anyone else planning and guiding me. He called me to serve for a reason and I know that he will help me do this.
Sunday we watched conference again and then for lunch we had the famous chicken cordon bleu!!!! I guess its famous here and wow it was good, AND THEN THERE WAS ICE CREAM TOO THAT WAS THE SAME KIND I ATE AT BYU!!!! Ah, that was by far the best meal we have had...the other ones are more like cafeteria food haha. The bagels are good though! oh and the cantaloupe for some reason is really good too in case anyone was wondering lol. Sunday night we watched a devotional called "Character of Christ" by Elder Bednar. It completely changed my outlook about serving a mission. He talked about how we must turn outward as Christ did. We have to overcome the natural man and instead of thinking about how upset we are about things or how sad or mad we are personally we must turn to others and help them. In turn, we can become more like the Savior and help others feel his love. It takes a whole lifetime to do this though. But God is willing to help us. we just have to ask! My testimony of prayer has grown tremendously. We pray over everything at the MTC.. . food, blessings, classes, tender mercies, bad feelings and honestly, I can totally feel a difference. It shows God that we are humble people and we can’t do it without him!
Monday we taught our first investigator that wasn’t our teacher! They are still members of the church playing nonmembers but their acting is incredible. We get little bios about them again and pray to know and be inspired on what to teach. We plan and study and then go in with a hope that the Spirit of God will fill in our holes. Our first lesson was with Linda. Me and my companion ended up not sticking with our plan and so it didn’t go very well. We took our mistakes and determined to plan better for the next one. That afternoon we taught Haley. I got to recite the first vison from memory and it was such a powerful experience. After the lesson me and Sister Schirle really felt that Haley was ready to commit to baptism and she said yes! She said she wanted to but wanted time to learn more. That is the best answer ever! we told her of course and we have another appointment with her to teach her more about the plan of happiness (basically where we came from, why families are important and what are purpose here on earth is!) We are so excited to know that through our teaching we are helping others realize who their Heavenly Father is and that God loves them!
The other day our entire district was coming back from class and we got in the elevator and one elder made a joke about pulling the doors open so he started to and then the ELEVATOR STOPPED. WE WERE ALL FREAKING OUT!!! We were in there for a good two minutes that felt like forever and then it opened. Then we all could not stop laughing because I guess my face in the elevator was just hilarious because I was just so scared. I WAS SCARED! But it was a good bonding moment lol.
A common phrase in our room (which has my companion and the two other sisters) is the phrase "look good play good." We live by that and we definitely are some pretty cute sister missionaries I’d say! every morning me and the sisters put on nice clothes go to the mirror in our hallway and take a mirror pic. Its the little things haha.
The exercise time we have gotten has been the best! they have an indoor track and a volleyball court!
THE BEST MOMENT WAS THE OTEHR DAY WHEN MY FLAG FINALLY APPEARED IN THE COURTYARD!!! the Zambian flag!!! The elders thought I was crazy because of how excited I got to finally see it up. BUT IT JUST MADE ME SO HAPPY! Seriously the little things haha.
If you made it this far then great! I just want you all to know that I am so excited to be a part of this work. This is God’s church and I know that this is an opportunity for me to bring it to people in Africa! Jesus Christ is our Savior and the more we become like him, learn like him and trust in him the better the person we are and the happier we will be.
Anyways I hope you all have a great week!
with lots and lots of love,
Sister Harper Moulton
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