December 7, 2012
WEEK THREE!
That means I´´m a third of the way through! This week was full of more
changes. Hermana Chung and I got another companion. Her name is
Hermana Batista. She´´s from New York slash Provo but is Dominican. So she is
a native speaker and is just waiting for her visa to arrive. She's in another
class as a solo sister so we mainly just give her rides. She is awesome. Our
first day with her we ran into H. Chung's old district president and we were
telling him about H. Batista and I said "She's going to teach us Spanish!" to
which he asked her "De donde es?" H.B must have been distracted though because
she just starred at him and then finally said "What??" It was so funny to me.
We also had to move rooms again, but it has actually been a pretty good change.
Being in the new district has been very interesting. Thank you so much to
everyone who prayed and sent blessings my way because I was super blessed to not
be super sad about leaving my old district after Friday. I like my new district
a lot, even if it has been really hard to get used to. Everyday I make great
strides in getting to know and love them, and it has been fun. Yesterday was
really rough for some reason, but we just had so much fun after class playing a
game called "Pela Papa" and we all just bonded so much that I went to bed so
happy.
Sorry if my email doesn't make tons of sense after this point- a bunhc of
misionaries just came in for TALL time (or as my district calls it- the worst
time of the day). I love it though- it's a computer program probably a lot like
Rosetta Stone.
The Lord has really been looking out for me this week. I have felt the
effects of prayers that were said for me. Also, even though it's silly, at the
beginning in this area, gym time was rough because no one could play volleyball,
but our new Elders in our zone are super good and so it has been really fun
recently. I know that sounds silly, but it was Such a tender mercy. Sometimes
studying all day is so tiring, and gym time is the time to just not have to
think about spanish and how I can teach better. Speaking of teaching, H. Chung
and I have been blessed to be able to click during lessons and teach with a good
amount of unity. I know we are just teaching our teachers who are pretending to
be investiagors, but it's so cool when you forget that and your heart just
explodes with love for them. Teaching has been hard, especially in spanish, but
I am so grateful for this time at the MTC to really get the feel of it.
Kate, get ready to get super excited. :) Every Sunday we have a fireside
and then we have the chance to go to a talk or watch a movie afterwards. The
talks are especially sweet because they aren't shown outside the MTC since this
is where they were given. On Sunday we all went to Elder Bednar's talk:
Receiving Personal Revelation and it changed my life! I've heard Kate talk
about it a whole bunch, but actually hearing Elder Bednar talk about this
subject was incredible. He addresses the question: How can we know if a thought
is from ourselves or the spirit. He said:
1. Be a good girl/ Be a good boy
2. Keep your covenants
3. Keep the commandements
4. Quit worrying about it!
That was super helpful but his examples were really what did it for me.
For example, remember the story of Elder Packer and the 20 mark note in Germany?
How Elder Bednar as a missionary handed him that 20 mark note on a whim pretty
much and it ended up saving the Packers from a really seriously bad situation?
Did you know that Elder Bednar didn't know that story until 20 years later?? In
fact, to this day, he still does not remember that story happening. He says
that he probably gave it to them because he thought they might get hungry.
That, along with a couple other examples, really showed me that the Lord is
bound to guide our steps if we are following him. The spirit does not have to
knock us on the head to get our attention. Just little course corrections. But
those course corrections can change lives. If you can find that talk online or
even quotes from it, read it, because it will garauntee help everyone. It has
changed how I have lived even in the last week.
We still eat a lot here, but for some reason, I am starving a half hour
before every meal. Fast Sunday was rough. Mostly because my old districts
schedule must have been the ideal one the scheduling office made and my new one
got the leftovers. So their dinner was at 4:30 and ours was at 5:45! But it
really didn't end up being that bad- especialyl since we had like no free time
so we were always busy. Church here is great. (Dad- there's really only 2
hours of it! Unless you count district meeting, but that's usually fun and
super instructive). Probably the only place on Earth where the attendance is
100% every single week. ;)
Spanish is okay. I'm definitely not behind in my district, but I feel like
I'm a kid when I teach. That must be how our spirit feels sometimes. Our
body's are only so strong, but our spirit yearns to fulfill and do so much more
if our body could only keep up. That's how spanish is. I yearn to share my
testimony from my heart, and words just never seem enough. But the Lord has
blessed me to convey at least a little of what I know.
The Lord is so great. I love being here. At times it's hard, but I love
the idea that the MTC is like the spirit world- when we were preparing to come
down to this earth. I want to know everyone before I leave, and so I absolutely
love Personal Study time every day. I have been so blessed.
Thanks to everyone for the letters. I LOVE them. Thanks especially to
Jeanelle, Marcia, Mark, Jonathan, Kate, Kaitlan, Kaity, and my family for your
letters. I am so blessed to get those letters. It makes me so giddy when I see
the DearElder papers on my desk.
I'm praying for you all- and you should know- Sister Missionary prayers
count double! (thanks Kaitlan ;))
LOVE,
H. Catron
That means I´´m a third of the way through! This week was full of more
changes. Hermana Chung and I got another companion. Her name is
Hermana Batista. She´´s from New York slash Provo but is Dominican. So she is
a native speaker and is just waiting for her visa to arrive. She's in another
class as a solo sister so we mainly just give her rides. She is awesome. Our
first day with her we ran into H. Chung's old district president and we were
telling him about H. Batista and I said "She's going to teach us Spanish!" to
which he asked her "De donde es?" H.B must have been distracted though because
she just starred at him and then finally said "What??" It was so funny to me.
We also had to move rooms again, but it has actually been a pretty good change.
Being in the new district has been very interesting. Thank you so much to
everyone who prayed and sent blessings my way because I was super blessed to not
be super sad about leaving my old district after Friday. I like my new district
a lot, even if it has been really hard to get used to. Everyday I make great
strides in getting to know and love them, and it has been fun. Yesterday was
really rough for some reason, but we just had so much fun after class playing a
game called "Pela Papa" and we all just bonded so much that I went to bed so
happy.
Sorry if my email doesn't make tons of sense after this point- a bunhc of
misionaries just came in for TALL time (or as my district calls it- the worst
time of the day). I love it though- it's a computer program probably a lot like
Rosetta Stone.
The Lord has really been looking out for me this week. I have felt the
effects of prayers that were said for me. Also, even though it's silly, at the
beginning in this area, gym time was rough because no one could play volleyball,
but our new Elders in our zone are super good and so it has been really fun
recently. I know that sounds silly, but it was Such a tender mercy. Sometimes
studying all day is so tiring, and gym time is the time to just not have to
think about spanish and how I can teach better. Speaking of teaching, H. Chung
and I have been blessed to be able to click during lessons and teach with a good
amount of unity. I know we are just teaching our teachers who are pretending to
be investiagors, but it's so cool when you forget that and your heart just
explodes with love for them. Teaching has been hard, especially in spanish, but
I am so grateful for this time at the MTC to really get the feel of it.
Kate, get ready to get super excited. :) Every Sunday we have a fireside
and then we have the chance to go to a talk or watch a movie afterwards. The
talks are especially sweet because they aren't shown outside the MTC since this
is where they were given. On Sunday we all went to Elder Bednar's talk:
Receiving Personal Revelation and it changed my life! I've heard Kate talk
about it a whole bunch, but actually hearing Elder Bednar talk about this
subject was incredible. He addresses the question: How can we know if a thought
is from ourselves or the spirit. He said:
1. Be a good girl/ Be a good boy
2. Keep your covenants
3. Keep the commandements
4. Quit worrying about it!
That was super helpful but his examples were really what did it for me.
For example, remember the story of Elder Packer and the 20 mark note in Germany?
How Elder Bednar as a missionary handed him that 20 mark note on a whim pretty
much and it ended up saving the Packers from a really seriously bad situation?
Did you know that Elder Bednar didn't know that story until 20 years later?? In
fact, to this day, he still does not remember that story happening. He says
that he probably gave it to them because he thought they might get hungry.
That, along with a couple other examples, really showed me that the Lord is
bound to guide our steps if we are following him. The spirit does not have to
knock us on the head to get our attention. Just little course corrections. But
those course corrections can change lives. If you can find that talk online or
even quotes from it, read it, because it will garauntee help everyone. It has
changed how I have lived even in the last week.
We still eat a lot here, but for some reason, I am starving a half hour
before every meal. Fast Sunday was rough. Mostly because my old districts
schedule must have been the ideal one the scheduling office made and my new one
got the leftovers. So their dinner was at 4:30 and ours was at 5:45! But it
really didn't end up being that bad- especialyl since we had like no free time
so we were always busy. Church here is great. (Dad- there's really only 2
hours of it! Unless you count district meeting, but that's usually fun and
super instructive). Probably the only place on Earth where the attendance is
100% every single week. ;)
Spanish is okay. I'm definitely not behind in my district, but I feel like
I'm a kid when I teach. That must be how our spirit feels sometimes. Our
body's are only so strong, but our spirit yearns to fulfill and do so much more
if our body could only keep up. That's how spanish is. I yearn to share my
testimony from my heart, and words just never seem enough. But the Lord has
blessed me to convey at least a little of what I know.
The Lord is so great. I love being here. At times it's hard, but I love
the idea that the MTC is like the spirit world- when we were preparing to come
down to this earth. I want to know everyone before I leave, and so I absolutely
love Personal Study time every day. I have been so blessed.
Thanks to everyone for the letters. I LOVE them. Thanks especially to
Jeanelle, Marcia, Mark, Jonathan, Kate, Kaitlan, Kaity, and my family for your
letters. I am so blessed to get those letters. It makes me so giddy when I see
the DearElder papers on my desk.
I'm praying for you all- and you should know- Sister Missionary prayers
count double! (thanks Kaitlan ;))
LOVE,
H. Catron