Christmas in the MTC

Umm, this week has been amazing. We've been so blessed. On Sunday we were supposed to have this lesson as a district, but our District Leader forgot to prepare a lesson, so we just had a testimony meeting about the Atonement. It was just an incredible experience. I absolutely love my district. Their wonderful testimonies are all so powerful. Everyone has a different background. We are all so different, but we all come together around the Savior, and we can all strengthen each other in our testimonies. 

We had another testimony meeting on Monday, too, only with a couple other districts. Someone got up and bore their testimony, and mentioned that something I had said the day before touched them. It was a wonderful feeling, knowing that I had helped someone who already had such an incredible testimony to feel the Atonement just that little bit deeper. I love it!

Our investigators are doing pretty well. For our newer investigator Eduardo we decided to try singing, so Hermana Amendola sang How Great Thou Art in Spanish to him. It was pretty much amazing. I was definitely crying a lot!! He's still difficult, but I think he's coming closer. 

Jason has been pretty hesitant about the whole baptism thing. When we invited him to be baptized, he said yes, but wouldn't commit to a date. So in our next lesson (which was totally different from any other lesson we've had so far in that we had some lesson planned but a lot of it stemmed from answering questions he had/issues that came up with specific scriptures I had recently read in personal study time) when we asked him again to be baptized, he was even more hesitant. 

So then I was prompted to share Mosiah 18:8-12, and I had him read it, and as he read it, the Spirit was so strong, and after he finished, I asked him how he felt, and he said really good, and I asked him if he would be willing to be baptized, and with the biggest smile on his face, he said yes, and committed to being baptized on the 15th of January. We promised him we'd help him be ready for that, and that we knew God was so happy for him! It was just wonderful. ^_^

So we had this TRC thing on Friday. (Training Resource Center). Basically we just go and give lessons to members. It was definitely a learning day for me and my companion. Earlier that day I learned that I've been saying "God loves himself" instead of "God loves you." >_> So that was awkward. And my companion accidentally said that Jesus Christ was her son, instead of her brother, and that the Savior called twelve hungry apostles, instead of 12 men as apostles. 

But it was a really good experience. The people we talked to were both quite old, and both so sweet and kind. They weren't super strict about speaking Spanish either, so that put less pressure on us. I'm so proud of my companion. She's doing so well! She can contribute a LOT to the lesson without even using notes. :) She's basically the coolest ever.

I don't remember if I told you this before, but the other day we played Mario Kart. XD It was basically awesome. It was our P-day, and we were supposed to exercise, but we can't go into the main gym on our pday, so we decided to run laps around our dorm hallways... but that was boring so we played Mario Kart live and "threw banana peels" at each other, and got stars and ran super fast, and then when we got hit we would slow down and spin around a bit. It probably sounds lame but it was so funny. We were all laughing so hard it was quite difficult to run.

We're doing a "Secret Santa" thing in our district. Our District Leader calls it "Chris Kringle." I guess that's what they call secret santa in Australia. We'll be opening those later today!

So with DearElder, before you hit send, copy and paste the message somewhere else. Then if you don't get an email back immediately after you send it, paste your message back in and try again until you get an email saying it sent. :) That'd be awesome.

BTW, if my spelling is terrible, it's okay. I seriously cannot spell anymore. Spanish is corrupting me. :) But my Spanish is coming along, I think. I'm getting better at conversing and expressing what I want to say. The MTC is so weird. OH I saw that one Elder from our ward. I cannot for the life of me remember his name but I saw him on Wednesday. I also saw Elder Dean (Rachelle's brother). It was super fantastic.

The Christmas Devo this morning with Elder Nelson was fantastic. :) Basically, 3 Nephi 5:13 is going to be my new theme, and he told us to become bffs with the Ward Mission Leader and the Ward Family History Consultant. He said that we should have the WML FILL our schedules. (Love you Dad!!) :) He also thanked all the families of us, teh missionaries. :) So the Apostle thanked you for loving me. :)

Oh and last night we caroled around our dorm. :) It was super fun, but I definitely miss singing with you all!! (I'm definitely glad I've been trying to learn the alto part for a lot of these songs!)

I'm so glad to be out here. I love you all. I hope you are all doing well and loving each other and staying strong.

--Hermana Harris