MTC Day 40

It has been nothing short of a very eventful week. Within the last week, the older districts of Mandarin-speaking missionaries left, I got a third companion added to my companionship (yes, gasp of surprise and, fortunately, joy), and the MTC became the site of intense mission president training.

The older missionaries leaving was sad, because I won't see most of them again. A lot are going to my mission in Taiwan, but plenty were not. Their leaving is also a clue that this week we will get new missionaries. Our zone will get two new districts of missionaries added to the two we currently have (a zone is the next organizational unit up from a district). We will get a new companionship of sisters, who will almost certainly room with us. We're pretty much all really excited to have new missionaries, and trying to think of ways to help them have a good transition to MTC life.

My new companion is Sister Son, from South Korea. Her Mandarin is already very good, as is her English. She is only going to be with us until July 16th, when she will leave for her mission at the Oakland, CA temple visitors' center. She has a really amazing story, which involves actually being baptized in China, where she was studying Chinese (so rare, because there are no missionaries there; the only people who can be baptized in China are foreigners living there). That was three years ago. She subsequently moved back to Korea, where she lived with her mother and brother. After having her visa application turned down three times, she is finally here. She is absolutely amazing, but insecure in her English and in her Gospel knowledge (familiarity with the scriptures, teaching abilities, etc.). Honestly when she teaches and shares her experiences, the feeling of the Holy Ghost is almost tangible. God teaches us truth through the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost can speak to our mind and heart in a variety of ways, including distinct thoughts, feelings of peace and joy, etc. [For anyone unfamiliar with the term "Holy Ghost", you can ask Emily's mom or look it up on lds.org if you want to understand better.] When we teach, our primary goal is to invite the Holy Ghost through our sincerity, preparation, and prayers. The idea is that we present information, but the Holy Ghost is what can actually help people recognize and understand spiritual truth, so if the Holy Ghost is not with us, the teaching will be ineffective. I love Sister Son. Learning to teach with three people, helping her catch up on lesson preparation and teaching skills, and trying to cultivate a triangular (maybe a pyramid, if you include God) companionship relationship is a bit tricky, but it teaches me a lot. I think something I've learned more recently than ever before is that when the Lord asks us to do something, he gives us extra blessings so that we'll be strong enough to do whatever it is. That's why commandments from God are blessings, because as we do our part in following them, the Lord makes us better than we could have been otherwise. That's what I think, anyway.

Oh, right, mission presidents' seminar. Basically, every mission in the world has a mission president. This man and his family live in the mission. He interviews missionaries, coordinates their training and placement, etc. This calling lasts for three years, so every year a third of the mission presidents in the world get replaced. When new mission presidents get called, they are trained for about a week by church leaders (the Twelve Apostles and First Presidency). That is this week. As you might imagine, security measures go way up, our space gets cut down a bit to make room, and staff are running around madly organizing. This afternoon, a mission president and his wife came to observe our district teaching, and to give us feedback. My companions and I taught a companionship of elders in my district as the mission president's wife observed. It was a little nerve-wracking, but over all a really great experience. We taught the elders as themselves (meaning they didn't pretend to be non-LDS church members investigating the church). We really only taught two out of the seven or so principles in the first lesson, but the Holy Ghost was very much present. The sister told us that she had felt the Spirit (another name for the Holy Ghost) more strongly then than she had since they arrived. We're not having spirituality contests, but I felt very grateful for her comment, because it indicated that we had achieved our main objective.

Well, I think that's the main news. I hope you're all well and happy!

Love,
Sister Andersen