This week was incredible. Of course there are hard days, but one of the very first things a missionary has to learn to be successful (especially at the MTC) is to get to work and focus on the good moments! If you only focus on the bad, life is hard, the mission sucks and you don't get anything good out of it! I've seen that in a lot of missionaries here. They just don't appreciate that this will only be for 18 months! Speaking of the crazy missionaries, this week was the wave of boys just out of high school! They're all so little! And some of them are obnoxious! Haha, but we love them! ......
Our devotional this week was SO GOOD! I'm finding out more and more that this is the best time to be in the MTC. We've had two apostles come and speak to us and this week it was Elder M. Russell Ballard. He talked to us about how noisy the world is, and how right now we're blocked from a lot of that noise, but we won't be for long. He talked about not being ashamed of the gospel of Christ, and following the prophet. It was so powerful hearing the testimony of Elder Ballard that the apostles CAN NOT lead us astray. Wow. Poderoso! And rumor ison Sunday, we'll have a member of the First Presidency here!!! AHHH!!!!
Speaking of Spanish, it's coming along really well! Puedo entender mas de antes mi mission! I understand now why missionaries think they're so good at their language here at the MTC, then realize what it's really like out in the field! Our teachers talk to us so slowly! But it's all good!
One amazing experience we had this week was getting a "lecture" from Hermano Toone. (Who'da thought I'd ever call a lecture amazing, right???) Our teacher is the "boss" of a lot of other teachers, so he has a lot of people observing him. With that comes the expectation from all of the other teachers that our district must be the best. So when we're not the best, they send emails, notes, and texts telling Hermano Toone exactly what we're doing wrong. One said that we were playing tic tac toe noisily. The other said we were singing inappropriate songs (Bee Gee's!) And Hermano Toone goes, "I don't tell you this to make you feel ashamed. I honestly couldn't care less what you do, and I hate that I get all these emails and such telling me what they think is terrible. I love you guys and just want to show you how many people are watching you." He said more, but that was the effect. I learned that day that people will want to change 1 million times more than an angry yell or dissapointed look. I think that was the most Christ like demonstration I saw this week!
And because we need a funny story, this week my companion and I were teaching a lesson to our investigator and I had just finished "God is our loving Heavenly Father" and my companion goes right into Joseph Smith. We had about 5 other topics to talk about before we got there, so I kind of shook my head and went along with it. We backtracked a little, but eventually made it out alive. But later, we were talking to our investigator and he just started laughing. Apparently I didn't hide my shock well, and I had the strangest look on my face! Goal for mission: Control my facial expressions!
Sorry if I'm all over the place right now! I just have so much in my head I want to tell you guys! Thanks for all of your support and love though! It means the world to me! I'm so grateful for this opportunity to be serving the Lord! If it wasn't hard, it wouldn't be worth it!
You guys are amazing!
Have a great week!
Love, Hermana Hoffman
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