Final Days at the MTC!!

 

Hello everyone!!

Well, today's the day...my last pday here at the MTC!!  It completely blows my mind that I've already been here for basically six weeks.  We leave for the airport at 3:30 in the morning on Thursday, so that's going to be oodles of fun.  But even though I'm not necessarily looking forward to the 21 hours of flight time we have (plus layovers), I am super excited to get to the Philippines!!

Last week there were guys in the class building installing something in the hallway.  Well, come to find out, this plaque is from the Philippines and was brought back by a missionary.  He recently passed away, so his parents donated it to the MTC.  Isn't it so cool?

We had district inventory this past week, where we basically just went around and said our favorite things about each other.  It sound kind of sappy (and it was) but it was also really beautiful and touching.  It's so crazy how close we've grown in less than 6 weeks!!  It's kind of funny, because all the sisters in our district are completely opposite from their companions.  It's so cool to see how much we've all grown from that though!

So, this past week Sister Latham got to experience the joy of hearing me sing "And IIIIIIIIIIII will always love yoooooooouuuuuuu!!!!!"   By "joy" I mean she stood there looking in pain waiting for me to be done, and by "sing" I mean a sound that was somewhere in between a cat being kicked and a goat giving birth.  My family has experienced this joy many times, and has given up on telling me to be quiet.  They just sit there and endure until I'm done telling them how much I love them XD hahaha.  Well, I hope she at least felt the love, even if she didn't enjoy the music lol.

Every Tuesday there's a devotional in the evening, and the speaker this week was Quentin L Cook, of the Quorum of the Twelve.  It was so cool!!  He talked about how important missionaries and missionary work is, and it was really cool to be able to be here for that.

So we actually got to talk to real investigators this week!!  There are people walking around the MTC that have gold tags that means that they're investigators, and we ended up talking with a couple this past week and actually set an appointment with them for Thursday.  It went so well!!  And it is so much easier to teach in English.  We had to go to class, but we have another appointment with them this upcoming Monday, so I am so excited for that!!

Guess who got to host this week??  That's right, this sista right here!!  It was so much fun!  I only got one girl though...and I took her to the wrong building at least two different times.  Welllll, navigation has never been one of my talents.  At least she'll have something to remember, right?

I have learned the gift of tongues is very real.  And before you go getting all excited and saying "OMGoodness she's fluent!"  let me tell you, I'm not at all.  But God really wants me to teach the gospel I guess, because when we're teaching (aka role playing with our teachers) I can speak Tagalog well enough to bear my testimony and get the things across that I want to, with minimal Taglish.  And I know it's the gift of tongues, because I can barely speak Tagalog any other time.  It's frustrating to not be able to speak it decent all the time, but I love that I receive the help I need when I'm trying to teach with the Spirit.  It's really cool :)

We had a small in-field orientation with our branch president this past week about the Philippines and the things we'll need to do there, so that was really cool.  And we had the official in-field orientation yesterday.  It was basically all day, but it actually was super helpful and informative.  AND IT WAS IN ENGLISH!!!  (You learn to appreciate things like that)

Thanks to all those who have sent me packages and cards and letters!!  I've loved getting them (who doesn't?) and they've been super fun parts of my day.  I'm working on notes to send back before I head to the Philippines, so you'll be hearing back from me soon :)

The scripture of the week is Alma 7:13 "Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh."  Brother Egget told us in choir that Christ could have known what we went through just through the Spirit, and He didn't actually have to suffer to understand.  But He chose to come to earth and to experience the pains He did, in the flesh, so that He wouldn't just understand how we feel, He'd know how we feel.  Isn't that so powerful??\

The quote of the week comes from The Spoken Word last Sunday: "Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement...fail successfully."  Sometimes it feels like all we are doing is failing, but  if we can at least learn from our mistakes, we are failing successfully.

I love you all!!  XOXO

Sister Payton Pectol