Week 2: MTC

Dear Family and Friends,

Wow, I can't believe that I have almost been here for two weeks! I feel like I have known my district my whole life, but I also feel like these two weeks have flown by. 

Something I have noticed about the MTC is that there are moments of super spiritual high's and then a few moments of low low's. This week I had lots of awesome spiritual high's! The first happened when we committed our investigator, Sokhaa to baptism! The lesson before we commited him, we had planned on teaching about the Atonement, and using one of our Cambodian pamphlets on the Plan of Salvation to teach it, but I FORGOT TO BRING THE PAMPHLET! I was so mad at myself but Sister Uresk and I decided to just continue the lesson and teach everything we could without our pamphlet. It is hard because our investigator can't understand a lot of what we say, so if he reads the script from the pamphlet then he will understand the message a lot better. But we learned an important lesson because even though we didnt have the pamphlet, we did pray before for the spirit and the spirit conveyed our message to our investigator. We asked him how he felt knowing that Christ loved him enough to die for him and he shared an awesome testimony about the Savior. The spirit was SO strong. It is truly in those moments that we know we are doing the work of the Lord. There is no better feeling! 

After that lesson we knew that he was ready and we committed him to be baptized in the lesson the next day. We shared the scripture found in 2 Nephi 31:10-12 and asked him how we follow Christ. It say's that the way to follow Christ is by being baptized and he know that was what he needed to do. The baptismal commitment in cambodian is really hard to say/read, but I did my best and spoke slowly and after I was done inviting him, he said "khnom prom", which means "I promise" or "I will". It was a little surreal but both Sister Uresk and myself were SO happy and set the whole thing up! 

We also met our second teacher this week. His name is Lokruu (Brother) Oleson and he is half Korean. He has a different teaching style than Lokruu Hill, so it is nice to have a little mix of things. Our investigator (Sokhaa), also revealed himself as Lokruu Stephens. He will be our "tutor" while we are here, which basically means he will come in every once in a while and see how we are progressing. When he revealed himself, he shared how he felt about us teaching him. He said it all in English (He is actually an American that served his mission in Cambodia), and it was really cool to hear him tell us that even though he couldnt understand a lot of what we said, he knew that we loved God and that God loved him. 

On Tuesday night we had a devotional from Elder Evans, and he taught us that every child of God (so every person on this Earth), is found somewhere in our purpose. We are all somewhere between faith and enduring to the end, and the Missionary Purpose is not just for us, it is for everyone. Our purpose, to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end is actually the Doctrine of Christ and is what our gospel is. Every member should have this memorized because it is what we believe! 

Saturday night was a little bit hard. I missed home a lot and was questioning my decision to serve a mission. I woke up on Sunday and was determined to be positive and feel the spirit. Many things said that day brought the spirit, but it wasnt until about 8:30 PM, while my companion and I were watching The Testaments, that I felt the spirit tell me that this is where I need to be and that the Lord has not forgotten about me. It is in the hard times that I remember those moments and remember that God wants me here, not at home, and not anywhere else. I have learned how to really pray sincerely while being here. We pray at least 10 times a day and every time I feel the Savior near as we do. The MTC truly is a dedicated place. 

I love you all so much! Write me:)

Love, Sister Lindley

WEEK 1 at the MTC!

Cumreabsua! (pronounced, jumreebsua)

That means hello! Wow, I cant believe I have already been at the MTC since Wednesday! Time is really weird in the MTC because each day is really long, but when you look back it is really fast! After the family dropped me off, my host missionary took me up to get my name tag and ID card. My companion, Sister Uresk was actually getting her name tag at the exact same time and so it was then that we found out we were companions! We dropped our bags off in our room and zipped on over to our classroom to get started. When we walk in, we realize very quickly, that the teacher is only speaking to us in Cambodian!!!! It has been like that since day one. It actually makes things very interesting because we have to play "the guessing game" of guess what Lekru (teacher) Hill is trying to say. On day two, he was trying to tell us to take a two minute break to get dinner but we totally thought he was telling us we had two minutes to go eat dinner and we were all very confused. He isnt supposed to speak any English so it took us about 10 minutes to figure out that we were just supposed to take a break and by that time, it was basically time for dinner anyway! 

The first night at the MTC we do a group teaching thing with all the new missionaries. And it is in ENGLISH (you have no idea how nice that is). About 40 missionaries taught 1 investigator so it was kind of a disaster because one person was trying to teach one thing and then another wanted to get their two cents in... but by our 3rd investigator, we figured out that we need to listen to the people and teach based off their needs. The whole point of the exercise was to help us understand that we really need to love the people we are teaching, and we need to teach to their needs. It was a cool experience and the investigators all had some crazy life stories. One of them, George, only had one leg! Another one, Kya, was from Russia and had a very thick accent! Anyway, it was a good way to get right into the missionary mode. 

(Mom, also that first day we had an MTC orientation with the presidency and Sister Nally had me stand up. It was sweet of her to remember me.)

The second day was when we really jumped into the language. We learned how to testify and pray that day! We also learned about our investigator, Sokhaa, that we would be teaching the next morning. My companion and I decided that we would teach him about who God is, and how the gospel blesses families because his family is important to him. We also met our branch presidency that day. Our president is President Jackson from Provo and his counselors are Brother Callister (not really related to Elder Callister), and I cant really remember the other guys name... but his wife is from Perth, Australia where he served his mission. Dad, he knows the Rancys from Melbourne! 

So day three is when we taught our investigator. The lesson was going great until he asked us a question!! Haha. We invited him to church and he asked us where is was at. We had no idea how to reply so we whipped out our handy dandy "purple bibles" (Cambodian missionary dictionaries), and told him is was down the street by the square...haha. We didnt know what else to say, but he said okay and that he would go! It was funny. When we bore our testimonies though, the spirit was actually super strong because we didnt have to look down at our notes. It was perfect! The next day we taught him about the Restoration and Book of Mormon and invited him to read the title page and introduction by Monday (our next lesson), and he said that he would! Basically he is golden. He didnt really understand prayer, so we are teaching him about that tonight! We role played a ton so hopefully it all goes well and the spirit can speak to him!

Anyway, there is only so much I can say and I want to tell you all about Sunday! Everyone says to just make it to Sunday and you will be good and oh my gosh that is SO true!!! Sunday was amazing!!!!!! We started off the morning with an amazing speaker for relief society!! (not as good as you though Mom ;). Her name is Mary Ellen Edmunds and everything she said was an answer to my prayers. One thing was when she said "God placed us here to succeed. No one was fore-ordained to fail." I needed to hear that because man, this language is tricky! After that, we had a beautiful Sacrament meeting on the Book of Mormon and how that is our best friend and the best missionary. The book of Mormon combined with the Spirit is our greatest tool to conversion. Later that night we had our Sunday devotional and film time. We went to the big room to sit down for devotional, but were surprised when they said we would all be watching the Character of Christ by Elder Bednar instead. That talk is amazing and you all should study it!!!! Christ's character is to turn outward, when the natural man would turn in. I am trying to be better at that as I focus less on myself and more on my companion and the other missionaries in my district. It was actually funny because all day Sunday I was complaining to my companion about how my hair was bugging me and when we heard the talk we both just laughed a little because I was being so concerned about something so silly! So the movie finished and we were getting ready to go to watch another film... when IN WALKS ELDER BEDNAR HIMSELF!!! The spirit was SO strong when he walked in!!! He conducted a question answer session with us and some of my own questions were answered, even though I didnt even ask one. We received answers about how to better love our people we are about to go serve, how to stay strong after the mission, women and the priesthood, etc. We were all on cloud nine as we went to bed that night.

Today was Pday and we were able to attend the temple and then go the art exhibit by Carl Bloch at BYU. While we were there, we ran into Elder Callister!!!! His wife looked at my name tag and said, WE LOVE YOUR PARENTS! Tell them we say hello! And then Elder Callister said, oh your Dad is in charge of that essential oil company! Haha. They remembered you guys and said to send their love. 

So here are just a few facts about my district/companion! My companion is Sister Uresk from Kaysville, UT. She is 19 and awesome!! We get along really well and actually have very similar personalities. We both love working out so we try and get a good work out in every morning. We share a room with two other sisters also going to our mission, Sister Christiansen and Sister Syndergaurd. They are both way into music and are a perfect companionship! They are actually really hilarious. We also have a trio of sisters in our district as well. We are all from Utah, except one sister. Now onto the Elders. We have four companionships of Elders in our district. They are all really great and we all seem to get along well!

Well, I think that's enough for this week :)

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!

Love, Sister Lindley 

P.S. I took a bunch of pictures but we dont know how to attach them... So I will work on that!

And She's Off

This is Haley's sister Megan here. I will be updating this blog with her letters and pictures as she sends them throughout her 18 month mission. 

Haley was set apart as a full time missionary in my parents home on Tuesday evening at 8:00 pm. We had all the family and a few friends in attendance. President Brady set her apart and Bishop Loveless, our dad, grandpa, Chris, and Matt stood in the circle. She received a beautiful blessing that promised lots of fulfillment and joy as she serves with her whole heart on her mission. 

It was so great to have all six of us sisters together for the last time for a little while. I know Haley was really grateful to have our oldest sister Erica in town from Texas. 

And then on Wednesday it was time to say goodbye. We had a relaxing lunch at the country club that went by way too fast and then it was time to drop Haley off at the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo. 

We took some pictures across the street from the MTC at the Provo temple.

And then my parents dropped her off and us sisters stood at the curb to wave a final goodbye as she entered the MTC. 

Haley will be in the MTC for 2 months as she learns the Cambodian language and then is anticipated to leave to Cambodia mid-July. 

We already miss her tremendously but know this will be an amazing time in her life.

Called to Serve

Hi everyone, Haley Lindley here. On Christmas Eve I received a call to serve as a missionary for The Chuch of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission. I am so excited to share what I know is true! To learn more about what I believe you can visit www.mormon.org.

While I am away, my sister Megan will be posting the emails I send home about all my crazy adventures! 

Farewell for now, and I will see you all in eighteen months!