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!
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