Its P-day again!

This morning my companionship got up at 5 so we could go do laundry before heading to the temple. It was more painful than I anticipated. We went to sleep at 10:30, but 5 came waaaay too soon. So pretty much at 5 I just threw on a sweatshirt and ran down to the laundry room. My companions and I have a unspoken rule where we just don't talk to each other in the morning because we don't want to say anything that we regret... plus after scripture study we are a lot happier anyway. So picture 3 sister missionaries in pjs and sweatshirts looking like they just died trying to find a washing machine for their clothes. I think an Elder saw me and felt bad because he said "Sister there is a washing machine over here." Haha I must have looked like a lost little puppy or something. haha Anyway we got our laundry done and headed over to the temple at 7. The temple as always is a wonderful experience. :)

After the temple we went back to our room and crashed. It was the most glorious nap I have ever experienced! I was out for a good 2 hours before I even realized anything had happened. :) Eu amo P-day! I love it.

Side note: My favorite thing to say in Portuguese is "muito legal" It means "very cool" My companions and I say it for practically everything. It is a lot more fun than it should be. :P

This week has been quite awesome actually. Our district just gets better and better everyday. I am sending a picture of them so you can see them all finally. There is Elder Crapo, Elder Wyatt (from ellensburg he knows meg and brittany) Elder Sewell, Elder Perez, Elder Stilson (yes he is 6ft 8inches) Elder Nielson, Elder Park, Elder Bybee, and Elder Miller. Then the other two sisters, Sister Peterson and Sister Parks. The more I think about someone getting their visa the more I get a little sad! I don't want to lose anyone, but I want them to get Visas ya know!? Everyone says the only people who have gotten Visas have been from Washington so I have a chance... but I don't really know what to expect. haha

This week we started a new investigator thing were we have 2 investigators and we have figure out what they need and focus our lessons in a way to help them personally. This would be super easy if I were fluent in Portuguese.... but ya.. I am not. hah In our first lesson we knocked on the door, introduced ourselves and asked if we could come in. Laura let us in, but said she really didn't have very much time so we would have to hurry. We then proceeded to teach her the Restoration. The begining was a little shakey but once we hit the part with Joseph Smith and the first vision the Spirit was so strong I was just speaking... I hardly needed to think about the words I was saying. This past week I memorized the first vision in Portuguese and so I got to recite it to Laura and bear my testimony. I want to say it was was so good because I am such a wonderful missionary, but I know none of that actually came from me. It was the Espirito Santo speaking through me and I feel so blessed to have that opportunity as a missionary!!

The MTC is truely amazing. Everything is perfectly set up and flows so well. I love Portuguese. I love the way it sounds. I love the way I feel when I can bear my testimony and share my feelings. I know this is where I am suppose to be and God is helping me with every step. One of my all time favorite things is singing in Portuguese. I have always enjoyed Hymns, but something about the Portuguese language just makes it that much more beautiful.

I love being a missionary.

It is fun seeing all these people coming in to the MTC. I have seen Sister Jones, Sister Moberg, Elder Da Ponte, Elder Mounts.. and this week hopefully Elder Hyer!! Elder Mounts is flying out tomorrow!! I am so excited for him. He is going to be a great missionary and I wish him the best.

Yes mom I got my package!! Just in time to take my tennis shoes to gym!! I was so happy! The pictures turned out great and the chocolate was just what I needed! Thank you so much for sending the package and all the letters. You have no idea how wonderful it is to get a couple letters at the end of a hard day. :) It makes it more worth it. I love all of you so much and I think about you everyday. Remember that your Heavenly Father is there for you always. He never will go away because he loves you perfectly.

Eu se que Jesus Cristo e nosso Salvador.

I love you all!!

Pictures from Provo MTC!!!

 

Our first Email from Sister Earl

Oi!

You know what is completely crazy?? Tomorrow all the new missionaries come in with their scared faces and little dork dots. (stickers on the name tags that indicate they are new) That happens tomorrow!! I do not even feel like I have been here that long.... :D Its insane.

So the MTC is a very organized and crazy place. There are waaaaay too many people here since most of us are waiting for Visas. They ended up making a whole seperate branch for the people who came this week and last week. It is the 69 branch and we are zone F. It seems like only a select few have gotten their visas and most people are getting reassigned after the 6 week training. I have heard of reassignments to Boston, Florida, DC... mainly places with big airports to fly out as soon as the visa comes. I honestly would be cool with getting my Visa now or after a reassignment. That just means I get to help people eveywhere and share more of what I know to be true. :) No matter where I go the message is the same and is for ALL people.

The food is fine. Not really great and not really terrible. (Yes mom, Austins statement was completely true) We had some potatoes the other day that were really good... I enjoy the cracked wheat oatmeal in the morning... uhhh we had Dominos Pizza one day!! That was exciting. Although my favorite is Wednesday and Sunday nights when they bring out the BYU creamery ice cream. I think since being away from BYU I have been going through a bit of withdrawls. haha That ice cream can make anything better. :) The weirest thing about meals is they all tend to blend together in my head. I have a hard time remembering which meals I have already eaten during the day. I know it sounds like I am going crazy, but think about it......Every day I sit in a classroom as Portuguese and our Missionary Purpose is thrown at me. The day goes by slow and the week flies. The progress I am making is incredible but I still don't believe how fast it has flown.

As for companions I actually have two. Sister Lillian and Sister Davis. They are both awesome sisters, but we are all very different. Coordinating our ideas for lessons and whatnot takes a little bit of time, but we love each other and greatly enjoy being companions. I know I was put with them for a reason and I am grateful for them. Sister Peterson and Sister Parks are in our dorm room as well and they are both super funny and great to be around. We all have a hard time with our personal quiet time right before bed because we all love to talk and joke around together. Don't worry though, we are getting better at it. :)

We gave our first lesson in Portuguese on Friday. Can you believe that?! Friday! haah I was so excited and nervous at the same time. We talked about Jesus Christ and pretty much had our entire lesson written out so we read it to him. Joao is his name. We felt so completely prepared and ready. We practiced pronunciation and everything. I even tried to memorize some of my sentences so I could really connect with him......Anyway, after that first lesson I was completely overwhelmed. It went ok, but I had the hardest time understanding what in the world he was talking about. We wanted to ask questions and communicate, but that is hard with the language barrier. Anyway to make it short that first lesson went nothing like we wanted it to and we were a little crushed. I had done so well up to this point about not getting overwhelmed at all the information, but that night with the lesson and the fact that I got 3 letters from home and just lost it. haah I was feeling very overwhelmed. The language isn't really easy and being around people you don't really know all that well every second is sorta difficult and being completely obedient isn't exactly natural. As much as I wanted to just trust God and not get upset my little human capacity was overthrown. Our entire room had a great long talk that night and I bawled for an hour and a half. I don't think I have ever been pushed this hard in anything. I takes so much of my concentration just to remember to say Sister Earl when someone asks me for my name. haha! But seriously! Luckily God loves me. He knows exactly what I need. That night He sent one of the wifes of the Branch Presidency over to our dorm room. Right when we were near the end of our companion chat she knocked on the door. She came in and talked to us and bore of testiony of just why were are there and how special we are to Him. I felt like she was sent over just for me that night. I had a long prayer of gratitude and praise after that visit. Never again will I doubt for a second that my Heavenly Father is right here with me. (our second lesson on Saturday was better, thank goodness. Not perfect, but better.)

Lets see, my district is awesome. I remember Sister Jones saying something about being so close to her district after a week and I thought, " there is no way! Its only been a couple days!" But let me tell you she was completely right. I feel like I have known these Elders and Sisters my entire life. There are wonderful examples to me and I can't imagine the MTC without them!!

Oh, I have seen Sister Jones and Sister Moberg multiple times and we get to talk about random things. Sister Moberg and I are actually on the same dorm floor in 5M. It is sorta funny because that building is actually for Elders, but there are so many sisters here that they needed to make more room in the top of an Elders building!! The MTC is about 44% sisters now... btw. :) The good thing about that is on Wednesday when I was taking my suuuper heavy bags all the way up 4 flights of stairs all these Elders came out and did it for me! :) It was super nice of them.

Anyway life is good here. I am learning, growing, and being stretched everyday. I know this is where I am suppose to be and I am so grateful for this opportunity!

I love getting real mail because I can read it throughout the week so thank you all so much!! Emails I can only check on Tuesdays and I found out that anyone can email me. So do it!! Email me and use dearelder.com!! I love to hear from everyone.

my email mckayla.earl@myldsmail.net Even though you can just email me I reaaalllly love getting real letters mmk?

Thanks for all the love and support!

Love

Sister Earl

ARRIVING AT THE PROVO MTC!!!

At the Temple Tuesday, April 9 and at the Airport 5:30 am this morning Wednesday, April 10

Lets do this

Six months ago my life took a dramatic change. 

Yes, thankfully for the better, but dramatic nevertheless. There I was a little freshman on BYU campus trying to figure out how to be a big girl and decide what I want to do with the rest of my life. I kept trying to buckle down and just decide. I remember talking with different people about their major and in visioning this wonderful moment when the heavens open up and tell me that was exactly where I was needed... but usually that just ended with me standing there with a conflicted look on my face. Don't get me wrong, I know decisions like this take time and real thought, but I didn't really even know where to start. The only thing that seemed right was turning to God. So, I prayed and fasted. I really tried to reach up to the pool of knowledge  that is always found near our Father in Heaven. I have learned I can trust Him with anything since He has been right about everything so far. I remember just having the calmest feeling that things would be fine. Now if you know me at all you would know that most of the time I am calm about things. My mom can't decide if its a blessing or not because there is a fine balance between caring too much and too little. Not going to lie, most of the time I should probably care a little more than I do.. and so the calm feeling I got helped with the nerves, but didn't really solve any problems. 

Then outta nowhere the heavens opened up. I never would have seen the possibility of me serving a mission at the age of 19. Some people say they saw the change coming, but I can honestly say I was completely clueless that beautiful morning in the Conference Center. (Luckily I have always enjoyed surprises) I was sitting there suuuper high up and all the way on the right hand side to where I could barely see the figure of our prophet, Thomas S. Monson, standing at the podium. While I could barely see him I definitely heard his strong, confident voice speak directly to my soul. The distance didn't matter at that point since there seemed to be waterfalls of appreciation and pure joy pouring out of my eyes. As I sat there with a new direction and excitement for life I felt as if I was engulfed in the arms of my Father, my Divine all-knowing God and his Son, my Savior Jesus Christ, at the same time. They knew. They knew all along.

And now, so do I. In fact, I know quite a lot. :) I am headed to the Provo MTC this week to start my missionary training and eventually end up in Vitoria Brazil! I go as a Daughter of God. A hopeful and enthusiastic messenger of His restored Gospel. I might not know what I want to do with my education(yet), but I do know that this gospel is true. So we are going to got with the things I know. :) There is nothing more real to me than the reality that God lives. That He really knows me and is aware of me. I chose to go on a mission because the knowledge of my Savior is what carries me through life. I know that Jesus Christ died for me. That He suffered for all of us so that we could one day return to our Father in Heaven. I know that Joseph Smith was sent as a prophet called of God to guide us and translate the Book of Mormon. I know that this book is inspired and that it really brings us closer to righteousness when we read it and ponder its teachings. This knowledge makes me happy and gives me purpose in life. There is nothing greater than sharing the happiness that I feel through knowing and living this gospel. 

It is for this reason that I am so grateful for this wonderful opportunity to share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know it is going to be hard and that at times I will need to pray harder and try harder than I ever have before, but that is what this life is all about isn't it? We are here to learn how to be more like our perfect example, Jesus Christ and I can honestly exclaim that I am ready for my new chapter! 

So here I go, Sister Earl signing off. :)

(Don't forget to write me! www.dearelder.com is one of the best things ever invented for writing letters. You can type up a letter and then it will be sent to the MTC and printed out for me! Its free and super self explanatory. All you need is my mission name and mailbox number which is in the left column of this blog! I look forward to hearing from you!!!)