June 21, 2013

Hello Everybody!

I am going to start with the big news. As you know, this Sunday is the worldwide broadcast. The MTC has a HUGE choir, plus members. We are singing two songs. KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR ME! I will be sitting next to a tall blonde :) Next week is when all the new mission presidents come to the MTC. There will be over 175 of them! They are completely shutting down campus and we won't be allowed in the cafeteria all week because general authorities will be here.

Well, Me and Hermana Wilcox were selected to sing in a special choir for them. The choir director had each of us fill our information about ourselves and he selected 32 people off of prayer and I am one of them! Out of 3,500 people.

Basically, we are learning and memorizing 5 new songs (we got them on Monday) and singing in the opening of all of the Mission president's meeting. This Sunday, the First presidency AND the Quorum of the Twelve will be there.  All 15 of them. I am one of 6 altos in the choir. We are literally going to stand 5 feet in front of the first presidency.

This Sunday, we are performing at the beginning of their sacrament meeting and President Monson is speaking. Each of the speakers chose the songs, this sunday we sing " I feel my savior's love." Monday, Uchtdorf speaks and we are singing "Lead Kindly Light," Wednesday is Eyring and we sing "Precious Savior, Dear Redeemer," and I can't remember who the other speakers are.

Anyway, I am both nervous and excited. I feel honored and blessed. President Nally,the MTC Pres, and his wife have been coming to our rehearsals and they keep stressing how big of a deal this is! I realize that the Lord needed me in the MTC at this time, for reasons such as this.

 It's been an interesting week.

We got a new district this week and we have 4 new Hermanas. They are pretty homesick and overwhelmed, so we have been checking up on them and trying to give as many hugs as possible.

Last Sunday, we got to watch the "Testaments" that night. I have seen it a few times, but it hit me pretty hard this last Sunday. After watching it, I went and read the passages in the BOM about Christ coming to Americas. Such a powerful message.

The other day while working out, a photographer came up to me and Hermana Wilcox and took our picture. Apparently he was doing an article on missionary work. So I am probably in the Twin falls, Idaho "Times Newspaper"

You asked about my schedule! Well, basically is same old thing now, so I will tell you how my days look!

*We wake up at 6 and go to the work out in the morning

*Then we go to our classroom at 7 for Additional Study time (planning lessons, reading scriptures, etc)

*at 7:45 we go to breakfast, we always sit as a Zone, so we have fun together.

*We go back to the Classroom and have Personal study time for at least an hour. Personal study is my favorite.

*After that we have Language Study for an hour, we normally do pre-work (like homework) for the class that day

*Then we have TALL time. TALL is the computer program that we use to learn language.It's great, but getting boring. I normally finish first and then watch Mormon Messages until my Comps are done.

*Then we have gym time! We normally go to the gym and I run a mile on the track or on an elliptical.

*After gym we have lunch

*Then we have Class. If we get there late, Brother Whittiker makes us do a door approach to get in the classroom. We have class for 3 hour blocks

*After Class we have Language study again

*Then we have Daily Planning, where we plan for the next day.

*Dinner

*Then back to class for 3 hours. We normally have our other Teacher Hermana Powell then. We always teach "investigator" lessons during class time

*After Class we Study until 9:30.

*9:30 is the best because we get to go get ready for bed and be goofy :)

My district has a problem with getting distracted. We always start off studying and then halfway through end  up chatting, and quoting Brian Regan. I think it's because all of our elders are younger than the Hermanas. We are trying this new trick, where every time we get off topic, we have to sing a hymn.

Unfortunately, there is a bug going around the MTC. We can't hug or shake hands with our Branch presidency at all. There have been many sisters throwing up and they don't know why. My companion, Hermana Wilcox, has been throwing up all day today, so I am staying home with her for the day. I am scared I will get it, so pray that I won't!

I am having issues sending pictures. I have tried every week, but the computer doesn't like my SD card. I think I need to buy the one from the bookstore.

This week, my teacher asked each of us what our favorite thing to do is. If we had 2 hours right now, to do anything, what would we do? I definitely said..."I'd go grocery shopping with my mom"

Congrats to Carrie! I got her cute wedding invite. I’m sad I won't be there, but that's so exciting :)

It was SO neat to see Aunt Linda at the temple last week. What a tender mercy.

Dallin, Thanks so much for the Dearelder Letter. I ended up laughing so hard, that I read it outloud to my entire district. They all voted it the funniest letter so far...and we've heard some funny letters!

Thanks so much for letting me know about Alli. I put her on the prayer roll last week and She's in my prayers. Tell the Snow's I love them!

Here's my final word of advice....Tell the youth (Yes, Dallin and Lizzie, I mean you) to study NOW. It is so crucial that they have their OWN testimony. The better you understand and gain a testimony of Jesus Christ and his atonement, your desire to share the gospel will increase. I wish I would have developed a better relationship with savior and my father in heaven as a teenager. This gospel is so true. We are blessed enough to have it in our lives. There are SO many people that do not have the gospel, and we are blessed enough to have it. Isn't it important that we share it???

I love you all so much. Thank you for your love and support. The church is true!!!

Much Love,

Hermana Meagan Spencer

June 14, 2013

Hola mi Familia!!!

It was a good week.  But they are always good weeks :)

Sunday was AWESOME. We got the watch music and the spoken word, and then have relief society. Somebody (I can't remember her name right now) from the general relief society board, spoke and it was amazing. I took some awesome notes that meeting. Have you all heard that there were some verses added to "As sisters in Zion" that focuses on missionary work? We got to sing those on Sunday. Very neat!

Tuesday we got to go to the Marriott center for Devo, that's neat that grandpa sent pictures. I was wondering if I was going to see any familiar faces in the many cars we passed! Apparently they are going to try and do devo this way from now on so that the West Campus can attend, and all the missionaries can fit in one place. The choir sang "Called to Serve" in the Devotional. It's the one we are singing in the announcement on the 23rd. It's very neat to have almost the whole MTC in a choir together! It's HUGE!

Mervyn B. Arnold of the seventy spoke on Tuesday. His wife spoke first, and she was my favorite part :) She shared a story that he husband shared in conference recently. It was the story about how she was watching cattle over the summer and stopping them from eating wheat and becoming bloated. She said this one morning, this one cow got out and ate wheat. She quoted " You stupid Cow." Even though she was so bloated she could barely breathe, she kept eating and died. She compared this to obedience and commandments. It's SO important to stay as far away from the fence as we can. The commandments we have been given are here for a purpose and for our protection. Obedience with exactness!

I am very lucky that I have companions that don't try to break the rules. We are all pretty set on being as obedient as we can and uplifting each other in that way!

This week was full of Class time and practicing Spanish and teaching. Me and my companions were late to class one afternoon and as a punishment we had to attempt a "door approach" in which my teacher, Hermano Whittiker, made it very difficult to convince him to let us in. It was pretty funny.

We had TRC this week, which is where we go and practice Spanish with members. They come as volunteers and we talk for about 20 min and shared a quick message. We had 2 appts and one of them was this super cute old lady that has served 6 Spanish missions with her husband. She mentioned she liked Family History, and I got to chat with her about Indexing. She was super fun to talk to and bare our testimonies to.

My Spanish is coming along. There will be moments where I feel very behind and lacking in the language. But the other day, we went to teach an investigator, Raquel, and I truly experience the gift of tongues. I don't all of a sudden speak super awesome Spanish, but I am reminded of words that I know and what to say. I love being able to bear my testimony in Spanish, even if it's bad grammar. The spirit speaks louder.

The food here is so addicting. It's not even that good, but there are SO many options and desserts every night. Therefore, I am lacking in self-control. Luckily we are working out every day. I have trying to run the track for a mile a day. Apparently, there are fitness classes at 6am for the sister. We tried them this week and loved it! We did step aerobics and yoga so far. It's a good way to start the day, but I have to say.....They are a LOT easier than the old fart lady classes I did with mom before I left.

The food also doesn't sit too well in my stomach. Apparently, it doesn't sit well in anybody's stomach. We have come to notice that almost the entire MTC has bad gas. It has been a funny way for us all to get to know each other better. As wise leaders have said before....."gas speaks louder than words."

We got a new district this week in our Zone. We got 3 new sisters. We went to their room the other night to see if we could comfort and give some advice and they were totally fine. They weren't overwhelmed or anything. They are in an intermediate Spanish class, so they are ahead of us anyway.

I have noticed that being on a mission makes me want to watch the Best Two Years really bad. We quote that movie, as a district, A LOT. It turns out they were pretty accurate on a few aspects of a mission :)

I LOVE my companion Hermana Wilcox. She is such a sweetheart and I know that we are going to be friends for a long time. I am learning a lot from Hermana Stanford as well! She is a very difficult girl, but she is full of great help and insights. This week I just observed a lot of companionships and I found that I was very grateful for the companions I was blessed with.

We had a mouse in our residence hall this week. Luckily it never came in our room, but we were up late to the sounds of many screaming girls.

I got your package! I got it like the day after you sent it. THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! The pants work awesome. My companions all joked that they wanted you to send them the same ones a size bigger. The flip flops, towel and pills were perfect. I am so grateful to have a family, a mom that is willing and would do that for me!

Give the Snow Family my love. I am praying for them.

I am still not able to figure out how to attach pictures or work the alphasmart. Eventually I will!

Thanks so much for the dearletter updates from everybody! After lunch and after dinner is when we get the mail and that is always a happy time! Thanks so much for being supportive and loving.

Much Love,

Hermana Spencer

Letter 2 from the MTC!

Hello family and friends!

I tried using the alpha smart this week every day, but I wasn't able to connect it to the computer. :/ So I will try and get everything in.

 My first few days here were very overwhelming. I was very emotional and very scared. Everybody kept telling us to just "wait until Sunday." I had an interview with my new branch president and he could tell I was feeling scared. When I first got here, we started speaking Spanish right away. We taught a lesson to our "investigator" in Spanish our Second day here. 

My district and zone are awesome, but it took me a bit to get to know them. I have two companions like I said, Hermana Wilcox and Hermana Stanford. Hermana Wilcox makes me laugh so much.  We connect very well and I love her tons. She is definitely going to be a lifelong friend. Hermana Stanford is so diligent. She is from Canada. She is a unique girl. I love her lots, but there are moments that she gets WAY too stressed and it frustrates those around her. But I know that we three girls are supposed to be together for a reason.

 My apartment is me and my companions, Hermana Trunnel and Hermana Haubner. The 5 of us are the girls in our district. The rest of our district is 2 companionships of elders. 3 of which are going to the new Vancouver, Washington mission, and one is going to mine. The district is just the 9 of us.

 We have taught 4 lessons now. We have been teaching an investigator named Alexa. The first couple lessons I was terrified and let my companions take most of it. One thing that they stress here is that "The Holy Ghost speaks perfect Spanish." The Spanish will come, but as long as the Spirit is present, she can understand what we are trying to say. The last two lessons were my favorite. I was able to bear my testimony and understand questions she asked and provide answers. Funny moment though, I was going to tell Alexa that "God has Flesh and Bone" and I started telling her that "God has flesh and scrambled eggs." Luckily I corrected myself!

 Sunday was AWESOME. It was fast Sunday so we had mission conference. Most missionaries say that Fast Sundays aren't half as good as normal Sundays, but I LOVED IT. We had speakers talk to us, which was so neat. I played the piano in sacrament meeting, and apparently for the rest of my stay here :) That night we had a speaker on Joseph Smith and his Martyrdom and then we watched "Legacy" for our Sunday night activity. All I could think throughout Sunday was..."How could this gospel, NOT be true????" I just wanted to shout it from the rooftops.

 BUT, I am scared because apparently we have to right a talk every week....in Spanish! We get a topic and then during sacrament meeting, the president will call on 3 or 4 people from the congregation on the spot to share their talk. Eek!

Tuesday we had Devotional and Hermana Haubner's Step-grandpa works at the MTC and got us seats in the front! It was so neat. The speaker was Tad Callister. He talked about the "Blueprints" of the gospel and how they are the exact match for how the church was in Christ's earthy ministry. I am so glad to be a part of this gospel.

 Yesterday, we found out that our "investigator" was really our second teacher, Hermana Powell. She is going to be teaching us along with our other teacher, Hermano Whittiker. Both of them attend BYU and have served missions. Hermana Powell is SO cute. She has such a strong testimony and she is a fantastic teacher. Last night we went through the steps and ways to have effective planning and studies

 Just so you know, apparently there is this big announce on June 23rd! I guess it is going to be broadcasted from the Marriott Center by the First Presidency. They asked the MTC choir to sing at it! So I will be in it!! :) I am very excited. I guess that this announcement will be a historic event.

Congrats to Dallin for getting the job! I guess its Karma for all the times the Wal-Mart workers had to deal with Mom's endless price-matching. :)

 Tell Lizzie to SMILE!!! I am positive her smile is stunning. One thing I have learned is that a smile can do so much. It can literally change somebody’s day or even their life! I am sure her teeth look great Braces-less and she needs to "let her light so shine!"

 Mom, I am positive you will get a job. Keep doing your best and looking. I will pray for ya. Whoever you end up with, will be more than grateful for you.

 Thanks SOOOOOOO much for the letters. I look forward to mail time! I love getting updates. I laughed and cried when I read dad’s quote from despicable me and when he told me to "work my baby hands to the bone" :)

 Have I mentioned that I love "The District”? They are episodes of missionaries. I watched them before I came here, but we watch snippets and use them as examples often. Iove watching them and spirit it brings. I strongly recommend that you watch them for FHE or something. I love them, and they have made my desire to be a missionary even stronger.

 I am going to try and find out how and where I can eventually send pictures.

 I love you all so much!

Hermana Spencer

Meagan's First Letter!

Hola everybody!

 

Thank you for the Dear Elder Letters! I got them :)

 

Well, luckily, today is my P-day. Every zone has different P-days because it's so crowded. We are going to the temple in 45 minutes as well, so I don't have too much time. I will make sure to use the alphasmart eventually. Maybe not until I get to the field because time is so busy here.

 

Well Wednesday, I got dropped off and went straight to get things settled. My host picked me up and she held my bags while I got my nametag id card, key etc. She took me to my apartment to drop off my stuff and then straight to my classroom to meet my teacher. My teacher es Hermono Whittiker. He ONLY speaks spanish to us. Therefore, he gets a lot of blank stares from us. Mostly me.

 

I wrote you a letter, but I'm sure you won't get it until tomorrow. Here's the big news....I have two companions. There are very few trios at the MTC, but I am in one. My two companions are Hermana Wilcox, and Hermana Stanford. Hermana Wilcox is from Layton Utah. She has been going to BYU for the past year and studying education and music! She actually really reminds me of Desma Lisonbee for some reason! Hermana Stanford is from Alberta Canada. She has never been outside of Alberta really. She had issues with getting her Visa so she came a few hours late. She is definitely somebody I know I will love, but it will be hard with all three of us.  They are both fun girls.

 

My apartment is shared with two other hermanas goingto my mission. Hermana Trunnell, is one that I talked to on facebook before we came. They are all such sweet girls, and they take being a misisonary seriously. What a blessing to have them.

 

Thursday was a roller coaster ride. EVERYBODY keeps telling us that as soon as we get to Sunday, we will be fine. Yesterday, we have study time, and we have a long spanish lesson. The Spanish lesson overwhelmed me a lot. I know, and I have faith that I will get it and I will be completely fine, but yesterday I started freaking out. Both my companions know quite a bit of spanish so I feel a bit behind. We all are a little overwhelmed though. We are actually teaching a fake investoigator tonight IN SPANISH. Say a prayer for that one. I know that I will be fine, and things are looking brighter already, but this is going to be the hardest, yet most rewarding thing I have ever done.

 

 I AM NOT in raintree. I am on campus. I guess they decided to have the elders and sisters that have been here for a few weeks to move to raintree.

 

Today me and mis hermanas went to the bookstore to get a few things, like a new clip for our nametags and such. Then we went to go work out, which was really good! We didn't know the rules on the time at the gym though, so a worker had to come tell us that we had to leave because it was another dictricts gym time then. I think we have figured it out now though.

 

We basically are going to be spending all of our time in the classroom. We leave all study materials there and we do daily planning sessions, personal study, companion study and spanish class in there.

 

Our district is of 5 sisters (mi companeros and the ones in my apartment) and 4 elders. 3 are going to Washington, Vancouver, and 1 is going to my mission.

 

I definitely do not know the story of Uncle Jim "moping", please do tell :)

 

Oh! Also, my branch got REALLY excited when they heard that I can play piano. I guess there are only like 2 people that can play, and they can onl play right hand. I already got asked to play on Sunday! You were right! I will play piano a lot on my mission!

 

I had a hard time saying goodbye to you guys, that was the hardest part, and still is. BUT I know that this is not about me. This is about the work and the people that need the gospel in their lives. I am going to be an instrument in the Lord's hands. It is my calling and it is WORK!

 

I miss you guys like crazy, but I know that you are well, and I am good too!

 

Much Love,

Hermana Spencer

 

PS. Mom, can you post on Facebook or something about dear elder?I can get those any day of the week and I'd LOVE to hear from evrybody and I can write tem back. My mailbox number is 328I think? Its my unit number I gave you.

 

PPS. I gforgot my SD card converter, so I wil send pictures next week!

Well, the day is arriving. Meagan leaves on Wednesday. She flies from Phoenix to Salt Lake at 7am and is getting picked up by her grandparents. Then, her brother Jordan is going to pick her up and probably take her to lunch. She enters the MTC at 1:45. She is probably going to be in the new Raintree apartments the MTC is renting.