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Monday, June 3, 2013

Week 5 - one month!!

Hello! Bonjour!
 
First of all, thank you so much for all the letters and packages I recieved this week! You are all the best, and lovely little notes are being sent to you today.
 
This week absolutely flew by, I feel like it should be Tuesday of last week.
 
We went to San Fransisco! That was an adventerous day. We woke up at 2:15am, got showered, dressed, and headed into the "kidnapper van" to be escorted to the lovely Salt Lake City Airport. Upon arriving at the airport our travel leader (Elder Travis Hansen) ran to punch in our confirmation number for our tickets. No luck. He looked around to see if someone would help us, but there was abosultely nobody in the airport. I could have told him our tickets were for United, instead of Delta, but I couldn't pass up the chance for him to freak out a teensy bit. So, I didn't tell him. For a good 7 minutes. After I told him and we were in the correct lobby and had our tickets we headed through Security. We grabbed a bit of breakfast and I bet the Elders they couldn't give out 3 pass a long cards. They ran off to try to prove me wrong. In the mean time, the sisters with us, Sister Urling and Sister Van Wagenen talked to a very nice lady who took our picture and sent it to all our mothers. 
 
The Elders came back complaining everyone was already a memeber and they couldn't find anyone to give their card to.
 
The real adventure came when we landed in San Fransisco. We were so lost. So. Lost. The travel department didn't have a paper in our packet telling us how to find our driver. Elder Hansen called them, we got the instructions and then attempted to find out where we were going. No luck. Because we flew United, instead of Delta, we had to find our way to the terminal that had the Delta flights, walk to baggage claim, go out the doors, head to courtyard one by following the dog prints. It took us 45 minutes to find it. Poor Elder Hansen was so upset because he felt like he "failed" us as our travel leader. I was just laughing the whole time.
 
We walked into the consulate, and met a lady from India, who has lived in the United States her whole life, getting a visa to go to Paris on vacation. We discussed religion with her for awhile, she's what she called a "Spiritual Hindu." She said she doesn't practice a religion formally, but believes that all things on earth are connected. It was an interesting conversation. We left her with a pass along card. It's crazy to feel immediate love for anyone you talk to. You just want to share everything you know about the gospel because you know it's going to change their lives, but sometimes people really aren't interested, and that breaks my heart.
 
Then we headed to Pier 39 to get some lunch. I love being in the real world! I love the MTC, but I miss meeting strangers and eating at restraunts. We took some pictures, saw sea lions, and ate the most delicious sour dough bread on the planet. We had sour dough sandwiches at a cheap, delicious cafe', and that is where we placed our only Book of Mormon. The guy working behind the counter was named Thumper, like from Bambi, I kid you not, and we was really nice. Anywho, Sister Urling went back inside to buy a loaf of bread to eat on the train home, and walked out with a free biscotti from Thumper. Perfect. We walked back in with my Book, told him a little about the church, marked 3 Nephi 11 with a pass a long card and committed him to read it. Bam. We traded a delicious treat for Salvation. Sounds like a fair trade to me.
 
Our flight was scheduled to leave at 1:10 and our driver was going to pick us up at noon. That gave us 10 minutes to contact the people around the stop for our driver. I sat next to a lady and we asked her about herself and her kids, and we asked her if she knew a little bit about our church. She said yes, and we were all waiting for her to say she saw the musical (that's what everyone says) but she said, I really appreciate you young people. You aren't trashy or skanky. Your church is great example to the world. At this point I'm grabbing a book out of my purse, and she continues, but my husband and I are practicing Scientologists and we will never leave our church. Crussssshed.  So we shared a message about Christ and left her with a pass along card, just incase.
 
We said goodbye to San Fran and headed back to the airport. I enjoyed a nice ginger ale on the plan, munched on a bag of pretzels and got on Frontrunner to head home. All in all, our trip was amazing.
 
I've discovered what I miss the most in the MTC. Ready? Couches. I miss sitting on a couch so much. I have been 33 days sober from those wonderful plush things. *sigh* Maybe in Tahiti there will be a couch.
 
Speaking of Tahiti.... WE START TAHITIAN TODAY! I know, we aren't supposed to start for another week, but we are a week ahead in our french! How wonderful is that? Now I get 7 weeks to stumble over crazy vowels instead of 6.
 
 On Sunday we had a great lesson on Baptism, and I started thinking about our Baptismal committment, this is what I came up with:
 
By being baptized we promise to always remember Christ. We promise to remember his Sacrifice for us so that we may live with Him again.
Because we remember His Sacrafice, and we use the atonement, we WITNESS Christ lives and through him so may we.
And because we understand the atonement, we are WILLING to take upon every trial that comes with being a member of this church because we bear Christ's name.
With that willing heart we WILLINGLY follow all the commandments given to us through the scriptures and modern-day revelation.
With all of these things we can achieve the Ultimate Goal, which is, when we fully commit and keep this covenant we can recieve the Spirit. With the Spirit of Christ we can do all things. We can command in the name of God, in behalf of God. We will receive all things, because all things are for the benefit of men.
 
I really like that lesson.
 
In one of our lessons with Manuarii (our teacher), he was giving our critique when he told me the ability I had to speak French the way I do is a miracle to him. This was after he accidentally said in French, Jesus Christ was killed by the apostles. Oops.  So, I guess French is going well...? J'aime notre instructors. Ils ont l'Esprit est parceque de ils, nous pouvons ensigner notre amies de l'eglise avec le Saint-Esprit. (I probably spelled all of that wrong....)
 
Just on a last note, we watched "Tonic For Our Time" (I almost wrote that in french....) By Sherri Dew last night. So so good. This is what I got out of it.
 
She talked about what we are focused on. If we focus on the world, and worldly things we allow Satan to block our view from God. When our focus is on the Savoir and serving him, then we can really begin to understand what path we are to take in life. I've had a few friends write me about serving missions and I thought this applied really well. Focus on the Lord, not the world. What would He want you to do? Now, He doesn't call all men/women to serve a mission. Many young women will be impressed not to start mission papers, but they can take comfort in knowing they are following the Lord's will. All men are called to serve a mission, but not all may be able to complete the "normal" time of a mission. Sometimes God just wants to prove your willingness, and then calls you to a different aspect of life. You man think your time was cut short, but it wasn't. You fufilled the time the Lord expected you to serve and you served whole-heartedly. Take joy in knowing you are obeying and following your extremely personal plan created by our Savior, just for you.
 
Be fearless.
 
I love you all!
 
Amour,
Morgan
 
 

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