Hello!

 

Wow another P-day is here! So let me explain yesterday's email. So as VC's we get to do the call center and chat and that was the conversation that my companion and I had with a real investigator. It was the coolest thing! I just had the feeling that Heavenly Father has been preparing JD for our message. We also emailed him and he emailed us back saying that when he gets home he really wants to meet with the missionaries! Man I love this! A lot of the other sisters had similar experiences over chat and over the phone. Its so cool!

 

So VC training is the best! This this has been my favorite part so far. I feel like my teachers understand me more then the others and I love that. So Wednesday we wnet to Temple Square and did a tour and then had a meeting with a member of the VC board of directors who told us about our Visitor's Centers. She said that the New Zealand one is very busy and that it is seeing a ton of success. She also said that we will be switched to the Hamilton Mission when the change is made. I am excited because she said that for the majority of my mission I will spend half the day at the VC and the other half doing normal mission stuff. I am super super excited! We have also been practicing how to give tours and how to have our visitors have a converting experience within a shot amount of time. I love this because we don't have to stress about teaching so that they understand the details. All of our teaching is centered around Christ and then everything else builds on that.

 

My teacher also told us how we were called to the VC. She said that when she was on her mission in DC, L. Tom Perry visited her VC and explained it like this: when whichever Apostle is making calls, he looked at our picture he looks at the eyes and if he can see a testimony of the atonement, the spirit prompts him that this is a Visitor Center Missionary. Then the paper gets sent to a separate pile and after all of the other calls have been made, they sit down and say a special prayer as to where each person is supposed to go and to which Visitor's Center. I hope I explained that well enough. But isn't that so cool??

 

So anyways, this week has been going really well. The beginning of the week was kinda sad because the Elders in our district left and we had gotten really close with them. They are in Oklahoma now cleaning up the mess there. (See why I am afraid of Tornadoes?) Anyways it was just the sister's in our district here for a while. There are six of us total and five are going to NZ and the other one is going to London. I am sad that I won't get to see her again because she is so darn cool! Her name is Sister Sua and she is from Sydney Australia and I love to just hear her talk. She also says funny stuff like "I reckon we should clean the room" or "I'm really keen on going to dinner". She is just the best. The other girls are awesome too. We all get along so well. Some times we miss lights out because we are having so much fun talking and laughing. Now we are in a big class with all of the VC sisters here in the MTC. There are about 20 of us and some are going to NZ, Mesa :), Hawaii, London, and Idaho Falls. I love talking to the Mesa sisters. Two of them are from Idaho and they are so scared for the heat. I just laugh. But Mesa is in good hands because they are awesome!

 

I can't believe that this week marks the one year anniversary of my knee surgery. I was sitting here thinking about this last year and everything that has happened and now I am in the MTC. The Lord truly knows that he is doing and he has a plan for me I know it! Its just crazy because I never would have guessed that I would be here today. Its so amazing.

 

My companion and I are still getting along great. We seriously laugh all the time. In class there is this Russian girl who always turns around and gives us dirty looks haha. She doesn't understand our humor I guess. But really I am so blessed to have Sister Swindler. Funny story though, so last night we were headed to our class on the fourth floor and I am sick right now so I have a really bad cough and it gets worse when I have to climb the stairs so we decided to take the elevator. Anyways we get in and hit the "close door" button and the door is almost shut and it gets stuck! There was a small gap between the frame and the door but there was no way that we could fit through it. So Sister Swindler hits the "open door" button and it moves back a few inches and then starts to close again and it gets stuck. Meanwhile the elevator is making this awful beeping noise and we were starting to freak out but we were laughing so hard all at the same time. So we keep pressing the open button and it opens just enough for my companion to slide through so she gets out and it closes and gets stuck. So I planned to reach over and hit the button and then jump out but after I hit the button the door closed and I was stuck in the elevator by myself. So I sat there for a minute trying to push buttons and get out but then all of the sudden its starts moving up and it took me to the fourth floor and let me out. However my companion didn't know that so she is still at the bottom freaking out because she thinks that I am stuck so she panics and starts running up the stairs as I am frantically trying to run down the stairs to tell her that I am ok. She then gets stopped by a teacher yelling "Sister where is your companion?!" and so she is out of breath trying to get the teacher to believe that I am stuck in the Elevator. I finally found her though and then the teacher believed her and we all had a good laugh but man it was stressful. I thought people only get stuck in elevators on movies. I told Sister Swindler that we were being punished because she snuck an apple out of the cafeteria even though we aren't allowed to take food out. Haha it was pretty funny afterwards.

 

Okay mom I will be calling you on Monday night but I am not sure what time. I don't know if I will call from the SL airport or the San Fran airport so please HAVE YOUR PHONE ON AT ALL TIMES!! I really want to talk to all of you so please try your best to have your phone. The next time I will get to talk to you is Christmas so we have to make this count. This is also that last email you will get from the MTC. The next one will be from New Zealand.

 

Tell Kim I got her packages and I am soooo grateful! She is the best!

 

So I guess this is it as far as the big stuff goes. I love and miss all of you soooo much!

 

Love, Maquel