Sister Sackley's Mission Blog: Week 1 in the MTC

Hello family and lovely friends!

The MTC is going great! It's extremely overwhelming how much we are learning, but I am learning so much at the same time. It's insane. It's intense- but a good intense Mom.

My companions name is Sister Johnson and she is from Virginia. She's headed to Tampa as well. She didn't show up until like 8:30 the first night because her flights kept getting delayed. Poor thing. And then the airlines lost her luggage. But she has it now and all is well.

She's 19-- almost 20 and she went to BYU-I too! We can't find any mutual friends quite yet though. She's the 5th of 6 kids and she hates bananas, so I eat them for her. We're a great team. We feel like we are in elementary school because we constantly have to ask each other to go to the bathroom... its great.

My other two comps... kinda...

Sister Kraft- she's from Draper, 19 and is just the sweetest thing. She has everything that anyone might have forgot at home. She's all about love and she continually reminds us to love.

Sister Robison- She's from Orem. She could walk home. Shes 21- almost 22 and she played for BYU volleyball for the past three years. She's 6'1"- I love it. She keeps it real and she's hysterical.

There are four sisters in our district and we joke about being in a quad-companionship because the four of us go everywhere together! We're having a great time though and I think the Elders are a little scared of us because we're all super outgoing and crazy, and they're not. We have a good time though.

Short stories of the week:

#1- First night- that's the only time that I've thought, hold on. WHAT DID I JUST DO?! So I'm said my nightly prayers and asked for comfort. I immediately had the thought- have companion prayer. But I looked up and I thought Sister Johnson was already asleep. So I just thought- oh well. Tomorrow night. But I just kept having that thought over and over again. So I got out of bed and asked her if she wanted to have companionship prayer- of course she did and the other two sisters heard us and so the four of us all prayed together. Comfort came quick and I really haven't been down since. I really have never felt the Holy Ghost so strong in my life. This is awesome.

#2- I'm all about praying. It's like my favorite thing in the world. So I make Sister Johnson pray all the time. I don't know if I've ever said so many prayers in my life. Its super cool and super odd all at the same time. I would bet in an hour- especially during class, we pray like 3 times. I just find SO much strength from prayer and I really feel the Lord's hand in our lives. We pray for EVERYTHING. I'm loving it, Sister Johnson might go insane though... sorry!

#3- Elder Verdine/ Henry is my Zone leader! Oh how great familiar faces are. I keep calling him Henry. It's a constant struggle. Everyone knows his first name thanks to me... my bad. I've also ran into Elder Taylor and Sister Coughanour a couple of times. I'll send pictures.

#4- Sister Johnson and I are Sister Training Leaders... of Sister Kraft and Sister Robison. Do we have any idea what we're doing? Nope. But it's okay. We're having a great time.

#5- Removing "guys" from my vocabulary and replacing it with "elders" and "sisters" is seriously by biggest struggle right now. A pathetic struggle? Yes. But nonetheless, it's a struggle. I had NO idea how much I said it until I had to get rid of it. The sisters tease me all the time about it. But I've been praying like crazy to fix it. Slowly and surely it's getting better, I can do it! :)

I just don't even know what to share quite yet. I've been here for just over 48 hours... the saying of "days are weeks and weeks are days" doesn't apply when you're in the MTC for 12 days. The days just stay as weeks I think. They are long days, but good. So so good. I'm having a blast.

We studied 1 Nephi 1 this morning- like went verse by verse through the entire chapter. It was a super cool experience. That chapter is packed full of incredible information. We talked about how we need to make sure that our investigators aren't just reading the Book of Mormon, but instead they are truly understanding it. I learned more from that one chapter than I ever have before. It might just be my new favorite chapter. Read it- and learn something new from it!

I love you all.

Love

Sister Mal