MTC Week 6

Hello!
This week has been good!  I have seen my Spanish improving when I am practicing teaching to the Elders and our investigators so it is making me feel better.  I have found words that I can use that can basically help me say most of the things I need to.  Also everyone here speaks slower than normal so I know it will be a just a tad different out in the field, but I am still so grateful I get to learn this language! I  wanted some extra tips on teaching and so I asked one of the extra teachers to meet with me during class and I was able to meet with her twice this week, and she was able to help explain some of her teaching ideas, and her thought process and let me bounce my ideas off of her.  It was so helpful!!! She helped me understand a lot better, it helped just to hear some ideas from an Hermana and just practice teaching to her a little bit on some lessons that I haven't taught as much.  It really was what I needed this week, and she gave me some good tips I have been able to use with the two Elders I teach with.  I have learned a lot of helpful things this week at the devotional, firesides, teaching investigators.  We learned about how the Book of Mormon is such a powerful converter- how lots of investigators don't really know how to understand or study the book of Mormon in a way that will be helpful for them, and help them grow closer to Christ.  That is our job as missionaries and members- to ask if we can read WITH them, answer their questions, apply it to their life, and show them how we have applied specific verses to our life.  The speaker said that it is so important that they have a strong testimony of the book of Mormon in the process of conversion, and this is a way to to it.  We practiced this with one of our investigators, and we were able to explain what was going on and explain that the scriptures were for him! They are for us and no matter what stage of life we are in or what we are going through- they apply in someway.  Elder Bednar gave us good advice in the movie we watched on his Christmas Fireside- he said if you start reading the Book of Mormon with a question, with a specific lesson, or attribute you want to develop from reading, you will be able to find SO much about what you are studying for in every page.  Some of the Elders are doing this and he was showing me his copy and how full of lines it was, and comments ( he just bought one of the paperback copies at the bookstore) and he said he was learning so much about charity and how he can better develop it in his life. Today I got one and I am going to do the same thing- I don't know what my question will be but I will let you know :)Workshop was really good this week- we get to teach for 15 minutes in English, and this week and Elder and I helped an investigator overcome her doubts about the book of Mormon.  It was one of the coolest teaching experiences I had because the Elder and I just went back and forth and helped testify of each others comments, and give personal experiences and scriptures and just apply what we were saying to the investigators life! It was so smoothly and we felt the spirit so much. It just made me want to continue to grasp Spanish better so that I won't be ask focused on trying to remember the right word to say, but be able to just allow the lesson to flow- which I know will come with time, and I can really feel getting better as I practice teaching in Spanish.  I am still having a great time with the Hermanas and the Elders- we have a lot of fun at meal times, and the Elders still provide great comic relief- they are getting me to loosen up a little bit- which is much needed, I really have not been as stressed out here on my mission as I was at school, which is a huge blessing- I have realized that just take things slow and when you rush around always worrying about things you can't enjoy what is around you! (Mormon Messages- with the little girl on the swing, I think it is "moments that matter most"....haha it is our districts favorite one). My companion is one of the most calm, easy going people I know and so she is so great for me too, we have fun and just laugh at what each other say, and have a lot of fun chatting on the elliptical- we all LOVE gym time here- it is great.  Things are going great here, I have about 2 1/2 weeks left and I am starting to get really excited!! I can't believe it is almost here, and I am excited to get out into the field to have a trainer that will help me apply all that I am learning, and teach me even more. The MTC has gone pretty fast- I think I am mostly excited to get out of a stuffy room and be able to walk and bike around all over Alabama!! I hope everyone is doing well and has a great next week- I know I say that every week but I mean it!  I love you all!!!
 Hermana Coleman

Week 5 at the MTC!

Hello everyone!  This week has been crazy so I am going to try and make this letter make sense.  My companion Hermana Bajorquez left two days ago to St. George.  We all loved her and so we were sad to see her go! The morning she was supposed to leave her alarm didn't go off so we woke up to pounding on our door with Elders telling us she had to be the Travel office in 10 min.....yeah that was fun ha ha, we got her off though even though she was a little flustered and we were too, but we sort of got some sleep after that...So now I have a new companion of sorts her name is Hermana Horton- she is so great, very blunt and super funny and great, I love it, and we laugh all the time, especially with the other two sisters- Hermana Goodfellow (One of Daniel Benson's really good friends!) and Hermana Kruetzer- they are seriously so great, we have so much fun at the gym and at nights.  Funny story- 2nd day they were here, we had just got back from gym and were all going to take a shower- about 10 minutes later Hermana Kruetzer comes back into the bathroom saying "Hermana's we are locked out!" Yeah- bad news because 1. we didn't have Sunday clothes 2. we didn't have our name tags and 3. we didn't have shoes.....bad and we had to be to language study in 20 minutes....bahaha, so we called the front desk and they said we needed to find other sisters who were not locked out to go and get us a key- I gave them many treats for this service- it was so nice of them, and we were only twenty minutes late for language study.....we have not locked ourselves out since haha. Saturday we got to teach in the TRC again- where we teach members a short message in Spanish- it was so amazing this week!  I was kinda feeling tired and sluggish that morning, and was trying to get myself pumped up to teach and the first member we taught- Santiago- was so nice and helpful and I could understand everything he said! (Because he talked slow for us haha), He shared a scripture about missionary work- in Jacob 5 - having to do with the olive tree- and the spirit hit me and I started crying....I was like oh no, this is not good because I still have to try to teach him!  I ended up sharing a scripture that I felt prompted to and one of the Elders gave him this awesome commitment- and the spirit was totally there! Then he asked me to give a prayer and I started crying during the prayer so it was a miracle I got it out- I really needed him that day and was so grateful he shared the scripture that I needed- it really is true that other people teach YOU on the mission more than you teach them a lot of the times.  Then we got to teach two college students and this time the Elders just looked at me to start talking about halfway through the lesson- I was nervous and then I just started talking and was asking questions I didn't even know I was asking and then I felt prompted to share one of my favorite scriptures from D&C 11: 12-13 and one of the students was so excited about the scripture and told us a personal story about it!  It was just neat to have that experience- that when I wasn't really feeling 100% ready to teach, I had scripture in my mind and when they needed to be said the spirit helped me and I am so grateful I was able to have that experience here in the MTC. Later that afternoon I had another cool experience teaching our sub- all 9 of us got to each teach her something as an investigator- and once again, I couldn't understand her whole story and problems very well, but I asked the spirit to help me ask a good question and be able to explain the atonement to her a little bit- It was great!  I was surprised at the question that came out of my mouth and I spoke slowly as I tried to explain to her how Jesus Christ can help her in her life.  Saturday was just a needed day when it came to having confidence in teaching and just trusting in the Lord and spirit more while I teach. Sunday we got to listen to Elder Bednars Christmas Devotional that he gave to the missionaries on Christmas day- so great, taught me how to take notes better which is really helpful here.  This Valentines Day was fun- there was lots of candy and goodies everywhere, that night Hermana Horton got sent chocolate covered strawberries and Hermana Goodfellow got Chocolate cake from the cheese cake factory- lets just say it was a great way to end Valentine's- everything was so delicious- and I enjoyed all the treats I got- (Thank you mom and grandma!) Yesterday we got 3 new Hermanas in our branch- they are advanced so they will be leaving a week before me, but they are great- they live next door to us and tonight we will give them a tour so that will be fun.  Everything else it great here, my Elders still crack me up, the other Hermanas love them too so they eat a lot of the meals with us.  The Elders are great with helping me practice Spanish, we have goals to try and speak in Spanish most of the day- and our teachers are trying to find incentives for us to do it so that helps the Elders.  Even though I am still not very good at the whole teaching in Spanish thing, I know I am learning ways to be a better teacher, and to rely on the Lord to help me and guide me on what to study, I have been studying the scriptures better and trying to practice little techniques so that I am more prepared in lessons so I can have more experiences like I did on Saturday.  I am so grateful for the humbling experiences the Lord is giving me here and he is teaching me to rely on him and trust him more, which in turn makes me want to work/study more so I can become a more effective teacher through the Lord. The more I have these experiences the more  excited  I am to help the people of Alabama.  I hope everyone has a good week, and I love you all!

Hermana Coleman

Hola! Hola!

 

This week has been good here at the MTC, pretty crazy actually, but good!  Four of the Hermana's in our branch left Wednesday morning, including my companion.  We spent the last two nights they were here packing and weighing their bags, it was an early morning and I am still trying to recover, but I think I provided some sleep deprived entertainment for my Elders that was good!  We got three new sisters and three new elders into our branch this week, hooray for new sisters!!! I was so excited, they are all very nice and we will be orienting them tonight about how the next nine weeks are going to go for them.  Two of the sisters are going to Oklahoma City and one is going to the Ogden mission!  All Spanish speaking so we will have fun for the next five weeks, I am excited.  My companion is Hermana Bajorquez who is only here for one more week because she is doing visitors center training and then leaves to St. George, she has been here for the last 3 weeks in my room and she is great. I will get a new companion after she leaves, it will be one of the three sisters that came in this week.  Teaching our investigators is getting better and better.  This week we started teaching a sister from Venezuela- we teach them in what is called the TRC and when we knock on their door we are "in Venezuela" teaching her about the gospel- it feels so real it is so great!  Even though I couldn't say much to her, I helped teach her how to pray to her Heavenly Father at the end and I told her that her Heavenly Father loves her and wants to here from here and she got a big smile on her face- it made my day! I can't wait to keep teaching her and keep loving her more, it is amazing how I have only met her once but I already can't wait to see her and try to tell her some gospel principles she needs to hear- the Elders I teach with are great at Spanish so it helps to listen to them to learn how to say things better.  They are also helping my every day with my grammar and memorizing vocab- it is coming slowly but surely.  I was really frustrated with the language at first but All over is preach my gospel it talks about just studying the words of Christ first, and once you have done that, your tongue will be loosed.  I am learning a lot of patience which is super good for me, and I know that in the next couple of months if I keep trying to get the vocab down, it will get better and better.  I just have to keep that in mind when I am in my lessons, because you can't express everything you want to and you need to with such a limited vocab- so it makes me what to know more so that I can be more effective out in the field.  One thing we have been trying to do better in our lessons is ask more questions and be more familiar with the scriptures in Spanish so we can study them with the investigator in our lessons.  They can only be about 20-30 minutes long so it helps us get to the point and the commitment faster.  It is easy to just start talking and telling them what you know, but I have learned that you have to ask them questions about what you have just taught so that they can teach themselves, or else they will never learn!  We are still trying to figure out how to apply all these principles better, but it makes me grateful I still have 5 weeks to keep practicing before it is the real thing! I have also felt the spirit more in my preparations for the investigators, and use a lot of my study time to prepare for what they need to hear- I am learning how to tell what the Spirit wants us to talk about, now it is just to learn how to say it and convey it to them in the right way!  One thing I learned this week in our Devotional Tuesday night was what the speaker said..."You will succeed because this message is true." Which is true! I loved that so much, and if you have Faith in Christ, he will help you through anything- Alma 32 talks about a desire and the seed growing within you with swelling motions of the spirit- That has definitely been my favorite chapter this week and I have been trying to apply it into my desire to be a missionary and work hard to serve and Lord and have faith in Christ so that I can teach my investigators how to have faith- we even used it with one of our investigators which was awesome.  I hope everyone has a great week- thank you for all your love and support- I definitely feel it out here.  Love you!

Hermana Coleman

MTC Updates!

This week has been good!  This last Tuesday was the 50th anniversary of the MTC which was really neat.  First there were rumors going around for about the last 3 weeks on who would be coming, they said there was going to be hundreds of guests.  So people flocked to join the choir so they could get a guaranteed seat, I had a cold so I decided people would appreciate if I was not sniffling and annoying everyone the whole time, so I didn't go to practice.  Instead the Elders and I in our district decided to get in line at 5:00, which was 2 hours before it started......a bunch of hot missionaries in one room, all standing and the security guards trying to talk to us was very interesting.  After waiting for an hour and a half they told us we couldn't be there, we had to go to overflow....so we all hurried to overflow. Then five minutes before it started they took half the over flow back to the main building to watch it live!  Lets just say there was a lot of running missionaries and it is a miracle I kept up with my district and got to sit by them.  The meeting was great, Elder Nelson and Elder Holland came and told us a lot about the history of the MTC and Elder Nelson dedicated 5 renovated buildings so that was very neat.  Elder Holland said a lot of great things and he speaks with such power and emotion I loved listening to him.  One thing he said I loved was " Serve the way you should serve and love the way you should love- the way the church needs you to."  Which I took as the way Christ needs us to.  So powerful, good motivator.  The sisters in my Branch that I have been rooming with are great!  I have loved getting to know them and they are teaching me so much, especially how to love more, they are so accepting and nice, I have grown to love them so much just in these two weeks! The food is getting a lot better, I am more used to it now and am actually eating quite healthy which is good.  I have been trying out basketball at gym lately, the Elders in my district kept wanting us to come play so it was fun playing with them. They are patient with us Hermanas which is nice of them, we do not play it well but we have fun and get a great workout!  I have also been running around the track more and more, my goal is to be able to do 3 miles without stopping by the end.  I am already at a mile so I think that is a good goal.  One of the Elders in our district left to the Dominican Republic CCM today and so I had fun telling him all about what he was going to see when he got there.  He was really excited, but we were all sad to see him go and are all kind of sad today. He was really funny and so nice- he called my "Mama Pata" which means mother duck....I know it sounds weird but it was kind of true, I would always find myself walking ahead of them because Elders walk super slow.  I would notice it because some of my Elders would start quacking behind me, I don't think other people noticed thank goodness, but we thought it was pretty funny.  I will miss him, we got to be great friends.  My new district is going great, I am learning to love them more and more and we have fun together.  I got called as coordinating sister again so I get to work with the Zone leaders and help orient the new missionaries that come into our branch each week.  I did that last night which was really fun.  We got to get to know them better and introduce ourselves and let them know about some important things for their first night here.  I decided that my favorite thing to do here is give advice, while we were with them I had to tell myself to not say things because no matter how important I thought it was, they probably wouldn't remember everything I said, so I decided I could just wait to tell them until tonight when we get a whole 90 minutes with them haha.  The Zone leaders are fun so I think the new Elders enjoyed their orientation.  Also, my branch president, President Tyler knows Grandpa Coleman- we discovered this when I had lost my hymn book and the front desk called a "Elder Gary Coleman" to the front desk, haha it made me laugh and so President Tyler asked if I was related to a Gary Coleman and I said yes! He said he had just seen grandpa the Sunday before that at a 100 years of Seminary anniversary!  That was a cool connection and he was happy to find that out and told me about how they knew each other.  My branch president is great, he tells so may stories and they always have a good moral to them but are funny as well. I hope everyone is doing well and  had a great week!  This week I have learned a lot about how important prayer is in the conversion process for our investigators.  It is essential!  But I have also learned how it is important in our lives as well, it is so important to let him know that we desire something and that we put that desire into action so that he can help us!  President Holland has said that we as missionaries have to be converted in every principle we teach before we can expect to convert others in those principles.  I am so grateful for those words and am trying to implement them daily.  I love you all, have a great week and enjoy it!

Hermana Coleman