Friday, December 27, 2013

{Week 3} MTC - December 27, 2013

Hola mi familia!!!

Our gifts under the Charlie Brown tree from Lisa.
That's so cool that Erica saw me!! I was in the choir, and we sang "Where Shepherds Lately Knelt" for Elder Bednar. It's a beautiful song - you should look it up.
 
 It was Elder Bednar!! He walked in and we all shot to our feet. It was so exciting! He conducted a huge question and answer session - it was super cool, because we were broadcasted live to most of the other MTC's, and they were all emailing questions in, and he passed out 200 cell phones to us that we passed around and used to text him questions. He had a "magic Ipod" (his words) that recieved all our questions and he answered a whole bunch of them. It was a really cool experience! His only condition was that we couldn't call home, or he would "hunt us down and do bad things to us". It was hilarious. He even did "all in favor? any opposed?" I love Elder Bednar. Every Sunday we get to watch a movie (or at least, the MTC's version of a movie) and last week we watched Elder Bednar's talk called "the Character of Christ" that he gave at the MTC a few Christmases ago. It was an amazing talk. I urge to search Youtube to see if it is there. It was really great to have Elder Bednar and his wife there for Christmas.
 
Our District on Christmas Day!

Christmas morning we started off with a talent show, in which multiple missionaries shared their amazing talents. There was several piano numbers, some songs, violins, guitars, cellos - everyone was super talented and there was some really funny acts as well as some more serious ones. We had a blast - clapping and cheering the whole time. Some of the more memorable performances include a Yiddish Bottle Dance, where he danced around with a bottle on his head humming his own background music, and a Magician! the Magician was so cool! He turned handkerchiefs into batons and umbrellas and had floating cards and confetti flying around - he got an instant standing ovation. Then we all sang called to serve (cuz we sing that a lot) we started quiet and slowly got louder until the last chorus was deafening! I started crying it was so amazing! I love hearing the testimonies of all the missionaries being proclaimed as loud as possible!!!!
 
It was just amazing. Then we had a band come and perform for us - It was a jazz band, and they were really good, but we were all getting tired and so it was hard to pay attention. Then in the evening, we watched the Mormon Tabernacle Choir 2012 Christmas Program, and it was great! I really enjoyed that one. And they gave us popcorn to eat while we watched it!!! Unfortunately, we had been sitting in those bleachers almost all day by now (we took 1 hour breaks after each program, but then it was back to the bleachers) and people got really noisy and disruptive. 30 min in, the MTC president got up and asked us all to "cool it". So we did and the rest of the program was wonderful.
 
Spanish is coming along!! I'm slow and I falter a lot, but I am now mostly able to say what I want to in a lesson... when it comes to real life I'm lost, but I'm figuring out the Gosple stuff!! Spanish is different because of verb conjugations. For example, "Vivir" is "to live", but depending on who you are talking about and exactly when they lived, the end changes. They are small changes but there are enough of them that it gets confusing. For most you can just follow the rules, but then there are a whole bunch of irregular ones that change all the time, and of course those are the most common ones. For them, you're stuck with straight memorization.

Some West Campus food and my Spanish study notes!!!
But I love Spanish! It's a beautiful language. I still stink at it, but I'm getting tons better. Every evening we have 2 hours just for language study, and I study hard. By that time of day everyone else is pretty sick of studying though, so they can get a little rowdy. My companion and I are pretty good about telling others to "silencio" or going into a side room to get some stuff done.
 
We teach two investigators now - Jacob (Ha - cob) is really chatty and inquistive, while Mateo barely speaks at all. But they are both amazing in their own way - even if they are just the split personalities of our teachers.
Elder Hixen remarked the other day how cool it is that the Spirit plays our games with us - helping us to find out exactly what our investigator needs at that moment, even though they aren't real investigators. My testimony of the Spirit has grown so much since I've been here. I've learned so much about listening and following it's promptings. It's amazing.
 
This morning during personal study I read in 2 Ne 4:16-35, and it is one of my new favorite section of scripture. If you have time you should read it... just saying :-)

My schedule!!!
 Our zone leaders and their district leave on Sunday, which means we'll be the oldest district. That's super strange, because I feel like we just got here. We're really going to miss that district. It's made of 6 elders, and all of them are so funny and friendly. Our zone has grown really close. We always eat together, and it's a grand time. Elders Sonntag and Hixen are going to be our new zone leaders. They'll be really good, but I will miss Elder Parke and Sanders - they were awesome.

Anyway, I love you all! Christmas here has been amazing, and has felt nothing like Christmas. But I was so glad I got to spend it in the MTC. I love this church. I know it's true.
 And I love you all!! Thanks for the picture - I love showing my family to everyone. I brought that amazing calendar you gave me to class and showed everyone the pictures. And the blanket does help! especially when our heater broke a couple nights ago - it's fixed now though. And Jordyn, that painting was amazing!

The painting Jordyn made for me for Christmas.

Carlee, I loved your rendition of the Moose book. Jenna, poke poke poke. Katia, I miss snuggling with you! Mackenzie, Elder Bednar introduced us to a couple of his granddaughters, and they looked just like you! I miss you! Richelle and Logan, how's baby Heggie? And Mom and Dad, thanks so much for being such amazing example to me. I love you!!!!
 
FYI - My permanent retainer on my bottom teeth has gotten really lose all of a sudden. I'm working on making an apppointment with the dentist to get it reglued, so it doesn't fall off in Mexico.
 
Love you!
-Hermana Taylor
 
Decorating the apartment!

Christmas!!!
Hermana Gurley and I with our Called to Serve pens.
She was so happy!  Thank you!!!


We had a crazy sword fight with these blow up maple leaf tubes . . .
then collapsed on the couch!

1 comment:

  1. We had a similar event in our town and let me tell you about that talent show. There were a few kids singing and playing instruments that are going to go on to be huge celebrities in time. They knocked our socks off, and most were hidden talents that even their own parents were completely floored when the kids took to the stage.

    Ambrose @ Brown & Reaves Services, Inc.

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