Week Eight:

 

My last P-day at the MTC!!!! I'm so excited to get out into the field!  

 

This week has been one exciting day after another!  (Sorry for all the exclamation points but I…can't help it!!!!)  Reason one:  Our progressing investigator Eey, finally committed to baptism! I've probably mentioned this before but even though deep down I know these investigators aren't real, our lessons with them and their progression really affects me and from what I’ve gathered, the same goes for every other missionary.  Eey was really hard to figure out and understand his needs but on Thursday night, our lesson just went beautifully and my companion and I were really feeling the spirit and we ended our lesson with a baptismal challenge (we'd already ask a few times but he wasn't ready) and he said he was ready and he understood the importance of it!!!!

 

Reason two:  My district received our travel plans right before General Conference.  The time here was starting to slow down (painfully) and this gave my district the boost we needed to use our time wisely.

 

Reason three:  General Conference! For those of you who were unable to watch it, I urge you to go online and do so.  Never have I been so spiritually fed in my life.  The over-all themes I received from the talks were the Lord is hastening his work and Now is the time to develop faith and then put it into action.  If you were here at the MTC you would know this is true the Lord is hastening his work and so many missionaries have responded!  For me personally, I have been learning a lot about faith and the power that comes from it.

 

Several of the talks urged us to put our faith in Christ into action and I'm so excited to start doing that (especially as I head out to Thailand!).  I know that the Lord will bless us when we show we have faith in him (Ether 12:6).

 

Reason four:  I'm leaving for Thailand in 5 days! And finally…

 

Reason five:  My companion and I were asked to demonstrate how to begin teaching to all the new missionaries today!  This means we get to go in and teach one of the actor-investigators in front of a bunch of freshly dropped off missionaries.  I'm really nervous and very excited at the same time.  This is the first time my companion, Sister Maughan and I will be teaching in English so I sort of feel like I'm starting from scratch.  I remember our first day here watching this demonstration of teaching and thinking those missionaries are being awkward and I'm probably going to be twice as awkward but...oh well experience is worth its weight in gold and we'll just rely heavily on the spirit!

 

Love

Sister Marina Peterson