Week 6 in the MTC

Hola!

 

This last week went by so fast it is incredible. I wrote a little bit already about what happened on Christmas and Christmas Eve. We had Elder Bednar and it was really so amazing. It is amazing the spirit that enters the room when one of the apostles of God walks into a room.  The feeling in the room literally changes.

So anyways...that was awesome and I got some fun presents from family that I really appreciate a lot. It is amazing how good many of you are at knowing just what I may be needing. Anyways...the rest of Christmas day was truly amazing and very surprising. We watched the Mormon Tabernacle Concert with Sissel which happens to be my favorite concert of theirs...but I did not have any idea how many times my sister Chelsi's face appeared on that video. Like huge closeups and everything. Over and over again. I loved it! Talk about such an unexpected tender mercy from God. It was like I was actually at the concert watching my sister and so in a way I got to spend Christmas with some family afterall. Maybe that sounds way dumb, but it really made Christmas that much better for me. 

 

Anyways...after that we had our quick sack dinners...and then comes the big surprise. We went to the devotional that evening a little bit earlier than usual so that we could get good comfortable seats since we were going to be sitting there for 3 hours. We got there just before 6:30 for the devotional that was starting at 7. Shortly after we got there, they called a few missionaries down to the front, including me. I had absolutely no idea what it was about. I got down there and they said that Sister Nally wanted to talk to me. I found her. She is the one who holds the auditions for musical numbers. I had auditioned 1 1/2 weeks earlier, but didn't think there was any way that I was going to play because the song I had auditioned with had already been played at several devotionals and other meetings. I had auditioned with O' Holy Night, but she had put me in the yes stack. But I thought she wouldn't get to it since there had already been several others. Anyways...I found her down by the stage and she said..."did you get a notice in the mail in the last few days at all?" I said that I had not. She said, "I was afraid of that." She then began to explain that she had had musical numbers lined up for all the meetings during Christmas day. There was supposed to be a musical number during the departure devotional earlier that day, but the scheduled person had not showed up...so on her way down to this devotional she was thinking that maybe with the staff being short for Christmas, none of the notices to play for the devotional had gone out. It turns out that she was right. So she asked if I would still be willing to play at the devotional that was starting in 20 minutes....mind you that this is the Christmas devotional with the whole MTC! I said that my violin was locked up in the main building and I didn't know where my accompanist was or how I could notify her...but I was very willing to do it. My heart was pounding like a mad woman! Anyways...she said she would find my accompanist and have someone meet me at the music closet to get my violin. I literally ran to get my violin with my companion, I warmed up for 3 minutes and ran back to the devotional. My accompanist and I had not played through it at all for about 10 days...but we just got up there and were the only musical number for the devotional. To say the least, it was the first time I have felt nerves like that playing the violin in front of a crowd for a long long time. It was a little nerve racking to stand up in front of 2500 missionaries with 20 minutes notice and play...but it went quite well for not having rehearsed it for so long and the fact that we had really only played through it together 3 times I believe. It was crazy! So that was a fun little present that God gave to me. Even though I was super nervous, I really had a great time doing it. The prelude numbers that had been planned that other people were supposed to play, were not able to happen because the people didn't have their music with them cuz they didn't know...so I am grateful that I had just enough notice that we were able to provide a musical number for Christmas Day. 

 

Anyways...there have been some other really cool things that have happened this week. We feel a little lost sometimes because we have a new substitute teacher everyday and they don't always follow what the plan is supposed to be, but we have had some good teaching experiences this week because of it. I want to share just one that really had an impact on me. This whole week we have been talking about how important the spirit is in every persons conversion, including our own continual conversion. So we have been sharing and learning a lot more about how the spirit works and that we may not even know what is going on until after it happens.  So yesterday, we were teaching our investigator Lorena. Our teacher had not told us any of the things about her, but it was our second lesson with her. Hermana Crowley and I had a completely different plan than what the spirit led us to in that lesson. As we began talking with Lorena, I had the thought to ask her how her family was doing (I didn't even remember that I had asked that until our teacher pointed it out after). But Lorena began to tell us how she and her family were having a hard time because her parents just got divorced and she didn't know how to feel about anything and she really was struggling with it. When she said that, the spirit hit me like a brick wall and told me that I had to share with her my experience and what I have learned through it. I began to share with her how my parents got divorced and how hard that was for me, especially because of how much I loved my family. I shared with her how important families are to God and that we really can have eternal families. She wondered how that was possible when her parents are divorced. This happens to be a very hard question to answer because I do not know exactly how it works, but the spirit has testified to me many times that I will be blessed with the blessings of an eternal family and I can be together with my family forever even though my parents are divorced. I wouldn't even say that I have just a testimony of this, I really feel like I have an actual knowledge of this, because there is not a doubt in my mind because of the confirmation of these thoughts I have received on several occasions. I truly loved this experience and my teacher shared with us afterwards how incredibly powerful the lesson for her was as the investigator. She could really feel the spirit confirming what I said and that it was so interesting that that came up because only the spirit knew that my experience would be able to relate to her problem. She had not intended to share that with me at all but felt comfortable sharing that when we showed we care about her and her family. but there was no way for her to know that I had been through the same thing. I am so grateful for the mysterious ways in which God works. I am not even out in the field yet and I am seeing literal miracles everyday. 

 

Well I better go...I am way overtime.

I love you all!

This Gospel is so true and I am grateful for the opportunity I have to serve.

 

Love,

Hermana Eyre

Merry Christmas!!!!

Hello my lovely friends and family!

 

I had no idea that I was going to be able to email today. I am glad that I get to though! Know that they are taking good care of us down here. Last night we had a fun huge play of the nativity that they put on with many of the missionaries playing the parts.  After that was over, they gave us some delicious white chocolate popcorn and we watched The Christmas Carol. It was really awesome! 

 

We had a great Christmas morning too...We had a gigantic Sacrament meeting with the whole MTC and guess who came to speak to us at it???....Elder Bednar!!! It was super fun especially because we were all making guesses who it would be last night and he was my guess and hope. He really is such an incredible and powerful speaker. The spirit testifies so strongly of everything that comes out of him. I wish I could share more with you about what he spoke about but with however many missionaries are on the computers right now, I can hardly get a sentence out before the computer freezes on me.  The General gist though...was talking about how we cannot just have a testimony of the things in the church. We are likely to fall away at some point in our lives if that is all we have. We need to be truly converted to the Lord and emulate the character of Christ.  This conversion and emulation comes by doing these 3 things.  We need to learn of the Character of Christ and the Doctrines of the Gospel (we need to have knowledge of them), then we need to apply them in our lives (but to do this, we can't be thinking about ourselves or be looking for ourselves, we have to be thinking about others), then we need to receive the knowledge or confirmation that what we are doing and the way we are living is exactly in line with what God wants us to be doing.

 

He talked about the need to emulate the character of Christ and how it is exactly that we can do that. Character refers to moral qualities that are consistently lived and strikingly displayed. With the Character of Christ, he always turned out (away from the natural man) when he was in the midst of his own suffering. The natural man has the tendency to turn in towards our own problems when we are in the midst of our own trials and tribulations.  Only by turning out towards others and God can we overcome the natural man and the tendency to turn in towards ourselves, away from God, and becoming selfish. It is really hard to get across all the things that I learned today from the Spirit through Elder Bednar...but hopefully you kind of get the gist of what I learned today.  

 

This is something that I am really going to try and emulate in my own life. I know that I am way too selfish most of the time and I want and need to be thinking entirely about others and not myself so hopefully as I learn more about Christ, I will be able to become that in my life...but the funny thing is...I won't even really know when it happens. He said that the time that we become that we won't realize it because we are continuing to turn out towards others and helping them in their pains and afflictions. Christmas has definitely been a spiritually enriching day so far and they have even more plans for us today that I am very much looking forward to. 

 

I love you all and I hope you are having a wonderful Christmas and take a little time to turn your thoughts to the Savior and to others. Think about what you might be able to do for someone else on this day to lift them and strengthen them. 

 

I love you so much!

 

Love,

Hermana Eyre

 

P.S. I am so excited that I will be joined by Nile Facer in the MTC this week! It will be so good to see such a familiar face! I wish I had had a familiar face when I got here. The first couple days were a really rough adjustment...but I am sure she will be amazing! Anyways...I love you all and Merry Christmas!!!

Week 5 in the MTC

Merry Christmas to you all!!! Thank you so much for all the wonderful packages you have been sending me...all the yummy treats, presents, and things I needed and wanted so much! You are all the best! Christmas here is going to be very different but I really think I will enjoy it a lot! We have been having so many devotionals that are so focused on the Savior and has kept our minds focused on that for Christmas. I have really enjoyed this aspect of it.

P-day today was a little different than usual because the temple is closed for cleaning for 3 weeks. But I really enjoyed it anyways because I was able to spend almost two hours practicing my violin instead while Hermany Crowley wrote letters and I just adored it! Tomorrow they are going to let us watch a movie for Christmas Eve and will give us delicious popcorn again which I am so stoked about. Then on Christmas we are going to have two devotionals. I am so excited. It is going to be awesome. 

I really hope you all enjoy Christmas time as much as I have been....Although I really wish it would snow for Christmas! I don't know how on earth you are all living with no Snow! I would be dying if I wasn't here!

Remember this Christmas the incredible gift that we were all given. The true focus of Christmas. The Gift of our Savior Jesus Christ. God gave his son to us and His son gave his life to us. There is nothing more incredible in this world than that message and I am so excited to have the opportunity to go and share that message with the world and keep that message of Christmas me everyday of the year for the next 18 months and hopefully beyond that too!

 

I love you all!

Love,

Hermana Eyre

Week 4 in the MTC

Hey everyone!

This week has just flown by! It is seriously amazing though how time is literally going slow and fast at the same time! I have already been here a month...but that also has seemed like an eternity!

 

Anyways...the Spanish is coming fairly well...It is hard to understand natives right now who speak very fast...but most of the time we are understanding about 95 % of what our teachers are saying...but they always repeat things and speak more slowly which makes it more doable.

 

Anyways....we had some awesome speakers this week. In Relief Society on Sunday, Ann Dibbs (President Monson's daughter) came and spoke to us. She is also in the General YW's presidency. She was fabulous and she told us such awesome things about her father and bore her testimony that she really does know that he is a prophet of God.  On Sunday night the BYU men's chorus came and sang for us and they were absolutely fabulous. It was great to finally hear some music for an extended period of time. On the Tuesday night devotional...The YW's General President, Elaine S. Dalton, came and spoke to us. She was also fabulous and I learned so much. I love that we get to have so many devotionals every week.  

 

Anyways....some funny and frustrating experience's from this week...First... I was trying to get an accompanist in order to try out for a musical number in a devotional while I am here...but the church is a tiny bit too stingy on copyright laws. They will not copy anything...even if it is a rehearsal copy. And even though the music is not being performed in a program that is producing any money at all they still will not do it. If I had known this when I came I would have made as many copies of everything that I would need. To say the least it was super frustrating and I was grateful that I brought some blank manuscript paper. I just copied out the violin part so my accompanist could have the score. I hope this doesn't prove to be another problem in the future when I get out into the field too. Anyways, the audition went well and I guess we will see what happens. 

 

As for a funny experience...when we were teaching our "progressive investigator" Favian this last week, he was telling us all about how he was confused about our message because he had been talking to his friends and they were saying things that made him question everything.  In explaining how to overcome this confusion by reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it...I accidentally used the word mismo instead of menos.  Mismo=the same...menos=less. I was trying to tell him that he would become less confused as he read the BOM but I guess it came out as that he would be the same confused if he read the BOM.  Pretty funny eh!!!???!!! Good thing we have language training for 9 weeks before we go out so that is a little less likely to happen. 

 

Okay...update on the Visa status...I have heard some rumors from some other people that are going to Spain, that Spain has been in very bad shape when it comes to the employment rate...so just recently they changed some governmental person and he is changing the process for visas. Now it will supposedly take 3 months and all our stuff will have to be resubmitted by church travel. These may just be rumors...I will let you know when I find out for sure...but I may be spending 12 weeks in the MTC or get shipped off to somewhere in the states in the meantime while I wait for my visa... A little frustrating...but I guess God does know what he is doing and what he wants to have happen so I will just trust that. 

 

Anyways...I better go! 

 

I have loved hearing from all of you on DearElder.com by the way! Keep it up!

 

Love,

Hermana Eyre

Week 3 in the MTC!!!

Hello everyone! I am so grateful to those of you who answered my cry for letters either in the mail or on dearelder.com. They really lifted my spirits throughout the week and I also received some awesome little packages from family this week that I loved! I got a Nativity Scene from my sister, Dried apples and thanksgiving notes from my other sister, and a present from my Aunt Linda and Uncle Rick...but I don't know what it is yet cuz I am not supposed to open it until Christmas.  

So the MTC has been treating me really well this week with the exception of my having to start birth control because of some health issues...to say the least, it has really messed with my emotions this week and I feel like I have been on the roller coaster ride of my life.  Besides that though...I am really super grateful for the MTC and everything that I am learning here.  My district is seriously amazing and we are all learning so much. My testimony is growing leaps and bounds.  I have never received answers to my prayers as fast as I have been receiving them here and there is pretty much not a single day that I do not receive some sort of personal revelation.  This has been really cool for me to experience because I have begun to see things in places that I have looked a million times and not seen anything...but now everything hits me like a brick wall. 

So I received a request to know a little more about my companion. As I said before, her name is Hermana Crowley. She is seriously awesome. She is from Twin Falls, Idaho.  She is going to serve in the Texas, Houston mission.  She loves to sing and to play the piano and even grew up doing some ballroom dancing...which is a pretty big coincidence because there is another Elder in our District that is pretty much like a professional ballroom dancer.  I have met 5 people here at the MTC that are ballroom dancers! It it crazy! I have never met so many in my life before.  Anyways, she loves her family and loves to spend time with them just about as much as I love spending time with my family. 

So short little update...I think I mentioned that I did not get my visa so my departure date is no longer December 17. So unless there is a miracle, I will be spending Christmas here in the MTC in Provo...which also means that I do NOT get a phone call on Christmas.  I will get an airport call though...but who knows when that will be. 

The language is actually coming better than I would have thought. We are teaching a lesson in Spanish pretty much everyday now.  It took a huge leap of faith for us to stop bringing notes or phrases in Spanish in with us when we went to teach, but we started doing it and it has changed everything.  The Spirit now has more of a chance to direct the lesson which has been super awesome! It has also allowed us to be able to be more blessed with the Gift of Tongues. I find myself understanding things that I really didn't know how to say and especially understanding things that are going unsaid. The spirit is super incredible and I hope that I can get better and better at trying to rely entirely on the Spirit and not try to rely on my own knowledge. 

I was lucky enough to just run into two people I knew this week. I said hi to my Mom's friend Julie Briggs who works at the MTC when the new missionaries come in. Then while I was at the temple today, I saw my brother-in-laws mom. It was good to see both of them and get a hug from people that I know and love!

Anyways...

I am really having a good time...and even though it seems like it has been an eternity since I left, I have a feeling that the next 18 months are going to fly by!

Well my time is up so I better go. 

I love you all! Keep the letters coming! I want to know about all of it!

Love,

Hermana Eyre 

Week 2 in the MTC

Hello Everyone!

I am so missing you all but I am having a wonderful time here at the MTC. There are a lot of hard adjustments that I have had to make over the past two weeks but I am managing.  It is super hard to be stuck inside all day and the first day that the field was open I had butterflies in my stomach and thought for the first time that I actually understood how a dog feels when it gets to go to the park.  It was amazing and luckily I have been able to spend my gym time on the field a few more days since then. As for the music thing, it has been hard to not have any music but it is just an MTC rule and I will be able to listen to my awesome classical music and seriously awesome Church music once I get out into the field.

So here is some news about my visa. I will not be leaving on my scheduled departure date of December 17th because they have not received my visa.  But whenever they do receive it, I was told that they will likely ship me off the next day or a couple days after receiving it. In the meantime though I will be spending the rest of my training time here at the MTC in Provo.  I am actually okay with this though because I truly love my companion, my district, and my teachers.

My companions name is Sister Crowley and she is totally awesome. We get along super well and she has been an awesome strength to me when I have been having hard days here and vice versa.  She has an amazing spirit about her and we are helping each other to learn the language pretty well.

My week during Thanksgiving was pretty awesome. As I said last week, we had a visit from two different apostles in 3 days. It was awesome and they both inspired us all.

They do not let you rest one little bit while you are here. As I have been told, we are teaching 5 times as much as the missionaries who were in the MTC 4 months ago were doing. As I said before, we taught a first lesson in Spanish on our 3rd day here and it was so scary. We taught that same progressive investigator like 4 more lessons I think. This last week we started with two new progressive investigators and we will be teaching one of them just about every day of the week. It is really incredible how much this helps to learn the language. When we are focused on the needs of our investigators and how we can adapt our specific lesson or just the gospel in general to them and what they need at that time, we truly are being blessed with the gift of tongues. I find myself not being able to understand a whole lot of Spanish during class but then during our lessons when we are teaching, I find that there are many things that I understand and know what to respond with because the spirit is teaching me what I need to say.  It was hard at first to have the strength to heed those promptings because I knew that I had no idea how to say them, but in our last couple lessons I have just trusted not using my notes too much and I was able to say things and remember how to say things fairly well. While the meaning of what I was saying may have been a little vague, I was able to get it across because I just trusted and listened to the spirit.

My teachers are absolutely incredible. There are like a million teachers that visit our room throughout the day, but my main two teachers are Hermano Akana and Hermana Curtis. They both are inspiring and teach me so much everyday.

So I am actually about ten minutes over my time so I better go....but I want to here from all of you!

The best way I have found actually, is to have you go to dearelder.com and send me an email from there. They will print out a hard copy that very day and put it in my mailbox and I will get it that same day. All you need to know is my full name and the mission I am serving in and my MTC mailbox (328). My full name is Carli Serenity Eyre and I will be serving in the Spain, Barcelona Mission (SPA-BAR).  I am currently at the MTC in Provo.  I think you need all that info.

Anyways, I love you all and would really appreciate hearing from all of you....especially my family!!!! Hello family. I have gotten letters from my grandmother and from Scott, but not from you! If you don't want to send a letter in the mail go to dearelder.com and just do it!

I expect to see them this week okay! And send me your mailing addresses and email addresses in those letters as well so I can send you all a real letter. Write to me there so that I don't spend all my email time reading emails and not writing an update.

I had no idea how much missionaries love getting mail until I became one! Write me please!!!

I love you all!

Love,

Hermana Eyre