July 28, 2011

Here is Brittany's e-mail home from today. She sounds like she is doing REALLY well and loving her mission so far. She only has a couple more weeks in the MTC. Hopefully before she leaves she'll send us some pics of her companion and MTC experience. Enjoy! ~


Hi!

I hope you are all doing well! Thank you so much for all the emails, dear elders, letters, scribbles, everything. I love that I still feel very connected. Anyways, thank you for all the love! Especially thank you for all of your encouragement and advice and everything this past week. My district thinks I'm the most popular person in the world, but it's really just that I have a very, very supportive family. Mom, my entire district looks forward to seeing me receive your "diary entries" each night. Haha, but really, I love having mail to look forward to each day, it makes all the difference.

I now realize that I probably sounded really stressed out in my last email, which was true. But I'll have you know that I'm doing 100% better. Hermana Lamb and I are doing great. Last Thursday night, we had a good ol' "companionship inventory", and talked out a lot of things. That night was my hardest night in the mission thus far, but things are so much better now. Hermana Lamb has really made an effort to make a lot of improvements, and I've been trying to do the same. I've noticed a huge change in her, probably in me, and in our companionship. Now, we're doing really great, and tension is gone. So, moral of the story: Communication, Forgiveness, and a Willingness to Change can make any relationship work!

So, I think the only question I got from you all is via Stewart Barcenas, wondering if I've gained weight. Hahahhaa. I'm happy to report that I have not noticed a weight gain, I'm stickin to my garden salads and elliptical trainer during gym time. Eric, I loved that you talked about the OJ in the MTC...several of the members of my district have fallen victim to it, while others claim that it makes no difference. I prefer to stay out of that argument.

So, one thing that I'm still lovin about the MTC is how much studying we get to do. There's always more to be studying. I really feel like I've gotten to be very diligent in my studying, and I have a real desire to learn more and more. Most of the people in my district are leaving next week, so some people are getting a little MTC trunky, but I'm trying to stay focused. This past week I've been focusing my study (in addition to PMG) on the books of Enos, Ether, and JSH. I love the book of Enos! He does such a great job of describing the Atonement.

The highlight of the MTC is all the great firesides and devotionals. Our fireside on Sunday night was one of my favorites. The speaker is the president of the missionary department, and he focused his entire talk on showing mormon ads! He used teh different catch phrases to teach us important lessons as missionaries. I loved it. My faves: "It's not who you aren't, it's who you are." and "When everything says you can't, believe in the part of you that says you can". He told us that that part of us is the godlike part, that is the Spirit. He focused a lot of being who we are, and using our mission to become the person we never in our wildest dreams imagined we could become. He encouraged us to ask God who He wants us to be, and what our full potential is. He also talked about Cultures, and how we all have been born in different cultures, and now we need to try to adjust to the MTC and mission culture. SO that was awesome. Then Tuesday we had a devotional, and the speaker really described the mission experience well...the most wonderful awful experience you'll ever have. He talked about the sanctification process, and gave us a list of like 20 different synonyms for "sanctified". He talked about the gift of the holy ghost, and how we all have it, but we have to work hard to RECEIVE it. Also, from these devo's and firesides, I have a newfound love for the song "Come Come Ye Saints". I love the line that says "WHy should we think to earn a great reward, if we now shun the fight?" It really applies to missionary work. Currently my fellow district members are taking pictures of me stressing out over this email, I'm flipping over my notes and trying to find out what I want to tell you. Hahaha. So after the devotional on Tuesday night, we had our district review, which was also awesome. Hermana Lamb bore her testimony really strongly about how she believes her grandpa will rejoin the church while she's on her mission. We talked about it for a while afterwards, and I'm just amazed at her faith. She has so much faith, and so much confidence in the Spirit and the impressions she receives from Heavenly Father. It's really cool, something I hope to learn from her.

In other news...I dropped my roommate's camera off my bunkbed the other night, and she opened up the back of the camera to try to fix it, and proceeded to get electrocuted, twice, by her camera. Hahaha. I felt really bad, but it was pretty funny.

Also, the world continues to be extremely small, and I still feel very connected to LC/BYU. I still haven't seen Rudy, BUT I have seen Carolyn Meza (twice!), and Jenni Stott and her boys (I was surprised sbhe remembered me). Also, this afternoon I was getting some immunization stuff done, and the lady goes "Sister Fors, is Dennis your father?" And i said "Yes, who are you?" And she said "You look just like him, I'm Susan Merrill." Dean Merrills sister! So we chatted for a bit, she says hello. I also got the opportunity to host the new sister missionaries on Wednesday. That was really fun, I got to help 3 sisters get settled in. After hosting my first one, I returned to the station and I saw JAMIE MORGAN walk up! So we both freaked out, and then I got to host her. So I helped her move in and get her books and stuff, and she's in the room right around the corner from me, so we'll be seeing eachother a lot. So all of those, plus lots of people from BYU, help make me feel right at home.

Also, yesterday I got a package from Brent Peterson! Him and Noralyn sent me a fresh apple pie from dear elder! That was SO nice of them, I sent them a thank you note but tell them thanks again.

Mom and Dad, I have a friend, Hermana Olivo, heading to the LA Visitor's Center. She's from the DR and NYC, so look out for her, she's awesome.

Today my district and I went to the temple for the first time. It was great! I loved going to a different temple, the Provo temple is really pretty.

So yeah, things are going great. Thank you so much for everything. I'm learning so much, my spiritual thought for you would be to learn more about who God wants you to be, and learn more about how you can receive the power you need from Him. That's something I'm working hard to learn how to do...if we do our part, we'll be able to do what it takes to make it happen. I love you guys, I'm sorry these are always so incredibly scattered...just know that I'm happy and healthy and loving the mish.

Love,
Hermana Fors!