Partial Letter to Mom
This is part of the Letter came one week after Tiffany went into the MTC...
MOM!!!
I LOVE YOU SOO MUCH! the MTC is the best place ever!!! I am so happy here! All the people are so nice! and i have an awesome companion! Our teachers are great and the spirit is so strong here! I only have 30 min to write emails so if they are short, its cause the computer logs me off after that. Anyways, thank you for you letter on dearelder.com! That works so great! and its easier for me to write letters because i'm not stresses about time running out. The language is pretty difficult. They had us teach our first investigator on our 3rd day in Hungarian- and without any notes!! but its surprising how fast it is coming. I've been trying to stick to eating salads and soup in the cafateria so that my skirts still fit me when i leave here. Its actually really nice to have a set schedule, and a set time to be able to workout everyday!
This place is even better than i expected! I am not homesick at all!- sorry. lol I love you guys so much but this experience is so worth enjoying every second! The lessons are amazing! We just had our first devotional yesterday on Faith. Gerald N. Lund spoke. Oh, and you will be happy to know that my companion, Sister Gallion, and I joined the choir! We just performed for the first time yesterday! it is really great! and all the Elders sound amazing!
So far I haven't felt too discouraged or overwhelmed. My first few days learning the language were really stressful though. I hear my teachers speak and wonder how in the world i will ever be able to speak like them. But I am beginning to feel more comfortable with it and I know that the Lord is definitely giving me strength beyond my own.
There are 8 missionaries in our district. 4 Elders and 4 Sisters! They are all so awesome and we are already starting to build a strong friendship with eachother! This is the best decision I think i have made in my life up to this point! I feel so happy and so blessed to be here, and I am beginning to see just what a huge part this gospel is in my life! I can't wait to go to Hungary and tell everyone about it! I am so glad that I followed the prompting i had to go on a mission. And even though i was unsure about it at first- there is no doubt in my mind that i am exactly where i am suppose to be! :) so don't worry about me! Tell everyone I say hello and i love them alot!! Anyway, i love you SOOOOOOO much! my time is about to run out so i better go! but i will talk to you again soon!
Love always,
Sister Johnson
I LOVE YOU SOO MUCH! the MTC is the best place ever!!! I am so happy here! All the people are so nice! and i have an awesome companion! Our teachers are great and the spirit is so strong here! I only have 30 min to write emails so if they are short, its cause the computer logs me off after that. Anyways, thank you for you letter on dearelder.com! That works so great! and its easier for me to write letters because i'm not stresses about time running out. The language is pretty difficult. They had us teach our first investigator on our 3rd day in Hungarian- and without any notes!! but its surprising how fast it is coming. I've been trying to stick to eating salads and soup in the cafateria so that my skirts still fit me when i leave here. Its actually really nice to have a set schedule, and a set time to be able to workout everyday!
This place is even better than i expected! I am not homesick at all!- sorry. lol I love you guys so much but this experience is so worth enjoying every second! The lessons are amazing! We just had our first devotional yesterday on Faith. Gerald N. Lund spoke. Oh, and you will be happy to know that my companion, Sister Gallion, and I joined the choir! We just performed for the first time yesterday! it is really great! and all the Elders sound amazing!
So far I haven't felt too discouraged or overwhelmed. My first few days learning the language were really stressful though. I hear my teachers speak and wonder how in the world i will ever be able to speak like them. But I am beginning to feel more comfortable with it and I know that the Lord is definitely giving me strength beyond my own.
There are 8 missionaries in our district. 4 Elders and 4 Sisters! They are all so awesome and we are already starting to build a strong friendship with eachother! This is the best decision I think i have made in my life up to this point! I feel so happy and so blessed to be here, and I am beginning to see just what a huge part this gospel is in my life! I can't wait to go to Hungary and tell everyone about it! I am so glad that I followed the prompting i had to go on a mission. And even though i was unsure about it at first- there is no doubt in my mind that i am exactly where i am suppose to be! :) so don't worry about me! Tell everyone I say hello and i love them alot!! Anyway, i love you SOOOOOOO much! my time is about to run out so i better go! but i will talk to you again soon!
Love always,
Sister Johnson
The First Family and Friends Letter...
Well i feel like i'm starting to get the hang of missionary life here at the MTC. The schedule is pretty crazy. Our whole day is planned out from 630am until 9pm. It's kind of nice knowing what your day will consist of beforehand though. We spend about 10 hours of the day in the classroom. We do personal study, language study, companionship planning, and class all in the same tiny room. And to make it even better- the window is bulted shut... haha but atleast we have a window to keep us sane. Luckily, we have really awesome teachers Brother Daybell and Brother Erickson that make our class time fun. They are so patient with us. I can imagine it must be crazy trying to teach us all this information so quickly, but they are great!
My companion has been called as the cordinating sister, which means that i am now the senior companion. haha so i am moving up in the world. (Kind of). We have been teaching a fake investigator for the past week. His name is Gabi. I thought at first that role playing would be lame and cheesy, but it hasn't been that way at all. Its crazy how real the whole experience feels. the first day he told us that his family is baptist but that he doesn't believe in God anymore, and he refuses to pray. But he enjoyed listening to our message and was willing to hear more. It was hard teaching in a language i can barely speak. I think the most frustrating part about it was that there was so much i wanted to ask him and so much i wanted to say, but i didn't know then words yet. The first few lessons i just tried to memoriez phrases. But by our 4th lesson with him, my companion and i were able to start having actual conversations. Which made it so much more exciting. It was amazing how strong the spirit could be felt as well, even though it was just a roll play. In our last lesson with Gabi i wanted to share and experience but i didn't know how to say all the words. So i drew a bunch of pictures, and pointed to the pictures trying to explain with the words that i knew. The spirit hit me so strong at the end of my story. I know that the spirit can work through me no matter what language i am speaking. And even though i can't say all the words, I know that if my companion and i bring the spirit into our lessons we can still be effective teachers. Because it is truely the spirit that converts, not the missionary.
After our 7th lesson with Gabi, he had read some in the Book of Mormon and agreed to pray. My companion and i talked about the experience later. We both thought it was amazing how the whole situation was just a made up experience, but it felt so real and we were able to actually come to love this "investigator" we were teaching.
The language is coming a lot faster than i expected though. Our whole district has commited to only say our prayers in Hungarian from now on- even our nightly prayers. Its been tough. But since we have started, I really feel like the Lord is helping me to learn and understand the language so much more.
The devotionals here are really amazing. We've had some members of the 70 come and speak to us. My compainion and I are in the choir, so we've gotten to perform a few times already. All the missionaries going to Hungary have amazing voices. Everyday our "Osi" or the older hungarian group that is 6 weeks ahead of us come in and sing hymns with us before meals or after study time. We sing in Hungarian which is really cool!
Letters are so fun to get! thanks to everyone who has written me! Dearelder.com works great! You can write your letters for free and i get them the same day! I promise I will write back to everyone that writes me! Oh and Dad, can you send me your home address so that i can write you both letters please?
Well, we are going to the temple today for a session! its really cool to get to go with other missionaries to the temple. When we went last week one of the Elders in our district told us that normally going into the temple is such a drastically different feeling when he walked into the doors, and now it feels about the same. I think that is because the spirit is with us so often here at the MTC. I love the feeling here, the MTC is just a really incredible place.
Well i love you all so much! I hope that everyone is doing well! All of you are in my prayers! Talk to you again soon!
Love always,
Sister Johnson
P.S. this probably has a bunch of spelling and grammar mistakes so feel free to fix them for me! thanks! love you!
My companion has been called as the cordinating sister, which means that i am now the senior companion. haha so i am moving up in the world. (Kind of). We have been teaching a fake investigator for the past week. His name is Gabi. I thought at first that role playing would be lame and cheesy, but it hasn't been that way at all. Its crazy how real the whole experience feels. the first day he told us that his family is baptist but that he doesn't believe in God anymore, and he refuses to pray. But he enjoyed listening to our message and was willing to hear more. It was hard teaching in a language i can barely speak. I think the most frustrating part about it was that there was so much i wanted to ask him and so much i wanted to say, but i didn't know then words yet. The first few lessons i just tried to memoriez phrases. But by our 4th lesson with him, my companion and i were able to start having actual conversations. Which made it so much more exciting. It was amazing how strong the spirit could be felt as well, even though it was just a roll play. In our last lesson with Gabi i wanted to share and experience but i didn't know how to say all the words. So i drew a bunch of pictures, and pointed to the pictures trying to explain with the words that i knew. The spirit hit me so strong at the end of my story. I know that the spirit can work through me no matter what language i am speaking. And even though i can't say all the words, I know that if my companion and i bring the spirit into our lessons we can still be effective teachers. Because it is truely the spirit that converts, not the missionary.
After our 7th lesson with Gabi, he had read some in the Book of Mormon and agreed to pray. My companion and i talked about the experience later. We both thought it was amazing how the whole situation was just a made up experience, but it felt so real and we were able to actually come to love this "investigator" we were teaching.
The language is coming a lot faster than i expected though. Our whole district has commited to only say our prayers in Hungarian from now on- even our nightly prayers. Its been tough. But since we have started, I really feel like the Lord is helping me to learn and understand the language so much more.
The devotionals here are really amazing. We've had some members of the 70 come and speak to us. My compainion and I are in the choir, so we've gotten to perform a few times already. All the missionaries going to Hungary have amazing voices. Everyday our "Osi" or the older hungarian group that is 6 weeks ahead of us come in and sing hymns with us before meals or after study time. We sing in Hungarian which is really cool!
Letters are so fun to get! thanks to everyone who has written me! Dearelder.com works great! You can write your letters for free and i get them the same day! I promise I will write back to everyone that writes me! Oh and Dad, can you send me your home address so that i can write you both letters please?
Well, we are going to the temple today for a session! its really cool to get to go with other missionaries to the temple. When we went last week one of the Elders in our district told us that normally going into the temple is such a drastically different feeling when he walked into the doors, and now it feels about the same. I think that is because the spirit is with us so often here at the MTC. I love the feeling here, the MTC is just a really incredible place.
Well i love you all so much! I hope that everyone is doing well! All of you are in my prayers! Talk to you again soon!
Love always,
Sister Johnson
P.S. this probably has a bunch of spelling and grammar mistakes so feel free to fix them for me! thanks! love you!
I am excited for Sister Johnson. She is doing so well.
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