Hello everyone!!
This week has been the longest of my life but now I'm 1 week down, and only 5 to go! The new missionaries got here yesterday so we're not the youngest anymore!
I have something amazing to tell all of you about! It's called DEAR ELDER. It's a website where you go on and type a letter to a missionary in the mtc and if you send it before noon the mtc will print it out and deliver it to us that day! and the best part is, ITS FREE! So you can send letters without having to pay for stamps! You just go onto dearelder.com and make an account. Then you type in your missionary's info and send your letters! You can send as many as you want! My companion gets like 3 a day haha but what a great thing! So if you do want to send me one I wouldn't mind..
We are still teaching our "investigator" Michela (pronounced Mikayla) and yes, we can only speak Italian to her. It's difficult (especially when we don't know what she's saying most of the time) but it has helped me become better with my language skills. We really are blessed with the gift of tounges here it's unreal. Like I mentioned, our teacher, Fratello (Brother) Sloan only speaks to us in Italian. The first few days i had no idea what was going on the entire time but now I am able to pick up more and more things and even communicate back to him using some Italian! Don't get me wrong, it doesn't just magically happen, but with much study and even more prayer, I am finally starting to pick it up a little!
So back to Michela, we've taught her almost every day since Friday and yesterday she committed to baptism! She's not a real investigator of the church, just a volunteer who is acting like one but still! It's a big deal!
Okay, let's talk about Sundays here at the MTC. On my first day here all I heard was "WELCOME TO THE MTC!" and "Just make it to Sunday" from literally every person I passed. I just thought, okay, Sunday is great..Whatever. BUT NO! NOT WHATEVER! I have never in my life felt the spirit so much and so strong in one day. It was one meeting after another that helped me feel the spiritual power here and understand my purpose.
And guess what?! I joined the choir! I know what you're thinking, "Jamie can't sing!" But it's okay because basically everyone else can so you can't even hear me! We sang "Be Still My Soul" for the Tuesday night devotional and that is now one of my favorite songs. It really is perfect for everything we're going through here in the MTC.
So I have some exciting news..We broke out of the MTC on Tuesday! Haha now really but that's what we kept saying. All of the missionaries in my zone who are from Utah had to go and meet with the Italian Consulate in Salt Lake so we rode the Frontrunner up and got to eat real food at a restaurant after! (btw mtc food is not that bad, it just gets old sometimes) Our little trip was so much fun and exactly what we needed! We got back in the middle of the day so we did some study time, ate dinner, then went to choir practice and the devotional that night! Jenny Oaks Baker was the speaker. She did a great job. Along with her talk she implemented musical performances and her whole family was involved! Her kids were young, ranging in ages 14-7. They were on the Violin, piano, cello, and guitar, while she played her violin. it was incredible.
All in all, this has been the most physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually draining week of my life but for some reason (aka the spirit of this place) I AM SO HAPPY! It may also have to do with the fact that I love my companion Sorella Rushton and my whole zone! Half of them will be heading to Milan and I am already so sad about it. The MTC is such a special place. I love you all!
Love, Sorella Bonzo
We started teaching our first investigator on Friday (our 2nd full day here.) We could only speak Italian to her so I have been relying a lot on the spirit to help me find the words to say to her. We read scriptures to help bring the spirit and if we don't understand exactly what she's saying or we have a hard time communicating a principle, we bare testimony to her, because we know that the spirit teaches better than us. My testimony of my savior has grown this past week. I know that he knows me, and knows what's best for me. He has confidence in my abilities as a missionary so so should I.
