MTC Temple Square Training has Begun

February 09, 2023

This week was my first week of temple Square training at the mtc. That means I only have 1 more week of mtc food.

I had to slowly see all the members in my district leave and it was so sad. That district was the best and they will all be so missed. Meal times just aren't the same without elder Allison singing random songs (that sound nothing like the actual song) or asking what transformer we'd be. But I'm now in a sisters only district and I definitely don't miss the conversations about the boys fighting demons in the bathroom because of the food...

We now have morning classes which is so nice because we are in bed by 9:30 and fall asleep at 10 where as before we had class until 9. Our schedule is wake up 6:30, breakfast 7:15, class 8:30-11:30, lunch 12-12:30, personal study 12:30-1:30, class 1:30-4:30, dinner 5 and then we usually workout at 6:40 or there's a devotional. We stayed in the same room so it's now just sister adams and I in here. that means we stayed in the same branch and combined with another district of 4 elders to make a new district for devo reviews. The elders are going to the Phillipines, they have been here for 8 weeks because they're from New Zealand and so they had to come here for the 2 weeks of online because their wifi wasn't good enough to support zoom. They are super shy because their English isn't great but they have amazing testimonies and always say hi to us/ask how we're doing. There are 23 sisters, it is insane how much they're rebuilding the mission rn. Our p days once there are 12-10pm so that will be an interesting adjustment but it will also be nice to not have to worry about being back to your apartment in time to get back to the square.
There were 5 sisters from my original district that stayed for visitor center training and 2 of them just tested positive for covid so hopefully we don't get sick but the odds aren't looking good bc now we're technically in a trio with their other comp and she doesn't have symptoms so they wouldn't test her but she's been living with them so pray for us haha.

Not going to lie the beginning of this week was super hard. It was like how the first couple days of in person mtc felt, I just felt so inadequate and questioned what I was doing here. It almost felt like everybody else in our district was moving on and we were stuck here. But that is just Satan working hard on us. Something that I've had to remember is that the lord doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the called. We will grow into this role because the whole purpose of this earth is to learn, grow and return to Heavenly Father.
There are 23 sisters going to temple Square this transfer which is so crazy. There are 12 of us in my class and it is so fun! I've never felt more American than I did while doing our introductions. They're from Italy, Philippines, Australia, Netherlands, Canada, Ghana and I'm over here like hi my name is Sister Jones (5th most common last name in the US) and I'm from Southern California. Not to mention we pray in our native language, suddenly praying in English got significantly less fun. Jk jk
On Sunday we went to the departing devotional even though we aren't leaving for another week because our district was going and we're good supporters. At the end they had us sing "we'll bring the world his truth" but they switched the words to say
"we are as the armies of Helaman
We have been taught in our youth
And we are now the lords missionaries
To bring the world his truth"
The spirit in that room was insane and just for a moment we forgot that we were starving because it was 5pm on fast Sunday. We are the lords missionaries and we will bring the world his truth even if it feels like no one wants to listen to our message.
I strongly encourage you guys to watch the video "missionary work and the atonement" you can look it up on Facebook (or YouTube for the people that actually have google), it has talks from Eyring and Holland in it and is so good.
I love and miss you all!
<3 Sista Jones