MTC!

Three weeks ago we dropped Emma off at the Mission Training Center (MTC) in Provo, Utah.  She had originally planned to go to the MTC in Lima, Peru, but she is still awaiting her Visa!  (It's been almost 5 months now since she applied)  She has limited time with computer access so it is my job to post a few pictures and letters from time to time to keep ya'll up to date.  So here goes!  Let me know if you would like her current address. 

Week 1

June 13, 2013

Hello from the MTC!!!

Today (Thursday) is my first P-Day! I can't believe I have been here over a week! But at the same time it kind of feels like I've been here forever. The first full day was soooooooo long. But now they are much better.  It seems like we just do so much everyday! I know that the Lord is directly involved in allowing us to accomplish so much with the time that we have. So here is a typical day in the MTC: Wake up at 6:30 (maybe one of the harder adjustments), 7:00 Personal Study (one of my favorite parts. It's nice just to have set-aside, scheduled time to study the scriptures!) 8:15 breakfast. The food here isn't bad, and I can see how you could gain 30 pounds here. You can have as much food as you want and there are lots of fried foods it seems like. 8:45 back to the classroom. 11:45 companion study. 1:10 lunch. 1:55 Additional Study. 2:45 back to the classroom. 5:45 daily planning. 6:16 Dinner. 6:55 TALL (this computer program to help with Spanish), 8:10 Gym if we're lucky.

Some days are extra special, like Sundays. Sundays are the best. All the sisters have relief society together and it is awesome. We watch music and the spoken word and have relief society together. On Sunday we had 1297 sisters at our meeting. Awesome! Speaking of numbers, the Wednesday I came was the largest amount of missionaries they've had come in one day. It was over 900. I haven't heard if this last group of missionaries was larger but one of the host missionaries seemed to think this last group was much smaller.

Hermana Beckstead & Hermana Coffey

Celebrating a Four Square Victory?

 I am staying in the main MTC campus and our room is nice! 4 of us are headed to Cusco. Our other two roommates are headed to the Philippines speaking Hillygaynon. My roommate is Hermana Coffey (say coffee). She is great. She is halfway through the nursing program at BYU. The days are hard here, but spiritually uplifting.  One really fun thing to relieve stress has been THE GYM! Four square here is intense. We play with everyone and there are some reeaaaally good players. The Cusco girls keep track of our kings square points and if you win then you get to keep a pinata head by your bed or on your bedpost. (The pinata head was just in our room, I guess someone passed it on to us. Weird,  I know). I am really glad that I am in a group with girls going to my mission. Glad we are all in this whole Visa thing together! I don't know when my visa is coming, but I will keep you posted! Also, this last Tuesday was the first time in MTC history that all the missionaries met for devotional in the Marriott Center. I guess we don't fit in the MTC anymore all together! Today at 3:20 we get to go to the temple, so that will be really nice. I feel like this is a really scatter-brained email. Sorry, I just keep on thinking about things I want to tell you-there is so much!

Oh yeah, my branch president is awesome. His name is President Hollister. He used to be a drummer for Ozzy Osborne. And he has really awesome spiritual insights. And he has these really piercing blue eyes so you almost can't look away. Every week we prepare a tiny tiny talk for sacrament meeting in Spanish and at church you find out if you have to give it or not! I didn't have to give it so that was kind of a relief.

On Friday we taught our first lesson in Spanish! It was hard and we mostly quoted preach my gospel, but we did it. Our investigator's name is Maria and even though she is a "fake investigator" it's great practice and she asks us some good questions. Our third lesson with Maria was incredible. We taught her the plan of salvation and focused on the Spirit World and promised that that's where her father is and she will see him again (we had gotten to know her and had learned he had died). I wasn't expecting to be emotional! It was so awesome. There is no doubt in my mind that the Spirit was there and that he helped me bear my testimony in Spanish about the spirit world. That's hard enough in English and I don't really even remember all what I said now. I'm so grateful for the third companion! This lesson made me so excited to teach people the gospel in Spanish!  

My main teacher is Hermanon Bartolomei. He served in Mexico and is awesome! He just talks in Spanish so much it's hard but I know it's helping me learn.  

I have a lot to learn about missionary work but here are some things I've really enjoyed learning. I've loved practicing teaching the person, not the lesson. We always try to ask Maria lots of questions and get to know her so we can know what to teach her about. I've also learned that missionary work is hard! But we are representatives of Christ. After all Christ went through to become perfect, it only makes sense that we should have some hard things to go through to become just a little more like Christ. Who am I to say that is too hard after Christ's Atonement.  I think I remember Elder Holland saying, "Salvation is not cheap." Don't give up! It's going to be hard, but it is worth it if it will help us on our pathway to discipleship.

Anyways, thanks for all your emails!

Love you all! I probably forgot a lot, so sorry. But I am doing well and I hope all of you are too!

Love, Hermana Beckstead

(Emma's sister, Elise, had a baby the week after Emma left)

OH MY GOSH SHE IS SO PRECIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE MY SWEET LITTLE CLARA! Give her lots of hugs and kisses from me please!