Io ra na!!!!
Tuahine Morrill here!
well when i first walked into the MTC i thought I would be
learning french for the first 6 weeks of my stay here, my entire district
thought the same thing. NOOO I am learning Tahitian first!!!
It is seriously the prettiest language there is. I can't even
describe to you how smooth and beautiful it sounds, but it's super hard.
Apparently it's easier to learn and speak than french, so that's a little more
comforting.
My first day at the MTC was super overwhelming. I met my
companion Soeur/Tuahine/Sister Olson. she's so nice and down to earth. she's
from Ephraim, Utah and grew up on a farm, so she understands the term y'all
which i absolutely love!!
The other mau Tuahines in my district are all super sweet
too, and all of us clicked super fast and have the greatest time together when
we are not in class. We have a district of 13 missionaries, 8 soeurs and 5
elders.
Getting used to the sleeping schedule has not been a problem
for me, but like many of you know, i love my sleep so sometimes it is a struggle
to stay awake in class.....Sister Olson and I fell asleep accidentally during
personal study yesterday evening after dinner. I guess the food coma set in
harder yesterday than usual.
(Mahana maha) Thursday, we had our first investigator, and
we had to teach it entirely in Tahitian.....and having only a day studying the
language before a lesson was not easy what so ever. Our
"investigator" is Vetea and he apparently studies at BYU. We were
able to find out that he has a sister, a brother, and his two parents. he loves
soccer (WOOHOOO) or was it football or rugby....I'm not sure bc all three of
those words in Tahitian are super similar. Sister Olson and I were able to
teach him about the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation over the 3 lessons we
have had with him so far. I love being able to practice and prepare lessons,
but it's hard to connect with the investigators personally when you don't know
there language, so you can't really involve them as much as you would like, but
that will all come with practice, patience, and a lot of faith!
This past Sunday we had a devotional and Janice Kapp Perry
came and spoke to us. shes well known with the church for writing a few hymns
and lot of the primary childrens songs. Her husband is so sweet too. At
the beginning of her talk she was telling us how her and Doug met. She was in a
music class at BYU and was preparing for a clarinet final. She was sitting in a
chair practicing and Doug comes up and says "you know...those lips
could be a lot more useful for something else besides playing the
clarinet!" AAAAHHHHH.....and then her husband got up from his seat on the
stand and just planted a big fat kiss on her in front of the entire MTC! After
he shot his fist in the air as if to say "YES! I still got it."
Sister Perry then said "Maybe I won't tell that story anymore....or
maybe I will." hahahaha I can't get over how cute they both are
together.....#goals. At the end of her talk she sang to us her family song she
wrote for all of her children, her grandchildren, and husband. And she urged
all of us to someday write our own family song...one that can tell the world
about you and your adventures with your kids and husband/wife.
After the devotional we got the opportunity to watch the
"movie" "The Character of Christ" by Elder David A. Bednar.
In his talk he gave a few years ago on a sunday Christmas morning in the MTC,
he basically told all current and future missionaries "It's NOT about
YOU." At first a few of us were a little surprised by his words, but
then realized how true they were. Yea, we are missionaries of the church, but
our job is to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ, not the gospel of us. he later
told us that if we are taking notes of what he said is "stupid and
pointless." "You are just writing a copy of your own LARGE PLATES.
Stop, instead write a copy of your own SMALL PLATES, full of your thoughts and
feelings of what I have to say." GENIUS!!!!
Bednar than quoted Niel A. Maxwell, "there would have
been no atoning sacrifice without the character of Christ." He urged us to
all look within our own selves and think if we qualify of having those
characters of Christ: love, service, and compassion. He reminded us that the
natural man is the greatest enemy within ourselves and for us to turn OUTWARD in
love towards others and NOT inward to yourself. "You can't live off of
borrowed light." We need to build our own testimony through our OWN
conversion of the gospel...not the conversion of others. We must be the
greatest conversion on our mission first before we are able to help and express
the love of the gospel towards others. We must learn OF Christ NOT ABOUT
Him.
No lie...that entire devotional gave me chills....I clung to
every word Bednar said, and agreed to myself to focus more on others and not
just myself but work on strengthening my own testimony and conversion first
before trying to help others....grow closer to Christ. If I'm not close to
Christ when teaching....how can the investigators I teach later on grow closer
to Him too?
Today, we have another MTC devotional and they said we have
someone SUPER BIG coming in to speak to us...last Tuesayd before i came they
had Holland come in and speak...jealous. I can't wait to find out who it
is....Our district is hoping for either Uchtdorf or Bednar...that'd be killer.
Oh and I keep seeing Ryan Andrus, Elder Andrus, around the
MTC....so you can say I'm on a campus with a BYU celebrity!! No big deal! Now
that I see him up close I can finally see how tall he really his!!
AND I FINALLY SAW MY ROOMATE ROSE!!!!! she is going to serve
in Recife, Brazil and was supposed to go to the Brazil MTC but her visa never
came in time, sooooooo she's here!!!!
I love you so much and miss you like crazy!!!! But I'm so
excited to be serving a mission and spreading this wonderful gospel! it has
seriously made me so much happier this week!
And I'll have 11 more weeks to study study study!!!
Ua here au ia oe (I love you)! Stay gucci!
Tuahine/Soeur/Sister McKenzie Morrill
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