Cassie's Letter for June 25, 2014 - The Spirit is So Strong Here!

 

 

Dear Family,

This was another excellent week!! It is so great to be here at the MTC. There is such a strong power and spirit here, it truly is incredible. It's basically like a lemon water cleansing diet for the soul. Seriously, it's awesome. Also, it has been double awesome lately because the new mission presidents were on campus today being trained! So the spirit-o-meter is just off the charts high right now. 

Okay, this week has kind of been slightly uneventful in a good way because we now have two teachers instead of one. Which means we have double the class time. So basically all I do is sit in class and try to learn some Spanish. Our teachers are Hermana Cabello and Hermana Rasmussen. They're pretty awesome women! We are lucky to have them.

So, our old "investigator" Josue committed to baptism!! Yay! It was really scary asking him if he would like to get baptized. "Seguira el ejemplo de JesuCristo al ser bautizara por alguien de posea del sacerdocio del Dios?..." and then waiting for his answer...eek! It felt like we were proposing to him or something. It was really scary. But he said yes! ...That's basically the end of our story with Josue. He was going to be our new teacher but is instead going to main campus for a different job so that's the story with him. 

We got two new investigators though. Gabby and Iris. (They are really just our two maestras.) Gabby is from Mexico and her son who is thirteen got baptized a year ago. Her husband had a run-in with the law and might get deported. Also, they told their previous missionaries to never come back and talk to them because for some reason they offended Gabby's husband. Her life is really complicated. I just know the gospel would make it better. And then Iris, Iris seems to be so prepared to hear the gospel. She doesn't like a lot of things about Catholism and she gets so excited when we talk about how families can be sealed forever. She also already really loves the Book of Mormon. We have another lesson with her tonight.

For our Sunday devotional Sister Janice Kapp Perry and her husband came! They are really old and SO SO adorable. Janice Kapp Perry wrote basically all of my very favorite primary songs and I just think she is the coolest cat ever. Her husband is adorable. When he first got up to the stand he said, "It is an honor to be Brother Janice Kapp Perry." It was precious. Janice Kapp Perry gave such a fun talk. She sang us her family song which was adorable! And then she had us all sing a medley of some of the songs she wrote. The last song was kind of the EFY anthem but missionary style. The song for "As Sisters in Zion" had changed words here is the first verse that I had time to write down:

The Sisters of Zion are called to God's labor

We willingly serve Him with spirit and might

We go to the nations with truth everlasting

We teach of the Savior, our Lord, Jesus Christ

And then when the Elders sang "Armies of Helaman" the lyrics had been changed to "we are NOW the armies of Helaman" it was AWESOME. The spirit was SO strong. Amongst the strongest I have ever felt it. The Elders next to me were crying. (I think it important for my pride to note that I didn't cry because I'm a cool cat. Just kidding, cool people cry too.) Anyways, it was just really great.

Our district likes to play kickball on Tuesdays with another district in our zone. We split into teams and it is SO much fun. My favorite exercise time of the week. :) We aren't allowed to keep score to prevent us from getting into fights but I'll just assume for the story's sake I was one the winning team. ;) I also caught a fly ball and got someone out. Yay for not being completely helpless!

This week is the anniversary of the day Joseph Smith was martyred so I've been reading "Our Heritage" and JS History. I know there are a mistakes Joseph Smith made that people like to point out sometimes to try and demean him and his message, but he really is an amazing man. I am so grateful that the restored true gospel was returned to the earth through him. He did amazing things for our salvation. (That sounded dramatic but I don't want to retype it. Don't make fun of me!) 

Also, I've been studying the Christlike attribute of charity this week. Wow! Charity is so important!! I mean, I always knew that, but I think I learned of it's importance on a whole new level this week. I really liked 1 Corinthians 13:1 it says something along the lines of "Though you may speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not charity you are as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal." That's pretty intense, that if you don't have charity your entire message won't be carried to people's hearts, even if you are a great orator. You'll be like a tinkling cymbal! Like that image of a cymbal only making a small tinkling sound is so sad, it is not living up to it's full potential because it lacks charity, and because the cymbal lacks charity, so many people will not hear the beautiful sound the cymbal has to share. Pretty great metaphor.

And for my final paragraph... drum roll please.... Tuesday devotional! The best part of the CCM! We got to hear from Elder D Todd Christoffereson. And that is so cool, but if you can even believe it, it gets better!! We were in the presence of FIVE apostles at once!! (Dallin H Oaks, David A Bednar, M Russell Ballard, Russel M Nelson and D Todd Christofferson). It was INSANE. The spirit was SO strong. He talked about how every soul is great in the eyes of God. Which went along so well with me studying charity this week! Lovely how that works out. I don't have enough time to type up all my notes because I wrote like two pages. It was just incredible. 

Okay, well it feels like I wrote a lot so I'm going to say my adieus now. I love you! I hope you have an amazing amazing amazing week!! (My companeras always make fun of me because I guess when I get excited I say things in threes. Good thing we're a trio! I just say it once for each person! haha) 

I love you all so much!

Love always, 

Hermana Wood

Hermana Wood's First Letter - Amando la Vida!

 On Jun 18, 2014, at 3:43 PM, Cassidy Wood <cassidyw@myldsmail.net> wrote:
 
Hola! 

This week has been amazing! Overwhelming and crazy, but amazing. The first day I got there everyone just kept saying, "You've just got to make it to Sunday, everything will get better after Sunday." It was SO TRUE. The first couple of days were insane and super hard but somewhere during that sabbath day everything got a million times better. It was a sacrament meeting miracle! (It wasn't that they days were bad until Sunday, there was just so much new stuff to take in). Ever since Sunday, life has sure been looking up. People keep saying that the first couple days are the hardest ones, I don't know if that's true (and I don't really think it is) but if it is, then I am going to rock the next year and a half! :) 

I am in a trio and have two of the most wonderful companions on earth. Hermana Riches and Hermana Grenfell. Hermana Riches is from California and is actually the girl we had take our picture at the Provo temple! How funny is that! She is such a cheerful person and is such a good example of opening your mouth, she just talks to everyone. It's awesome. Then there is Hermana Grenfell who is from Kentucky. I don't think she has a single flaw, she is seriously probably one of my favorite people I have ever met. Ever. She is SO funny without ever being crude or mean and I basically just spend all day laughing. (We aren't light-minded, only light-hearted :) ) And she is also a super genius. She was originally put in Advanced (the two-week Spanish program) but got switched to Intermediate so that's why we're in a trio. And I am so glad she did get switched to Intermediate because I'm so glad I got to meet her! I just love them both. I got so blessed to have such amazing companions. 

My District is also great. There are four elders and five hermanas. Elder Price (from Montana going to GUADALAJARA!) He is also the District Pres., Elder Sheffield (from Logan going to San Antonio) He is 25 so basically he's a grandpa. Elder Taylor (from Idaho going to Satio Mexico?) and Elder Peterson (from Sandy going to GUADALAJARA!) He plays soccer for Westminster. They're all awesome people. LOVE IT.
 
Remember Gabby Cavo from Minnesota?? Well, I met her the other day in the MTC. She's going to the Texas McAllen mission!
 
We have an investigator named Josue. He is really awesome and really shy. It is such a great experience to teach him. We first taught him about prayer and how he is God's son. It was a good lesson for our first try. Then we taught him about the restoration. And then the atonement yesterday. So, the second lesson we gave him we got locked out of our room so we gave it in the middle of the street basically haha. It was a really cool experience though to "teach them in the streets" like that one scripture says haha. The first two lessons I was SO stressed. I really don't understand much Spanish and I can speak even less. It is quite frustrating to not be able to communicate your ideas to people. I left the first two feeling like an awful missionary. But right before my third lesson I was studying about the language of God or the language of the Holy Spirit. I realized how silly I was being that I thought I would be able to teach Josue more with my broken Spanish than the Holy Ghost would. So basically I just went in there with the whole focus on inviting the Spirit. Spanish-wise the lesson was awful, but the spirit was so strong. One of my hermanas started crying and I could tell Josue felt the spirit. It was such an incredible experience. I still wish I could speak better Spanish though. :)
 
On Sunday we got to listen to Sheri Dew speak! It was amazing!! She talked about the grace of God. And how grace is the power to do something you can not do on your own. Whether that means being cleansed from your sins or overcoming your weaknesses, grace and the atonement of Christ helps us with all of it. Christ suffered for our sins and iniquities as well as our weaknesses and shortcomings. Grace is an enabling power that has no mortal substitute. One direct quote she said that I loved was "The Lord rarely moves the mountains in front of you, but he will always help you to climb them." I don't think that paragraph did her talk justice, but it was just really great.
 
Also on Sunday we sang a song in Relief Society. It was just "As Sisters in Zion" but the words were changed. I guess a year ago Siser Janice Kapp Perry (the author of that song) came to the MTC and was so inspired she wrote some new verses. I can't remember them, but I remember really liking them. You should try to see if you can google them. :)
 
And then guess who spoke on Tuesday?? Elder M Russell Ballard!!! His talk was great although I personally liked Sheri Dew's talk better. But the thing that I loved was just being in Elder Ballard's presence. His spirit is so strong you can totally tell he has a direct line to God. I just couldn't help but think about what a great experience this was for me to be able to share it with my investigators someday. He talked on not being ashamed of the doctrine of Christ. One quote I liked was "Today's headlines will become history's footnotes, but the gospel of Christ will always be good news." How lucky am I to get to devote a year and a half of my life to learning, living and sharing that good news with people!
 
Spanish is still really hard and I am really grateful that I am not learning something harder haha. I would appreciate any prayers that would help me have the gift of tongues. I love my teacher and everyone here and I love being at the MTC. I am so lucky to get to represent this wonderful and true church.
 
I love you! Have a great week :)
Hermana Wood