This is Lara's Mom. I haven't yet figured how to post pictures from my phone to this blog, so I'll try to educate my techno-unsavvy self for next time. Now, for her update:
HI!
I'm LOVING the MTC so far. It's seriously amazing. I can feel the Spirit pretty much all day long. Although I spend a LOT more time than I would like sitting in the same room. Like 12 hours a day.
I don't have a companion though...I have two! Sister J is from Utah, and her dad is a general authority. And Sister T is from Florida. Both of them are going to Spain too, but to Malaga. We get along super well. We're all on the same page as far as obedience and language ability and we're just pretty similar personality-wise. One of the sisters in our zone asked us if we thought we were really similar and we sort of shrugged...and then today we got sack lunches so we could stay in our jeans (you have to wear a skirt to eat in the cafeteria) and we all got EXACTLY the same lunch. Weird...
We only have 8 people in our district: us three Hermanas and 5 elders. 2 of the Elders are also going to Spain: Elder T to Malaga and Elder V to Barcelona. The other 3 are going to Mexico: Elder A and Elder B to Chihuahua and Elder H to Guadalejara. We're all in the intermediate class so all of our lessons are in Spanish and we've taught our "investigator" two lessons in Spanish already.
Sunday was super good. We had a devotional with Steven Allen, who is a general authority over something missionary-ish. Don't really remember what. But it was awesome. And then we got to watch an old MTC devotional by Elder Bednar which was probably one of the best things I've ever heard. He talked about how becoming converted is taking upon yourself the character of Christ, and he defined the character of Christ as turning outward where the natural man would selfishly turn inwards. He challenged us to get a new cheapo copy of the Book of Mormon and read it with whatever theme we want, so I'm going to get one and do a study of the atonement. That has been the main focus of every meeting I've been to so far. I have been so filled with gratitude for my Savior and for everything He's done for me. I've come to realize that not only does the atonement offer us comfort and peace, but it fills us with grace. A divine means of strength. It allows us to change in ways that are literally impossible for our natural selves to follow. What an immense blessing that is.
Our main teacher is Brother B, who is apparently the head honcho of MTC teaching. He is an incredible teacher and you can tell when he teaches that he loves us and he really loves the Lord. He invites the Spirit into our lessons so well. He was training a new teacher who taught his first lesson to us on Saturday, and it was amazing. He talked about the atonement and said how his mission president challenged them to talk about the atonement in every lesson, and they had immense success because of it. It was an immense reminder to me of something I had heard in mission prep a long time ago, that as missionaries, we don't teach lessons or doctrine, we teach access to the atonement. The atonement really is at the heart and soul of everything in the gospel. I love it so much!
It's actually been really fun to teach lessons in Spanish, and we aren't as bad at it as we were afraid we might be. If one of us says something in a really confusing way, one of the others will bail us out. YAY for trios. Our next lesson (which should be tomorrow...) is going to be on...guess! THE ATONEMENT! We already taught the Restoration and we were on the plan of salvation lesson but we all felt really strongly that we needed to focus our thoughts on the atonement. It's amazing that even though we're just teaching one of our teachers and none of us are anywhere near experts at Spanish, we can always feel the Spirit testifying of what we teach. How amazing is that?
I've been praying for you guys too! And I will continue to do so.
I haven't gotten the second package yet, but maybe that's because it's P-day and our DL hasn't checked our mail yet. And no, there's not anything else I've noticed I'm missing. The bookstore here has pretty much anything I could need, and it's all 40% off for missionaries!
Please forward this to whomever you will and post it on my blog!
I'm not sure I have time to upload pictures right now, but I'll get some for you next week, for sure.
I love you guys and I'm excited to hear from you!
-Hermana Schaumann
P.S. Next week for Easter we get a "special" General Authority, who is probably one of the First Presidency! HOORAY!
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