Week 3

I leave in 4 days! Four. Days. This week just zoomed by so so fast I can't believe it's already P day. I don't know how it works but it's true what they say about missionary time. The days are long but the weeks are SHORT. It's the craziest thing.

Our Elders left this week on Tuesday and Wednesday and it was so sad! But they're all going to be amazing. And this is an exciting week for us Visitors' Center sisters. I'm learning a lot about how wrong the stereotypes about visitors' center missions are. First off, my purpose there is not to give tours. It's to invite others to come unto Christ, as always, and help them have an experience with the spirit that makes them want to act upon our invitations to pray, read, repent, get baptized, etc. And on top of that, I have several areas I work in. There's the Visitors' Center, the proselyting area, and then mormon.org chat and phonecalls - aka THE WORLD. It's going to be a lot of work for sure but it's amazing how the work is progressing.

Every Tuesday we have a devotional at the MTC and this week Elder Scott came and spoke to us. It was a talk about prayer and how to effectively communicate with our Father in Heaven. He talked about how when we pray we cannot expect Heavenly Father to do all the work and rely solely on faith. As we learn in the Bible "faith without works is dead", so we have to act if we want an answer. He said that when the Lord gives no response it is His way of telling us He trusts us to make the right decision, and we should thank Him for those non-answers from which we learn so much. He also said to pray even when we have no desire to. That's a hard one for me. But I'm working on it.

On Wednesday we went to Temple Square for a tour and it was SO COOL. We drove right past Lehi and I could see our neighborhood up on the hill and it was super weird knowing my family was right there and here I am on a mission! Haha. The spirit is so strong when those sisters on temple square invite it. We had one sister from Taiwan and one from China give our tour. The sister from China couldn't speak super great English and it was difficult to understand both of them but now I know what it's like to be on the other end of the language barrier. Of course I am not learning a language but it was interesting to see that the spirit really is there regardless of whether you speak the language perfectly or not. I could feel their testimonies and it was quite an experience for me. 

When we got back from Temple Square we got to get on the chat feature on mormon.org and chat with REAL investigators! We talked to someone from New York, Rhode Island, and even the UK! Now you see what I mean when I say that the world really is my teaching area at times. The one from England was named Jane and she has been taking discussions with the missionaries and was invited to be baptized. They gave her a tour of the building and showed her the font, and the first time she prayed aloud was right there in front of the font. She wanted to know why she was asked to be baptized so soon and was kind of shocked by it. That was when we asked her about how her relationship with God has developed since taking discussions. She said it felt so right and that she believed that this was the true church. She expressed her feelings when she prayed and when we asked her if she felt like the Lord was telling her baptism was the right path, she said yes. It was so incredible. Missionary work really is just helping people see how present Christ can be and how present He already is in their life if they come unto Him. Of course you also get plenty of trolls on chat who just want to mess around and talk about magnets. But I suppose they are still missing out on this gospel so we teach them too! Or try to :) But anyways tomorrow we will get to do the referral center again (with phones this time - yikes! Just pray for me. haha) AND we get to go back to Salt Lake in the evening and conduct the tours ourselves! We'll be assigned a companion from temple square and we get to do tours with them. I'm super excited! 

Then Sundays are always such easy days at the MTC and Monday I prepare to leave! So I have a lot to look forward to. I can't believe my time at the MTC is almost over. It felt so short. But the things I've learned are so inspired and I hope I can do my best in the field having learned them. It's been such a spiritual roller coaster of a week. Every day there's some kind of spiritual experience to look forward to and a new way to stretch me. I'm loving every minute of it even though at times it pulls me out of my comfort zone. Welcome to the mission field I guess! But I've never felt closer to the Savior in my life. I feel like every day He is right beside me and if I struggle I can just turn and ask for help. It's amazing. But the cool thing is this isn't just because I'm at the MTC and the spirit is just so abundant that everyone has all of these amazing experiences. Of course the spirit is abundant here, but just a reminder to all of my friends and family that you have the gift of the Holy Ghost too. It just takes some seeking out to find that comfort and companionship. And here as a missionary I am CONSTANTLY seeking. So don't think it's just because I'm a missionary at the MTC that I have these experiences because that is a gift granted to everyone who has been confirmed a member of this church. Don't forget that! He's walking beside all of us. We just need to recognize it.

Anyways I love you all and can't wait to talk to you all bright and early on Tuesday! Also I may not get a P day for awhile since it will most likely be Monday when I get out there. So I'll talk to you from the airport Tuesday but probably won't email until Monday. 

LOVE YOU and thank you to everyone who wrote/emailed me! I will be sure and write everyone a letter back later today since I am pretty much out of email time. 

Sister Coontz