Week 1 - MTC

I can't believe it has almost been a week already! The MTC is so great!! I have never felt so tired, had such long days, studied so much, and felt the Spirit so strongly and had so many powerful experiences in one week!! Everyone here is super nice and friendly. My companion is so great. I love her. She is a farm girl from Iowa, her name is Sister Schlueter. She's 21 and has been going to BYU Idaho for the past two years. We work together super well and I love teaching lessons with her. My district didn't click super quickly but we are really close now and it will be sad to see the Elders go. There are two sets of Elders in my district and three sets of Sisters. All six of us are going to New York Utica so that is super fun and the four Elders are going to Cincinnati. My zone is great-I'm not super close with them though. I don't think I will have time to upload pictures but I definitely will next week! Oh and my Pdays are Tuesdays! I would love to get letters and emails!! :)

Wednesday--lots of sad goodbyes and an early morning flight to Salt Lake. Once I got to the MTC I met with my host who would take me to my room and show me around a little bit. My host was my friend Sister Casey Cheney who I met at UVU and she was in one of my ELED classes! That was a great tender mercy to be able to have a friend as soon as I got there. Then we met our teachers. I love them so much. They have such strong testimonies and are amazing missionaries. All of the new missionaries had a meeting with the MTC Presidency and they asked me to say the opening prayer! I was a little nervous but it was good. We had other activities and then we met our zone. One of the Sister Training Leaders was Emily Whatcott's roommate at BYU so it was super fun to see her and have that connection! I felt the Spirit so strongly today. It is so powerful to sing Hymns altogether as set apart missionaries. 

Thursday--We met with our Branch Presidency today and it was a little overwhelming because they gave us a lot of assignments to do but they didn't take very long so it wasn't bad. We taught our first investigator today! Her name is K and her boyfriend is LDS and she wanted to meet with missionaries. She is so cute and I love her so much. We taught her about the Atonement, who God is and that He is always there for her. We also taught her how to pray. I became a Senior Companion (they chose it by who has a last name closer to the beginning of the alphabet.) Then my companion will be the Senior Companion the last week and a half that we are here. Something that has been a great spiritual experience is when Elders and Sisters share why they came on a mission. I always feel the Spirit so strongly. None of the Elders said it was because it was their priesthood responsibility and felt they needed to go because of that. I love that. 

Friday--We taught K again today and this time we taught her about the prophets and having faith. I love teaching lessons. I guess I chose a good profession. ;) I can always feel the Spirit helping me and guiding me what to say. I LOVE exercise time! I run for a little bit with Sisters from my district and then we play volleyball! I love playing volleyball. I'm trying to work on not being competitive (which if you know me is hard to do) but I'm getting better. Brother Wright is one of our teachers and he is the greatest. I love him so much. Every time he teaches he blows me away. My understanding of the missionary purpose and the Atonement has grown so much. 

Saturday-- Sister Olson is our other teacher and she is awesome. She taught us how to ask questions that will really help our investigator's faith in Christ increase. It was so helpful. We went over the first lesson of the Restoration and practiced how to teach it. We studied a lot today but it was good. The food here is good. There are some meals I definitely like more than others. There are a lot of choices though so that's good. Today we taught K again and I felt prompted to invite her to be baptized and she said yes!! It was awesome. Brother Wright's lesson today was so incredible. He taught about the Atonement and read us a poem "He's Been There Before" by Troy Whittle (my mom's cousin).  

Sunday--Today was definitely my favorite day at the MTC so far. It was SO good. We had church with our branch then later we went on a walk to the temple and it was beautiful. The flowers were out and the sun was shining. That night we had choir practice and it was AMAZING. Everyone was right. Choir is the best thing ever. The Spirit I felt was so strong. Super exciting news!! We are singing a song written by Elder Bednar and we are the first people to ever sing it!! We are singing it next Tuesday at the Devotional and a few of his grandkids are singing it with us and Elder Bednar is coming to speak in the devotional!!! Isn't that the coolest thing ever?? I am SO excited. The Devotional Sunday night was so amazing and I almost cried a few times. (Happy tears of course) The Spirit was SO strong. I can tell you about what happened later but I am running out of time. Then we watched an old MTC devotional by Elder Bednar and it was life changing. I don't think I have ever been impacted by a talk that much. It is called the Character of Christ. I loved it so much. I almost cried again. 

Monday was great and Brother Wright's lesson blew me away. I was speechless after hearing his story. He is amazing.

I'm out of time but I LOVE YOU ALL!!

The Church is true and my testimony of the Atonement has grown so much. I love having the Spirit always with me. I love being a missionary and I am SO excited to go to New York and help others know that Christ loves them and he wants them so badly to return back to Him.

I promise I will send pictures next week!

Miss you and love you! Have a wonderful week!!

Sister Horne