I miss y'all so much but I'm having an awesome time here at the MTC :) If ya'll want to email me any time of the week you totally can, but I just can't reply to them until Saturday. I really enjoy hearing from friends and family and despite what people may say, it really helps me focus on my purpose knowing you're all safe and loved out there in the world.So tell me all about what you guys get up to, I'd love to hear from you all. Also, I really like pictures too; just FYI :)
I had a pretty great Thanksgiving! Elder Bednar spoke about how important the Holy Ghost is in the Lord's work. It was really awesome to be in the same room as an apostle of the Lord. Later that afternoon, we got to do a humanitarian service project helping put together breakfast meals for starving kids here in Utah. We packed over 350,000 meals in under 2 hours! I love service, it's one of my favorite things about being a missionary. In the evening we had the Nashville Tribute band as our musical guests and I sang in the choir and we got to accompany them on some songs. It was Grand! They kept us pretty busy so that we wouldn't really have time to think about what we would be missing at home.
We get to start teaching actual investigators and I'm so pumped! I love seeing how the Spirit can work in people to change their hearts. I've seen how it's changed mine just in the short amount of time I've been here at the MTC. I'll be here until the 12th of December; then it's out to California I go! Some days I really just want to leave the MTC and get to the field. Other days I really just want to stay here with the people who have become my family. We play four-square a lot during exercise time and it's so fun getting to act like we're 8 years old again. The food here is pretty okay, they serve large portions. We have pizza every Friday from Papa John's and I think that's my least favorite meal here now haha. It's not super hard to get up in the mornings like you think it would be for me, since I'm still totally not a morning person. It takes at least an hour for my face to un-scrunch, but my roommates are used to it now. I'm just learning so much all the time, but I'm so grateful to be learning skills that I will use for the rest of My life. I wish everyone could experience a mission, or at least the MTC. The things you learn here are eternal, and the spirit you feel is unmatched.
My companion Sister Stout is hilarious! She makes me laugh all the time haha. We have so many inside jokes, it's great. We make a good team teaching together I think.
The biggest thing I learned this week was how important the holy ghost is in our lives and the crucial role he plays in the work of the Lord. Because honestly, it's not us missionaries who convert people; it's the Spirit telling them that the things we testify of are true. Elder Bednar straight up told us (meaning the natural man) to get out of the way and let the Spirit do its job. So I'm trying hard to focus outward instead of inward and be worthy of and listen to the promptings of the Holy Ghost. This doesn't mean that we neglect ourselves and our needs, but it does mean that we should be focusing way more on our investigators and their needs. When we do that, we will be filled with joy and with the love of God and will have His power to effect change in people's lives. The missionary spirit is contagious and I think I've caught it pretty bad ;)
I love you all so much and I'd love to hear from you more! Stay the course and you will be blessed.
Love,
Sister Torkildson
************************************************
Dear Sister Torkildson;
My, you sound all afire with the holy spirit! That’s how LDS missionaries should function all the time -- it’s the only way to survive the slings and arrows of door to door tracting and missed appointments!
I went over to Sarah’s for Sunday dinner yesterday, and just as we drove up to their house, her husband Jonny was dismissing 2 Jehovah Witnesses from the front door. An older man and a boy about 15 or so. They wanted to come in to discuss Bible scriptures and when Jonny politely explained that they were about to sit down to dinner, the man got a little pushy, so Jonny had to give him the old heave-ho. You’d think they’d have mighty slim pickin’s around Orem, but they persist in trying to show us Mormons the errors of our ways. I think the 15 year old boy was feeling pretty embarrassed -- he looked miserable.
I was pretty miserable the first two days I was in the Mission Home in Salt Lake before I went out to the LTC in Hawaii to learn Thai for 2 months. That’s because I had already bought a nice missionary suit -- or so I thought. It was a seersucker robin’s egg blue, with white pin stripes! The Mission Home president took one look at it and gave me the afternoon off to go over to ZCMI and buy a regulation sober-colored suit. Trouble was, I didn’t have the money for it. It cost $75.00, as I recall. So I sold my leather briefcase, my wristwatch, and my camera to some of the other missionaries to raise the funds. Turns out that one I got to Thailand I didn’t even need a suit -- we only wore dress pants and short sleeved white shirts in that tropical climate. But I never really missed those items -- the briefcase would have just gotten in the way, and the watch and camera would have just been distractions. Many of my companions had expensive cameras that they lugged everywhere and made a nuisance of themselves taking photos of everything and everybody. No such thing as a cell phone camera back in those prehistoric days!
And I had my first bout of insomnia those first few days. I just couldn’t sleep a wink at night. We were in a dormitory that slept around a hundred Elders, and they had pillow fights and bull sessions all night long, while all I wanted to do was get my eight hours. I was always falling asleep during the training workshops and talks by General Authorities. But finally I managed to tune out all that nightly nonsense.
Sarah and Jonny are getting serious about moving to either Thailand or Cambodia for six months next year, and they want me to come along. But I don’t think I could stand the long flight -- it takes about 23 hours, not counting layovers, to get there from Salt Lake. Jonny is doing well with his online supplement business, which he can do from anywhere. I guess I’ve told them so many tall tales about Thailand that they think it’s an earthly paradise! So I’ve been hoisted by my own petard! In my mind, I’m never leaving this cozy little apartment again, not even for a trip to Thailand. But we’ll see -- I get my Medicare coverage next September and then can get all the examinations and medical procedures done that the doctors have been nagging me about for the past 2 years, so maybe I’ll feel up to traveling again. But I’m not holding my breath.
Take care, my little prairie gentian -- Love, dad.
No comments:
Post a Comment