Colorado

Hi, I'm Here at the MTC

HI IM HERE. at the MTC. I HAVE SO MUCH TO TELL YOU! okay so I'll start on my first day. we drove up to the MTC and adrienne greeted me right away! and then I walked like 10 more feet and there was afton who greeted me in tears with some acai berries! I kept walking and saw maddie blake! okay im being that missionary that tells you all about the people that they see and everyone is like okay i dont even care, but sorry im not sorry. It was so joyful and i literally fell in love with the mtc in two seconds. i saw ashlyn at lunch and also dallin OH IM SUPPOSED TO BE SAYING ELDER AND SISTER so i saw elder murphy and also sister modersitzki, a girl from my ward at BYU. anyway, then adrienne walked me to my classroom and elder austin (Nick) was in my district! elder smith(Cameron)  is also in our zone, just not our district. but i was so excited to see him, it was like little pieces of home were everywhere at the MTC! so then I met my companion and she is AWESOME. okay straight up the best thing about her is she has to go to the bathroom ALL THE TIME. JUST LIKE ME. sorry to everyone that is reading this but if you know me then you know that i literally have to go all of the time. its great. anyway. just kidding thats not the best thing about her. she is from a farm in canada, and is HILARIOUS. she is a cross between phoebe from friends and kelsie groot. seriously every second is so great and we get along really well. i love it. oh also i saw elder braun! that was the next day at breakfast. in the span of like 10 hours i saw everyone from my life! our district is really fun. they are mostly 18 year olds right out of high school. they are the biggest characters youve ever met and there is never a dull moment with them. so elder austin and his companion elder rosequist hate me for getting mail all the time so they always lie and hide my mail from me until the end of the night and its very rude. hahaha just kidding its good because then i dont get distracted during the day. mom i love all of your dear elders! seriously i love everything you're saying and it always makes me laugh. its the perfect end to my day. brayden and skyler- thanks for writing me. NOT. THANKS FOR THE 3 SENTENCES YOU SENT ME YOU NOOBS. haha please tell me about your life. skyler. lacrosse. update. help. also dad thanks so much for that letter! it made me so happy okay now im just thanking you and not telling you anything.

so. mom answers to your questions: I slept on the top bunk, but i moved to the bottom bunk last night. hahaha when i would move in the middle of the night poor sister duprey below me would get night terrors that the bunk was falling on her and would wake up and yell. so i moved. ahhaha and i ate with the girls in my district the first day! yeah its definitely cannon center food haha. oh so we tried to instigate "district dinner" the first couple of days and the elders were like.... uhh... i guess..

IT WAS RUDE. but we made them do it and and they all had a good time so now we all eat as a zone and its the best time of everyones life. our district is not very thankful for us but the other district loves us because they dont have any sisters. they always take our trays and its really nice.

ashlyn and maddie blake come to my room and visit me a lot of nights! its great. mom i think ash is sending you pictures.

We already got our travel plans! WE LEAVE IN LESS THAN A WEEK. i cant believe it. i have to pay for my own luggage and i think that i will be reimbursed when i get there. but yeah i just need enough for that!

overall i've learned a lot. i actually got used to the schedule really fast. because we're not learning a language, we are studying the gospel by ourselves for a lot of the day. the mtc is totally not what I expected. I thought you sat in a class with a teacher all day but its really all on you how much you learn and put into it! we wake up at 6:30 and go to bed at 10:30.

sister turner (my companion) and i had a really humbling experience. so the first couple of days we really felt like we knew what we were doing. but on saturday, we taught had our first discussion and it was pretty bad haha. we completely ran out of time, and got nothing out of our discussion. we walked out really confused and felt the need to improve. everyone else seemed so confident in what they were doing, and we just felt so unprepared and it sounded so scary to go out in a week. but what we realized is that we really needed to give everything up that we had and give it to Christ. we learned not only to exactly obey what our Heavenly Father wanted us to do, but we really wanted to try to please Him in everything that we did. we focused on serving the other girls in our district, especially because one of them was sick and the other one was really homesick. we really tried to focus during our study time so we could really OBTAIN the word, not just read it. we prayed a lot together as a companionship, and learned that if we really tried to keep the Spirit of love and the light of Christ with us at ALL times, we would be blessed in many ways. this really showed during our next lesson. we had more confidence in our testimonies, but really learned to rely on the Spirit to teach ourselves and the investigator.

I learned the same thing the next day. it was fast sunday, and we fasted until 430. it was the longest that ive ever fasted before. but when i felt like i couldn't do it anymore, i focused on what i was fasting for. i focused on my family and how much i wanted to be an example to them. I focused on Christ and how He fasted for FORTY DAYS and FORTY NIGHTS for US. if He did that for me, and by following Him i could bless the lives of my family and the people i come in contact with, i realized it was so worth that SMALL sacrifice. i can give these 12 days away. I dont need them for myself. this is when i realized that i needed to just forget myself these next 12 days so i really can work and learn as much as i can. I HAVE SO MUCH TO LEARN. and it never ends. Following Christ is a lifetime PURSUIT. and i realized such a difference! our lessons had so much more power and we were able to feel the Spirit SO STRONGLY. We talked to this one lady Ivelisse, who other sisters also taught and they really struggled. She wasnt listening to them, and she was on her cell phone for half of the lesson. but she really seemed to latch onto our personalities and listen to what we had to say. it was one of the most happy and peaceful settings i have ever been in. I shared with her how the Atonement has healed me. Sister turner shared how it had healed her. Ivelisse loved our message and Sister Turner and we shared with her with tears in our eyes that we know that this is the true gospel of Jesus Christ on the earth. everything about it brings so much peace and happiness. As we left she thanked us for the happiness that we brought to her.  We walked out with so much love for her and so much happiness. What I need to learn is how to SHOW people how the Atonement can heal them in our own lives. This is the answer that Sister Turner and I are working towards and that by coming unto Christ, FAMILIES CAN BE FOREVER.

So some people wonder why their prayers are not being answered. they wonder if God really answers them. something I learned about prayer is that prayer is a form of WORK  and it is the appointed means for obtaining the HIGHEST OF ALL BLESSINGS. That is just an amazing promise. but you have to believe in that promise. but the key is we have to pray representing CHRIST'S MIND. That is why we pray in His name at the end! because we need to have that mindset. So i challenge you all to start incorporating that into your prayers. EVERY TIME YOU PRAY, before you start, remember that you are representing Christ's mind. That will bring you more peace of mind and you will RECOGNIZE God's answers and hand in your life. That is something that I promise.

Okay last thing, read Joseph Smith history as a family. The first 26 verses or so. Read it out loud. but before you read it, pray to know that Joseph Smith was a prophet. and read it, and then after- seek that witness from the Spirit. Whether its a feeling of peace, or love, or just that it feels right. The Spirit speaks through thoughts. I promise that if you pray with a sincere heart really wanting to know if he is a prophet of God- with no preconceptions, God will tell you that it is true. I did this. I already felt like I knew that Joseph was a prophet. but as I read it again, I realized that it FEELS so real. You have to focus on the feeling that you have. there is no way that you can make an experience like that up. the feeling when you read it is so humbling, and you really feel of His love when you read it. it really is a lesson to everyone. the lesson is if you ask in prayer ,THERE IS NO DOUBT YOU WILL RECEIVE. You just have to know that the answer will come in small ways, through the Spirit. Even a thought that leads you to do good IS FROM GOD.  Prayer is essential to finding out truth. and truth, is things how they really are.

Okay well i love you guys and ill send pictures now! I seriously appreciate all of your support and love through letters. if you haven't received an answer from me yet I am working on it and I promise if you wrote me I will write you back!

Love, Sister Gregerson