T-minus 6 days until PORTUGAL!!

Hello hello!

Another week has just flown by! And now I have one more week before I hop on a plane and go to Portugal! I can't even believe it! I am so excited! 

Okay I am short on time but I'll give some quick updates 

1. Best moment of the week was getting flight plans! We leave the MTC at 3:50 am on Monday morning ( who really needs sleep anyways?) The best part of the flight plans (besides going to Portugal of course) is that one of our stops is in Frankfurt, Germany! And here I was thinking I wasn't going to Germany on my mission! Yes, it is only the airport, but it counts. 

2. We had skype TRC this week where we talk to members in our missions! We talked to an RM from Lisbon and it was so cool! He was really nice and told us about the history of Portugal, helped correct our Portuguese, and told us a little bit about Porto. It made me so excited to go! 

3. We had another really great lesson with one of our investigators this week! We found the video "Because of Him" in Portuguese (Gracas a Ele) and showed that in our lesson and then talked about the Atonement. It was such a powerful moment for all of us and once again, Sister Hulsey and I walked out of the lesson beaming. 

Other than that everything is great! I tried playing basketball this week and remembered why I play tennis and Sister Hulsey and I forget our cell phone on the daily much to the dismay of the front desk (we are supposed to have it all the time in case the MTC needs to get a hold of a sister in our zone) But I am as happy as can be!  I am so excited for this week but am also so sad this is the last one! I will miss it here so much.

I love you all! Have a wonderful week! Continuar para frente! A Igreja e verdadiera!

Love,

Sister Morey

And then...an apostle showed up

Hello everyone!

What a great week this week was! (Do I say that every week?) But really, this week was so good and I'll start with the best!

Yesterday for devotional the MTC presidency said that we would be watching the Character of Christ by Elder Bednar all together because we got so many new missionaries this week. So we watched the video, but half way through the MTC president left and was gone for a really long time. Then, after the video was over, the MTC president came back in and who was behind him? Elder Bednar and his wife! As soon as we saw him everyone went silent and stood up but inside we were all super excited. He did a question and answer session with us and it was amazing for lack of a better word. I learned so much! We talked a lot about being charitable and how it isn't just something we practice, it is something we become. Also one girl asked how we can be more worthy of the Spirit and Elder Bednar basically said "Just be good! Don't beat yourself up about mistakes or imperfections. You aren't perfect and you won't ever be perfect! So just do your best and you will have the Spirit with you." Let me tell you, I needed that. Finally, I had a question in my mind that I have been thinking about for a long time and while he didn't answer my question directly, through one of his other answers I found out how I should go find my answer (hint: it's by reading the Book of Mormon). The Spirit was so strong in the meeting and it was a great reminder to me that apostles are called of God. 

Next big part of yesterday: I know you were all wondering how greeting for sacrament meeting went...well apparently Sister Hulsey and I aren't the best greeters because our Branch President came out and told us we were fired and that we were the new Zone Sister Training Leaders instead! So we had a bunch of training meetings yesterday and now we are in charge of all the girls in our zone and are the designated nightly huggers. I definitely wasn't expecting it but Sister Hulsey and I are excited! 

Another big part of the week was hosting on Wednesday. It was a blast! It was crazy to think that that was me only 3 weeks ago. It feels more like 3 years ago! But we had so much fun showing the new missionaries around and telling them all about the MTC.

And finally, my favorite part of the week! Sister Hulsey and I had a lesson with our investigator Rodenei and it was one of the most spiritual and happiest moments I have had so far in the MTC. We were talking about how faith and Rodenei was talking about how he needs physical evidence for him to believe things are true. At that moment 2 things popped into my head. The first was the scripture in Alma that talks about how faith is things which are not seen and the second was the last two paragraphs of the introduction to the Book of Mormon which promises us that if we read the Book of Mormon with real intent and pray, we will know that the Book of Mormon is true, that Jesus is our Savior, that Joseph Smith is a prophet, and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is Christ's church on the Earth. After we read those two things, Sister Hulsey and I both bore our testimonies about the Book of Mormon and having faith and you could feel the Spirit so strongly and all 3 of us were grinning from ear to ear! After the lesson was over Sister Hulsey and I basically skipped back to class we were so happy! The Church is so true and I am so grateful that the Holy Ghost helps guide our minds when we are serving others!

All in all, this was a great week! We hit our one month mark this week which is just crazy. I love the MTC, I love being a missionary, and I am so grateful for all of you for teaching me the gospel and supporting me in all that I do! 

Tudo bem!

Love,

Sister Morey

Shall we not go on in so great a cause?

Hello hello!

Wow, has another week already gone by? The time just flies! And I am halfway through my time in the MTC! How crazy is that?

This week was such a great week! The best one by far! We started off by doing TRC on Monday which is where we go and basically just talk with return missionaries that speak our language. It is a little scary because they talk really fast and I don't understand half of what they are saying, but it was still such a great experience! We have that again tonight and I am excited to see how it goes! 

Along with that, lessons this week went SO WELL! Something just clicked this week and I am more excited to teach than nervous. Sister Hulsey and I have been focusing a lot on teaching to the needs of our investigator, not just giving them a bunch of information, and that has really helped bring the Spirit into our lessons. Every time I can feel the Spirit reminding me of scriptures that relate to what we are talking about and helping me remember the words I need as I bear my testimony. It is such an incredible experience every time. It's funny because even though our investigators are our teachers, when we get into our lessons, they don't feel like our teachers anymore. The lessons feel so real! Our teacher Irmao Read read us a quote that says "Role plays are how God trains His missionaries." I definitely have seen that and am so grateful from all that I learn in our lessons. 

Funny story of the week: One evening Irmao Curtis took us outside and told us we were going to be doing role plays. I asked him if we were doing them in English (one can always hope) and he just looked at me and said "Seester...." Word to the wise: never ask your Portuguese teacher if you can talk in English. 

The other highlights of the week were our Mormon Message Marathon we had yesterday which of course was amazing, we went to the temple today which was lovely, we get to host new missionaries this week which I am so excited for, and guess who was called to be the greeter for Sacrament Meetings in our branch? You've got it! Your's truly! And finally, last night we watched the Joseph Smith movie and it was so great! I have seen it several times but it had been a long time and was a great reminder to me of how important the Restoration is! We laughed, we cried, and we all walked out wanting to be better missionaries. It definitely reminded me that being a member of the church has never been easy, but it is always worth it. At the very end of the video Joseph Smith says "Shall we not go on in so great a cause?" And that is our new motto! Because what could be a greater cause to be a part of than this? 

And that's all for now folks! I love and miss you all and am so grateful for all of the love and support! The church is true!

Love,

Sister Morey 

When your investigator becomes your teacher...

Hello everyone!

Is it already p-day again? Time sure does fly! This email will be a little shorter and maybe slightly all over the place but I will do my best to update you all on all the exciting things in the MTC.

First of all, Happy 4th of July! We celebrated it on Saturday and had a really cool flag presentation of all the flags in the world and talked about freedom and how it enabled the gospel to be restored. After that we went outside and got to watch the fireworks from the stadium of fire! It was a lot of fun and it was nice to celebrate one of the best holidays!

Next, one of the best parts of last week was getting to clean the temple! It's closed for 2 weeks so they invited the missionaries to come help clean it which was a really cool experience and helped me appreciate all the work it takes to keep temples clean and beautiful!

As far as the Portuguese goes...it's a coming! It is tough and pushes me tudo dia, cada dia (all day, every day but I am working really hard to memorize the words and practice them throughout the day. I definitely am able to understand a lot more of what my teachers say which has been a huge blessing. Also, to follow up with the subject of this email, this week we had our last lesson with our investigator Nelson. We all knew he wasn't a real investigator but none of us realized that when we were done teaching him, he would become our teacher! His real name is Irmao Curtis and he is a great teacher. He got back from his mission in Brazil 10 months ago so he knows exactly how we all feel which is really nice. 

We have a lot of lessons lined up for this week. Tonight we teach members in Portuguese and then this week we will meet our 3 new investigators! I am a little nervous but the other day I had the thought that instead of just writing out everything I would want to say in English and then translate it over, I should keep my lessons simple and use the Portuguese I know really well. That way I can be confident in what I am saying and not rely so much on following a script. Sister Hulsey and I are going to try that this week and hopefully it goes well! 

All in all I am still happy as a peach and loving being at the MTC. It pushes me in every way possible but there is no where I would rather be and nothing I would rather be doing. Even with the stress of learning a language, I just feel so happy all the time which is a huge blessing. 

On to another week! Happiest 4th of July!

Sister Morey