Katie's Mission - MTC
MTC - Week 1 - July 23, 2019
ATTENTION: Sister Katie Johnson
Companion: Sister Hurley
Hello everyone!! Hope you are doing well. I miss you all but I am loving the MTC surprise surprise haha. I can't believe I am on this side of the email for once and I have completed my first week as a missionary. Sister Hurley and I are just laughing about all the things that happened this week trying to decide what to write because there is a lot! We love the MTC though, especially meeting people. There are missionaries from all around the world and serving all around the world and it is so fun and empowering to be here with them. We feel like we know everyone now haha we are basically famous at the MTC nbd. Some of the missionaries we always see are the Thai elders, the German zone, Chicago sisters, etc. and we always say hi to them in their language haha so fun.
Sister Hurley is from Idaho and SHE IS THE BEST! I love her & we get along so well. Everyone says we are the exact same. We are becoming more like each other and sound the same and answer questions in unison it is so funny. Our birthdays are even one day apart. Our branch president commented on how well we get along and how happy we are. We were called to be STLs (sister training leaders) of our zone, which we are so excited about. We have two new districts coming in on Wednesday and we get to welcome them and give them tours, etc. Our STLs were the best and made our day when we first got here so we are trying to live up to that. They left this morning which was sad, but they handed over all of their snacks to us haha. Like a lot of food. Don't worry we will give it to the other sisters. We are the only sisters in our zone not homesick & we know we are being helped. :) We are the only sisters going to Tampa but there are two elders in our district going there too. There are four elders going to Canada, two elders going to Chicago, and two sisters (our roomies!) going to Fortworth Texas. We love Sister Brady and Sister Larson!
Daily schedule:
wake up at 6:30, breakfast, class for three hours with Brother Jenkins, lunch, class for three hours with Sister McCall, personal study, dinner, companion study, exercise time, shower, journal writing/facemasks/talking, bed at 10:30
During study time, we usually sit outside and just study together because it is more fun. We plan our lessons (which is actually pretty fun) and usually see missionaries we know walking by and talk to them. Mealtimes are the best because we meet the funniest missionaries.
During exercise time, we run on the track or to the temple. One day we played sand volleyball with the German zone (s/o to elder kasunick) and they are the best. I could understand everything they said during volleyball haha. They loved hearing that I lived in Germany and I spoke German to them. The elders said I know more than them haha which is def not true. They leave in a week and are going to love Germany.
Classes are awesome and we are learning so much. Our teachers are great. We have been teaching "Caroline" who is actually Sister McCall but the spirit is really there when we are teaching and in our last lesson we both had the impression to invite her to be baptized which we did not plan and she accepted! It is so cool how the Spirit works when we are teaching and it flows so well between us. Sister McCall actually just went to a new district. Our new teacher is Sister Brown - she has an awesome British accent and we lover her already. We had our first TRC (where we teach a real investigator or someone pretending to be an investigator) and it was hard. We teach a girl named Stella & there are rumors going around the MTC that she is the hardest to teach but we are excited for the challenge. Our first lesson with her was rough but we are excited to teach her tomorrow!
We basically had five hours of church because of our branch presidency meeting but it was great. Our branch president is sooo awesome the branch presidency's wives are sooo sweet we love them. Zone leaders and district leaders are great too. We love our branch! We also had choir practice-- the conductor is so awesome and pumped us up to be missionaries. Also the devotional and movie night were both AWESOME. We watched Character of Christ by Elder Bednar which is only shown at the MTC and is amazing.
We found out we can't wear sandals (in Tampa we can) so rip our feet, our shoes were so uncomfortable the first day we were actually bleeding but its all good now! We always talk about how we show the Lord we love Him through out obedience.
Apparently I have health problems now and everybody knows it. Long story but Saturday morning I almost passed out at breakfast and my ears were ringing so I laid down on the chairs and then I was fine. The sisters were so worried. It is probably because we eat dinner at 4:30 and didn't have breakfast for a while because we woke up early to do service. Also Sister Hurley and I were eating really healthy so maybe we didn't eat enough. Anyway.... I'm fine it just happened once. But we talked to the info desk just to make sure all was good. The doctors were out but we called one who said just be careful and keep drinking water. The next day my name was on the screen on the list of people who need to talk to the info desk. Turns out they wanted me to get a checkup so I went and paid $10. The doctor said it was probably low blood sugar and gave me a sticker so I can bring food out of the cafeteria. I'm like I'm really okay but cool. THEN we were walking into the cafeteria and there were signs on every cash register thing that said ATTENTION: Sister Katie Johnson! And I was like what now? They had me talk to the dietitian who was like "are you eating enough? do you want a fridge in your room? do you want to keep extra food here?" haha I said no I'm good. But apparently I am dying so it was nice knowing you all. But really they are all so nice but I am totally fine. Sister Hurley was dying. Everyone says I am dumb for not getting the fridge in our room haha.
Also shoutout to the Colorado missionaries- I see Sister Kirkham, Elder Drollinger, Elder Kasunick, and Elder Kinniard all the time woohoo! (pics below)
I LOVE THE GOSPEL! I know this is where I am supposed to be right now and I am learning so much about teaching and serving and turning outward. As missionaries our job is to be Christlike and to help and invite. I know God will really help us if we ask for His help! That's all for now.
Love you all! Sister Johnson
MTC - Week 2 - July 30, 2019
Week 2 and I already can't think of any more subject titles
Companion: Sister Hurley
Whats up!! Week two at the mtc was the bomb & it went by wayyyyy fast. We leave in a week!
Two new districts came into our zone this week. Sister Hurley and I welcomed them with the zone leaders, which was fun. We gave them the tour and that night all the sisters in our whole zone got together and just talked and the branch presidency said they loved us and that it really helped them feel welcomed. They are so awesome and pumped to be here doing the Lord's work. There were some struggles the first few days but they are all thriving now. Can't believe it has been a week. And we have another district coming tomorrow and we get to do it all over again yay!! Our branch president said he wishes everyone could experience being in a leadership position because you learn and grow so much and that is so true. We are loving it and the weeks are going by even faster because we are so busy.
One funny thing: We were telling two of the new elders about teaching Stella last week for our TRC and how hard it was and they decided they could convert her. So they asked us for lots of advice and specifically went to her during the finding activity. They felt really good about their first conversation and were asking us for all this advice and were determined to commit her to baptism in just three lessons (exactly how we felt last week). The next day they came up to us at dinner and they were like "That was so hard- I was not expecting that!" (again, exactly how we felt) Haha we literally told them but I'm happy they are so pumped to teach. They still have two lessons left and we have faith in them.
Classes are so good. We are learning so much. There is an elder in our district, Elder Yancey, who asks our teachers the funniest questions all day long, like "what is your advice on how to not yawn?" and "what is the difference between a british accent and an english accent?" (hmu if you want to know) It is so funny and of course we all want to know the answers too. He easily talks more than all of the elders combined haha but he makes class so interesting. We are learning more than we bargained for thats for sure lol.
The elders have been asking us to play volleyball with them for days and so we finally committed to come during exercise time. We literally saw them and said we would go change and go straight to volleyball. So we change and then go to the bathroom and then realize that we locked ourselves out of our room. And we didn't have our name tags or our key cards so we can't even leave the building. So we were stuck in the hallway for an hour and thought the second coming was probably happening upstairs and we were missing it. We did have an epiphany though and decided to start taking the stairs, being early to class, and to play volleyball with our district which we have been doing pretty well with. We felt so bad for the elders haha. Luckily they forgave us and invited us to come the next day, which I think they regretted when I started relating everything in the volleyball game to the gospel haha.
But we have probably locked ourselves out 3847383 times while being here and we can't call the STLs because we are the STLs lol. Yeah we also decided to start bringing our keys with us more haha.
We taught to lessons to a new TRC this week. His name is Dwayne and he is the nicest person ever. We taught him the whole plan of salvation and the Atonement and he even asked us to teach him how to pray! We were so proud. Then we realized he is definitely a member pretending to be a nonmember and thats probably why he was so nice and accepted the message so quick haha but it was great practice and hopefully it helped Dwayne too.
We also started teaching a girl named Bonny (I know it doesn't matter but I'm pretty sure she is a legit nonmember). She is our age and she just started working here so she doesn't know a lot and had some great questions. We taught her about the Atonement and God's love for her and how she had a relationship with Him before this life and she was like, "I knew God?" and it was so sweet she got so excited and the Spirit was so strong. It is so cool to see how the Spirit works with us in our lessons and how we both feel prompted to talk about certain things.
Seriously the Holy Ghost is so cool let me tell you and I have learned so much about him this week. My teacher always stresses that he is a man and works with God and Jesus Christ. He loves us and is way more involved in our lives than we think. He gives us good ideas and helps us make decisions. Its been so cool to recognize that the random thoughts that pop into my head are from the Holy Ghost. Like when we thought to maybe check on the new sisters in our zone and we walk out and the one that really needed help was standing right in the hallway and we were able to talk to her and comfort her for a good 30 minutes. Yeah it is an amazing gift from God.
Sister Hurley and I always match (on accident!) scroll down for proof. We get about a million comments a day on it too.
Ok the food here was good at first but now we are so sick of it. There is absolutely no way to eat healthy here unless you eat straight lettuce. We are grateful we are only here for three weeks haha.
We have gotten so close with our zone this week so it will be sooo sad to leave them, but we CANNOT wait to see Tampa and meet our mission president ahhh!
Have a fantastic week y'all! Sister Johnson
MTC - Week 3 - August 6, 2019
Fwd: It's been real.
Companion: Sister Hurley
OUR LAST WEEK IN THE MTC!! It was a fantastic week but we are ready to get outta here (thumbs down for public showers and mtc food).
I kinda feel like I was born here and I am gonna die here... but we are finally leaving tomorrow at 4 am so yay!
Everyone who has been to Tampa says we will be sweating like crazy and seeing gators everywhere this time next week so pray for us haha.
Our bff district (district A) left on Monday along with lots of our MTC friends & our roomies Sister Brady and Sister Larson left this morning. We've met lots of cool people here which makes it sad to go. The sisters in our zone gathered to talk every night this week since it's our last week. There is this hilarious sister named Sister Cook who wrote a poem about one of the sisters in district A and read it aloud to us. It starts with, "Oh wherefore art thou Sister Jeppson... hast thou left me in the mtc?" yeah she cracks us up.
We had the COOLEST experience with our trc this week. We taught three lessons to a nonmember named Bonny and we always walked out of our lessons amazed by her faith and how much the Spirit helped us. She was so excited to read the scriptures and learn. She would say things like, "some of it sounds crazy but it just feel right" and "you are so happy I want to be like that too" and "send me as many scriptures as you want!" So yeah she was pretty fun to teach. In our last lesson, we hadn't planned it but we lightly invited her to baptism and she said, "Yes! What do I need to do?" We were so shocked and soooooo excited for her. We got her in contact with the local missionaries. We already miss teaching her so much! It was probably the coolest experience of the mtc. This is why I'm on a mission.
On Sunday, in addition to fasting, we had meetings for like 13 HOURS!
Branch council (with all leadership)
District council (Sis Hurley & I taught)
Relief Society
Sacrament/Testimony Meeting
Mission Conference (with the whole mtc)
Departing interviews w/ branch president
Class with our district
Zone meeting with branch president
Dinner finally!
Departing devotional for those leaving this week
Whole MTC devotional
And then we were supposed to go to a movie for an hour and a half but we were dying and we needed to pack and say goodbye to district A haha.
We trained the new STLs this week and handed over the zone phone (they are awesome!!) We have loved the opportunity to love and serve the sisters and to work with the branch presidency and zone leaders and make so many friends. It was such a blessing.
We thought it would be different in the MTC but elders are still trying to make moves on Sister Hurley and I hahaa. Always asking for emails and sending love letters. Haha if you know, you know.
Scripture of the week: 3 Nephi 12:1
I have learned so much in these three weeks and grown closer to my Savior. I know that Jesus Christ is the perfect teacher and the perfect example and He wants us to come unto Him so He can bless and comfort us!
Love you all! Hope you have a great week.
Tampa here we comeeee!
Sister Johnson
