Letter: 2 July 2015 - The First Week

2nd July, 2015

Dear All,

I love the MTC! It is wonderful! I have been here for little over a week and it only feels like a day at most!

First of all, I arrived here safely! Flying alone was definitely lonely (I never really had the opportunity on my flights to share the Gospel because I either sat next to an empty seat or sat next to a Romanian woman that thought I spoke her language... that was an interesting 11 hour flight!). 

My Great-aunt SusAnn met me at the Salt Lake airport and drove me around before being dropped off and starting missionary work right away! 

Arriving at the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo, Utah, USA

I was classed as an "International" and was put in a temple prep class (I represented the white girls and felt so out of place but it was really fun!). That was followed by meeting my sister training leader, dinner and choir and devotional. I loved it! It felt like EFY (Especially For Youth) overload and I was so ready for bed that night! It's not a physical exhaustion but a mental one! The 'firehouse theory' is definitely true!

Day 2 was full of orientation, getting to know my district (there are 13 going to my mission, ten Czechs and 3 Slovaks. My mission companions are Sister Boza who is 24 from Guatemala and Sister Ross from Virginia, USA. This is our fourth language that we will be learning! Sister B speaks Spanish, English and German and Sister R speaks English, Mandarin and French! I never thought I would have two companions but being a trio is definitely interesting! We're usually late to thing since we have constant bathroom breaks and people to talk to from school!). 

Sister Boza, Sister Ross, Sister Manners

Speaking of school friends: about 7 people from my ward are here right now and I love seeing them every day! My neighbour is Sister Giullian heading to Hungary and I love seeing her every day and talking about life in general as well as our language struggles. We also taught thee lessons as a large group this evening, taking turns to teach and testify. I taught a man about repentance and how Heavenly Father never stops loving us just as he never stops loving his children no matter what they do. Our choir director also mentioned that Heavenly Father is never disappointed in the Person who repents. I love that quote! I am here to teach about repentance and be an example of its blessings!

Day 3 was filled with more learning, getting to know my district (we have a lot of elders straight out of high school so class is interesting but I love them all!). 

Reilly with her district outside the Provo Temple

We learned about our investigator (a volunteer actor) and prepared to teach him. We also learned how to testify and my Patriarchal Blessing rings true saying that I will speak languages on my mission that will be difficult to me! Czech is definitely a different ball game! But I love it. The day was busy with study. I have about 4 hours of free study time each and fill them with personal study, companionship study and language study. Learning vocab and speaking my language as much as possible is helping so much! I can see miracles and the gift of tongues already! We also had to move out our residence today because there is a bat in our building! This was my second MTC move and it made me laugh! We are now staying in building 3M and were originally in the newest MTC housing building. It has character and is a little musty but I love it! I feel like I'm getting the true Helaman Halls (BYU Housing) experience and am slowly getting used to living with girls again! We also had a branch meeting and I got to know my Presidency and had an interview with one of them. I got to share my testimony and reasons why I want to serve a mission and loved it so much!

Reilly (2nd from left) with the others called to serve in the Czech Mission

Day 4 was filled with teaching our investigator, more language study and gym time! Teaching was had since my companion Sister B has already had 5 weeks of language training since she was supposed to come in last transfer so I walked out of our lesson in tears but all in all it was good! The Spirit has taught me so much already and D&C 122:7-9 has helped me so much! She is an incredible companion and I am so blessed to have her! Funny thing of the day: we went to the field outside the MTC for gym time and jogged and at the end of it Sister R said that she could not run any more and I said "Like this" and started running down the hill. However I never stopped and apparently ran straight down and fell face first into the grass like a pretzel. I didn't get hurt but laughed soooo much!

Reilly with her roommates at the MTC

Day 5: More teaching. We actually committed our investigator to baptism but since my Czech skills are so bad I didn't realize this until after the lesson when my companion told me! But we laughed about it and were so happy he understood our message! We ended the day with tunnel singing as a branch and I loved it!

Day 6: Sunday! Church was funny since the fire alarm went off halfway through and we ended up having part of our meeting in the classroom hallway which looked like an airplane! But we prepare talks each week and are asked to give them during sacrament meeting on the spot! So that way we'll be prepared to do so in the field if needed! We have church in English since our branch has Bulgarians, Turkish, Croatians, Slovenians, Polish, Slovaks and Czechs!

Reilly with companions Sister Ross and Sister Boza pointing to their mission

Day 7: Such a good day! Time is running short but it was filled with learning and teaching and gym-time! We go to the gym with ellipticals and I get to watch conference as I work out!

Day 8: It was service day! But I loved it! It made my day shorter and so sweet.

Day 9: The new missionaries came and it was so weird to see how much we have grown in the past week! A new sister thought I had been here for months which really surprised me but I feel like I have grown a lot! And Love it! We had companionship study and bore testimony of what he have learned and I loved it so much! I can feel the Spirit so strongly in all I do and say.

Reilly with her companions Sister Ross and Sister Boza at the Provo Temple

That's it so far! The temple is closed for cleaning this week and next so we have more time to prep. I'm sad that we don't get to help clean the temple but it makes our temple trips that much more special once we get to go! Thank you so much for your support and letters. I love them so much! DearElder letters are such a help too!

Love,

Sestra Manners