Week 1 - England MTC

This week was good!  To start at the beginning, my companions are Sister Saunders and Sister Baird. They're both from England, so I'm the obnoxious American in the group. I've also gotten really close to Sister Kemp (from France/England), as well as Elder Nicolis (from Italy) and Elder Howells (from Wales). We're pretty tight. There are a few other people in our friendship group, since we're a small MTC of about 30 missionaries, but these are the people I tend to spend my time with the most.

Most of us are either English-speaking or Alpine German-speaking missions, with the exceptions of S. Baird and E. Nicolis and E. Howells (they're going to Adriatic South, speaking Greek).

With the introductions out of the way, here we go!

We have done SO MUCH. I honestly didn't realize that so much happened in the MTC. One day feels like three.

The MTC is located in this beautiful, somewhat secluded area next to Chorley, England. There's a pond with ducks, geese, and various other animals right outside the back, so we have a gorgeous view from our room/cafeteria. It's also right next to the temple, so even though we've only gone inside once, we've been there multiple times already. There's a field across the way, and a forest across the street. Gotta love Europe!

The weather has been surprisingly hot for England, so we've had the windows open 24/7.

I'm just starting to feel like I fit the nametag. In the beginning I felt like I was playing dress up...

Somehow I've become the person to go to in an emotional crisis, which is ironic to anyone who knows just how emotional I can be!

On the first day, my companion felt really discouraged and anxious about serving a mission, so she got a blessing. It was a really interesting experience to sit in on, and it definitely sped up the bonding process. Nothing brings people together like tears!

Yesterday, S. Kemp was feeling really down because of various reasons, and she came to talk to me. I helped her find the MTC president's wife and she seems to be doing a lot better today... But again, there's nothing like tears to bring people together - we've technically been on splits all day because S. Saunders has been with S. Rimmer (S. Kemp's companion) because they're basically besties, and so S. Kemp and I have been chilling. S. Baird is with her Greek boys studying Greek in the classroom. Wooh, don't know if you kept up with that... 

Sunday is my favorite day in the MTC. We get all the spiritual moments without nearly as much work! We watched the video about John Tanner (rich guy who saved the Kirtland Temple) and the music in there was just SO good. Also, it's one of my favorite videos - so you should look it up.

We do a lot of work... We're supposed to write a talk every week for Sunday in our mission languages (he randomly selects a few people day of), we give lessons in our mission languages to a fake investigator every day ("Claire" has agreed to baptism *wink wink*), etc. We have so much to do, I honestly don't feel like we have enough study time, and despite getting eight hours of sleep every night I'm still more tired than when I was taking early morning classes...

HEY, it just rained for like, two minutes. Yee.

German is coming along pretty okay. I can, at the very least, pray smoothly. That's something I've been wanting to get down ever since I got my call. :)

Oh, goodness, I almost forgot! We went proselyting in Manchester. That was so nerve-wracking. It was a good experience, though, and apparently we do it every week. I got ignored most of the time. I also had a lady look at us as we approached, yell "Oh, CRAP" (which is a swear, here) and turn away; that felt nice. But we found nice people, too! We talked to a refugee from Iraq whose sister was still there, we found these guys building mountain bikes in the square who were really jealous of the fact that I'm from Utah ("Oh, that's MINT, though!" (in a very Northern accent)(that means it's cool)), some street performers with mad drumming skills who were Christian and said they respected us for what we did, and we found this one guy who was there for a music festival and actually genuinely interested - he took a Book of Mormon, a Restoration pamphlet, and a pass-along card.

It was an all-around good experience, but at the end of the day I was about ready to die from the exhaustion. So instead, I got a headache.

Funny quote:

"If I had a freckle for every time I swore, I would be a black man." -S. Kemp

Favorite new words:

Priestertumsvollmacht - priesthood authority

Favorite spiritual thought/quote:

Feeling the Spirit is a language, too. The gift of tongues also applies to recognizing the Spirit.

That's all I really have for now. I don't know what mission emails are supposed to be, but this is what you get!

Much love,

Sister Hamilton