Week 4

Friday February 15, 2019

How has it already been a week?? The time is speeding up here at the MTC and in two weeks I will be packing to leave for Italy!! I'm so excited but extremely nervous as well.

Last Saturday was a long day, they always feel long because it's the day after P-day and you know Sunday is going to be the next day. We had a lot of memorization and by the end of the night our heads felt like they were going to explode. We also had to teach a lesson to our teacher that day, which went pretty well.  My collega(companion) and I are pretty hard on ourselves, when our teacher asked us how we thought we did afterwards we weren't very positive.  But our teachers, being amazing like they are, gave us wonderful advice. He told us that we needed to quit comparing things to the others, that as we try our best Heavenly Father will bless us. It will be hard and take a lot of effort but one day, we will be able to say everything we would want to say in an English lesson, in Italian. And it will be amazing!
Sunday was a wonderful day as well. I felt the spirit so much throughout the entire day. We have meetings and places to be from 8:30am to 9:20 at night, but they are all so uplifting!! My favorite part was choir practice. For choir we were singing a medley of Primary Songs-When I am Baptized, I Belong to the Church of Jesus Christ, I Love to See the Temple,and I'm Trying to be Like Jesus! Our choir teacher is amazing and tells us such cool stories. This time he shared a story about missionaries in Africa. The Mission President got a call from two missionaries who were saying there was guy who wanted to get baptized right now, but it was a Sunday. They told him it would  have to wait but he said he had to be baptized right now. The Mission President asked to talk to him and he said that he had a dream where his momma and papa were so far apart(they had died a few years back). He asked his papa why they weren't together and his pops told him it was because they were not married here. The Mission President told the missionaries to baptize him right then. Then the very next day the same man was at the temple asking to go in and do the work for his parents but the temple was closed that day. And because of rules he couldn't do it for a while so the Mission President said they would take care of it and get the work done. A few weeks later the Mission President got a call from that man saying he had a dream where his momma and papa were together and thanking him.  The Mission President told him that their temple work had just been finished yesterday. That was so moving and the spirit was so strong. Then that night we went and watched the Testament movie. It's based in the Americas and is where when Christ died and was resurrected he came and visited them. And the father who had waited all his life got blind through the movie and was so sad he would never see the Christ he had been waiting all his life to see. But it ends with the son of that man bringing him to see Christ and explaining what he looked like.  Then Christ comes up and heals the father, and his dream of seeing Christ comes true. We all cried and it was an amazing experience to watch that with a room full of missionaries.
Monday was just a day of class and Italian study, nothing really exciting happened.
Tuesday we had another TRC where we taught charity in Italian, which was really cool. It is really neat to be able to teach a lesson in a language you hardly know and still feel the spirit. Then that night we had choir again where our choir teacher told us something really cool that related to the song. We can become more like Christ by being 5 things that spell out TOMAS. T:think O:observe M:meek A:ask how to be better S:seek the spirit. Then after this story we found out that another Apostle was coming that night, Elder Soares. He gave an amazing talk on serving with clean hands and a pure heart. He told us that the Lord has complete confidence in us and that we will be blessed as we are obedient and serve with our whole hearts. After devo on Tuesdays we have District Council where we talk about the devotional and that is always a great spirit. I love hearing everyone's testimonies.
Wednesdays are bluhh, haha. We have lots of class and workshops and it always feels really long, however we did get to teach a lesson to our teachers which is always fun and helpful. I am so grateful for the teachers that I have. We laugh and have fun but we also learn a ton and feel the spirit when we need to.
Thursday is service day, and I got to scrub toilets and sinks in practically a hazmat suit, haha. They use strong chemicals to clean so we have to wear gloves and goggles and stuff. Then we had a language assessment where we had to answer questions in Italian and my teacher reviewed them with us later that evening. He said I did really well, but to me it stressed me out with how much I didn't know. And it was Valentine's Day and everyone was rushing to the mail all day haha. Lucky for me Mom and Rachel sent me something so I could be one of those people.
I'm having a lot of fun here and I love feeling the spirit so strongly every day. It is a lot of work here learning a language and being in class but it is so worth it. It's crazy that I will be in Rome in two weeks and 4 days!! The more I learn about Italy and all the "sign language" and how dynamic they are, I'm so excited to go and fit right in!! I can't believe it is already P-day again and I'm so grateful that I get to be in the temple every Friday morning.
Hope you are all doing well!!!
Love you all!!

Sorella Acton

If you would like to email Rebekah her address is: rebekah.acton@missionary.org

My District after Sunday Night Films

It was snowing

Saying good bye to one of our 

favorite Volleyball friends

Right before choir on Tuesday Devo

Temple pics with my District

Week 3 at the MTC

Friday February 8, 2019

This week went super fast and wasn't very eventful but I did learn a lot. I've now memorized the First Vision in Italian as well (read more about the First Vision here), and I'm working on James 1:5. We learn tons of new vocab and phrases each week but it's really hard to retain everything they've thrown at us. I'm enjoying learning Italian even though it gets pretty tough sometimes, we've also learned some hand signals that they use a lot, and they are fun to use. Sunday was Fast Sunday and I actually did a legit 24 hour fast, I was sooo hungry by the end of the day but it for sure brings blessings when we make the true sacrifice. I bore my testimony on Sunday in front of my 70-ish people zone and I think it well. I talked about having faith, and how much I've seen the Lord's hand in my life in the last couple months.
During district council one of the sisters giving the quote, that got us all crying, brought the spirit like nothing else, I'll add it to the bottom of this email. It's so relatable for us as missionaries and gives me so much more motivation. The spirit here at the MTC is amazing and I love learning more about the gospel each day.
Monday nothing really happened we just had lottss of class time and had our fun hour of exercise time. We play volleyball for exercise time and it is usually really fun and intense but some of our favorite players are leaving so it's really sad.
Tuesday we had our first TRC's in Italian. A TRC is where we teach a member a lesson for 20 minutes in Italian, we can't speak any English. It actually went way better than I thought, me and my collega (companion) taught a lesson on faith. The first lady we taught we could understand just about everything she said and it was a perfect lesson for her because she has had to have a lot of faith since her husband died and some of her plans have changed, I almost cried in that lesson actually. The spirit was definitely there. Then we taught another guy who was a little harder to understand but it also went well. He was actually a return missionary from Rome of a couple months.
Tuesday night was devotional (my favorite) and Joy D. Jones, the Primary General President spoke. Her talk was very touching, some of the parts that really stood out to me was when she said "we won't understand who we are until we understand whose we are" this really spoke to me. I know that for me, knowing that I am a Child of God, a precious daughter of God, is a huge blessing. It gives me strength, comfort, and peace. It gives me a purpose and I want to share that knowledge with others around me. Another thing she said that I loved was that "God could have chosen anyone, anyone, but he chose you to serve these people."  That is always remarkable for me to think about, and it really gives me motivation; that my Father in Heaven chose me to go to Rome and serve the people that live there, it helps me know that I can do it! Just like the verse in Nephi, God gives no commandment unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them to accomplish it. The language is hard, and the mission will be hard, but God chose me to go to the Rome Visitor Center and through my efforts he will prepare a way for me to be successful!
Wednesdays always seem to be a long day, our exercise time is in the morning at 7:45 instead of 11:10, and we have language tutoring and tons of class so we are really tired by the end of the day.
Thursday is a service day, so we get up grab a quick breakfast and head to another resident hall where we clean for an hour and 15 minutes, then we have study time, and exercise time, and then we went to class. During class we had a gospel review on how the Gospel blesses individuals and families, we read the section in Preach My Gospel and then our teacher had us think as an investigator and write a question on the board. After that we all chose a different question, studied it, found an answer and then all shared what we found on that question. I love when we have time as a district to talk about the Gospel and share our insights. My district is super fun, and we laugh all the time, but we also work hard. And when it's time to be spiritual it's really neat to hear everyone's insights and testimonies. I really got lucky with my district.
This morning (Friday) I went to the temple, and I just love being able to start my day off in the Lord's house. There is no better place to be than the temple. It's definitely that spiritual boost and peace I need at the end of the week.

Love and miss you all!

Chiao!

Sorella Acton

My favorite people from my District

after Devo in the freezing snow

Language Study with the Sorelle in my District

The Amazing Quote

Week 2 First Full Week in the MTC

Friday February 1, 2019

This week has been crazzy. 

Last Saturday we had tons of classes and crammed lots of Italian in. 

On Sunday we had our first Sacrament Meeting. They choose two random people to give a talk in the language they are learning, so we have to prepare a three minute talk in Italian every Sunday. Our Branch President's wife gave an amazing talk where she spoke about fears and doubts and that they come from the adversary. We need to trust in the Lord, doubt not fear not! Replace every negative thought with positivity!! Then we had a couple other classes and choir practice for devotional on Tuesday. We were going to sing "Nearer My God to Thee" so our choir teacher told us the story of the song between practicing it.  I found out that it is a song about Jacob and how he had to leave home because Esau was trying to kill him. And how he slept in the desert that night using a stone as a pillow. That night he had a vision where he received his temple endowment and got nearer to God. It was really neat. Then afterwards it was dinner and then we went to Sunday night devotional which was really good as well, and we went over the Book of Mormon.

Monday I woke up and we had 2 hours of study time, so we did personal, companion, and some language study. I have Moroni 10:5, the Missionary Purpose, and around 20 phrases memorized in Italian. It's hard and overwhelming but I'm doing alright. We were late to class Monday so our teacher made us do wall sits during the opening song. That was crazy. 

Tuesday I had to go to Salt Lake City for a consulate appointment for my visa. I went to breakfast that morning but halfway through I had to go throw up, my stomach was hurting pretty bad but I was hungry at the same time so it was miserable. Then 13 of us hopped on a bus, got on the front runner (which is actually my first time on a train) and traveled to Salt Lake. We had our meeting and then walked to the mall for lunch, it was our first time out with our missionary name tags on so it was kinda cool. After lunch we got back on the train and while on our way back we challenged each other to go talk to someone and ask to practice our testimony in Italian because we had to teach a lesson when we got back. So me and my companion and one other girl from my district did it.  And it was kinda fun.  Luckily for us, most of the people were BYU students or Mormons since we were traveling from Salt Lake to Provo. When we got back I wasn't feeling good, one of the girls in my district said maybe you should get a blessing and that hit me because I realized I didn't have my Dad here to give me a blessing like he's done so many times. I tried to keep it together because I was in class and had a lesson to teach soon. My companion and I taught our teacher who was pretending to be an investigator and I held my emotions in, but it was really hard. After the lesson he asked how I was doing and I couldn't say a word because I broke down in tears. I started crying pretty hard and he said after class he could give me a blessing if I wanted. I said I would love that. After class he gave me a 10 minute beautiful blessing where he told me that I would recognize the true depth of being a daughter of God and would help others to feel it. That I would find peace and comfort and in the near future I would feel the Lord's hand in my life telling me he loved me and I would be okay, and a ton of other stuff. It really helped a lot and I left to dinner. After dinner it was devotional, and we went early to practice our song. Then. . .super exciting, we found out Elder Holland was who was coming to speak to us!! Ahhh! We got to sing "Nearer My God to Thee" for Elder Holland. I was still pretty emotional so I was lightly crying. When Elder Holland started talking I really got emotional, I felt like his message was just for me that day and the blessing I had earlier was manifesting itself. He said that this was for anyone who was feeling down, overwhelmed, or especially homesick. He said "you can do this, you will do this, you should do this, and God will bless you forever for doing this." I was straight bawling. He said that Missionary work is the most important work in the universe and we are apostles with a lower case "a". I know that the Lord knows me and that Apostles receive revelation straight form God for us. I felt the Savior's love for me and my testimony grew so much. After devo we met as a District to discuss it and I'm so lucky, my district is amazing and the spirit was so strong during that discussion.

Wednesday was another hard day, our district is like a family and just as family there are things that get on your nerves sometimes. Everyone was tired and we were irritated with each other. But our teacher Fretello (Brother) Harbin is amazing and he noticed something was wrong so he talked to us. 

Thursday we had service, a workshop to learn how to go find people, and later it was a beautiful sunny day so our other teacher Fretello Jensen let us have part of class role playing outside in the sun, which felt soo nice. We taught a lesson later that evening and had a fun class with our other teacher. One teaches in the afternoon and one teaches at night. And he made us laugh and told us a thing he loved about each of us that night, for me it was that I'm always honest and sincere.

Today I went to the temple, which was amazing, being in the temple is such a blessing! And now I'm just emailing and doing laundry! I have learned a lot this week but I'm so glad it's P-day, haha.

Love you all!!!

Sorella Acton

 Me and my Companion

Wall sits while we sing 

because we were late to class

Our trip into Salt Lake

Summary from Devotional

with Latter-day Apostle, Elder Holland

 My District

 Roomies

My District at the Temple

today on P-day

 Laundry Time