Sorella Rebekah Tiffany Acton: 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