Sorella Rebekah Tiffany Acton: 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