Chapter 6: Spiritual Strengthening, Sugar, and STL's

Nihao family!

This week has been a fun, interesting, and amazing week. Several great things have happened and it's just been so fun here.

To start off my week, on Tuesday night we had devotional, like we always do on Tuesdays, and because all the new mission presidents were here, we were expecting an apostle to give our devotional. We were told it was going to be Elder Bednar, and we could not be more excited. So as we were waiting for him to walk in, lo and behold, here comes Elders Holland, Stevenson, Renlund, Anderson, Oaks, Rasband, Ballard, Cook, and Christofferson. Elder Bednar shortly followed and then there were 10 of the 12 apostles in the room. It was such a cool experience. Sister Warren and I sang in the choir and we sang "Praise to the Man" in honor of the anniversary of Joseph Smith's martyrdom. Singing with 600 missionaries to 10 apostles in honor of the prophet Joseph Smith (as it was being broadcast to all the MTCs worldwide) was an amazing experience that I will never forget. The Spirit in the room was so wonderful and I just wish everyone could have experienced the same thing I did. Elder Bednar gave a fantastic devotional on the phrase "the word" in the Book of Mormon, and he cross-referenced so many things and made so many connections, my mind was just blown. He talked about how the word in Jesus Christ, but it's also the Atonement, and how we need to treasure up the word in our hearts and let it grow. It was so awesome and powerful, and I feel so blessed to be able to have heard from one of our Lord's servants.

Quick funny story from this week. I don't know how this came up in our district (just kidding I totally do it was definitely my idea but I don't know why) but we as a whole district decided to have a competition to see who could go without sugar for the longest, which is an incredibly hard thing to do here at the MTC considering there is chocolate milk, ice cream, desserts, and doughnuts in such an abundance. The whole thing was only going to last a week (Last Tuesday to this Tuesday, i.e. tomorrow) but quickly, there were only 5 of us left, and the others really liked to tempt us. Sister Warren and I were dying slowly, along with everyone else. The last straw came on Saturday night when they had our favorite cake for dessert. Chocolate cake with caramel sauce, whipped cream, and toffee bits on top. Oh my gosh we were about to die. But so was everyone else. So we all made a truce to all quit honorably and we all ate our cake at the same time. What a glorious moment it was. But at least now I can tell my future children that one time I went without sugar at the MTC for like 5 days, so that's cool.

Our cute district at the temple!!!!!! Love them so much

Last big thing of this week was that the district above us left for Taichung this morning, so we are officially the oldest missionaries in our zone here (and the whole MTC, because everyone else besides the 9-weekers are leaving this week. what.) Because we are the oldest, it means we are now relatively in charge of leading the 52 missionaries in our zone. whoop whoop. So Sunday morning Sister Warren and I got called in with the Branch President for a meeting, and he called us to be the new Sister Training Leaders, which basically means we are in charge of handling all the sister drama in the zone and dealing with everyone's problems. Also we get a phone, so hit me up (lol just kidding it only receives calls from the front desk and the branch president, also we can only call the front desk). But I'm super excited and blessed to be able to serve in this assignment, and I can't wait to help all the Sisters in our zone. 

Sis Warren and I with our brick phone that calls the front desk

Speaking of our zone, we get new missionaries on Wednesday going to Taipei!!! Also various missions in Australia, Scotland/Ireland, and Germany (I didn't know they had Chinese missionaries there!). But sadly, there are NO new Sisters coming in! We are getting 20 new Elders, and that's it. But it will be fun. Us Sisters will be so loved because there will be so few of us. Our Branch President told us we were treasures, so yeah. I better feel treasured. 

I love being here at the MTC and I feel my relationship with Christ increase everyday. I love having so much time to study the Book of Mormon everyday, and my new favorite chapter is 3 Nephi Chapter 17, so if you feel so inclined, read it. It is so sweet and I just love the feeling I get when I read it. 

I love you all! The church is true!!

Sister Larson

Our elders like to fall asleep during study time