Good Evening! We've procrastinated our e-mailing time and now will have to e-mail a bit into our dinner time...haha...but I'm okay with that. It's great to be able to say hello to you all again! HI!!!!!!
First off, it's HYRUM's birthday this week, so Happy Birthday Hyrum! Are you excited to be five?!
Also, sounds like Dad, Gregg, Nathan, and the gang are out in MA building a ropes course. It's awesome that Nathan saw some of the Elders I knew from District G in our Branch this morning at the airport! They are great Elders. One of their group went home early because his brother died recently. It's a really sad story, and he's not going to come back for a while because of it. I know that those Elders are growing from the experience, but are also pretty heart-broken. You get really close to eachother really fast here at the MTC, so I'm sure they felt like they were loosing a brother too.
So, speaking of Brycen, and who ever else is with Dad building the ropes course, guess who randomly has gym time at the same time as my district! The one and only Elder Collin Hale! Yeah! It was way cool to see him, I went over and shook his hand, he said he didn't know I was serving a mission. It's fun to see him around. He's gunna be a great missionary. He already bore his testimony to me in his language yesterday, and he's only been here three days. That's dedication, I don't think I was that good by then!
Gregg! I have met two guys who knew you from SVU. One is Elder Ledford, he's in my Branch! So I get to see him every Sunday at least and it was fun cuz I got to be there for some introductions and he was like, 'Aren't you Gregg's sister? I met you when you came to Virginia!' And I felt bad that I hadn't recognized him at first. He was the one with the knee brace I think, and the one who printed out the brackets for us that one night. He says you know all about his caffine needs...haha...the MTC doesn't offer caffinated drinks so he's having a hard time :). Also I met an Elder Chandler who says he knows you too. COOL!
Anyways, it's a small-small world, as they say! And I really love it!
A couple fun things from this week, first of all on Wednesday night after watching all the new Elders and Sisters arrive (which is SO FUN to see, by the way) we were in our rooms getting ready for bed and the FIRE ALARM goes off. Yeah, so like the whole building evacuated, and a ton of us streamed out the doors. There wasn't really a fire, it was just some girl on our floor had burnt her popcorn in the microwave and it stunk up the whole buildling... the smell didn't go away for quite some time, probably half way through the next day. But it was a fun experience. Especially for the people who were taking a shower at the time! Haha, glad that wasn't me! We have two new girls in our room, Sister Iaccarina and Sister Legro. Sister Iaccarina is from Italy! She has a cool accent. It was pretty funny when the fire alarm went off, the two new girls were like, 'does this happen often?' and we had to say, nope this is the first time, it just happened to be your first day at the MTC!
Well, I've been called as the music coordinator for our Branch. It's not really a 'calling' they just call it an 'assignment' here at the MTC. But I'm in charge of finding someone to play the hymns and I pick the hymns as well. I am supposed to get to sacrament meeting early and hand out the hymn books. I love my calling. Thing is, there aren't very many people who play the piano and lead. SO... expecially to my brothers.... If you are a young man within the reach of these words, PLEASE learn to play the piano and lead music. It's so helpful and such a great talent you can share with others. Also learn how to sing parts, it's so great to hear the Elders sing and sing well!
We have sacrament meeting at 8:00 A.M. on Sundays and we don't have meetings right after that, it's really interesting. We kind of have a Sunday-School type of deal which is called District Meeting, each companionship prepares a five minute lesson and we discuss and talk about those things with just our district. This Sunday we had a district meeting that was really awesome. When Starszy Skolmoski and Starszy Rittmanic talked about the Sacrament and how we really need to work harder to make it more meaningful, I felt the spirit so strongly. Something that seems to happen alot here at the MTC is I realize how weak I am and how I really need to do so much better in SO many areas. I could do much better at focusing on my Savior during the Sacrament. Someone mentioned imagining if it was Christ who was passing the Sacrament to you, and that really brought new perspective for me.
Also, drumroll please....guess who came to Devotional THIS WEEK! Elder L. Tom Perry! He's so tall! And he gave a great talk. I really liked the first part of it because it was a story and lots more entertaining. He talked about how this young pioneer boy had gone to live with a family friend for a year to help with a farm or learn a trade, something like that. He was sitting in the room alone and noticed an old man sitting in the corner. He didn't know the man's name, and he didn't know the name of the man he was staying with either. The story started out pretty creepy...haha...anyways, then eventually, the next day the boy talks to the old man again and finds out that this man is Martin Harris! Martin Harris stands up straight (he's usually kind of hobbling I guess with a cane) and with power testifies to this younger boy about the gold plates, angels, hearing God's voice, and how he's been commanded to testify. The story was pretty cool. I just know that we all must testify. And I wish I could testify with that much power and authority.
I keep saying 'I wish' too much I think. I need to do less wishing and more working! I also need to be more patient! Patience is SO important! I'm not going to become a saint overnight. I am not going to be perfect at Polish overnight, either. Everything will be alright, and I'm going to work harder!
One more thing...our district has decided to speak our language from here on out. If we know a word in polish we're supposed to say it. It's hard to remember to do and I find myself talking in English WAY too much. However, I'm working on it. So there once was a girl who spoke English...NOW I'm going to speak POLISH! It's gunna be BOSS. I'm stoked.
Thanks again for all your prayers and love. I'm grateful every day for my family because I really don't know what else would motivate me so strongly to be good. I picture your faces and all my worries seem to just not be that big a deal anymore. I picture your faces and I have a reason to make it to the celestial Kingdom. It's really great. I'm so blessed to have such an amazing family. I LOVE YA! and my friends too, of course. Keep up the good work, God loves you!
- Siostra Amber Allen
Among other things, my warts are gone, we played a lot more beach volleyball this week and less basketball, I played with some snails Sister Ostler and I found on the sidewalk, the trees and flowers here at the MTC are beautiful, and once again, I really do love our district.
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