August 21, 2014 Letter

Hello family! It's hard to believe that I have been here for a week already! Time is so weird here. Hours go by slow but days go by fast. Before I know it I will be heading off to Oklahoma at 2:30 am on the 27th. Crazy stuff. Can I just say how much I love getting letters?.....I LOVE GETTING LETTERS! Best thing ever. When Elder Jensen gets the mail for our district there is always a happy anticipation. I love the MTC but it is super hard. We had a three hour class the other day purely on how to recognize and deal with stress. The Elders came up with a little song about it. I am doing my best to forget myself and go to work. It can be hard sometimes but I'm trying. We were able to see a great devotional/movie of Elder Bednar talking about the character of Christ. It was so good! He talked about how when the natural man's response would be to turn inward in self pity and selfishness Christ turned outward and helped others. It was such an amazing devotional. It really hit home that the mission is not about me. The next 18 months should be me turning outward instead of inward. Such a great devotional! I wish I had my notes in front of me so I could go in to more detail, but that was the general idea. We do SO many role plays at the MTC! I am learning to love them actually because now that we're in the mission, we realize that we really need to learn how to be a missionary and so we take it more seriously. At least that's how I feel. I know lots of missionaries still don't like it because it feels fake, but to me it seems real enough to be helpful. There is a bug in the room and Sister Peterson is kind of freaking out a little. Dad, you would be proud of me. I am getting faster at showering in the morning :) Yay! We're still sometimes a little late to class, but no later than the Elders. We get to go do a temple session today :) I am super excited. Well, I was right. Yesterday when Sister Bailey and I were doing our service project/cleaning assignment (we had to wash sinks and toilets, YUK!) I started singing, "I just got an invitation through the mail. Your presence requested this evening, it's formal; a top hot, white tie and tails." Yeah. And every time I tell people that I like to tap dance they ask for a little demonstration. I have to remind them that we are not allowed to dance. When our new district came in and I gave that response to the the request for a demo they asked why we couldn't dance. I told them that for me, personally, I have decided to give 18 months of my life to the Lord. I am here to do His work and to focus entirely on teaching His children, and dancing is just a distraction that I don't need right now. I am on the Lords time, not mine. They seemed satisfied with that answer and it helped to solidify it in my mind too. Well, I'd better go check on my laundry. I love you all so much! Thanks for everything you do for me! I know the gospel is true. I know God lives and loves us, as does His Son, Jesus Christ. I know the atonement is real. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I know that prayer works! I testify of these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Love Emma.......oops! Sister Cryer