Welp, let’s do a first “Missionary Monday” blog post for Claire.
That girl has been in the MTC for SO long.
And she still has SO long to go!
But I figure we can use a little Claire update over here.
Ok, so where did we leave off on this mission journey?
Oh yes, right back here when my big kids dropped her off at the MTC, easing their mother’s heart (while I was on FaceTime).
Arrival at the MTC
From the time kids enter the MTC there’s no more chit-chat with family…except on P-Days. They leave their phones at home, and concentrate full time on missionary work, studying their little hearts out.
They get to finally meet the people they met over zoom for “Home MTC” in person at the “real” MTC. And that is pretty fun.
Companions
Claire is in a “trio,” meaning she has two companions rather than one. Here’s one of them:
And here’s the other:
She feels so grateful for these companions. They are pretty grand girls.
I’m not sure if I mentioned this before or not, but that last one up there in front of the temple is a girl that Claire almost roomed with in her apartment last semester. She was supposed to move in, and then something got messed up in the apartment management and someone else moved into Claire’s apartment instead.
So fast-forward to when Claire got assigned her MTC companions. Low and behold, one of them is this same girl Claire was already friends with. She had been so sad it didn’t work to room together in college, so now here they are rooming together in the MTC. That has been a special experience in and of itself.
Ok, so not only did she meet, in person, her companions when she arrived at the MTC, she also met the rest of her district.
It’s unique to have an all-woman district but that’s what they’ve got. They all live right next to each other and Claire loves them all.
Some thoughts from Claire’s letters:
This was her first letter home:
“Hi everyone I am in the provo MTC safe and sound and I love it so much. I love being a missionary and I love the gospel❤❤❤❤❤”
Yes, she’s a woman of few words in the letter department so far, but there is such an energy in everything she says, and the Zoom calls on P-day are the best.
She has written some letters to the family that I got permission to include parts of:
The mtc is so fun because there are so many people to meet. Everyone coming in and out [everyone has different arrival and departure days] is crazy i have met the most amazing people. A whole district of elders were here all going to sierra leone and i got to be good friends with them but they left and my heart literally broke but im SO excited to see pics of them with james and christy!!!!!!! [Dave’s sister and brother-in-law]. There are about 5 other mandarin districts and every single person is SO AMAZING!!! Three of them leave next week which is so sad because we have all grown so close.
The mandarin is coming SLOWLY VERY SLOWLY like inch by inch no matter how much work i put in i forget it the next day. …In class we are only allowed to speak madarin and so somedays i can understand everything and then some days i don’t at all. But i can kinda pray in chinese now so hopefully heavenly father can figure out what im trying to say hahha. oh and i DREAMED IN CHINESE last night. About the time, thats it, but hopefully its a sign.
Sundays are the best here. We have this thing where we personaly study for 2 hours and its just so good. I always find the best things. I never thought i would be like this.
ALSO can we talk about how good the book of mormon is? My scriptures are highlighted and written on all over hahah. Seriously you guys need to all read mosiah 4 again. So good.Anyways sorry this is so long but i just miss you all. I have some moments where i get sad but its like for 2 minutes then im good. I love being a missionary so much. I am learning so so much and see myself growing soooo much its crazy. I love being here surrounded by the gospel with 3500 other people in my same boat. I am learning so much about jesus christ and i just love this gospel so much and i am SO excited to tell people in sydney about it!!! I love you all so much and miss you all dearly.
Our neighbor got to see Claire in the MTC and sent me a picture.
Love that she gets to be surrounded by, and learn so much from all these kids (and 3,000 others!) at the MTC.
My favorite thing is that she is forging such a beautiful relationship with her Savior. And learning to trust in God in so many ways.
Missions are the best.
beautiful relationship with friends
Thank you for this. It was interesting to read about how Claire is getting on at the MTC.
I really enjoy reading Eliza’s e-mails. I admire her so much, as she certainly hasn’t had it easy.
I don’t mean this as a criticism, but I’m curious as to why sister missionairies wear ankle socks. It seems like a lot of them wear them.
Ancle socks are in fashion! Unrelated to missions. But I guess missionaries don’t dress out of fashion, so ancle socks it is!
I didn’t realise that ankle socks were in fashion.
I don’t follow fashion, so I guess this is why I didn’t know this.
Our course is designed to provide comprehensive training on various digital marketing techniques where we teach our students from basic to advanced levels.
Digital Marketing Training In Kukatpally