Sister Madalyn Jones: If You Could Hike to Kolob

Ola amigas!

So on Wednesday we will hit our halfway point in the MTC which is CRAZY! The MTC is so hard and so much work but it also is so awesome because there is so much power and strength among so many missionaries here!

This week was so great but it also was just a huge blur because it flew by!

This week I have been studying faith a lot and read 1 Nephi 17 which is where the Lord commanded Nephi to build a boat and all of his brothers mocked him. Nephi then talks about how capable God is of helping Nephi build a boat, and talks about all the miracles that took place in the Old Testiment because of God's power. Nephi had perfect faith in the Lord and was willing to rely on Him fully. I have found myself lacking a lot of faith when it comes to learning the language. Like I totally know the gift of tongues is real, but in lessons I get scared to open my mouth sometimes because I dont know if the Lord will fill it with the words I need to say, but He always does!!! We watched a devotional talk by Elder Holland last night that talked all about how missionaried need to open their mouths because the only way truth can be known is if it is stated. So this week I am going to open my mouth a lot more, even if I have no idea what I am going to say beforehand.

So our first investagator was our teacher (but we had never met her) and we were teaching this girl named Paula. She accepted our invatation to baptism and was just so awesome. Then this week our teacher told us who Paula actually was. It was someone she taught on her mission in Portugal, who was actually a guy named Pedro. She showed us pictures and said that he is now preparing to serve a mission and I actually started crying because I was just so happy for him even though I didnt know who he was. I felt such a love for his character my teacher was portraying and it made me SO excited to go out in the mission feild and teach so many others like Pedro.

This week Sister Shepard and I taught a lesson with no notes at all!! Which is crazy because less than 2 weeks ago we had our whole lesson written out and would just follow the script! It was so awesome and I was so proud of myself, but then the next lesson with the same investagator went so bad and it was totally a humbling experience. We got a little to prideful about our language abilities and then he started asking us really hard questions and we just sat there like ummm God loves you and so it will all be okay HAHAHA so we studied A LOT after that lesson.

On Wednesday we hosted new missionaries! I had to watch so many moms cry I actually started crying myself it was SO SAD and all the elders in my zone made fun of me but it was so hard to watch!! It made me miss my family so much :( We do it next week too so hopefully it will be better and I wont be as emotional hahah

Also one of our investagators is a less active who wants the spirit back in her home and I got to talk about how you can do that and testify how the Gospel really strengthens my families and it made me miss them SO MUCH again. Its weird because I never got homesick in college but here I think about them a ton! But then a say a little prayer and get back to work and it is all good :)

Um also all of the elders in my zone make fun of me because I am terrible at pronouncing words and totally sound so American so I am working on it a ton!! Also they make fun of me because I thought it was "If you Could Hike to Kolob" but like cut me some slack who even sings that song??

Yes this week was so awesome and I felt so blessed to be a missionary and be serving the Lord! I love this work with all my heart and am trying to be the best missionary possible even though I am constantly falling short!

ALSO huge shout out to all of my friends who enter the mission field today! I am going to miss seeing them in the MTC but I am so excited they are getting out of here!!

MUITO AMOR!

Irma Jones