Less than a week to go in the MTC!!

I am falling in love with this language! This week on Sunday the MTC showed Legacy in Italian, and all the missionaries speaking Italian went to see it together. As an added bonus there were two sisters native to Italy there as well, and two sisters going to Italy who already had a lot of background in the language, and therefore were not in our zone. It gave me a chance to really practice my Italian, and get feedback from someone with more than a month of experience. It turns out that you don't call people crazy in Italy unless they are actually crazy. It's super offensive, so that was nice to find out pre-Italy.
I've started to put a lot of work into the language. Partially because of the fact that we leave in one week, and partially because I'm starting to absolutely love Italian. I'm so grateful for this opportunity to learn a new language. When I first got to the MTC I was incredibly frustrated with the people at the tower of Babel for making my MTC experience so much more difficult, but I'm cool with them now.
Last night was our very last MTC devotional and Neil L. Anderson spoke. He did a stellar job of course. When the devotional was over it had started to rain so we stayed for a little bit and sang hymns to wait for the rain to kind of subside. It was beautiful. I absolutely love singing in the MTC is invites the spirit so much! When we finally left it was still raining so the Elders loaned us their suit coats so we could get safely home. The rain kind of irritated my lungs because I'm still getting over that dumb cold, but the important part of this story is the beautiful spirit invited by the singing.
We have been leaving silly little notes for everyone in our district a few times every week (silly things like give yourself a hand with a set of those hand clapping party favors) and it's been driving our elders crazy because they can't figure out who is leaving them. We told them that it is the missionary fairy, but they seem to be a little speculative. Yesterday when we came into class there was a sticky note on our desk that said you are awesome, you leaf in one week, with a leaf attached. So maybe there actually is a missionary fairy after all....
There is a running joke in our district about "teaching by the spirit" which in the minds of many of our Anziani {Elder} means not preparing a lesson. This of course is not what teaching by the spirit means and we have been scolded from the pulpit by an apostle of God about not preparing thorough enough lessons, but it reminds me of Dad so I thought I would share. Speaking of my father, he has asked that I share more growing experiences in my emails home so I will do my best.

This week I have learned:
Everyone is a child of God in a different phase of growth, with a different back story. It is so easy to judge people because of their basic actions but everyone is struggling and they all need love. I met a sister in the hallway going to New Mexico the other night. She seemed a little upset so I talked with her for a while. She told me about some struggles in her family and her fears of going on a mission. I realized that it would have been so easy to ignore her or dismiss her problems as unimportant but that's not something that the Savior would ever do.

I've also learned in the power of hard work. The more work I put into Italian the better I get. I have been waiting to wake up and be magically good at something but it doesn't work that way. Nothing worthwhile comes easy.

She said this one was right after they ran through the rain to get back to the MTC after devotional with Neil L. Anderson.

And this was one that she needed to take to send to her mission this week so they can get the paperwork ready giving her authorization to live in Italy without being deported!

She should have her camera by tomorrow, so I am hoping for TONS more pictures after she gets to Italy. I am grateful for those who have been sharing their pictures with me until then. I get to talk to her on Tuesday!!!

Beautiful Music and being sick

About half of my district is sick right now (including me) so this email is going to be a little bit shorter than normal because I need to go back home and crawl into bed soon. Thank goodness for p-day. Besides and partly because of being sick this week has been one of my best yet. First off I learned how to say 'tool' so when I pray in front of my class I can ask to be a tool in the hands of the Lord instead of a hammer(closest word I had for a while). We have kind of fallen into a rhythm here so I can't think of anything that's particularly interesting from this week. Tuesday's are my favorite night. We have devotionals and since our entire district is in the choir we all miss dinner. So we go and learn a beautiful piece of music (this week it was Precious Savior, Dear Redeemer, look it up tanto bella {so beautiful}!) We get spiritually edified and then after we all end up congregating around the vending machines in our lobby for the most unhealthy dinner I have or ever will eat. It's so much fun because there's only one microwave and we all bring out snacks while we wait in line. This is the closest thing we can have to a party because we aren't allowed to congregate in the residence halls.

Last night I asked for a blessing for this cold, and I recieved a huge blessing of comfort instead. I am just constantly amazed at how loving and clever our father in Heaven is. He places exactly the right people in our lives to give us the comfort and guidance we need, and he does this for every single one of his children. The Lord has a plan for each and every one of us, and he's just waiting for us to ask what it is.

con amore (with love)
-Sorella Madyline Spencer

MTC Photos

There is a group just for missionary moms that I have joined and one of the mom's shared a couple of blogs with me that has more pictures of Mady! I have borrowed them to add here so you can get a better glimpse than she is sending. Her camera broke and I am working on getting her a new one. Hopefully she will be sending many of her own pictures once she gets the new camera! Enjoy!

Week 3 + pictures! She is half way through the MTC!

Caro (dear) family and friends!
I'm half way through the MTC and still alive! When we got here the district leaders and sister trainers from the Thai branch welcomed us and gave us a basic orientation of the MTC. I remember thinking they were so mature and that I would never be at their level spiritually or in the language. Well guess what! I'm not there yet, but the Thai zone has asked the Italian sister trainers to orient their incoming sister missionaries. I don't feel like I'm at the level they were when they taught us but it's a really cool way to look at how far I've come. 3 weeks ago I felt like I was so completely out of my league and now I can speak what we affectionately call "Tarzan Italian" and I've been asked to help sister's transition into their mission.
A lot of people have written me about the language. I'm obviously not fluent, but I'm not super concerned. I am learning Italian so quickly. The gift of tongues is a real thing. I have learned concepts in Italian in a half hour that I never fully grasped in French. I also heard 3 elders from Brazil practicing their English today. They were working on the word BESIDE, and one of the elders said "that rock is beside that tiny tree" (he meant bush). It was the cutest thing I have ever heard. So I have confidence that my poor Italian will be endearing. For anyone going foreign speaking learning the language is not important, loving the language is. You can study for hours and hours and you won't learn a thing until you enjoy using it and incorporate it into your daily life.
Elder Richard G. Scott came and gave a devotional at the MTC last night. He is a phenomenal speaker and he was a huge blessing to our zone's prayers. He gave a special blessing to missionaries learning a foreign language. I think he had a little too much fun while he was exiting the building. Missionaries have the tendency to mimic the actions of general authorities, and he kept waving in a variation of ways as he left so he could watch us wave back. I think he felt a little like Simon of 'Simon says'.
Also I learned how to conduct music this week! My companion drew a very helpful diagram of a fish. Last thing. I will never sleep in a bunk bed again. I have been jumping off the top bunk every morning and I finally landed on my foot wrong. I tried to ignore it because I really don't want to do anything that will delay my mission but after about 15 minutes it was too swollen to walk. One of the sister's in my district is an EMT so she made me put a cactus cooler (a soda, and the closest thing we have to an ice pack) on it and elevate it for 15 minutes. Luckily I just had a nasty bruise for a couple of days and no serious damage. Needless to say, I'm being a lot more careful when I get out of bed.

Con amore (with love) Sorella Madyline Spencer

Week 2

This week was a lot better, I have finally fallen into the stride of the MTC. Every day is a challenge but I no longer feel like I'm on the verge of a mental breakdown anymore. I have the most amazing district. There are four sisters in my district and 5 elders. (If you are impressed at the similarity in numbers, don't be. There are 10 sisters in our zone and 40 elders. We are still the minority.) Our district is incredibly musical and we sing hymns in Italian about 6 times a day. We spend anywhere from 8 to 12 hours in the same room every day learning Italian. There is one window that faces a brick wall so occasionally we go a little stir crazy. The other day we were singing a hymn and I hit a wrong note, and I apologized (in Italian) My companion thought it was funny and started laughing. This was the first verse. By the third verse, our district leader and one other anziano (Elder) were the only ones singing. I knew it was so inappropriate to laugh during a hymn but I literally could not control it. Our minds were so exhausted from trying to learn Italian, that they kind of broke at that point.

We are teaching multiple fake investigators on a regular basis. I'm struggling with the language so I generally just hug the Book of Mormon close to my chest to convey how much I love it. We have already gotten one "baptismal commitment" so it seems to be be working. We are all kind of struggling over the language barrier. One of the elders in our ward was talking to a volunteer posing as an investigator and he asked her how she was doing. She told him that she was having a really hard time because her dad was in the hospital. He told her that he completely understood , his grandmother had recently died too. In one of my lessons I was teaching a woman about the plan of salvation and I told her that because of our sins we could not return to our heavenly father, and then I ran out of Italian. Needless to say she was startled. In broken Italian my companion and I conveyed that with the help of the atonement we could return to live with our father in Heaven again, but it took a little bit of explaining.

Every day is a major challenge. Learning Italian is one of the most difficult things I have ever done, but I'm quickly realizing that if it weren't difficult it probably wouldn't be worth it. I have also begun to understand that the gospel is constant progression. There is never a point where we figure it all out. We should know more and feel closer to our savior at the end of every day.

much love
-Sorella Madyline Spencer

Her first email!!

So I received the first pictures and email from Sorella Spencer this week! (It is so weird getting used to calling her that.) I have been very fortunate that she has some friends that work in the MTC that are willing to send me intel about how she is doing. This is helping me cope with not being able to talk with her. I am not sure how I will deal once she is overseas. Anyway enough babble. Here is her email for "The outside world" as she called it.

Well according to my branch president I'm already a third of the way done with my mission. He says that the mission can be broken into four parts. Your first four days in the MTC, the rest of your MTC experience and your time in the field. As wonderful as the MTC is, it's also incredibly tough. We had a devotional last night discussing how many things pertaining to the gospel are not easy because the path to salvation isn't cheap. I've also come to understand that the reason we were sent to earth is to become like Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father and we cannot grow without experiencing challenges. (It's amazing how many things I have "known" my whole life and I'm only starting to understand now.) The language is beautiful. I can already bear my testimony, and pray without referencing anything, and I have taught 3 lessons to a mock investigator Chiara. The first lesson I told my companion what I would like to say in my prayer and testimony and she translated it to Italian for me (she speaks fluent spanish and the languages are similar enough that she is excelling). I read them when she told me it was my turn to speak. However, I have made great progress since then. Yesterday my companion went to Salt Lake to get her visa and a teacher sat in on my lesson and I gave the majority of the lesson while only referencing difficult words like atonement. (Look it up it's crazy in Italian) I have learned that I can do hard things with the help of the Lord. I have done things that I never would have even attempted and it's amazing. I can't believe what I can accomplish. Thank you for all the mail. You have all been a huge support! Mail is such a big deal to missionaries. Sometimes at the end of a really tough day it's nice to read that the people who love you still believe in you. Also I have this theory that the Lord slows down time in the MTC so that we can learn everything in 6 weeks. So while it feels like I have only been gone a week to you, it feels like at least a month and a half to me. So I miss all you guys like crazy. Also somehow with the constant presence of the spirit I love you even more than when I left.

A couple of other fun things. There is a runner from the BYU track team in my district, David Graham. He's our district leader. Also one of the kids in my district is in a really famous youtube video. Two cousins One mission.

much love
-Sorella Madyline Spencer.