Kaelynn's Mission: February 2009

Dear everyone-
I apologize to all those I have not yet written to personally. I will get to it.
Eventually. :)

As you may have guessed, they don't give us a whole lot of free time here. MTC life is crazy, kind of like spiritual boot camp, but I'm settling into the routine.
It's a good crazy. Mostly. :) People told me missions were hard and I don't think I
believed them. I understand now-at least why they say the MTC is hard. And I have the least right to say that of anyone, since I'm only staying here three weeks!
My life now is all about studying 17 hours a day, with occasional breaks for gym and
food. I have almost forgotten my first name. And people don't ask me as frequently as I thought they would if I am related to Pres. Monson. It's only about once a day.

I start freaking out when I see people holding hands (usually teachers and their spouses), or if I hear a cell phone ring, or if any male comes close to me-even just accidentally bumping into someone. :)

Yesterday I was mortified to discover that both of my MTC teachers are younger than me. One of the elders in my district started singing, "Sister Monson is old, Sister Monson is old," to the tune of "Happy Birthday." It was funny...guess you had to be there. :)

My companion is Sister Mortimer. She is an amazing person with an incredible testimony. We are still getting used to each other because our personalities are so incredibly different. But it's good. We are both committed to working hard, trying to stay postive and be as obedient as possible.

I have had more tender mercies and small blessings from the Lord than I can count in one short week (although it feels more like a year :). The spiritual growth that happens here is something I could never explain to anyone- you really have to experience it to understand it. The Lord blesses us all as we are all thrown into the refiner's fire.

On Friday night our whole district was struggling with learning the lessons and we were all feeling very, very frustrated and exhausted. A member of our branch presidency dropped by our class, having just come from the temple, and told us that he felt the presence of angels in our midst. Then of course he gave us a copy of Elder Holland's talk- the "salvation is not a cheap experience" talk.

Another tender mercy that I had was earlier this week when I was feeling a little bit down about not learning a language. The truth is that I am excited about my mission call, and I know I am going to where I need to be. However, I get sick of people greeting me in various random languages in the cafeteria. I was starting to feel a little sad from hearing people speaking cool-sounding languages in the hallways to each other, and everywhere I went. In my scriptures I flipped to Ezekiel Ch. 3. I can't remember exactly how it goes, but the gist of it is "you are not called to minister unto people of a strange tongue, but to the house of Israel." It was a very uplifting thing for me. So I have a better attitude about it now. I try to work on my Boston accent and my companion mocks me. :)

Well, my thirty minutes are almost gone. I love you! Thank you for your support and
encouragement. I appreciate it so much. I hope that you are all doing well.
Love,
Sister Monson

PS: KAELYNN's EMAIL ADDRESS IS: kaelynn.d.monson.chm@myldsmail.net