Smiling Faces, Beautiful Places: Week 1 - MTC

Hey there!

Let me tell you a bit about my first experience here. I cried as I walked away from my family for 18 months... I'll admit that. But like 5 seconds later and ever since then, I've been so busy that I haven't had time to think about crying! That's probably a good thing though. I definitely like staying busy! So I walked through some doors to get my missionary name tag and on the little pouch they gave me, it said my companion's name... turns out it's Sister Jessie Dent who was the girl from my student ward who's going to the same mission as me. I feel like it's been a blessing for both of us so far to be companions! I'm grateful for her and her patience with me especially when I forget so many things at our residence or in the classroom and have to go back (We've already had to do that twice today... I need a better memory). The other sisters in my district are super cool. We're all from Utah so the mission reunions will be pretty sweet. We have Sister Smith from Lehi, Sister Warden from Tremonton, Sister McNeely from Syracuse, and Sister Schauerhamer from Alpine. On top of that we have at least two other districts of girls going to South Carolina on the 22nd. I'm so pumped to go out there but I know that I need to be in the MTC right now and that I still have a lot to learn.

One of the coolest experiences I've had thus far is definitely when we were singing "We'll Bring the World His Truth" the first day with all the new missionaries. Instead of singing "And we will be the Lord's missionaries," we sang "And we are now the Lord's missionaries." It's a really simple experience but I was kind of in shock like I am a missionary of the Lord now. I've been preparing my whole life for this moment, whether I knew it or not, and it was finally there. I may or may not have started crying at that point... Don't judge me!

I love you all! And here are some pictures for fun :)

Sister Christensen