Week 2

Hello family once again!

Another week has flown by. I can't believe I will be leaving the MTC next week. It is crazy to think soon enough I will be a real missionary. Well technically I already am a real missionary, but it doesn't quite feel that way since I am in the same building for a majority of the week. I do know that next Wednesday I will be heading to the mission home in Manchester and will be assigned an area and companion from there. I am not sure when I will be emailing because of the transition, but I will try and email about my exciting adventures. We only get a half hour to email in the MTC, so I am not attaching any pictures. When I have more time, I will email some pictures as well and be sure to send you some descriptions about all the people I am meeting.

One thing I forgot to write about last week is the fact that I am the coordinating sister. Yeah, what is that? Good question. That was my initial reaction as well. We are broken down into zones and then districts below that. The guys (or elders as we call them), then overlook each of those groups. However, I am in charge of looking over the five other sisters and making sure we are keeping our living areas orderly. It is actually fun and I enjoy having a little extra motivation to get to know all the sisters. They each have unique personalities and exciting stories, so it is fun to get to know them better. I will be sure to send a picture and some descriptions of them when I get some photos uploaded.

This week has been fairly similar to the week before. We studied, taught, learned, etc. However, we have had some really neat experiences as well. We sang at a ward's sacrament meeting on Sunday. We sang five songs before and during the meeting. I will admit it is a little hard to sing balanced when there are 44 elders and only 6 sisters, but we did a pretty good job. Some of the ward members said it was one of the best sacrament meetings they ever attended. Then yesterday we went and made a recording of the singing. I think they may post the songs to the web or something, so I will be sure to keep you updated because I am sure you would enjoy hearing the singing.

In addition to singing on Sunday, we had the opportunity to visit some of the church history sites around here. We went to some of the first places the missionaries ever taught at and where they baptized some of the first people in England. It honestly was a neat experience. My favorite part of the whole tour was visiting the site where President Gordon B. Hinckley received a letter from his dad. At this stage, President Hinckley was a little discouraged and wrote home telling his dad that he was wasting his dad's money and his time. His dad wrote back and said, "Forget yourself and go to work." The message contained in this letter is great. It reminds me about what I learned last week about forgetting myself and truly focusing on the work ahead of me. The more exciting part about it was that Sister Walker, the MTC president's wife, is actually President Hinckley's daughter. As a result, I feel the experiences and stories she shared were all first-hand and had a special spirit about them. She even told us that every time she asked her father how many people he baptized on his mission, he never gave a clear answer. From records, it appears he actually never baptized anyone. This idea really stuck out to me because it doesn't matter whether or not you baptize someone on your mission, but rather the influence you have on the people around you. Sharing the message and helping others feel of Heavenly Father's love is more important than adding another number to the statistics. It has been great to learn more about the church history and look toward the example of so many other great missionaries.

While studying how to be better teachers this week, we had a lesson titled, "Teach People, Not Lessons." This kind of goes back to the thought about President Hinckley and how we need to focus on people. While sharing our message is important, we need to get to the know the person and see what part of the message best applies to them. We are learning how to be sincere and truly show interest in people's lives. I have to admit, I really enjoy that part because I know I will meet a lot of different people here. However, the only way I can help them is if I am truly concerned about them and not about the lesson I want to teach them. By getting to know a person, I can be a more effective teacher and better recognize how my message is applicable to them in their stage of life right now.

Those are just a few of the cool experiences and things I have learned this week. It's funny because I always feel so busy. I am learning a ton, but yet at the same time, there are many instances where I don't feel I have enough time to study. I am excited to get out to the actual mission field next week. Tomorrow we get to go street contacting, so I guess that will be one of my first experiences out meeting people. I will be sure to report how everything goes. Thanks for all the love and support! Know that I am doing well and loving life in England!

Love,
Sister (Becca) Jack