This is so sad! I don't like saying "good-bye's". This morning at 3:30 the two Sisters in my district left and at 6:00 EIGHT Elders left. The Sisters to Virginia Chesapeake, and Elders to Calgary Canada. I miss this sooo much! I can't believe that 10/16 of us have disappeared already. The 6 of us will be leaving at 3:50 am and there will be a total of 22 of us on that flight. They have made my life at the MTC beyond imaginable because of just how wonderful they all are. Apparently, we impress every teacher and sub that we've had because they're not used to having such good missionaries in many different categories. Last night was our last class together and I almost cried for the 1st time since I've been here. I will always remember these beautiful people and they will always always have a place in my heart.
MTC games
So there was this in-field orientation on Friday, and we went over a few things that we should have a grasp on before we left. The very last thing we did before we closed was to sit back and watch this little skit. 4 missionaries were allowed to participate in a small portion of this, 2 Sisters and 2 Elders. I made my companion and I do it. My companion played the Relief Society president and I played the Primary President. It turns out sometimes I do take after my mom, not by my choice, and that a mission can't stop me from using my talents. The other two missionaries in it were played by my Elders. It's crazy that out of all this tons and tons of people leaving soon, that everyone who played a part was from my district. And get this! There was one scene where this Brother was on the phone call with a missionary. He was out in the rain and had an umbrella. He randomly called someone from the audience to take his umbrella and follow him around. They went through some rows of the audience and then into his house and sat down on the couch. It was extremely funny. And to make it even better, the random Elder that was chosen to do this was one of my Elders, Elder Barnwell. He's a bigger guy and he's one of the top funniest people in my district, they couldn't have picked anyone better for this job.
On Friday its pizza night; ice cream happens on Sundays and Wednesdays; and film Sunday is on a Sunday. I can't believe that I've experienced those times enough to where I need to move on. I also can't believe that this is my 3rd pday, and my last day here at the MTC. The first two days here went by super super slow, and now everything is gone. I feel like I've been here for 4 days, but knowledge-wise, I feel like I've been her for 3 years. I'm learning and growing so much, and I have a lot of my Elders to thank for creating an environment where the Spirit was able to teach me so I can teach others through the Spirit.
So like I've said before, after today, my emails will probably not be this long anymore, despite what my mom wants, and I'm not sure how many pictures and such I'll be able to take either, so I apologize in advance.
One Elder in my district, Elder Herrera, made a boat out of paper. I didn't believe it could float, so we tested it out. So in one of the videos you'll see that's what that is. The super skinny one on the ground is him.
Another video I have is of Elder Nelson doing "parkour" in his room. He did it more than others, but he wasn't the only one to do so. He was the only one who hurt his toe. If you look close enough in the background, you'll be able to see black marks on the wall, yes, that's from their "parkour", they did clean it up though.
The last video I have is of my companion and I who decided to play the piano and sing/ play the flute. It's super bad, but it was really fun to do this. Plus, we like didn't have anytime before to really practice and warm up and such. (Edited: video didn't get sent.)
Today I just about gave up this email. I started it this morning, and having to email in such a short time frame is super stressful. Then I did laundry and packing. It honestly feels super lonely here with most of my district gone, and so, I just ended up "passing out" on the floor. Actually, I just thought it'd be super funny to take a picture like that, I amused myself.
I have other pictures too, one of a map, I am in R1 and the food is in S1, which, sorry my friend, but eating has become such a great effort, but I do put some things in my mouth.
This morning I decided to ditch the MTC, so you'll see another picture on here of a street. I took that across the road, looking at the MTC, and me being out of it while my companion and I told each other "FREEDOM".
There has been a request to do another pic with my nametag. I'm sitting in one of the computer rooms and I decided to just take a picture of me cuz I'm too lazy to take it off and put it back on.
So today is the 1st, I leave on the 2nd, and the 3rd is my mom's bday. So a challenge to see who exactly is reading this, please email back my mom (the person who is sending my emails to you) and tell her Happy Birthday please. I have people who will let me know whether this paragraph is on here so you can't delete this before sending it out mom ;) You don't even have to know who this person is, but email her anyways please, this includes you, my new friend from the temple ;)
One day this past week we were determining each other's personalities, and then I dove into the color code. Turns out, there are 3 other Elders here who know what the Hartman color code is, and this one Elder and I went back and forth, in a silly way, not actually fighting, about what this one Elder's color was. It was super fun to be able to relate to people with things I already know. Not only by the color code, but I've been able to connect with the Elders through acting. Elder Herrera knows the whole Hamlet monologue, Elder Bushman loves to act, and Elder Ellefson loves to mess around for fun and act. Elder Bushman did a few shows in High School and Elder Ellefson is just silly (these two Elders did the play with me).
So I decided to be cruel enough to send my mom a short email for this week before I sent this one, I'm sorry for that, I love you, but I do kinda want that to be added before this email just because. (Edited : here's the email.... "Last p-day at the MTC Hey everyone, Looks like I've run out of time so I can't send a long email. Love you all and please mail me letters if you'd like to hear more about me, and I promise I'll respond as soon as I can! :)--Sister Reynolds)" My mom was shocked and wanted more, so I asked for suggestions on what to talk about and something she mentioned is to talk about singing in the choir, what I've learned recently, and some spiritual moments. Sadly, I'm done with choir, I only had the opportunity to sing twice, because I missed the practice on Sunday in order to attend a departure devotional. I can't sing at all, but it was super fun to sing together with tons of people my age, and when we sang for everyone I loved seeing the faces of those missionaries not in the choir. We have an amazing choir director here, and he tells stories all the time, so it's always entertaining to be part of this group, and he'll make you laugh multiple times. Not only is he funny, but he's talented and able to make untalented people do amazing things, and makes you enjoy the experiences. It's not really possible for me to explain all the things I've learned or the spiritual experiences I've had this past 3 weeks because it's endless. I haven't had anything crazy big that stands out to me either, but I'll let you know if this happens. I better watch out though, one day my mom is going to get me back for all the silly things I do to her.
No one else has asked me any questions, except for this one friend asking about the weight room, but I was able to answer that separately and decided not to bore you with the details. I would love mail instead of email if you want to contact me, but you don't need to even read these so do what you like :)
On Sunday my district and I were able to watch something called Mormon messages and I will use the titles of the videos to do a type of shout out to some people. These are wonderful and short videos, and are probably only half of the ones I actually saw.
I would strongly advice you to look these up, but I promise that you'll get more out of it if you don't do it all at once or in one day.
-"Reflections"- *to my crazy siblings, especially the tiny ones
-"Where Justice, love, and mercy meet" *I'm changing the cliff story (you know who you are)
-"Continue In Patience" *makes me think of my military man
-"Earthly Father, Heavenly Father" and "Enduring Love" *to my parents, because this is practically a perfect family and they're always willing to reach out to me and help me, even while I'm away at the MTC
-"The music of the Gospel" *just because I know how well you can dance Mr. B
-"Book of Mormon Stories" and "Testimony of the Book Of Mormon" *to those who want to learn more or are interested knowing a bit about the church.
Other good ones
-President Holland- "Like a broken vessel"
-"The Hope of God's light"- very famous
-"Wrong Roads"
There's about a million other ones, feel free to explore these super spiritual videos.
--Sister Reynolds
District picture
MTC games
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