1/22/2013

Bonjour Ma Famille!

This week has been absolutely amazing, I am loving my time here in the MTC!

Sister Bentley has been sick all weekend and Sister Anderson is starting to come down with it too. I'm just praying that I don't get sick and am trying my best to pound Vitamin C. While I feel really bad for them, them being sick led to me getting to have an amazing Sunday. I was only able to go to relief society and the devotional. The rest of the day was spent in our room. While that would normally drive me crazy, not being able to do anything, I got to spend the entire day studying. During the weekdays, we generally only have one hour a day to study the Gospel in English. The rest of the time, we do it while struggling through it in French. It's still really neat and I learn a lot, but it's always a little harder to focus when there is a language barrier. This Sunday I literally spent about 12 hours studying the Gospel. It was incredible! I read through endless conference talks, studied the scriptures for hours, and got through tons of chapters of Preach My Gospel. Wow, I learned so much. I'm not sure that I have ever spent that much consecutive time sitting at a desk and learning about the Gospel. I felt the Spirit so strong and felt totally boosted for the upcoming week. It's amazing to be serving a mission because your life has one focus. Everything that I do is for the sole purpose of bringing others the joy that I have. There is nothing like having this experience!

Speaking of studying, I've been trying to think of the most meaningful studying that I could be doing while here in the MTC. There are so many topics that I want to learn about that will help me in sharing the Gospel. I really just want to get the most out of the time I have here. After about a week of trial and error (if you can call studying anything in the Gospel "error"...), I decided that the most important thing that I can do in preparation to serve the people in France is to develop a strong relationship with Christ. As a missionary, I have been set apart for the next 1 1/2 years as His partner in this great work. If I am to be able to work well with Him, I thought that it would be important to be as close with Him as possible. On top of relying on Him, using the Atonement, serving others, etc., I figured that the more that I know of Him, whether it be about his life, character, mission, etc., the better partner I can be to Him. I have been focusing all of my personal study on Christ this last week. I'm reading the New Testament, sections of the Book of Mormon, Preach My Gospel, conference talks, etc. It has been incredible how much I've been able to learn. The amazing thing is, while it has definitely strengthened my testimony, the important thing to remember is that everything that I do as a missionary is not for myself, but the people that I will be serving. By becoming closer to Christ myself, I will be better able to bring others unto Him. There is an increased sense of urgency to share this gift that I have as I increase my own conversion to the Gospel of Christ. I cannot wait to be able to help bring the people of France to their Savior. One thing that I learned, when studying a talk by Elder Bednar, "The Character of Christ," is that Christ is all about serving others. Haha, what a novel thought, right? He gave us multiple examples of how the natural man automatically turns inward when something is hard. They automatically think of themselves and want the help end pity of others. On the other hand, Christ, even at His moments of greatest strife, thought of nothing but the welfare of others. I definitely need to work on being more selfless.

I absolutely love being a missionary. There is nowhere else that I would rather be and nothing else that I would rather be doing. Is it hard at times? Yes. Is it a lot of work? Absolutely. But, it is so worth it. This is an incredible time when missionary work is exploding and I'm so blessed to be a part of it. Thank you all for the strength that you give me. I have loved receiving the letters and packages, they mean so much! I can feel the strength from your prayers in my behalf. Know that you're in my prayers too. I hope you all have a great week! Love you all!

Je t'aime,
Soeur Alisa Hulme