Last MTC Pics

Travel Plans!!!!!!

Our extended district (plus the Romanians who are basically part of our district)

My beautiful district sisters

Sorella Bollwinkel and I with the Romanians.

Sorella Holloway and I being twinners. She had been wearing a pink coat that matched my skirt.

Us with Fratello Dean. He's not technically our teacher but he likes to sit with us at lunch and talk Italian. Tuesday was his last day because he's headed to Italy for a few weeks.

Look what Nicole and Trent sent me!!!! Thank you soo much!

Last Week in the MTC!

Dear Family! 

Next week I'll be in Italia!! I'm so so sooo excited! I have loved the MTC so much, but I'm glad that I soon with be doing something besides sitting behind a desk all day. I'm ready to stretch my legs- physically and spiritually.

Getting our travel plans last Friday was definitely a highlight for the week. We're going to be a large crazy group of 27 Italy missionaries from Salt Lake to Milan! It still hasn't really sunk in that we'll be leaving the MTC, but we've already started our departure activities. Sunday we had a departure district meeting with President Miller. We talked about flying out and then he gave us pass along cards to take with us to the airports. Tomorrow is an 8 hour long departure orientation. It's long, but someone told us that it was the "Disneyland of the MTC." We're not sure what she meant by that. 

The hardest thing about leaving the MTC is leaving all the wonderful people here. We had our final lesson with Francesco on Tuesday and our final lesson with Raymond tonight. We're not entirely sure what to tell him yet, but we've been praying about what he needs to hear the most.

In TRC on Monday, our member was a lady from Italy!!! So we of course asked her lots of questions about Italy and her conversion. It  was wonderful and we learned some really good advice.  Sorelle Baer and Ervin had an Italian named Francesca as their investigator. It turns out that Francesca is the person that Fratello Weller based our investigator Francesco after. So we were able to meet her!!! It was so much fun! But I think we scared her when we started telling her everything we knew about her life. haha. She was so sweet and kind. I'm glad we were able to meet her.

The language is coming. Yesterday I was sharing a spiritual thought in Italian and couldn't remember the word for better. The Italian word for better is "meglio" and the word for wife is "moglie." Guess which one I said about ten times in a row? And the embarassing thing is that my teacher would correct me every single time and I still couldn't get it right. 

I love hearing from all of you.

Good luck to everyone doing the triathalon! You'll be amazing!

And congrats to Julie on her PR! I'm so proud of you!!

Mom- I got the oils. Thank you so much! Keep me updated about having the sister missionaries live with you. That would be amazing!! Also, not that you're no longer the Stake Primary Pres, you can be the chorister :)

Vi voglio bene!

Sorella Pace

MTC Week 4

Well it's week 4 in the MTC! Two more weeks and I'll be in Italia!!!!! I am sooo excited!!! And slightly terrified. It seems like I still have so much to learn- especially with the language. We make insane language mistakes all the time, and I never know what tense to use, or even which tense will come out of my mouth. We've told our investigators just about everything, from having lunch with God before we were born, to "will you please pray on your gnocchi" instead of knees. But the language is coming and I know that we are aided so much by the Spirit. There is no way I would be able to say half the things I do without the help of God.

 

Elder Richard G. Scott came to the MTC for the Tuesday devotional! It was the first time we didn't make it into the large assembly room, so we ended up in an overflow room- which was kindof a bummer. But it didn't matter, because the spirit there was soo strong. As soon as Elder Scott started speaking, the room simply filled with his love and God's love. He spoke about prayer, and really taking the time to speak with our Heavenly Father daily. But he also emphasized that with God's help we would be able to use this mission as a foundation for the rest of our lives and that we would master the language. He ended with a beautiful apastolic blessing and then sat down. But after the closing hymn, he raced back up the the stand for a few final remarks. He testified that God has called us to specific missions to succeed. He said that we would grow in ways we never thought possible. Then he closed with a powerful testimony of the Savior.

After the devotional, we had a combined district meeting with the Romanian district in our zone. (I think I've told you about them before.) There was not a dry eye in the room, and the spirit was powerful. I felt God's love for each of us overpoweringly. It was the best evening I've had in the MTC.

 

I know this letter is short this week, but know that I'm thinking of you and pray for you daily. Thanks for all the letters!

Next week will be my last letter from the MTC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Have a wonderful week.

For everyone attending BYU- Good luck with finals! (I think they're this week)

Grandma and Grandpa Okeson- sorry I haven't responded yet, but I'm working on it! You'll get a letter soon.

Tell Debbie hello from me. It sounds like you had a wonderful day and dinner with her!

 

I love you!!

 

Sorella Pace

PICTURES!!!!!

Ciao Family! I'm almost done here at the MTC!!!! CRAZY!!!!

Here's the pictures for this week.

Me with Hermana Smith. I run into her all the time. She's now in Boston until her visa gets through and she can head to Argentina.

We were new missionary hosts yesterday!!! It was so much fun!!!

Here we are with our beautiful door decorations.

Pictures! :)

Ciao Family! It's hard to believe I've already been in the MTC for three weeks. I'm halfway done!! I'm super excited for three weeks in the future when I'll be hopping on the plane to Italia, but I don't feel ready at all! haha. Hopefully these next few weeks will change that.

1. This is our lovely door that we decorated between Conference sessions. Isn't it great? Sorella Ervin had the brilliant idea of making it the Italian flag and then S. Bollwinkel did an amazing job with the pictures.

2. Here we are in our classroom last night when we realized that we had zero pictures to send home. Whoops!

3. Our room is a wonderful crowded mess! It's supposed to house only 2 companionships, but with the overflow of missionaries they crammed in another set of bunks- leaving zero room for the multitudes of suitcases.

I love you all!

Love, Sorella Pace

MTC Week 3

Well I'm halfway done with the MTC. Crazy!!!! Three more weeks and I'll be in Italy!!!!!!!!!!

 

This week has been simply amazing- especially with conference. Wow! All the talks were so good. But honestly, one of my favorite parts was when I was sitting in a big room full of missionaries and they announced the numbers of missionaries serving world wide. Also, during one of the talks during the first session they showed a picture of the Rome Temple! It was beautiful! I can't wait to someday see it for real, even though that probably won't happen during my mission, I will see it someday. I have a few confessions about conference. First, the chairs in the MTC are killer! The ones in the classroom are fine, but the seats in the big conference rooms and especially in the gym kill your back like nobodies business! I don't think my back has ever hurt quite as much as after 5 sessions of just sitting (we also watched the YW conference Saturday night) and with no gym time to stretch out or move. I was dying, and seriously missing the spring bikerides we always had at home. Second, I may have fallen asleep for a few minutes during the Saturday afternoon session. And then I started snoring. Whoops!!! That was certainly embarassing! Luckily dear Sorella Bollwinkel quickly woke me up. I have one final word about conference- exactly six months before I made the decision to go on a mission. And here I am today! It's so neat to look back and see the journey I've made.

 

The best news of the week is- Baby Bollwinkel is born!!!!!!!!!!! As of yesterday, my wonderful comp. has a new baby sister named Dallyn! That brings the count up to 10 children in the Bollwinkel family. And we just saw some pictures of her- adorable! I can't imagine not seeing my sister for the first 18 months of her life. S. Bollwinkel is my hero.

 

I think I've told you about our two investigators Raymond and Francesco. Yesterday we were teaching Raymond a lesson and I felt prompted to ask him to be baptized, so I tried to ask him. But I really REALLY struggled with the Italian and couldn't figure out how to say it. I think I ended up saying something to the effect of "we want you to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized" but I couldn't think of how to make that a question so I just put some inflection at the end to try to make it sound something like a question. He look really confused and then said "Si." We were excited! But then that night I was writting in my journal and suddenly realized that we may have already asked him to be baptized last week! Whoops! No wonder he was so confused (besides the fact that my sentance probably made no sense).

 

I've had some people ask me about the food at the MTC. And honestly, I was sick of it after three days. There is nothing I would love more right now than spending a night at home eating one of Mom's wonderful homemade dinners. I just am waiting till I get to Italy and eat some amazing pasta and be able to cook for myself.

 

Melanie- I forgot you were doing a triathalon! I know you'll do amazing. Also, I'm definitely not a swimmer anymore and you could probably beat me at a race right now.

 

Dad- I absolutely love reading about Sor. Pappi! Thanks for sharing from your mission journal with me- nothing inspires me more :)

 

Mom- I love, love, LOVED your letter!!! I was super excited to read every word. I'm so glad you had such a neat experience with Pathways- what a blessing. And good luck with the voles! Maybe you can get a cat :)

 

Also, everyone's descriptions of planting gardens sound amazingly fun and delicious right now!

 

I know this gospel is true with all my heart- my testimony grows each day. I can't wait to be able to share it in Italy.

 

I love you all, have a marvelous week!

 

Love,

Sorella Pace

More MTC Pics!!!

Me, S. Bollwinkel, S. Ervin, and Sorella Baer in our old classroom. The "mirror" behind us was an observation window. We could occasionally hear people opening the doors to glance in. And if you were at the right angle, you could see their faces. Creepy! 

Me and Anziano Robertson from Wanship!

Me, S. Bollwinkel, S. Holloway, and S. Halsam on our Temple Walk. (Fun fact for the day: Sorella Holloway gave up the opportunity and her dream to be Cinderella on the Disney Cruise ship to come on a mission. She really is our district princess. Also, she can sing with her mouth closed, and it's amazing!)

S. Bollwinkel, me, S. Ervin, and S. Baer

Our district plus the three Romanian elders who are in our branch. They're amazing. Our favorite Romanian is Elder Hokonen from Finland. He's hilarious simply because he's so serious about everything. haha.

Week 2

Ciao Family!!!

 

Its soo good to hear from you all!! I got Grandma Okeson's letter today and loved it! I also got an adorable letter from Sisters Kuhns and Jacobson. Tell them thank you for me!  Also, Mom I was able to access your letter on this computer so no worries :)

Wow! This week has been amazing! Last Thursday we were told that we were no longer going to be teaching Nico anymore. It was heartbreaking especially since we had him thinking about baptism! I learned so much from that first week so Nico will always have a soft spot in my heart. We gained two new investigators this week- Francesco and Raymond. We've only taught one lesson to each, but they're each so amazing! We also had our first TRC on Monday- so we had two members walk in and just talked to them. It was fun to talk to someone as a member and not an investigator. Plus since there are 50 Italian missionaries, they didn't have enough volunteers, Sorella Holloway split from her companion and joined us. She's amazing, and her comprehension of Italian is really good.

The language deffinitely seems to come slower this week than last, maybe because now we have a foundation and are just building on it. The amazing this is that when you need to say something, you are given the ability to say it. That doesn't mean you always say it in a way that makes sense. We ran into a missionary from Italy today- Soeur Buonanotte (headed to France) isn't that the coolest name ever? Sister Goodnight. haha. Anyway, I tried to bear my testimony to her, but she said my sentances made no sense at all! haha. We've started working on SYL far more this week and I feel like it's making a difference.

Dad- I wanted to tell you that Il Violo Drago is still around! It's just now in two sections called the White Rhino (I don't know the word for rhino in Italian sorry!). but we have another little purple vocab book that all my teachers call the purple dragon. I'll be one of the last groups ever to use the white rhino. They're coming out with a new book in a couple months. But it's really fun to study out of it and know that it's the exact same book you used all those years ago.

On Sunday evenings they show movies- Legacy, The Testiments, and old devotionals from the MTC. We'd heard that the one you have to see in a Christmas Devotional from Elder Bednar. So on Easter we went and say it. It was by far the most amazing thing I have ever listened to! Wow! Dad I know you would love it, but I think it's only available in the MTC, so you're just going to have to go on a mission soon! Anyway, Elder Bednar said that the character of Christ was that when the natural man would turn inward, Christ turned outward. He shared so many examples from the scriptures of when Christ endured something that would make anyone feel sorry for themself, but instead He focused on the needs of those around Him. That's what I'm trying to do as a missionary. When times are hard, which definitely happens alot, I need to forget myself and go to work.

One thing that I've been thinking about alot is enduring to the end. That was the focus of our Tuesday night devotional. Can I just say that every single talk, devotional, and lesson here is so powerful. I love it! Anyway, I love to think of the scripture in D&C 121 where it says that "if we endure it well, God shall exault thee on high." We aren't just here to endure life. I'm not at the MTC to endure life. I'm here to be joyful, and bring that joy to others. Everytime we walk outside S. Bollwinkel and the other Sorelle of my district laugh because I'm always talking about the flowers that are blooming. I seriously anticipated the blooming of the daffodils for a week. And now I'm pretty sure that a few of the columbines will bloom by next week. Yes! Anyway, I love finding joy in everything around me. In the beautiful world, in sharing the gospel, in reading the scriptures, in my wonderful sorelle.

I feel like I have 5 companions, not just one. The best thing for a person's self-esteem is sharing a district with 5 other beautiful and wonderful sisters. They are all incredible!!!  

 

Well, I'm out of time. But I love you all and will write more next week. I love the letters and hearing from you. Thank you Nicole Okeson for your letter, I loved hearing about your investigator and what you learned.

David- One of the teachers here is a Fratello Pesci who says he knows you from his mission. Also we meet an Anziano e Sorella Franceschini who serve in Catania and then Rome and they remembered you as well. They're going on another mission, first as family hisory advisors and then as temple workers in the Rome Temple!!!!!!!

 

Lisa and Meagan- I sent you some letters a week ago, but I'm not sure if I put the right address (I still can't remember it. Whooops!) So if you don't get them, know I was thinking about you. Also, I ran into Arturo in the cafeteria the other day and he said he was going to Meagan's house for GC!

 

Oh! I'm so excited for General Conference this weekend. It's going to be AMAZING!!!

 

Well, I love you all. 4 more weeks in the MTC and then I'm in Italy!!!

 

 

Love,

Sorella Pace