When one person gets sick at the MTC, we all get sick. Especially when that person happens to be in my district and we sit in the same classroom all day every day. So now I have a nice little case of "the crud." It's a party. Something else weird, this was my last normal week at the MTC. Next week I'll be at all kinds of different trainings getting me ready to go to the field. It's precious how they think I'm ready for that. I'd be perfectly fine staying here another 2 or so weeks, but all the same I'm really excited to get to New Jersey. Yesterday I met two girls one whose brother is currently serving in my mission and another who is from the same home ward as my mission president. They both told me wonderful things about my mission president and I'm so excited to meet him. The first girl also mentioned that her brother is never in want of good food, which I found very comforting. Two months of cafeteria food will start you on all kinds of strange cravings and I'm definitely ready for a change in that department.
After you've been here for a while they start assigning you to new tasks. One of those is hosting new missionaries. Yesterday my district helped host again and it was such a fun experience. I was the host for my 2nd cousin Hermana Kirwin. It had been raining so she came in a little wet, a little sleep deprived, a little overwhelmed, and a lot of happy. Originally another girl had gone to help her, but as soon as I heard her name I swooped in and took over. We were able to talk about some family members as I showed her to her dorm and helped her with her bags. I went with her to get some band aids for her blistered feet. We picked up all her books and I took her to her classroom. In all we were together for about 40 minutes, but it was so much fun. Uncle Harvey, if you're reading this know that she's doing fantastically, she has a wonderful companion, and a fantastic teacher. She's going to love the MTC. I love hosting new missionaries. After 2 or 3 days at the MTC you start to forget how stressful that first day was and how confused and lost you were, as a host it's nice to help others realize that it's going to be okay and tell them about all the great things they're going to experience in their time here. I especially like when I get new missionaries who are learning a new language and we can talk about their goals for that. I like seeing how excited everyone is and it reminds me just what a blessing it is to be here.
I'm learning a lot about teaching. More than my brain can handle most of the time. Trying to be the perfect teacher and apply all the different teaching tools I'm learning each day wasn't really working out as well as I thought it was. One of the teachers worked with me yesterday and thanks to his ability to quote Dr. Seuss I remembered that "people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." In all my pathetic attempts to be perfect I have been missing the one thing that made me want to be a missionary in the first place. I LOVE people. I really, really do. I love talking to people, I love learning about their lives, I love sharing stories, I love offering advice, I love talking, but I also love listening. My teaching was missing one huge element: love! So I'm working on that. I'm trying to get over the fact that I'm not perfect and figure out how to just love people, listen to them, and share with them the one thing that is of the greatest worth to me, the gospel. I've only had one lesson since my intervention, but I did notice a difference. I'm getting less robotic and it feels really nice.
I'm so grateful for my companion, Hermana King. She's a rockstar. She's patient and loving and calm and I'm learning so much from her. I'm grateful for my teachers, for my district, for the scriptures, for friends and family back home who offer so much support.
I could not be happier.
All my love,
Jari
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