Well today is my last day here at the MTC! I leave tomorrow
morning at 3:30AM to head to the Salt Lake Airport. I then will fly to Atlanta
and catch my flight to New York, New York. I am very excited to be temporarily reassigned
to the New York New York Mission! I have loved my time here at the MTC but I am
so ready to go! Most missionaries from my district left early this morning (2
are heading to Brazil and everyone else is going somewhere in the U.S) so
there's just a few of us left.
This week has been a good last week. First, on Tuesday I
sang in the MTC choir again for the Tuesday Night Devotional. We were told that
the devotional would be broadcasted to all the other Missionary Training
Centers in the world. We didn't know who would be the speaker because it is
always a surprise but it ended up being Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of
Twelve Apostles! It was an amazing experience. Our choir song was "Jesus,
Once of Humble Birth" and it was awesome to sing that song at such a
special devotional with about 1,000 other missionaries. Elder Scott shared with
us stories from his mission and also talked about the importance of prayer and
patience. He said sometimes the Lord gives us struggles and challenges because
that's what makes us grow and develop. He also addressed just the missionaries
who are learning a new language and motivated us to keep on working hard and
the Lord will bless us and we will be able to learn the language. I know that
this is true because there is no way I could have learned as much as I have
here in 6 weeks without the Lord's help.
I feel like I have plateaued just a little bit with the
language this week. Also, with the excitement of getting reassignments there
has been a lot more energy in our district and a little less focus on learning
the language. But I continue to work hard at it, but it is frustrating at
times. I am still working on conjugations, and I know them all but it's
sometimes hard for me to apply them in the correct ways. I know over time that
they will come more easily as I continue to work at it.
Yesterday was our last Sunday here so typically the Branch
Presidency picks two missionaries from the leaving district to speak. They just
announce it over the pulpit seconds before you are supposed to speak. I don't
know if I've explained this but everything is in Portuguese for us here!
Including all of church, so we have to speak in Portuguese. Anyways, much to
the relief of the other missionaries in my district I was called on to give a
talk in Sacrament Meeting. I was a little bit nervous because the missionary
that spoke right before me was super good at Portuguese and she had only been
here for like 3 weeks. Anyways, I got up and shared my favorite scripture from
the Book of Mormon, Ether 12:27, and talked for about 5 minutes about it and
how we can become better people through Jesus Christ and His Atonement. There
were times where I would start my sentence and then not know how to say a word
and kind of stumble through it but I think I did okay overall. We also sang a
musical number as a district in Sacrament Meeting. We sang a song called
"I'll Find You My Friend". It is a really cool song directly about
missionary work.
Last night we had a devotional and a former BYU Football
player came and talked to us about his missionary experience. His name is Vai
Sikehema. It was awesome and a great way to end my experience here at the MTC!
Anyways, there's not much else to report on this week. It
was a great last week and I will miss many things about the MTC but I am very
excited for New York! I hope everything is going well for everyone. Thank you
all for the support and love!
Until next week.
Love,
Elder Helvey
Reassignment Letter!
Me with Elder Shreeve, Elder Barnes, and Elder Nielson (Elder
Shelton's and my roommates)
Elder Larkin and me. He is also going to New York New York
North Mission
and eventually Fortaleza as well.
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