Hey family!
This is my second and LAST p-day at the MTC! Like usual I have NO time to write, but I will try my best to fit what I can in! 
Although that was sad, a lot of other things have been going on. On Sunday we had Greg Droubey come to our fireside to speak. He is in charge of basically all church media. It was an AWESOME fireside and he had too much to tell us for me to convey on this email.... but ill tell you this -- 44%, I repeat, 44% of the missionaries at the MTC are SISTERS!!! That is unheard of!!! Relief society meeting in the gym was a choir of angels with so many sisters singing! Also, yall should check out online all the mormon.org advertising in London. It is AWESOME!
elder Richard G. Scott came on Tuesday for our devotional and that was also amazing!
My first day of Visitor Center (vc) training was on Wednesday and it was such a busy day! There was a group of 10 of us that left for temple square for the morning. We toured around and it was a great intro to VC training! Field trips are ALWAYS fun. I got to meet some more sisters that I will be in Mesa with -- One from Mexico City and one from the Philippines! There are also a Korean and Colombian sisters in our group to train with, and they are all super cute!
Our teacher on our first VC day was hands down the most beautiful woman I had ever met. She is also so darn sweet and spiritual so I can't even describe how great it is to learn from her. She served at the Independence Missouri VC. Turns out I had actually already seen her wedding pictures and had drooled over them on FB, but we won't go on about my past life as a Facebook stalker! :)
At the end of class with her we had TRC with "investigators". Usually they are BYU students or local Mormons who volunteer (what angels), but today someone else managed to sneak in!
For the first time ever, we were put on our own to teach and given no time to prepare -- surprise! We had just 5 minutes for each person who came through but somehow we were supposed to allow them to not only have a "feel good" experience, but a converting (a changing) experience. How might you ask can I do that in 5 minutes? Well.... I haven't quite figured that out yet. I'm getting there! The spirit is definitely the guide.
During TRC I was supposed to pretend like I was in Mesa and each volunteer had no idea where they were going till you said "hi welcome to the Mesa Arizona visitor's center, what brings you here today?" and then they have about 2 seconds to come up with a story. This is especially fun when its two or more volunteers and they have clashing stories! Its definitely a stressful exercise, I'm not going to lie. We were almost done and the last volunteer group came over to me, which consisted of a young BYU couple and an old man. I started to ask the normal questions and right away the old man seemed to be a bit confused. I kept talking about mesa and how pretty the Christmas lights are outside, and he was just like... " I'm in Utah because I dropped off my grandson at UVU." He repeated this over and over in different ways, and kept looking so confused when I talked about Arizona. I tried to keep going on in the role play and I asked if the two are his grand kids or just friends, and they answered.... we just met! The old man once again looked very confused. This type of thing continued for another minute or two, when finally I felt prompted to get away from my lesson and to instead ask the man about his religious background. He told me he was an inactive Presbyterian. I knew then for sure that none of it was an act at all. This man sincerely had no idea what our exercise really was, and I noticed that he didn't even have the volunteer sticker that TRC volunteers always have.
I stopped then and explained that although we are supposed to be in character and pretending we are in Mesa, I felt like I needed to share a message with him. I began to bear my testimony to him and I talked to him and the other BYU students for another 5 minutes while everyone else had finished with TRC and we were the only ones to keep going. He asked all about Jesus and about the Book of Mormon and I, in tears, bore my testimony of what I believe with my whole heart to be true and worthwhile. It was amazing how much power I felt inside of me as I did so, for this was truly someone that I cared to help to bring closer to God. Frantically after I shared my message, I found my companion and she took over talking to him as I searched the building for a Book of Mormon for him (he had agreed to read it and pray to God to know if it was true). It was amazing how long it took to find a BOM in a building full of missionaries! Eventually one was found that we could give away. Although it was faded and worn, it would do the job. I Put my short testimony inside it and my email address. We then talked about NC and basketball and talked about him visiting temple square while Sister Finau and I walked him back to his car across campus. Actually we realized after it was 30 degrees and windy outside, had been snowing earlier that day, and we were in summer clothes without a jacket, but that didn't matter! I finally felt a little taste of the love I will feel for my investigators. After we returned to class, the teacher and other sisters were waiting anxiously for the news. Turns out that NEVER happens. Someone had just pointed him in the direction of the MTC and for some reason he followed and made his way into that room! No one else that had taught him before me had figured out that he was not acting or LDS, but I am so glad that I was perceptive enough to realize that and that I could get to know him. It was a pretty funny experience -- much more so than how I have had time to describe it on this email.
For the first time, I COULDN'T WAIT to get on my knees and to pray to Heavenly Father for my investigator. Its amazing how much I worry for him, and I only knew him (his name is Larry) for about 30 minutes! I know though with such surety that the message I shared has the power to change his life eternally, I just hope he accepts it.
I have SO SO SO much more to tell you about this week, but I have to go now! I will write a letter today and send it out with some more news from this week! VC TRAINING IS AWESOME! Seriously, it is so challenging but I feel so lucky to be in the 2% of missionaries that get to serve in VC's!
I miss you all so so so much! I LOVE YOU!!!!
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