Escape From the MTC

So this week has been infinitely funnier than last week. Here's some things you guys might enjoy knowing.

 

Hermana Harris left early Tuesday morning, so I've been companions with H. Duchene and H. Seely since then. It wasn't a super difficult transition since we're already friends, but I do really miss H. Harris because we were super close. Teaching has been a struggle for our new companionship though. The first lesson we taught together was an absolute disaster. I seriously never wanted to teach again, that's how bad it was. But we taught another lesson that same day and it went much better. We have a lot to learn from each other as a companionship so I think that will really help me for in the future. I'm just hoping that our lessons continue to improve. It is especially hard because I feel like these Hermanas are pretty hard on themselves when we have a bad lesson and I'm not use to that because H. Harris and I always tried to take everything as a learning opportunity, even if it was a terrible lesson.

 

I have been having some problems with my right leg and had assumed that I just pulled a muscle in my leg until Tuesday when we were sitting in devotional and I about died the last 20 minutes because it hurt so bad. We decided that I should go to the health clinic and I really felt like I should get a blessing. So we go to the health clinic and they don't have any appointments so they send us to the BYU health center. It was seriously the biggest adventure ever to walk to the the BYU health center, even though it's only a block away. I haven't really felt trapped inside the MTC until I got to leave it and be in the real world for an hour. It was a highlight of my week. But anyways, the doctor decided that my siatic nerve is inflammed from all the sitting we do at the MTC (because basically all we do is sit in our classroom) and so he gave me some anti-inflamitory medicine and told me to come back in 5 days if it was still hurting. It hasn't hurt as bad as it did that Tuesday so hopefully it's getting better. And the blessing I got was really cool too. I think the Elders were kind of nervous because I don't think they've given very many blessings but Elder Shawkey did the actual blessing part and all I told him was that my leg hurt because I hadn't gone to the doctor yet and he said exactly the things I needed help with, even though he didn't even know what was really going on. It was such a cool experience and really added to my testimony about the priesthood because I know he was listening to the Holy Ghost when he was blessing me.

 

We've been practicing door contacting this week. It makes for some pretty funny moments. One time I was the contact and Elder Kubat and Elder Chambers were knocking my door. They kept trying to get in but I kept telling them I wasn't interested and right as I'm about to shut the door on them, Elder Chambers pipes up with "Hey, the paint on your house is sort of ugly. Can we help you repaint on Saturday?" It was halarious (though probably more so if you had all been there). I hope he never tells anyone in real life that their house is ugly just so that he can get in the door. I'm not sure how effective that would really be.

 

I also seemed to have learned some good skills from all the teasing I get from the boys in our family. The Elders are always teasing me about something (currently it's been the fact that I'm on meds and I have to sit on a pillow in class). So yesterday we got into a conversation about all the teasing we do as a district. Elder Chambers and Elder Bentall chimed in that I was pretty cool for always taking their garbage and just being whatever about it. They said that made me cooler. So I guess I owe a thank you to all of the teasing I get, because it's helped me to be one of the "cool sister missionaries."

 

I also have been having a problem in my lessons with keeping Jesus and Joseph Smith as seperate people. Instead of saying Jose Smith or Jesucristo, it usually comes out Jesu Smith. It's sort of a problem because the investigator has no idea who I'm talking about. Luckily I'm not the only one in our district that has been having the same problem!

 

Thanks for all the letters and the support! I love you all!

 

Hermana Parkin