2nd email

Bonjour ma famille!

 

As I'm sure most of you probably heard I did switch to the fast track.  Last Saturday night my teacher pulled me aside and asked why I had decided to stay, I told him I thought I could be of help to the district and he said that was great because a mission is about help others.  He then told me that there are also people in France waiting for me to help them.  He asked if I was at peace about my decision and I broke into tears.  I told him I hadn't been able to sleep the past couple of nights because I kept thinking about moving to the fast track/advanced program, but I had already made my decision.  He told me it wasn't to late to switch and encouraged me to pray and fast about the decision. 

That night I decided I would switch and then I fasted to make sure that was the right thing to do.  I finally felt at peace!  In fact when I wrote you last week to tell you I had decided to stay for 9 weeks I was crying ha.  I know I made the write decision and everything has been going so well since then.  On Sunday while I was fasting before telling my branch president what my final decision was it was as if I felt some tugging me and saying, "I'm waiting."  I don't know who that person or those people are but I know I'm supposed to go to France and teach them.

I love my new companions Sister Murray and Sister Montes.  Sister Murray and I actually met in the fall because we were both coming and volunteering at the TRC.  She is the sweetest person!  She's 23 and graduated from BYU last year, and she went to France 4 years ago on a study abroad.  Sister Montes is from Mexico and is going to the New York, New York South mission English speaking.  She is hilarious and is working hard on her English.  I miss my old companions but I see them everyday because their room is only a few doors down from us and they have the same P-day and meal times.  I love my new class!  6 of us are French speaking, 3 Portuguese and 1 English/Spanish.  We have an elder from Madagascar and he is hilarious and very helpful with our French!  We are in the international branch, so it's for missionaries from around the world who already know the language of their mission.  We have tons of polynesians and asians and we get all of the sisters who go to temple square.  I was also called as a coordinating sister.  My companions and I are kind of in charge of the other sisters; we make sure everything is going well and report any concerns to the branch president and we also have to go to some extra meetings.  The sad thing is that we miss a ton of class time because we have to go to the meetings to welcome new missionaries and for training.  But I know we'll be blessed and learn just as much.  I love my branch president he's very friendly and one of his counselors, brother Talanoa and his wife, worked in the LA temple with grandma and grandpa Reeves!  They were very excited to meet me and said they feel like I'm their daughter ha.  They didn't know that grandma and grandpa have both passed away so they were very sad.

We got a new MTC mission president this last Sunday and he's amazing I loved his talk.  One of the main things he focused on was 100% obedience, and it really isn't hard if you just keep the commandments and follow the rules.  I haven't had any trouble getting to bed and waking up on time ;).  He also told a story about Collin Black (Nan Sheffield Black's son) about how he opened his mouth and started talking to people as soon as he got to Brazil even though he couldn't speak Portuguese that well, and the first people he taught just got married and baptized and are now going to prepare for the temple.  I thought Nan would like to hear that. 

My favorite thing here at the MTC is when I get to teach the lessons.  We do a lot of role playing, but you forget that and act as if these people are real investigators and it's amazing how you can be guided by the spirit!  Sister Montes and I taught a man named Bill on Tuesday and we had prepared a lesson for Salafaia (a Saomoan girl) who ended up not being there.  Our lesson ended up going in a different direction since Bill had a different background, but because we had gone prepared we knew what to teach him.  It was truly amazing, the words just came out of my mouth when I wasn't even planning on saying certain things, and Bill was really touched; he just lost his wife and he asked us what some of our favorite scriptures from the Book of Mormon are, but I wasn't sure which ones to sure, then all of the sudden without me even thinking I said, "Read Alma 40-42!"  I got so excited with a huge smile on my face and told him that I knew those scriptures would help him and bore testimony that they helped me when we lost Emily.  Even though this was all role playing, it was also real!

On Tuesday night Elder Gong of the 70 spoke to us and told us that when something good happens it is the Lord not you.  Sister Montes and I both agreed that that is so true.  We weren't the amazing teachers, it was the spirit, but if we hadn't gone prepared the spirit wouldn't have been as strong.

Next Tuesday I have to go to San Fransisco to sign my visa at the France Consolate.  Sadly I'll be gone all day, and the signing only takes 30 minutes.  But I'll do what sister Murray did this week and teach people while I'm there.

Also sister Murray and I are teaching for the first time in French tonight!  Please pray for us that it all goes well.  The good thing though, is that we really do teach with simplicity in French since we don't know huge words. ;)

I saw Calvin this week and Annie Swenson (who's a teacher), Amanda Young came into the MTC on Wednesday, and I also got to see Michelle Carter Foust!

And Mom my pills arrived yesterday!  Thank you for helping me with that.

I also need the addresses of Brother Collier, the Trupps, the Finlays, and all of our family members!

Thanks I love you all!

 

Bisous,

 

Soeur Valerie Reeves

 

P.S. My new MTC box number is 303 and my departure date is now January 31, 2011 (crazy!!!)