Week 2 September 17, 2019 @themtc

Family!!! Friends!!! Oh how I miss you!!! But I'm having a blast and learning so much. I honestly can't believe I've been here 13 days and only have 8 more to go??? Insane! Wowza! 

My preparation day was awesome. It was pretty relaxed and I got to talk to my mom and dad (which was the BEST)! Also, we got to go to the temple as a district. It was so awesome to go with people who I hold very dearly. 

This week, you won't even believe it. We got to hear from an apostle! Elder Gary E. Stevenson spoke to us at our Tuesday devotional. We never know who is speaking at these devotionals, but this week we got to hear from him. Ugh. It was incredible. When he walked in, we all stood up as we were singing "I know that my Redeemer Lives." The spirit was so strong in the room.  As he spoke, it felt like he was speaking just to me. He spoke of how divine and inspired my call is. I know that this is where I need to be. I am so excited to share the light of this gospel and I know that God has a special purpose for me. I know that God wants me with the people of Orem for a reason. 

For exercise this week, we played a lot of basketball. And I'm serious when I say that I'm actually getting good at it! I know all my YSA friends are thinking that I'm lying about that but seriously we played it every day because we had workout time after lunch and we couldn't do anything too intense. My free throw skills are SICK now. You're welcome. 

All we eat ever is chicken. I'm starting to think I can't eat chicken ever again. If I come home a vegetarian, the MTC is why. (Its really not that bad I'm just dramatic hahahahah) 

My companions and I are having a blast together. The more time I spend with them, the more I come to love and appreciate them. The are such beautiful and wonderful humans. 

We are starting to teach more and new people. This week we taught Adrienne some more and it was so cool! She was following the invitations to pray and read and she seemed to enjoy what we were teaching her. Sadly our last lesson with her was Friday because that's the way things work here at the mtc. We have to practice teaching different people. Another person we taught this week was Tom. Tom is so cool! He is a composer! And he works for the Utah symphony!! Teaching him this week was so fun, but he is also QUITE the talker. But I think we helped him to feel the spirit during our lessons! After we stopped teaching Adrienne, we met Kenly! Our first lesson with her was on Monday! She really wanted to know what the Book of Mormon was, so we focused our lesson on the introduction portion!

On Sunday, my companions and I taught two lessons! Back to back. We taught relief society AND district council. Our topic for relief society was the creation, the fall, and agency, so we focused a lot on 2 Nephi 2! (That is such a great chapter in the Book of Mormon, I HIGHLY recommend that y'all read it!!!) Then in district council, we taught about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and having pure hearts and clean hands! I was so happy the way the lesson went! We showed the youth music video from 2014 "Come unto Christ" WHICH IS SUCH A GOOD VIDEO GO WATCH IT!!!! I cried a lot during the lesson cause I'm an emotional person and love Jesus Christ so so so much. He's amazing. And He loves me too! He loves all of us!!!! 

YSA FRIENDS!!! Remember Elder Nordfelt? He served in our branch in 2018? Well I met his little brother the other day! He is going to Fuji which is so rad!!! Wowza. It's crazy how many connections you can make to so many people here. 

Also, I keep telling people that my cousin is Tom Brady but no one believes me????

Some of our friends are leaving Wednesday and that makes me sad! Ugh. And I got my travel itinerary because I leave in a week!!!! Can you believe that?? I just got here wowza.  All my companions and district leave before me so I'm gonna be alone for 5 hours. RIP.  

Everyone. I just want to say how amazing being here is. Seriously. I am growing so much and the amount of things I have learned here is incredible. I know that Jesus Christ loves us so much, and I know that He has felt every sickness, trial, anxiety attack, sleep deprived day, and rejection that we have felt in our lives. Our faith in Jesus Christ is so much more than the belief in Him. It is the action to follow Him that will bring us closer to Him. Study the scriptures! Especially the Book of Mormon. It took me 19 years to realize how cool and amazing that book is!!!! I can't believe I was missing out for this long!!!! Say your prayers. We may get discouraged sometimes that God doesn't answer our prayers right away, but that is okay. Everything is according to His time line. If we have faith that He will answer it will come. In His own way though, not in ours. I love the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints so so so much. I am eternally grateful for Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. They have helped me through many struggles these past two weeks. Turn to them. They love you. They will help you. 

I love you all. You hold special places in my heart and have shown me so much love in my life. Thank you for supporting and praying for me. I feel it. I really do. Keep being awesome and amazing people. I love you lots!!!

Sister Brady

ps. please send pictures. please. please. please. I love them.