MTC Week 6: Next Stop, Houston!

It's been a rough week and a rough time at the MTC so this email is going to be short, but I'm glad for the experience it's been and for the things I've learned. I fly out on Monday to go to Houston with six elders (I'm the only sister coming in that day) and I'm so excited to learn even more as I teach God's message to His Spanish-speaking children. My Spanish isn't stellar yet, I still have a hard time waking up in the morning, and I'm scared about driving again. But I know that this work is of God, and I know that as I exercise my faith in Him by taking one step forward at a time, He will bless me with words in my mouth and happiness in my heart despite all the trials I face. 

I got a blessing of comfort this week.  I've been stressed out with everything that's been going on with Hermana Lund, and thinking about having to drive again, and feeling inadequate in my calling. I asked Elder Jensen to give the blessing, and he and I didn't even talk about what was stressing me and what I needed help with before hand, but as he opened his mouth, the Spirit gave him the words to say.  Earlier this week I wrote in my journal that I was scared "that in two weeks I'll be driving again in an unfamiliar area" because the last time I drove around an unfamiliar area I had a panic attack and had to pull into a parking lot to calm myself down.  In the blessing, Elder Jensen said "Megan, the Lord knows that you are about to be in unfamiliar territory and He wants you to know that in those foreign places, He will be there to be familiar to you."  I'm so grateful to be surrounded by such worthy priesthood holders who can exercise their priesthood power and their faith to speak the words of the Spirit, and I'm grateful that I can always have God's guiding hand with me, even in things that might seem trivial, like being afraid of driving.

I've had a lot of eye-opening spiritual experiences this week, but one of the most important things I've learned was through Hermana Lund and all that she's been going through. Her parents came and got her last night and so I have a new companion and Co-STL.  On Sunday, I asked for an interview with my Branch President to talk about how I could feel less stressed and frustrated with this situation.  I've been feeling like I'm failing in my job as a missionary because Hermana Lund and I were missing classes and studies for doctor's appointments and breakdowns.  I love her and all I've wanted to do was support her and help her through this, but I'm also here to serve the Lord in all that He asks me to do, and I haven't been sure how to do both, or how to do one and still feel fulfilled in the other.

In our interview, my Branch Pres told me that my purpose as a missionary isn't to learn Spanish or to read 4 chapters of the Book of Mormon every day.  It's not to attend every class and plan every exact minute of my day.  It's not even to teach people.  My purpose as a missionary is to love, help, and support the children of God.  And whether that means answering the questions of an investigator, or sitting in the waiting room of a doctor's office for the third time in one week, I'm still doing the Lord's work.

One of my favorite things about being able to serve a mission so far is learning how to change my perspective on things.  I've always thought I was pretty good at trusting in the Lord and trying to see things from His point of view, but I'm learning every day how to be better and I'm noticing that every time I think I've mastered something, Heavenly Father throws it into my life in a way I've never seen before.  I love having this opportunity to mold and shape myself to become what He wants me to.  The beauty of conversion is that it's an ongoing process. You're never really done, whether you're newly baptized or the Prophet of the church. I thought I knew that before I came here, but it's different to live it.  I'm so grateful for this opportunity to serve and for the support I get from all of you.  I know this gospel is true and restored.  I know the power of the Book of Mormon because I can see it and God's guiding hand in my life every day, especially now.  To all my friends on this list that don't have a knowledge of that, I encourage you to read the Book of Mormon, even if it's just a little bit.  It has changed my life and continues to change it every time I open it up. 

Thank you everyone for your love, prayers, and support. My next email will be from warmer weather! ❤

-Hermana Thunell

MTC Week 5: Sometimes God Has To Burn Your House Down To Bring You Back To Him

"Sometimes God has to burn your house down to bring you back to Him..."

That's a saying I write in a lot of my notebooks and it's definitely something I've needed this past week, but didn't remember until the devotional last night. 

Hermana Lund's heart problems have been getting worse. We went to the cardiologist last week and they gave her another heart monitor to wear for a week and she's getting an ultrasound on her heart tomorrow to see if there's something structurally wrong. On Monday she was having heart palpitations during our in-field orientation class which left her feeling exhausted and kind of out of it.  I decided we should go back to the room and let her lay down for a bit, but I had to get my stuff from the classroom first, so we walked all the way to the classroom and then back to our room.  By the time we got back, I was feeling kind of irritated with her because she wouldn't tell me what she needed and she would shoot down my ideas when all I wanted to do was help her.  I flopped on my bed when we got back, ready to pull out my scriptures and ignore her for a bit until she was feeling better, when all of a sudden I heard a thud!  I looked down and she was laying on the ground.  I called her name once, thinking she was just messing around, but when she didn't respond I jumped down and called her name again.  She didn't respond again.  Thankfully all of our other hermanas were in the room with us, and thankfully I remembered Hermana Lund had the STL phone in her pocket, so while one of us held her as she came to and started crying, I grabbed the phone from her pocket and called for help.

Only two of us were allowed to go with her as security wheeled her across campus to the clinic and I was shaking as we waited while they took her back to check up on her.  I didn't start crying though until about 20 minutes later when the door to the clinic flew open and our elders rushed in, out of breath from sprinting from the complete opposite side of the campus as soon as they heard what had happened. We all gathered together and knelt in the corner of the clinic to say a prayer for Hermana Lund.

We still don't know what's wrong, but she was fine and hasn't had any bad episodes since then. The MTC doctors are sure it's anxiety and are sending her home this weekend after her doctor's appointment for her heart. We've both been sad and frustrated about it, and of course we don't understand why this is happening, but that's where my little saying comes in:

"Sometimes God has to burn your house down to bring you back to Him."

We watched a video in our devotional last night about the Provo Tabernacle burning down, and then being rebuilt as the Provo City Center Temple.  It made me remember this saying that I adopted in Alabama after seeing some of the crazy ways God encourages us to reevaluate our lives and come back to Him.  I've been thinking about that in relation to Hermana Lund's situation since then.  Maybe what we see as God burning her down while she's at her finest is actually His way of realigning her plan to match His, preparing her to be rebuilt as something better than she was before.  It makes me feel better to think about it that way. 

I've been praying this week, not to understand what's going on with her heart, but to have a change of my own heart and perspective, to be able to come a little closer to God's point of view of the situation. Whatever is going on, whatever the reason, I know that God has a plan for all of His children. I know He has my needs in mind and my companion's needs in mind and that He knows what He's doing. I just have to keep holding onto that as we go through this.

This probably seems like a depressing email, but it's not. It is sad that my companion has to go home, but we're both hopeful and trusting in God.

Just for a happy/interesting thought to end with:

As of this week we had about 800-900 missionaries in the MTC, one of the lowest numbers of the year for obvious reasons. The week that I came in I was in a group of over 400 incoming missionaries which was one of their biggest incoming groups of the year, making the total number of missionaries in the MTC about 1700. It's cool to be part of one of the biggest groups and one of the smallest groups in my six weeks at the MTC. Today we're getting 530 new missionaries so our numbers are about to be up again 📣 It's definitely been one of the most interesting times to be at the MTC.

-Hermana Thunell

MTC Week 4: The Plague

Hola!

I'm finally feeling better!  But as you can probably guess, illness in the MTC spreads like butter on toast (which I eat everyday for breakfast because it's the only thing that's edible in the mornings) Elder Smith was the first to be infected, karma for making me stay here for my companion's first outside world doctor's appointment. Next was Hermana Miller, then Hermana Gratton and Elder Jensen. By Thursday, half of our district was out of class. The Plague is still making its way around, but at least I'm finally feeling better.

No word on Hermana Lund's heart yet. We're going to a cardiologist on Thursday who will determine if she can stay or if she needs to go home for two months of heart tests. 😢

As of Sunday we're officially Sister Training Leaders, just in time to greet the newbies today! Also, thankfully I was released from my one-week-long calling as Branch Music Coordinator 🙏 so my stress level has significantly decreased this week.

Funny story of the week:

Hermana Lund and I have a goal this week to commit all three of our investigators to baptism. We had the chance to put this goal into action yesterday with our investigator Marcella (Side note: because of Marcella, I've adopted the catchphrase "Es muy wow!" 😂). Hermana Lund and I had another Hermana, Hermana Mugleston with us for the day who is much better at Spanish than we are so we were excited to have her help. I put Hermana Lund in charge of the baptismal invitation and she did so well. Her Spanish es muy wow! We set the date for January 20th and Marcella said that was a perfect amount of time and that she loved having us teach her!  We finished up and left the lesson feeling elated!  Until Hermana Mugleston informed us that we had actually invited her to THINK ABOUT being baptized, and that the date we set was for her to decide if she really wanted to be baptized. Oops. Pero esta bien, porque we have time to clarify with her in our next lesson. Hopefully this one goes as well as we thought our last one did. 😂

It seems like our spiritual theme of the week has been "Endure to the End", which is really applicable as a missionary. Sometimes it's intimidating and exhausting to think about enduring all the way to The End, but we don't always have to look at it that way. Sometimes enduring to the end just means enduring until the pain goes away, enduring for the day until you can sleep, enduring through the week when you have a cold, enduring the food until you get Chick-Fil-A on Mondays, enduring whatever dark cloud you're under until you get through it.  And the challenge isn't just to endure, but to endure faithfully.  If your faith only comes in chunks at first, that's fine.  Build it one strand of twine at a time until it's a rope, then an iron rod and a lifeline back to God.  '

One thing that's really impacted me this week is the story of the Jaredites traveling in barges to the Promised Land in Ether 6.  Verse 7 says "And it came to pass that when they were buried in the deep there was no water that could hurt them, their vessels being tight like unto a dish...therefore when they were encompassed about by many waters they did cry unto the Lord, and he did bring them forth again upon the top of the waters."  The Jaredites were probably really scared when their barges were submerged, which is why they cried unto the Lord, asking Him to bring them back to the surface, but I really like that it says that when they were submerged "there was no water that could hurt them."  Sometimes we think we are enduring well because we are praying and crying unto God, but also, sometimes we can't see that our challenges and trials are actually taking us through safer ground.  The Lord knows what He's doing; He is the wind.  Our job as we endure is to trust in Him as He guides us. 

That's my spiritual thought for the week, guys. Read Ether, it's great.

- Hermana Thunell

MTC Week 3: Got The Broken Heart Down, Just Need The Contrite Spirit

​​​​​​Hola!

This week in mission life my companion and I got to experience the outside world. She's been having some heart problems since coming here and so we had to go to the hospital on Monday to get her a heart monitor, and then go back the next day to return it. Monday I was sick, and by orders of the district leader was on bed rest, so I missed the first trip, but I did get to hear about this miracle: Hermana Lund and I had been preparing for our trip to the outside all weekend, plotting to bribe our driver to take us to Chick-Fil-A while we were out. Monday came around and I was too sick to go to morning class, and so our district leader appointed Hermanas Gratton and Bronder to babysit me, while Hermanas Lund and Miller went out to Hermana Lund's appointment. The bribe didn't work.  BUT while they were waiting for the shuttle to come back after the appointment, they saw that Chick-Fil-A was right across the street. So close. They both considered walking over, grabbing a nugget or two, and walking back just in time to re-board the shuttle.  But something told them not to. Once in the shuttle, Hermana Lund told Hermana Miller she had had the feeling that walking across the street was a bad idea because they might get hit by a car, and Hermana Miller said that she had felt the same thing. The two got back to the MTC just in time for dinner. We all walked to the cafeteria together, talking about our obvious lack of quality chicken, and lo and behold, the menu on the cafeteria door said: "Chick-Fil-A!" 

GOD IS SO GOOD. 

It's the little things, guys, like the fact that the new vending machine on our floor was fixed last night and can finally accept cards. Or that Hermana Bronder's MTC card hasn't been charged for anything for the past week and a half. Or that our matching MTC sweats came with a missionary discount. Tender mercies are real!  The Lord is on our side! 

In other news, on Sunday I was called as the new Branch Music Coordinator!  And just last night our branch president told Hermana Lund and I that next week we'll be the new Sister Training Leaders as well! Our district is basically running the show. And the Four Square Court 😂

Well, I think those are my highlights for the week.  It's finally snowing here which makes me even more anxious for Houston weather. The cold is probably why I'm still sick 🤒 pero esta bien, I'm getting better every day, and better at Spanish little by little. It's crazy to think that we're halfway done here! All of our English speaking friends left today.  Alabama, you have a good crop of Elders headed your way so keep an eye out for them!

One last note, I hope everyone is doing the Light The World challenge!  It's a great way to lift your day, and lift someone else's!

That's all I've got 😂 hasta luego!

Hermana Thunell