June 11, 2015 (MTC)

LOVING the MTC experience

With Sister Jacobsen

All the missionaries at the Dominican Republic MTC

The only 4 missionaries at the MTC for 48 hours

I'm halway done! Can you believe that? I seriously cannot believe that I'll be in Puerto Rico in just 3 weeks. So weird! It all seems very surreal right now. I feel like I'm just at a spiritual boot camp or something and that I'll be coming home in 3 weeks. So it hasn't quite hit me yet that this is a 18 month adventure. I seriously can't wait though!

I actually got a little taste of missionary life in the field last Friday. My district got to go contacting at the University for about 3 hours. It was so cool! I was a bit nervous at first, but then I found this scripture in Moroni 8:16

"and I fear not what man can do; for perfect love casteth out all fear."

I prayed to be blessed with love for those I would talk to and Heavenly Father definitely blessed me with that. When we went I was fearless and stopped everyone that we passed. I think I made my companion nervous some times because I stopped a few kind of "scary" looking people. But you never know who the Lord is preparing to hear the gospel so I feel like it's really important to give everyone that chance. It was a very good experience and helped me feel a bit better about my progress here. I've never been a very confident person so it was really exciting for me to see that I can do this and that through the strength of the Lord, I can confidently tell people what I know to be true. And we're going again tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to that!

Something cool that happened that morning was that I had a super painful Charlie Horse when I woke up and it never really went away and it hurt pretty badly to walk on it. It made me worried to go to the university because I knew I would be walking a lot. I prayed for strength, and then when we left for the university my leg stopped hurting. It didn't hurt once while we were contacting. Then, as soon as we walked passed the gates again on our way back, the pain came back. I know Heavenly Father blessed me to be able to do His work. The power of prayer is real. I know that if we pray, miracles will happen. And it's all better know, so no worries! :)

It's so fun having the new missionaries here! We're all super close and just a big happy family. I'm so glad that I have a loving Heavenly Father who knows me and knew that I would do better in a smaller group and chose to send me here. I absolutely love it here!

Last Sunday, I gave a talk in sacrament meeting all in Spanish! I was a little nervous, but I don't think it was all that bad. It was a cool experience! I know that it was the Spirit talking through me. And yes, I play the piano all the time here. My companion and I are the only ones who can play the piano so we play at every meeting every day. I love it! I've never been very good with words and with expressing myself through words, so I'm so grateful that I was blessed with a different way to share my testimony with others and to serve the Lord through music. What a blessing music has been in my life! I love it! :)

On Tuesday, my district set a goal to speak only in Spanish. It was so hard, but we did it! I think I only said one sentence in English all day! It was super exhausting, but really fun to see how much we have already learned in only 3 weeks. 

I love that the CCM is on the temple grounds! It is seriously the best thing ever. Every day, there's always a feeling of happiness and peace and it's so easy to feel the Spirit here. This is probably the happiest I've ever been in my whole life and I know it's because of this gospel and the Spirit of the Lord. This has already been such an amazing experience for me and I feel so humbled to be able to have this opportunity to dedicate myself completely to the Lord and to His work. He is shaping me and molding me and I can't wait to see who I can become with His help. 

I found a scripture today that I would like to share with you in 2 Nephi 26:24. It says "He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation." this is one of my favorite scriptures now. He has sacrificed everything for us and will do absolutely anything for us if we simply turn to Him. He offers salvation to anyone and everyone, so He will always accept us if we go to Him. I know that if you will let Him into your life, He will bless you in countless ways. Try to find out how you can make Him a bigger part of your life in everything that you do and you will find life so much easier, so much happier, and so much better. 

I love you all!!! Thank you so very much for all of your support! Love you guys!!!!!

~Hermana Allan