MTC 1

Bonjour! 

Week one at the MTC. It's been so crazy. The days are SO long and I felt like I've been here for an eternity! I think that this week will be better because we'll get into a routine. Everything was so crazy the first week trying to figure everything out and getting situated. There were also about 150 new mission presidents and their wives here being trained by the Prophet and other general authorities so everything was already kind of thrown off to begin with. I'm really so happy, though. One of the new mission presidents was mine! So my companion, Soeur Caress, and I got to meet him on Friday and that was really neat! They're Australian and I just love them already. He will be the second mission president ever for this mission since it is a fairly new mission (2012). He said his 19 year old daughter will be joining him and his wife to volunteer at schools and hospitals over there so we will probably get the chance to meet her, as well.

So the first day you get here and they just talk to you in your language. I walked into class and it was just french. Luckily a lot of things I learned in French class did come back to me and was super helpful. But that didn't last long haha. We've learned how to pray and bear our testimony in french already and any time we pray out loud it has to be in french. It is crazy how much you just kind of get into that mind set, though. I catch myself writing in my journal at night and almost writing in french words instead of the English words (the words I do know anyway). My companion and I try to talk to each other in french as much as we can, too. 

My district is four other sisters and me. No elders which I think is pretty unusual, but I like it that way. It's small and we have a great relationship with our teacher, Sister Vance. My zone is so fun and we just really have a great time together. It took a couple of days for me to kind of get to know everyone and get comfortable around them, but now we're just a big family and we eat together and we usually are together for gym time, etc. We didn't get to go to the temple today because it is closed for cleaning so that was a bummer, but it gave us time to build our unity as a zone. 

Our first lesson was on Friday, June 26, day two. It had to be entirely in french. The first two lessons (Friday and Saturday) my companion and I had like an entire script written for our lesson, but I felt like that distracted from the spirit because we were so focused on who was going to say what and when and making sure we didn't lose our spot, etc. So, for our lesson on Monday June 29 we had a few things written on a note card, but we didn't even use it really. Can you believe that?! Six days in and we were teaching an entire lesson in french. The gift of tongues is real!!! When I'm in the lesson I can usually understand about 90% of what the "investigator" is saying and then I leave the lesson and I'm like what the heck did he just say? It was really cool in our lesson yesterday because there was a point where I really felt the spirit hit me hard and even though this "investigator" is one of our teachers (or will be our teacher tomorrow) I really pray and try to understand him as the investigator. Anyway, he struggles with faith and it's ended up being a topic for a while and so I just straight up asked him if he wants faith and he said "yeah, I think so" and my companion was trying to talk but was fumbling over her words and all of a sudden, without thinking, I tapped her on the shoulder to stop her and she kind of looked at me and then I looked at Sebastien and just asked "pourquoi?" which means why. And he was kind of taken back and then started to answer his questions for himself which was pretty cool. 

So funny story time. Yesterday my district, the five of us girls, were sitting in our classroom doing studies and other things and one sister, Soeur Jacobson, asked me what my first impression of her was, but I didn't really know. I asked her what her first impression of me was. She said, "I thought you were were really pretty, but I thought you hated me". Soeur Hyde said the same thing. Apparently I have a mean demeanor? Haha I don't know. I think I was just trying to take everything in. Anyway, she continued and said "then one day you said something pretty profound and I was like that came out of THAT?!" So... she didn't think I had much going on up in my brain haha. She's really funny so I couldn't do anything but laugh. We really do love each other I promise haha. Later it was my turn to say the prayer

and she jokingly said "you should probably pray for me" haha so I did and I said "please bless Sister Jacobson with diligence" (but in french) and I was dying laughing and had to stop praying (oops! not being very spiritual) and all the other sisters were laughing and one of them thought I said "intelligence" because they sound similar in french and then we died laughing even more haha.

Another funny and kind of crazy story. So when we moved in we were in residence hall 17M and then on the second day we were called into a meeting and they said "those sisters living in 17M will have to move to another residence hall. There have been reports of BATS in the building." Crazy and was kind of irritating at the time because it was my second day and I had just unpacked everything the night before so I had to repack and move. AND THEN the next morning for our service project we had to go clean 17M, but I tired to do it with a cheerful heart haha.  

On Sunday, I put my tag on as I was getting ready for church and I was taken back when I looked in the mirror. For the first time it hit me. My last name is on that tag right next to my Savior's name, Jesus Christ. I am his representative. I am a missionary. The church is true. The gift of tongues is real. The spirit and the gospel of Jesus Christ really just bring so much peace and joy to our lives. It's hard to describe my feelings because this is SO hard, but I'm so happy and that shouldn't make sense, but I know this is the Lord's work and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

Lots of love!

Soeur Arianna Stahura

PS packages and especially letters using www.dearelder.com are really fun for me. If you write a letter using Dear Elder I get them that same night and it just makes my whole day. Even if it is just a few sentences I will treasure it, I promise (: