Wisconsin Email #1

From: Camille Weller [mailto:camille.weller@myldsmail.net]
Sent: Monday, May 20, 2013 10:14 AM
To: Melissa Wheatley
Subject: Voy a Milwaukee Wisconsin! (MTC part of this last week or two)

Wednesday: Hna Bledsoe got onto her portal and saw that her mission had been changed to Cali so we all checked and found out where we were re-asighned to! It was such an exciting night! Milwaukee Wisconsin here i come! (:

Thursday: We got our travel plans and i got to call home and talk to my mommy(: 5 minutes is not near long enough though! As much as i want to be in Peru i know there is a reason that i'm going to milwaukee first. And besides i am dedicating these 18 months to the lord. WHERE EVER he needs me(: plus i think there is a lot of cheese in Wisconsin.. y me gusta queso mucho como mi mama(:

Friday: 3 days left until i really would get on a jet plane! We didnt really have a schedule so we would just help the other districts with what they were learning and be investigators for them to teach. I started reading Jesus the Christ and have already learned so much in just a few chapters! I was having a hard time being confident in the spanish i knew but during Tall time or computer time i decided to read some talks from the womans conference this month and read the one by President Erying where he talks about his granddaughter that is on a mission. He said some might wonder why heavenly father doesnt just give her the gift of tongues but goes on to say that it is good for her to struggle with the language because it strengthens her ability to listen and trust in the spirit. I know that the language wont be easy and probably most of my mission wont be easy but it will all be for my benefit and my growth.

Saturday: We had a study session with one of our teachers where we read the book of mormon in spanish and had a discussion about what we were reading.. in spanish. It was SOO COOL. He stopped us and told us he wanted us to remember that moment.. We were talking in all spanish and having a spirtitual experience, it was possible to do!

Sunday: Mothers day! I was so sad i didn't get to call home that day! I missed my momma so much! and all of my second mommies i have but it was such an amazing day at the MTC! First off i finally saw lexi for the first time since she's been here! We both ran to eachother and let it be known that i made lexi redd cry when we hugged, it is possible people(: We were both so excited to see eachother and we talked for a good forty-five minutes while we waited for relief society to start! Then JANICE KAPP PERRY talked to us in Relief society! She's the Lady who wrote most of the Primary songs and lots of our church music, i'm sure you all know her! We sang a medely of all of the primary songs like "A childs prayer" "I love to see the temple"(i thought tammy would like that i met the writer of that song!) "love is spoken here" "I belong to the church of Jesus Christ" and others. It was so cool to realize the important things we are taught as children in primary and how those things are still the most important things all throughout life! The primary answers are in fact important(: THEN the best part was she recently re-wrote "As sisters in Zion" into "The sisters in Zion" for the sister missionaries and is coming out with a whole CD for sister missionaries (which i'll have to get when it comes out) anyways with a whole auditorium full of sister missionaries we sang the revised song for the first time anyone had ever sang it. There was seriously not a dry eye in the whole room. I'm getting choked up just writing about it. It was such an amazing experience. I wish i would of written down the lyrics but i remember that one of the lines said "we are enlisted with Helamans Army" which i thought was way cool. It was so awesome!! Us sister missionaries are going to kick some butt in the mission field! (: After she talked i got to go actually meet her and her husband and give her a hug, they are the sweetest couple ever. In sacrament hna Bledsoe and Norton gave the talks like i had to last week and they both did amazing. Its surprising how much spanish we have learned in these 7 weeks even though i still feel like i dont know anything. haha Then my companions made me go to choir practice with them... yes choir practice. haha I know i know.. who am i?? But it turned out to be a way good experience because guess what song they were singing.... come thou fount. The directer gave us the background of the song and told us we needed to sing the words with personal conviction. I definately wasnt singing the right notes but i was singing with conviction(: Anyways im glad i went! The sunday night devotional was Brother and Sister Littlefield and i loved them. Sister little field talked about her mission and what she wished she could of told herself while she was preparing to go into the field and she said "You can have Joy and Peace all the time. Love being alive and love what your doing. Everything you will go through will help you in your life" Then brother Littlefield talked to us about the army of helamen and the mothers of the warriors. In Alma 56 and 57 it talks about how they knew what they did because their mothers had taught them. I thought of my mom and all the great mother figures ive had in my life and how i know i wouldnt be where i am with out them(: Then he talked about how it is our job to create the mission culture in each of our missions. one of the quotes he said that i loved was "we dont just try... we do WHATEVER it takes." and "Be the missionary your family wants you to be." and my favorite was "Am I willing to let my mission change me??"

After the devotional we went and watched a talk that Jeffry R Holland had given at the mtc a long time ago one thing in the talk i keep thinking about is "Have every possible experience you can on your mission, don't have regrets." He talked about why missions are so hard.. then he said "Salvation is not a cheap experience. It wasn't easy for our Savior, Why should it be easy for us?" He's just the bomb. I love listening to him.

Then i asked Elder Bowler to give me a blessing and again, it was one of the best blessings i've ever recieved. It reminds me of how in-tune missionaries are with the spirit. Everything i was worried about was answered in my blessing. Then our whole zone was waiting outside of our door to sing to us. I dont know if i told you this already but the zone gets together outside the night before a district leaves and sings "God be with you til we meet again" in spanish and then we say a prayer and say goodbye. Anyways usually you have to try to rally everyone together to sing to you but everyone in our zone came to our room and were waiting.. It was so sweet. Even though were all close to the same age i feel like i was their older sister and it was hard to say goodbye to all of them. Especially to my district.

Monday: We woke up at 4 to say goodbye to Hermana Norton and take her to the travel office and then we said goodbye to Elder Bowler later in the morning. Its so sad!! Seriously you get so close to these people it was almost as hard as saying goodbye to my family but worse because i know ill see my family again and I dont know if ill ever see these missionaries after that. Its rough. But its also such an exciting time for all of us! I spent most of the day doing things to get ready to go, packing, weighing, re-packing.. haha and also realizing how much i'm going to miss hermana Bledsoe. She was the best first companion i could of asked for. I seriously feel like she is my sister. I will miss her so much! Also realizing how nervous i was to leave the MTC, it's going to be a completely new experience! I'm ready for it though, I'm ready to teach real people and get lost in the work!