Hello!

Thees past few weeks at the MTC have flown by! I leave for Australia Monday afternoon and I cant believe how fast my time here has gone after the first few days. This week has been another great one, despite getting sick yesterday. I'm taking lots of Dayquil though and Sister Ockey has been hooking me up with lots of essential oils (she's like my mom here). So hopefully I'll be feeling better soon. 

On Sunday, Sis Ockey and I were called as the new sister training leaders in our zone and Elders Talgo and Gunnell in my district were called as the zone leaders. We haven't done much for it so far besides host the orientation and tour for the new missionary district in our zone. It has been fun to get to know them and help them feel welcomed.

Besides that, this week has been more class and TRC's (practice teaching investigators). The teaching is getting easier. I am learning that it's really just about studying the doctrine and letting the spirit guide, because He is the real teacher. I have found that being completely obedient helps me to feel the spirit better and feel more confident in teaching too. I am so thankful for Sister Ockey! She always knows what to say when I blank while teaching. She always makes the conversation run smoothly.

We had a great devotional on Tuesday night by Joy D. Jones, the Primary General President. She spoke about obedience. I liked the example she gave of Naman from the bible. He had leprosy and he heard the prophet could heal him so he went to him. The prophet just sent his servant to tell Naman to wash in the river Jordan 7 times. He was offended that the prophet didn't come out to meet him and that he told him to wash in the Jordan river, which was the dirtiest one. He decided to anyway and he was healed. She related this to how we need to be completely obedient. Sometimes we don't understand why we have certain commandments, but we need to follow them anyway so God can trust us and bless us with freedom and happiness and confidence. I like the quote from Ezra Taft Benson that she shared: " When obedience stops being a burden but a quest, in that moment, God endows us with power from on high", something like that. Sis. Ockey said the closing prayer for the devotional so I got to sit in the front and then meet her afterwards. She talked to us for a while and she seemed genuinely interested and excited about our missions. I loved that. I could tell that she loves missionaries and being around us.

Yesterday, when the new missionaries came, Sister Weaver and  I knocked on Sister Swartzlander's door which is only a few down from mine! We were all roommates at UVU and friends growing up, and now we are all here at the same time! I love seeing them. 

I am feeling a little apprehensive about going into the mission field because I know it will be very different from here, but I know that everything will be alright as I rely on the Lord. The 13 Hour plane ride might be a little struggley though. Tomorrow we have in-field orientation like the whole day so I'm excited!

I will send pictures from the week in another email.

Lots of love,

Sister Pace