Mamma mia, I'm a missionary now

Yeah, you read that right. I'm on my way to Rome! It's hard to remember everything that's been going on in this last month because it's all just super crazy. I'll give it a shot though.

Missionary Online

So the first two weeks I was a missionary from the safety of my bedroom. I had classes on zoom for six hours a day and I met my district! They're all star wars nerds and what's funny is out of the 11 of us more than 6 have lightsabers and like 5 of them had them within easy reach. Another fun fact about my mission is that everyone there is musical. Everyone sings, and either plays the violin or the piano. They're super fun and I love them! My teachers all went to the Rome mission. One of my teachers, Fratello Aguyo grew up speaking Italian because his mom's side is from Italy. His lessons are always a blast and just full of Italian culture.

While I was sitting behind my desk learning and growing the rest of my family's lives were continuing on as normal. My older brother graduated college and started looking for a job. My younger brother and little sister were finishing up the school year. My dad was going to work and my mom was planning and getting ready for the summer vacations/camps/missions.

Missionary 2.0 (The In-Person Version)

I left home after two weeks and spent a day with my grandparents outside Salt Lake. My grandma drove me to the MTC where I finally met everyone in person!!

If I thought that I had learned a bunch while at home I had no idea what was waiting for me as a missionary in the MTC. This really is a place of revelation and learning to feel God's love and His hand in our life. I love it here. Although, as my companion pointed out, I'm spending every day here learning how to do things that will help me as a linguistics major (i.e. speak Italian, and teach people). I've been loving it.

I have a super cool opportunity musically too! This week I get to perform for the Quorum of the 12 Apostles and the First Presidency as a part of a special MTC choir. I had my second performance this morning and almost everyone was there except for Elder Christofferson and President Nelson. I love this choir and it honestly has been one of the most unique experiences of my life.

The reason why I get to do this is that there are a bunch of new mission presidents coming here for a seminar before they go out to the field. I actually got to meet with my new mission president and his wife on Wednesday and that was a wonderful experience. When you're in the presence of these spiritual giants you just feel this insane amount of love and peace.

I know I'm making missionary life sound like a dream but to be honest it's really more of an up and down thing. Sometimes I get frustrated with the language, myself, my district, my companion, really everything and everyone involved. However, I think one important lesson I'm learning as a missionary is how to change the focus of my life to the things that make me happy instead of focusing on what's upsetting me. I also have been learning a ton about how having faith can help you access the power of God and make miracles happen in your life.

Honestly, that's kind of it for right now. I'd say more but also a lot of this feels a tad redundant because I'm sending out weekly emails too and those feel like a blog too. But yeah the pictures really say the rest.