Sister Selk: Provo, I'm coming for you!

This week has been chaos! CHAOS!!!!!! Get ready.

After we all accepted the fact that we wouldn't be getting an apostle during our stay at the MTC, last Tuesday we finally got an apostle!!!!!! Quetin L. Cook came to speak to us and it was an amazing devotional. Our district sat right in the middle only 4 rows back from him and it was like he was speaking right to us. Incredible. As we were singing the opening hymn, I couldn't help but just look at him because he was sitting on he stand and had the most deep look on his face-like something was on his mind. And then he got up and just blew us away with what he had to say. He talked about the process of assigning mission calls, and also said if we have more faith we will have more success. So you better believe I am working hard on my faith.

Also I had a pretty neat experience at the temple last week. I was sitting in the celestial room thinking about being reassigned and just praying that everything would work out and that I would accept anywhere that I would be sent to. In the middle of my thoughts Joshua 1:9 popped into my head and the words "Be of good cheer for the Lord thy God is with thee whither so ever thou goest" kept replaying in my mind. It definitely gave me the comfort I needed at that time.

On Wednesday our district got to host all the new missionaries coming into the MTC. It was so fun to see so man new missionaries coming in, but it was pretty hard for me to watch them say goodbye to their families. I got to host a sister from Ecuador going to Ukraine and a sister from Idaho going to California!

Later that afternoon Sister Parkinson and I decided it would be a good idea to sneak into the fireside with the new missionaries to hear Elder Cervantes and Sister Steagal sing their musical number....we put our orange dots back on our name tags and were immediately swept into the room with all the new missionaries. But as soon as the meeting started and they started to sing called to serve, Sister Parkinson and I looked at each other and instantly felt so guilty about the whole situation. We faked a bathroom emergency and got out of there as soon as we could! That's my sin of the week for you.

Thursday we had in-field orientation.......Probably the longest day I have had thus far at the MTC......I was 9 hours long! Too long, but we got through it. Thursday was also the day we got our reassignments. It ended up being me, Elder Mills, Elder Peterson, and one other elder from the other district that didn't get Visas. Elder Reni gave me my reassignment paper and automatically I knew something was up because it didn't have a yellow paper attached to it, so I was too surprised when I opened it up and it said I would be reassigned to.......

PROVO UTAH!!!!!!!!

Pretty exciting.

I have definitely got my fair share of jokes about it this week. I was pretty surprised it wasn't a reassignment to Canada, since I don't have a visa for the states, but that makes me hopeful that I won't be here too long. With that being said, I plan to work as hard as I can despite where I am serving. It will definitely be an adjustment, but it will be a good learning experience.

I have to tell you about our TRC experience from this week, because it was one of the highlights of the week for me. TRC is when we skype members in different areas that speak Portuguese and teach them a lesson that will help them come closer to Christ. This week we got to skype a family in Brazil. Let me tell you......they were the most beautiful Brazilian family I have ever seen! It was a mom, her daughter who was probably around 18, her son about 17, another daughter about 13, and the youngest son was about 10. They were incredible. We talked about Helaman 5:12 and how if we build our testimonies on the Lord that he will strengthen us and support us in our Trials. I asked the 13 year old girl to read the scripture and she read it in he most beauiful Portuguese I have ever heard. Afterwards I had to tell her that my dream was to speak Portuguese like her and they all just laughed. While we were talking about our message the mom asked if she could share an experience. I didn't catch everything she said because the sound was really bad, but during the middle of her sharing this experience she started weeping. The spirit was so strong and I was trying to hold back the tears as I listened to the little portions I could hear. Afterwards I thanked her for sharing and just told her that I knew tat the Lord loved her and her family and was there for them. I thanked them for their testimonies and their strength. We also asked if there was anything we could do for them, and after a moment of thinking the 17 year old boy asked if we were happy on our missions. AHHH!!!! It was the coolest thing to express to him how amazing missions are and how happy we feel. Absolutely incredible! We didn't want to say goodbye, but eventually we did and Sister Parkinson and I just flipped out because we were so happy! Irmao Belchior Skyped them again after we left the room and evaluated our lesson with them, and later told us that they all loved the lesson and felt the spirit so strongly, but the best part was when he told us that because of what we had said, that boys desire to serve a mission had increased substantially. I couldn't believe it. Such an incredible family!

Sunday I had to speak in church. Oh gosh, that was an experience. The Branch President says he looks for people who walk in with halos on their head, but I was trying to look especially cynical that morning, so I don't think that is true. You don't find out if you speak until literally 2 minutes before your up speaking, and I thought for sure this week I would be safe since there were 25 missionaries leaving and much more qualified girls to speak. Unfortunately I out of all the girls in our branch got asked to speak. The best part: it had to be in Portuguese. It was pretty horrific....but I guess it was good practice. I was definitely teary eyed talking about how much I loved my district and then directly after I spoke our district had the musical number for the week and we all sang "God be with you until we meet again". I was bawling during the whole thing. Awful.

The rest of the week was just a bunch more tears. Yuck. We said Goodbye to Elder Peterson on Sunday night because he got reassigned to Chicago, and then yesterday we had to say goodbye to Irma Wilson, Irmao Belchior, and Elder Mills. It was a rough couple of days that were filled with some very special moments that I will never forget.

The rest of the district was supposed to head to the airport an hour ago but their flights ended up being wrong and now they are just waiting to see what is next, so it looks like they will be the ones to send me off to the Foreign land of Provo!

I am looking forward to what this week has in store for me. I am really not sure what to expect!! Oh by the way, I am so stoked to finally say that I will be getting another sister in June!!!!!! AHHHH! Congrats Lindsay and Rawley! I am so so excited for the both of you!

Hope you all are doing well! Amo Voces!

-Sister Selk