Thanksgiving in the MTC

hello family!!! it's been another great week here at the MTC :) :) I'm still loving it here! I tried to take notes throughout the week haha of things I wanted to tell you so we'll see how this goes :)

I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving!! Thanksgiving here was great. We had a special fireside and ELDER HOLLAND came and brought his family!! they gave some musical numbers & testimonies, and then he and his wife spoke. it was great. we waited in line for like two hours (indoors thankfully) but it was worth it to have 4th row bleacher seats :)

Something Elder Holland's grandson said I thought was interesting - Jesus sacrificed not only so that we could be with Him, but so that He could be with US. He wanted the joy that only comes with family. :)

JOYCE TRAN this is for you - Elder Holland said "This is REAL LIFE. This is as real as your life is gonna get. You will never be closer to God, if you do this right. You will never be as close to the Way the Truth and the LIFE."

He also promised us that there is nothing more important that we could be doing. By definition, this is the most important thing we will ever do. Other things might equal it in importance, but nothing will ever exceed in importance the work of salvation. This is, after all, what God spends ALL of His time doing. Everything God does is devoted to saving His children. It's incredible & humbling to be engaging with God in this His most important work - to bring about eternal life for all of His children.

He also told us that God buoyed up every prophet of old by showing them OUR DAY. Every other dispensation ended in apostasy, but THIS ONE WILL NOT. This time, it is going to work. This time, WE WILL NOT FAIL. We are destined to succeed.

Also Elder Holland & President Brown have both floated guesses that we could very well have 90,000 missionaries come spring. 90,000. in the words of elder holland, "we've never had 90,000 anything!!" hahaha

Elder Holland also taught us the importance of names & taught us that God knows each of our names & that's important because He knows us personally & individually, not just generally or collectively. He knew Abraham's name, Moses, Samuel, & He knows ours. He knows everything about us :)

It's so inspiring to be here with 2000 other missionaries, all preparing to preach the gospel to every nation & in every language. seriously EVERY LANGUAGE hahah it's so crazy!!! & really amazing to be here.

oh also Elder Bednar taught us that "each of you was individually considered & assigned to a mission by a man you sustain as a prophet of God." amazing!! & true!! & often forgotten I think!!

speaking of foreign countries, there's an australian missionary in my zone who just cracks me up. he says "being an australian in americar is the worst because everyone loves you but i don't love everyone!" hahaha. also, i guess in australia they call periods "full-stops"? so he got super confused in grammar class when they were talking about sentences & then all of the sudden periods came up so he raised his hand and asked why they were talking about girls periods hahahaha

also, yesterday at dinner an african-american elder came up & started talking to me in spanish, even after i explained that i don't know spanish. he just repeated things slower. but i know he spoke english because he's from california haha. anyways we finally communicated where we were from & where we were going & how long we'd been here & how long we had left (the only questions anyone asks around here haha) & then he asked if he could take a picture with me so i said sure. and it made me think of LYNDY & ALANNAH :) also alannah i look for you every breakfast but i forget when you work!!! so send me a letter so i can see you!!! i usually eat behind the salad bar by the combo line :) :) i want to see you!

it's weird being here so close to all my BYU friends but not being able to see them. :) we go to the temple monday mornings at 6:50 and we take walks up there on sunday afternoons, so that's nice :) i'm trying to figure out a way to send home pictures!!! haha

also, we get sundaes on sunday. it made me laugh :)

now when we sing "I am a child of God" it has a whole new meaning to me and I think about other people singing it to us missionaries, if that makes sense. we also sing "we are NOW the Lord's missionaries" when we sing armies of Helaman, which is pretty cool :)

another fact - sorry this letter is so scattered - but we learned that 38% of missionaries are out of commission DAILY because of health problems. partly because if you're companion's sick then you can't work either. so be healthy!!

i think being with a companion all the time is more of an adjustment for elders than sisters haha because girls go everywhere with other girls anyways :)

I still love being called Sister Proffit :) Sister kind of sounds like Cece haha so I keep thinking people are calling my first name when they say "sister" :)

It's really cool to watch the elders growing up & maturing & becoming missionaries, & to know that the same growth is happening in myself even though i can't see it. We also have really great teachers here :)

ALSO, someone the other day stopped me and asked me if i was from seattle because i looked like i might be? haha he was going to Seattle & did some research i guess on how we dress...? it was funny haha.

also nathan i met a district full of elders headed to Fort Worth & told them to watch out for you!! they seem great :) you should be excited :) :)

EVERY PROSPECTIVE MISSIONARY SHOULD READ PREACH MY GOSPEL BEFORE THEY GET HERE. you really really need to read it BEFORE you enter the MTC because they assume you've already read it. also, they sell little tiny ones with the full text for less than $5 i think! get em get em :)

"We do not take counsel from our fears." Neal A. Maxwell

John 3:30 - He must increase but I must decrease. Also John 15:5

Pop quiz - who restored the gospel? nope, not Joseph Smith..... JESUS CHRIST did, THROUGH Joseph Smith :) important distinction!

Also they remind us here that WE are God's investigators, & that everything we want for our investigators (pray with real intent, read the scriptures & seek answers, etc) GOD wants for US.

Teaching has been going really well!! it reminds me of how far i have to go haha. Sometimes when I pray to feel charity God teaches me by showing me my weakness & reminding me that we all sin & fall short of the glory of God. I'm too busy worrying about my own weakness to be judging other people for theirs. Anyways the lessons are definitely humbling. the way they teach here it's like HERE GO DO IT and THEN they teach us how haha so sometimes in class it's like WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THIS EARLIER BEFORE I MESSED EVERYTHING UP???!?!?!?? hahaha. it's really SO humbling to think that I am who God has chosen to do this His most important work. I see my teachers being so great and i'm like well why don't YOU go on missions haha you already know how to do it! you'd be great! why did God choose me! i'm no good at this!!! but really, it doesn't matter about me. I need to not rely on myself but on God. which is really hard but really essential & rewarding. :) THIS is God's most important work. & who does He ask to do it? TEENAGERS. and young adults. let no one ever doubt that God loves His teenagers, & that he works through the weak things of the world. & praise be to God for that & for His loving mercy & grace <3

Also they take such good care of us here!! they even have sweet old lady tutors to help some of the elders & sisters with their reading & comprehension skills :) God works in all of us!

Something I love that we do here is prelude singing! we sing 3 or 4 hymns before every devotional, & it's awesome :) also, i saw one of my efy babies! he got a picture :) crazy haha.

also a video you should watch - GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD. it's on biblevideos.org :)

also Elder Phelps in my district told me i reminded him of his mom......... hahaha

also I need Uncle Robert's address!!! i met one of his french students & he really wants to write uncle robert!!!! :) :)

Thanksgiving was amazing. I just realized I didn't finish writing about it haha. so after the fireside we had thanksgiving "lunch" which was okay for what it was... i'm not really a huge fan of thanksgiving food but it was nice of them to try haha. i felt kinda bad for the international missionaries though. :) then in the afternoon we put together hygeine & education kits to send to - and this is a real place - OUELESSEBOUGOU. we-less-ee-boo-goo hahaha. but that was fun & nice. we had a lot of down time which was weird, and the low point was probably eating a sack lunch hoagie in our room for thanksgiving dinner haha, but afterwards it got really great. we had a HILARIOUS program where we watched a "first thanksgiving" skit & the characters would say something (the same thing) every time they were mentioned (if that makes sense) puritan preacher would shout HALLELUJAH & pretty soon ALL the missionaries would shout AMEN afterwards hahaha & it was just so great. there were some great musical numbers & fun stuff & we sang hymns about what we are thankful for & then they handed out POPCORN & we watched 17 miracles which was SO GREAT because it reminded me that i really am just SO THANKFUL every day to be here, to be doing the Lord's work, & to know that this is where I'm supposed to be. I LOVE wearing the name of Jesus Christ on my nametag & i just love Jesus Christ so much. He truly is my Savior & my best friend. I'm grateful every day to know Him, to love Him, & to be serving Him.

also praying with investigators is THE BEST. when they're praying to know if God is there & what they should do... SO GOOD. we taught a less-active sister & the Spirit was so strong & she was so grateful & it was amazing that all she needed was someone to come in & bring the Spirit back into her home & help her see what she should be doing to bless her family.

I wish i could write more but my time is almost up!! IMPORTANT: i get to call home on tuesday from the airport!! we got our travel plans! we leave 5am december 4th & we'll be in milwaukee by 3 in the afternoon :) I'll write next monday. also THANK YOU to everyone who wrote me letters :)

ALI my efy bby chicken <3 love you. thank you for your letter dear!!

ALYSSA GREEN you are a treasure & so is your letter & i am writing you back today!!

& thanks for the news article gramma :)

i love you all!!!

1 Cor 15:5 -- thanks be to God, who gives us the victory :) :)


I'm SO GRATEFUL for such a loving & supportive family :) I love you all so much & pray for you every day!!!! keep writing me - i love letters!! i love to hear just what's going on in your lives, what music you're listening to, whatever. i just love to hear from you guys :) let me know what you want to hear from me!! i'll send home my schedule after i'm done here at the mtc :)

love you!! God bless :)


xoxoxoxo SISTER PROFFIT