Sister Camille Beck Tacoma, Washington: November 23, 2015

Alright well it has been an amazing week!!!!! When My family and I arrived to the MTC I was so nervous, but the sweetest Sister walked up and gave me a huge hug and said in a Polynesian accent "Welcome Sista" She was so nice and made my feel so welcome and happy. After my parents started to cry I was a mess but as soon as I said my goodbyes I was my happy self again. One of the first things that we did was get my name tag that had an orange dot on the front to tell everyone I was new, and also that because it was our first day everyone gets BYU creamery ice cream. I went to my room and meet my companion Sister Bolos who is so funny and said the cutest things that makes Sister Cox, Sister Gunnell(Gun nail), and I crack up laughing. These two other sisters are sharing a room with us and are also going to the Wa-Tac mission.

So we found out in our class our zone and we think another are doing three weeks rather than the normal 12 or so days. So we will leave Dec 8th. I have loved being able to learn so much in such a little time. I have loved having amazing food here but i feel bad not being able to eat it all because they give us soooo much food! So our teachers are amazing Sister Saratov and Brother Gardner, and Sister Saratov is our first investigator when she takes off her name tag and becomes Ally. It has been hard to teach her and try to convince her that she should pray because she doesn't thing that Heavenly Father loves her and has never given her an answer. but by our 3rd lesson we decided to ask if she will open with a prayer and thinking she would still say no we had a lesson about praying, but she said yes and that just turned Sister Bolos and I for a loop. So we asked if she would be baptised and she said it is a possibility but that she still doesn't know if God answers prayers so we just told her that god loves her and that he will.

Sunday was amazing it was nice to get to relax from all of the studying and classes and just go to meetings. I loved being able to go to choir and practicing a song that we will sing Thanksgiving, and I'm excited for that because we will for sure get an Apostle. Then after that we had a devotional then we had films. We kept getting told about how we should go and watch a past devotional by Elder Bednar about the Characters of Christ and that we can only watch it in the MTC so watch it. So as a Zone we watched it and loved it so much. It was about how we are all like Cookie Monster (or the natural man and by the way Bednar does a killer impression of Cookie Monster) "I want Cookie", I want this, I want that, and that is when you are only thinking about yourself. But by following the Characters of Christ you say and do things just like Christ, serving others. He talked about how we can't just have a testimony, because most fall away from the church having only a testimony. But we need to be converted unto Christ. This process doesn't happen all at once but by little acts at a time. But we can never be converted unless we use Christ. He also told us a story about this selfless mom that was single, the relief society pres, and had one daughter. her daughter and 2 other girls were in an accident and her daughter died and the other 2 were critically injured. Bednar was on the phone when she found out it was her daughter and the first thing she said was well we need to find out how the other mothers are doing and let them know where to find them..... Later as she was going to her only child's funeral a sister called her very upset that she had not gotten a meal yet because she has a cold.... so on her way she brings her a meal.....etc. She is a true example of Character of Christ!

I was able to learn so much and I am so thankful for being here. I haven't been home sick or cried or had depression or wanted to leave because I love this so much. I know that Christ lives and loves everyone equally if you are a member or not.

Love Sister Beck