The One Where I Had Thanksgiving in England

Hallo! 

This has by far been the best week EVER in the MTC! Probably because we had super fun things going on all week so it wasn't just hours and hours of sitting in a classroom! 

By far the highlight was thanksgiving! President Bunker celebrates any holidays that apply to those in the MTC. On our schedule, it just said "Under the direction of the MTC President" so we were all super excited to see what he had planned! We still had our morning lessons, but then we had a thanksgiving devotional and headed down to see the sweetest thanksgiving spread! The cooks re-arranged the tables so they were in a circle se we could all see each other and they made the meal as traditional as possible! They even gave us each a can of root beer... bless their hearts! We all love the cooks here. They are the sweetest people ever! 

After our little feast, President surprised us with the best gift I could think of! A SURPRISE TRIP TO THE TEMPLE!  we normally just go on our P-day, so I was beyond excited! Plus, we usually go by districts, but this time we went as a whole MTC family lead by momma and papa Bunker! I love them so much! They make being away from home possible. 

Right after the temple, we had a live devotional from the Provo MTC and it was just amazing. I am serious. I needed so much of what we covered! President Bednar gave it and I just love how personal he is. The entire day was just a blessing. It was SUPER weird to see so many pictures from thanksgiving at home 🤣 life goes on the same? Say what? Just kidding! I know life goes on, but still... it was weird! But I absolutely LOVED getting to hear about how lovely it all was and I loved all the pictures! 

Another highlight of this week was that we went on the church history tour around England! Even though we can go outside wherever we want during exercise time and we can go wherever on P-days and there are lots of little walks around the MTC grounds, we actually got to go explore! We got to see so many beautiful sights and places where historic events occurred. We learned all about the early missionaries that went to England and the first converts to the church. We went to the river where all of the baptisms occurred and so so much more! One of my favorite places that we went and looked at was President Hinkley`s apartment where he had his "moment of decision" on his mission that he spoke about in General Conference. 

Every story and piece of history helped me to further commit myself to this work. I have tried to be more obedient this week and work harder. Even though I still have a long way to go, I felt a difference this week. 

The church is true. I cannot even say it enough. I have started to see people as God sees them and realize how much he loves them. He loves you. More than you can ever even imagine. 

Random thoughts:

- Sometimes my name tag still catches me off guard and I realize "oh my heavens, I am a flippin’ representative of Christ! This is amazing! I am a missionary"! Ya, I am a goof... I don't know if I will ever get used to it. 

- memorizing my German stuff is still painfully slow, but I can pray and bear my testimony in "Danglish" (Deutsch/English) and I get so excited if I can form a new sentence with the small amount of vocabulary I have

- I remember WAY more Spanish than I gave myself credit for because I ALWAYS accidentally put Spanish words into my sentences and I am having a hard time remembering which words are Spanish and which words are German 

- The elders are all younger than us, which isn't a big deal, but some of them act like it this week our district leader (the missionary from Scotland) was like, "Guys! I have a question. If you pick your nose and eat it on fast Sunday, are you still fasting"? And he was actually a little serious... We all died!

- The day after thanksgiving, the MTC was DECKED OUT in Christmas decorations! There is a big Christmas tree in the main foyer and we all got together and sang Christmas songs while President Bunker put the star on!

- Today is actually the first time I have worn P-day clothes because we always want to go out and explore so we need to be in our proselyting clothes. So, I am currently in jeans and wearing a big sweatshirt and I couldn't be happier!

I love you all! Thank you for the emails and pictures! 

Love, Sister Reay

The One About Letting Yourself Feel

HALLO! 💕

Sorry this email is late mom 😅  my P-day schedule kind of changes a bit! 

Thank you SO much for telling me about grandma! You never need to worry about telling me that kind of stuff because I trust in what Bishop told me before I left that God would watch over my family and that they are in his care. Bless her beautiful heart! I just want to be there to hug her and plug in her tablet for her when it dies and bring her a nice tall Mt. Dew with five pieces of ice! 😉 Nothing makes me happier than spending time with my beautiful queen of a grandmother! Please hug her for me! I went to the temple today so she, Shawn, Sadie, and my family should know that the saints in England are praying for them!

The temple is so amazing... honestly, I thought the night before I went to the temple as I was going to bed, and during the sacrament on Sunday that I had been having a hard time being able to let my body and heart relax. But, when I went into the temple, I really truly exhaled. My muscles unclenched and my mind stopped racing and pounding for the first time since before I left. It was amazing to feel at peace again. I am so grateful for the temple...

This week has been a roller coaster. (I feel like that is going to be my slogan for every email though) 🤣  I have had my struggles, but I have felt the spirit so strong this week. One of my favorite parts about this week was an MTC broadcast devotional by Elder Holland. It was recorded right after they came out with Preach My Gospel. He talked about the hastening of the work and how we can't just memorize lessons. We have to be able to have a testimony of the gospel, of our savior Jesus Christ and of his atonement and be willing and able to share and teach based off of the needs of those we meet. My favorite thing that he said is that Preach My Gospel is not a lesson plan book... it was not created to be a lesson manual. The SOUL REASON they wrote Preach My Gospel is so that missionaries (and members 😉   ) can study it to gain a testimony about those principles for themselves and then be able to close it and go out and teach with the spirit and the scriptures they have engraved on their hearts. I testify that Preach My Gospel is not just for missionaries! And so does Elder Holland! It is a tool to build your testimony and love for the gospel! Read it. Study it. And I PROMISE you will love it and see it for the treasure that it is.

So, you know how when you learn new languages sometimes you are able to add new meanings to words because of how they translate? Well my absolute favorite one is the invitation to be baptized. The question "Werden Sie sich taufen lassen" literally translates to "Will you let yourself be baptized"? I love it. That invitation is so much sweeter in German. And I realized that it is so beautiful because that is truly what we are inviting them to do. We are asking them to LET themselves partake of such a beautiful and sacred ordinance. We are asking them to LET themselves feel the peace that comes from repentance and forgiveness. This has been running through my head since I first learned this. So, the thought I want to leave with you today is will you LET yourself feel the peace of the gospel? Will you let God's love crash down on you? Will you let his atonement take your pains and dry your tears? Will you let yourself progress towards the person God wants you to be? Let the Gospel into your heart. Let it wash over you and run through you. 

I promise that if you will, you will find more happiness than you could have ever imagined for yourself. God has so many beautiful invitations for us, but it is up to us to accept them. 

Random Thoughts from the week:

-The absolute first things I bought on P-day were tights and chocolate. I NEVER thought I would ever wear those itchy annoying tights, but being a missionary really changes you I guess because I could not wait to get some! And the chocolate is for those days when the language is just a bit too much for my heart to handle. 

-speaking of chocolate 🙃 Chels and mom, they have approximately a BILLION different types of Cadbury chocolate things here... we have SERIOUSLY been missing out! 

-I am so grateful for this MTC. God knew I needed to be here. Where everyone knows everyone. We are literally a big MTC family 😄 

-enjoy the goofy picture of me showing off the socks I won during Family Home Evening! I was so excited! We play this game where sister Bunker reads a sentence from PMG or the White Handbook and whoever finds it first gets a prize! The Greeks ALWAYS win because they been here for a thousand years so I was DETERMINED to win 😊 

-My companion was listening to some music from her tablet and the song "Shine" came on which was the theme song for the Phoenix temple cultural celebration and I just cried! I hadn't heard it in YEARS and in an instant, all the emotions from that night came flooding back!

-I know I said this last week, but my companion is seriously the best. I am a tad bit afraid that I used up all of my "good companion" coins on the very first one!

I am so grateful for the love that everyone shows me! I love you all and miss you! But this place is amazing... I love this MTC and all those inside of it. 

Be safe! Laugh a lot! And most of all, know that I love you 💕

Love,

Sister Reay

The One Where I Flew Across the World

FAMILY!!!
So, flying was quite the adventure. Remember where you dropped me off at security at the airport? Yeah, well I thought I was doing okay with the 5 minutes of responsible adulthood I had just acquired but then I got to my terminal and realized I didn't have my carry-on bag with me... The best part is that I turned around to go back and was met with "Do Not Enter" signs and escalators that only went the opposite way so that was fun! I was concerned though because I could practically still see you guys and I was already helpless! But the good news is that they put it underneath the plane for me and transferred it all the way to Munich! So that was one less bag I had to keep track of! Blessings in disguise, right?!? 

People were so sweet the whole way and there were a couple experienced flyers that I encountered that were so eager to share this new experience with me because it has gotten so old for them so it is nice to be able to tell a newbie that there is a magical footrest by your feet and stuff. It was actually really cute! 

I didn't meet any missionaries going to the MTC because my flight plans changed the morning of! I showed up at the airport for my 11 AM flight and they told me it was bumped up to 7 AM and that there was no way I could have known... so at least it wasn't my fault! So, long story short, my new flight arrangements were PHOENIX》LA》PARIS》MANCHESTER! Definitely a longer day than anticipated! ((Grandma will be so tickled to hear that a sweet man named Roger gave me the window seat from Phx to L.A. and it was delightful!))

I hope you guys are coping well with me leaving because even though I have little heart attacks occasionally and freak out that I am actually doing this, the Lord has SERIOUSLY blessed this missionary with peace of mind and heart! It is exactly like signing up for trek for the second time... I was still nervous because I knew I was signing up for extreme physical exhaustion, but I did it because I knew that I was also signing up to have one of the most enabling and testimony building experiences of my life!

Some thoughts from the flights: 

▪Grandma, I got a window seat 

▪I became a foreigner in a matter of hours and was wishing Uncle Steve was with me at the Paris airport!

▪I had an egg and Turkey sandwich for lunch and I FINALLY got to sit down and eat it. I took a big bite and out shot a HUGE glob of yellow yoke on my skirt... it is just another testament to all my friends that like runny yokes (cough, cough - Madi) that it is gross and just causes problems 🤣

▪when I freak out about leaving, I just remember that I only have 18 MONTHS to make this the best mission I possibly can and I will have ETERNITY to look back on it! That thought is enough to jumpstart my hardworking engines and help me recommit to work hard and enjoy this insane journey... I give that pep talk to myself basically on an hourly basis in case you were wondering 

The MTC is the most aesthetically pleasing place EVER and brings so much peace to my heart! When I got here there was a total of 80 missionaries! I grew to love some of them SOOO much just in these few days as they have offered encouragement as we have made this change! There were people from about 5 different missions here altogether and there have been a few main "groups". Native English speakers going English speaking to London, people learning English for the first time, people learning German, and people learning Greek for the Greek Athens mission. Today almost ALL of them went into the field though! All that is left here is my German learning district and the Greeks (because they are here for 9 weeks!) So, there are only 20 of us here today! Tomorrow, another 20 missionaries will come, but they are all English speaking so we are going to be the only Germans for a while! 

My Pre MTC teacher is one of my three teachers, but she has only taught once. But I LOVE the other two! One is a tiny, young, native German named Schwester Schumann who terrifies me! But she is a great teacher and the other one is Brüder Robinson who I love! They mostly just speak German... which is annoying, but oh well! My comp and I have already taught an investigator 3 times in German! And I am awful at it, but that is why we are practicing right!?

Okay, I just have to get this off my chest... GERMAN IS KICKING MY BUTT!!!  Not even joking, I thought about coming home a couple times this week, but fear not, I am not a quitter and I KNOW God knew what he was doing when he called me here (even though I think he is nuts) BUT my companion is the best! She is SO supportive! She is from Denmark so the language is new, but it is more of an extension of Danish so it is coming SO fast for her! This would be way harder if I didn't have someone that could make me laugh as hard as she does! And learning about her culture is SO fun! I love it!

Love,

Sister Reay