Week 5...

Ok so this week has probably been the most emotional week since being here at the MTC!  I will talk more about that later in my email but first, Mom and Dad thanks for the package! And thanks everyone for all the letters, dear elders, and emails! O and Happy Birthday to Virginia this week, I can't believe she is turning 7!! Give her a big hug from me!

So this week we got our travel plans!! I seriously can't believe I am leaving the MTC a week from tomorrow, crazy! All 4 of us Hermanas and Elder Hodges in my district are leaving the MTC, Tuesday August 6th at 4:30 in the afternoon and the other 3 Elders in my district are leaving for Texas at 4:30 in the morning on that tuesday.  So we get an extra 12 hours and we think that our mission president is going to be at the MTC to pick us up! How cool is that, the Utah Provo mission has some pretty awesome perks haha! I think we will also be allowed to make a 5 minute phone call home so Mom and Dad keep a lookout and answer the phone! I will let you all know next email for sure if that will happen! 

So this week we got to do TRC (Teaching Resource Center) over Skype.  It was such a neat experience.  Hermana Read and I talked to a lady from Chile and a lady from Ecuador! The lady from Ecuador is from Quito!! We were a little nervous talking to them because they were natives and they both talked really fast but we understood them for the most part.  We gave them a little message about the Book of Mormon and they told us that our Spanish was really good for only being here 5 weeks in the MTC so that made us feel pretty good!

On Wednesday my district signed up to be missionary hosts for the new missionaries that were coming in.  We had to go to a training meeting before.  It was so fun to welcome all the new missionaries and to get them checked in, take them to their residence hall, take them to meet their district, and tell them how amazing the MTC is! Standing by the curb watching all the new missionaries come brought me back to when I was dropped off.  Not gonna lie I got a little emotional watching all the families saying goodbye to their missionary.  I thought about my family and all my friends that I am missing.  It is such a big sacrifice to be away from family and friends for 18 months/2 years but I can already see this mission experience changing my life and that this sacrifice is so worth it!

So our lessons have been going pretty well this week.  There is one lesson that I really want to talk about because it just went so well! So we were teaching Belgica and we have asked her about baptism but she said she's not sure if she is ready.  Her relationship with her dad is very strained and is very against the church and her mom is very sick with cancer.  So we have been focusing on trying to get her ready for baptism.  For our lesson we talked about the Atonement of Christ and at first I could tell our lesson wasn't really going well.  We were explaining the Atonement to her and she just didn't really seem in tuned to our lesson and she asked questions and we didn't really understand her and we didn't know how to answer.  So then I took my scriptures, notebook, basically everything that I had and put it off to the side.  I leaned forward and looked at her directly in the eye and told her that Christ loves us and because of that love he has given us the atonement so that we can be forgiven.  I told her that I know this church is true and that this gospel will bless your life and that it will bless your family.  I told her that she would be able to strengthen her relationship with her father through this gospel and that she could forgive him.  I told her that her family could be together forever and that this gospel has blessed my family's life and that I wouldn't have it any other way.  As I was telling her all of these things tears were running down my face.  I was so overcome by the spirit and I couldn't help my emotions.  Hermana Read then started to cry and shared her testimony.  When we came out of that lesson we were still crying, we couldn't stop.  Everything was starting to hit us in that moment that our testimonies have the power to touch peoples lives.  It was such an amazing experience! The minute we made our lesson personal, we could tell Belgica was more in tuned to what we had to say.  It was amazing!

Ok so Sunday was a pretty busy day for me.  I did that musical number with Hermana Derges.  I played violin and she played the flute.  We played As I Have Loved you and it went really well! So I think I mentioned in my first email that during sacrament 2 missionaries get chosen to give a 5 minute talk and we have to speak in Spanish......well no one thought I was going to speak since I was already doing a musical number but for some reason I had a strong feeling that I was going to get picked.  And I was right, they did pick me haha!! The topic was on faith in Jesus Christ and everyone said I did a pretty good job and that they could understand my Spanish.  I felt like that topic totally applied to me too and I knew I was inspired to give that talk.  It was great, now I can say I have given my first talk in Spanish!!

So this week is my last week at the MTC! I can't believe how fast the time has gone! My district is seriously the best! We are going to miss each other so much!! Every departing district sings a song the Sunday before we leave and we are going to sing the EFY medley (As sisters in zion/army of helaman) and we are singing it in Spanish! It sounds so beautiful in Spanish!

So yeah that has been my week! I am about out of time! I love you all!! Thanks for everything!

Love,
Hermana Veronica Garces