My time in Scottsdale, Arizona Mission

This past Saturday we got to go to the visitor's center for the first time and it was BEAUTIFUL! I loved it so much. Such a strong spirit. And this week my zone gets to go to the temple. I'm excited because it's the first time I'll have gone to the temple on my mission. Pretty crazy, am I right?

So update on Carmen. She has been keeping the Word of Wisdom and has committed to keeping the law of tithing. She's such a perfect less-active it's crazy. She's willing to do whatever it takes to be worthy to go to the temple. It's so great to see that change in her life.

Last night we had a mini-lesson with a part member family that we didn't know too much about. The mom is a member, and I thought that she was at least sometimes coming to church, but turns out that she hasn't been in a long time. But we talked to her about returning to the temple, and the spirit was so strong. Seriously, take the family to temple a little more often, just to at least be on the grounds! It's such a difference that can be felt.

Reading out of the Book of Mormon stories made such a huge difference in my life. I realize that I know so much about the gospel just because I read the simplified versions of the scriptures over and over and over again. Sister Holyoak never read the simplified until she got the MTC so she's been confused her whole life! Thanks for having me read those! :D

There was a dust storm this past Friday that we biked in temporarily, but no worries we're all safe and sound. The worst part was when I could feel the sand in my teeth for the next hour. It was crazy.

I'm so happy that I'm here in Scottsdale. At first it was hard because I wanted to be in Brazil, and I didn't want to bike because it was SO hot and I was always sweaty and I didn't have a senior companion. I had a lot of things to be upset about. But then I remembered President Hinckley's father and how he said to "forget yourself and go to work". Once I applied that principle in my life, everything became loads easier. I was happy, I loved the people, and I recognized the help of the Lord at every turn. I realized that the Lord called me on a mission on June 26th, but He knows when He wants and needs me in Brazil. I needed to be in both places on my mission, and have had the awesome opportunity to spend time on two different missions! Now that doesn't mean that I'm not waiting the day I go to Brazil, but I'll be sad to leave this place too. And here I've been able to have such a great relationship with President Sweeny and his wife, a relationship that I might not get to have in Brazil because I might not be in the same area as the mission home and get to stop in to get water and supplies every few days.

I love you all very much!

Love you all,

Sister Tillman

I'm in Arizona!!! (until my visa comes in)

Once upon a time, Sister Tillman lived at the MTC and loved it a lot but realllly wanted to leave because she got kind of tired of living the same day over and over. So Heavenly Father granted her wish, and when she opened up her reassignment, she noticed that she was leaving in the next 12 hours. By then, she'd realized that she didn't want to leave that soon and didn't want to say goodbye to her district or her teachers or her investigators, but she had to because that's what missionaries do, so she packed up all her stuff, stalked her friend Sister Cleverly to take cute pictures with her, got three hours of sleep and then left the next morning for Scottsdale, AZ.

So Sister Tillman meets up with Sister Holyoak at the shuttle and discovers that they were both going to Scottsdale (ok, there's more back story, but I'm in the process of summing up because it's not that important) and so they became temporary companions. Or so they thought.

They make it to the Phoenix airport, and unfortunately Fawkes was not there to greet her, but a senior companion was, so hooray! So she and Sister Holyoak get into the car (Sister Holyoak is going to Austrailia Cantonese speaking but crazy things went down because she lived in Hong Kong so Australia held up her paperwork and said that she was a gross foreigner and needed to get her blood tested. Those crazy Australians) and the nice senior companion mentioned something about bikes, and that's when Sister Holyoak and our dear Sister Tillman realized that they had been reassigned and would be biking. So that was a shock. But there was more to come.

So they make it to the mission home (used to be the Mesa mission home before they split and Scottsdale took it over) which is really quite a lovely place, and began their "training" by being told that they are being guinea pigs for a new visa-waiter program because the mission president, President Sweeney, likes visa waiters. An incredibly long story short, our missionary and her companion are now companions until visas come and got handed a completely empty area book and have a totally weird purpose and are BOTH COMPLETE AND TOTAL GREENIES WHO HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEY ARE DOING. So yeah, our missionary is completely terrified. But the ward is nice and the Bishop is great. And her purpose is to focus on less-actives and part member families because there are also Elders assigned to the ward but they're the Zone Leaders. And the ward that she has been assigned to is about 50% less active so she and her companion have a lot of work cut out for them. But at the same time their planners are empty BECAUSE NOBODY KNOWS WHAT'S GOING ON.

Needless to say, there is much freaking out that is had.

On the bright side, she's moving into an awesome guest house where the room is about as big as the room she shared with other people at the MTC. So that's nice. And Sister Tillman is now designated driver forever and always because Sister Holyoak just got her American license a few months before going into the MTC and it weirds her out that people are driving on the right side of the road instead of the wrong one.

The end.

Love you all!!

Sister Tillman

Life at the MTC continues

Thanks for always writing to me! I appreciate it so much! 

 

Can you believe that two weeks from today I will be in the mission field? A week from this Friday is when my district gets are reassigments, so we're all very excited about that.

 

Yesterday we had a really neat experience with one of the elders in our zone. We were doing an activity where we traded teaching an investigator and tried to invite the spirit. Sister Christensen and I taught one of our best lessons yet because we really just focused on inviting the spirit, and focused less on the words that we were going to say. Foi otimo! It was awesome.

 

Another cool experience is that there is a native brazilian from across the hall and I was talking to him while Sister C was going to the restroom. He said that I don't have an American accent, and that I have an accent of a brazilian. I was so excited!

 

Nothing else super duper exciting has happened. We're getting two new districts in our zone, which will push us up to 96 people, which is pretty big. Sister C and I are still the sister training leaders, and I really love it a lot! It's so much fun getting to know the other sisters and to help them out.

 

Let me tell you about one of our investigators real quick. Her name is Angela, and when we first started teaching her, she was really timid, didn't really have faith in God and didn't know how to pray. We just taught her yesterday and she's progressed so much! She has total faith in God, has been to church with her husband and child, and reads from the Book of Mormon. We're working on setting up a baptismal date for her, which is really exciting. The gospel is true. Heavenly Father loves each and every one of you very much. And as long as you keep inviting the Spirit in your lives, it will bless you. I pray for you every night and I miss you, but at the same time I know that this is what I'm supposed to be doing. Have a fabulous week! Thanks for the dearelders!

Sister Tillman

MTC District

Sister Tillman and her companion 

Life at the MTC July 2013

The MTC has been pretty crazy of course. 

My district is awesome. There are thirteen of us, which is pretty big since most districts are between 8-10 people. The first few days were CRAZY. We taught our "investigator" 48 hours after stepping foot onto the campus. In Portuguese. I didn't realize how much I had actually known Spanish until I couldn't speak it anymore! There are lots of things that are similar to Spanish though, which has been a big help. I said the prayer on Sunday in Portuguese, which was terrifying too. But I knew that I could do it and that everything would be ok. And I really want to push myself because that's the only way I'll learn. My companion is Sister Christensen.  Also, in our district, there's an Elder Gangler who lived in Rio for a year, so he knows how to pronounce a lot of the words and he knows a lot of vocab. The grammar rules are fairly similar to the ones in Spanish, so between the both of us, we can piece together a decent paragraph with proper words and grammar, which has been fairly helpful.

So far, I've been loving it here. I'm also really tired a lot. By Saturday, the whole district was WIPED OUT. But we've managed to recover a little bit. Sunday was great! We had the new Brazilian MTC president speak to us for devotional and we had Sheri Dew speak to us for Relief Society. Both were great and exactly what we all needed to hear!

One of the reasons why we're so tired is because we're on the early schedule. Instead of just waking up at 6:30, we're supposed to be at breakfast at 6:30. Which means we wake up an hour earlier than most missionaries and still go to bed at the same time. I'm always really hungry by the time we get back because we eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner so early. We have lunch at 11 and dinner at 4. So that schedule took a lot of getting used to.

One thing that's very different than what I thought is that I thought we would have a teacher all the time, but we don't. We only a teacher once a day, and then we teach our "investigator" for the other classroom time. The rest of the time we have is spent studying in the classroom, whether it's personal, companionship, or language study. It seriously feels like whenever I'm not eating, I'm studying. It's been good to have so much study time though because we really need it. Whenever I'm not exhausted, I'm glad that we have to wake up earlier because it gives us an extra hour to study. And we're always praying, which has been a huge help. So many times, we've received inspiration for our investigator. We have truly felt the spirit here. It has been wonderful.

One great way to get a hold of me is through DearElder. Just enter my MTC address into the boxes and I'll get it the same day! 

I'll be sending some pictures as soon as I figure out how to work it. I love you all and wish you the very best!! I love you all!!

Tchao!

Sister Tillman

This is how to fill in Monica's info on dearelder.com

Elder Sister President Hermana (No Title)     Title First Name Last Name    Unit # Mission Code or Mission (optional) Estimated MTC Departure Date

30 Days and Counting

Sometimes I think to myself "I got this!"

Other times, I think to myself "WhatdoImeanIgotthiswhatonearthdoeshavingthisevenmean!"

And then I take a deep breath and realize that I do, in fact, know what I am doing. I'm doing the right thing. I'm going to the right place.

Never mind that when I listen to Youtube videos about proper Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation I start hyperventilating in my mind (so we're not supposed to roll the R like ever? Because that goes against everything I believe in).

Never mind that I have no idea if I can bring everything I want to for the next eighteen months. (Self, Brazil is not a third world country.)

My mom's research has been to find out how to prevent all the different parasites from entering my body and eating me alive.

My research has been to find out which soccer players will be on the Brazilian national team next year.

But even when I'm starting to stress over the whole "leaving the country for eighteen months" thing, I always fall back to what I know to be true, without a doubt.

I know that Christ lives and that he loves us.

I know that one day we can live with our Heavenly Father again.

I know that there is a prophet of God on this earth, just like in the days of old, to give us direction and guide us through revelation.

"Oh sweet, the joy this sentence gives, I know that my Redeemer lives!"

And a little child shall lead them

I was sitting at lunch with my good friend last week, mourning the loss of my youth since I am no longer a teenager. He then asked me if I still felt youthful, or if it was all gone once I had turned 20.

Well. About that.

I told him about how when I got back from school, I spent one evening with my 15 year old brother giving him a horsy back ride.

Yep. That's right. We totally did that.

About halfway across the room, I paused and realized that I was twenty years old.

So? Jacob said. I'm fifteen. Giddy-up!

I continued our epic adventure around the room.

Now I have a carpet burn on my knee. Totally worth it.

So am I still youthful?

Heck yes.

Especially around Jacob. Something about us being together makes us five years old again. We sit there like giggling idiots doing dumb things. And it's AWESOME.

Hopefully when all the little kids get to go play with the lions in the millenium, I get to go too. Because that sounds pretty awesome to me. It's like a giant cat. But a lion. Dibs on calling my lion Simba.

I'm still a little child, right?

General Conference

Watching General Conference and listening to the apostles of the Lord is how I spent my weekend. On Sunday, I was fortunate enough to actually go up to the Conference Center in Salt Lake with my cousins. A few of my favorite quotes from conference are:

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland is a member of Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He spoke  about how we need to act on our faith.

Elder Richard G. Scott is a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He spoke about how we can strengthen our homes and our families.

In between sessions on Sunday, my cousins and I took pictures in front of the Salt Lake Temple:

Yes, we are cousins. Yes, I'm a midget.

The beautiful Salt Lake Temple in the background.

Some of you may be wondering: What the heck is General Conference? Well, let me explain. No there is too much. Let me sum up*:

As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints**, I believe that we have a living prophet on earth today, as well as apostles. This is similar to the organization of the church after Christ was resurrected and asked his apostles to "go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). After Christ ascended into heaven, Peter became the prophet of the world, and sent his apostles out to preach the word of God. The apostles and prophet that we have today also follow Christ and preach the gospel to the whole world. They travel to different countries each year and help strengthen and build up the members of the Church (now more than 14 million members strong). In addition, twice a year, we have General Conference, which is broadcast across the world. We listen to the testimonies of the apostles, and listen to the counsel that they have given us for our day. I love Conference because the Spirit of the Lord is powerful.

I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live and that they love each and every one of us. I'm so excited to go to Brazil this summer and follow Christ's admonition to preach the gospel to them. I'm looking forward to serve them and to share God's love with them.

*Yes, I did just use a Princess Bride quote. Because why not?

**Want to find out more about our beliefs? Visit mormon.org.