Wow. My first mission email. My first week in the MTC! Not even
sure where to start! But, I am happy to be here, that's for sure.
So, first off, after mom dropped me off at the airport super early,
everything was fine there and I bought a bagel and was standing at the
gate lookin' like am missionary in my long skirt and shoulder bag. I saw
a girl nearby that I thought kind of looked
like a missionary too and the spirit was like TALK TO HER but I was
all, "Dude, I only got 4 hours of sleep and I'm super tired and I just
don't want to." But, the whole time I kept looking over at her and kept
wondering if she was also a missionary. Then,
on the plane, I saw another girl across the isle from me dressed like a
Sister, too, and reading the Book of Mormon and I was like, "Yup,
missionary." But, again, I was too selfish to say anything and fell
asleep instead... (I later saw her at the MTC) Ha,
good start, eh? :) I was tired... Keep the first girl I saw in your
head, though, it's important.
Blanca and her husband picked me up from the SLC airport and they
took me to lunch at Zupas (best place ever!) and it was great to see
them! I appreciated them doing that for me! They drove me to Provo and
it was weird to be in Utah in a new light, as
a missionary. I entered the gates and who is the first person I see at
the curb greeting...?? ELDER WILDING! No, not the Texas Wildings. :) My
great friend Mary Kate from BYUI's brother! I know him from school and
we were friends and such and I was hoping I'd
run into him and BAM! There he is! He's going to Mongolia! I shook his
hand and then I was on my merry way, being told to go this way and that
way with all the new missionaries. I got my tag and I felt AMAZING! I
finally had the tag! My name, Sister Eldridge,
is on the familiar black tag that says The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints. Wow! What a feeling! I was ushered to and fro and
honestly had no idea what was even going on. The MTC is a small campus
and for some reason I imagined it as one building,
haha. Not sure why! But, the spirit is mega strong here. It reminds me
so much of BYU-I. Similar buildings and similar faces. It felt like
coming home when I came here. :)
I dropped off my stuff in my residence (which is basically a
college dorm. With a community bathroom. Hahahhh.), and before I knew it
I was in my first MTC class. My teachers, Brother Bennett and Sister
Thompson, are incredible. They teach with such love
and awesomeness. Because they're awesome. I met my companion!
And...guess what? She was the girl at the airport that I said I didn't
talk to! Whaaat! Sister McClullen is from Allen, Texas! Right next door.
And she went to BYU-I for 7 semesters! And so she's
an "older" Sister like I am (23). We are kindred spirits. We get along
so amazingly. I love talking to her about BYU-I, too, and having that,
and Texas, in common. We are an incredible companionship, I must say. I
am super blessed to have such an incredible
companion right off the bat. We are both going to Federal Way. We both
came out on a mission for similar reasons, too. Basically, because God
told us to. :) But, we are finding that we are VERY glad we came. I know
I am. Even though I was sick for the first
4 days, or so. It was miserable! But, I'm better now.
The MTC, as you've all heard, follows a very strict schedule. But,
since I'm used to that sort of thing, I felt right at home having every
second of my day planned out. It's super awesome to me, but a lot
struggle with it. Especially the waking up at 6:30
part. But, I'm fine with it all. We are in classes most of the day and
have a LOT of time for personal and companionship study. So, yeah. All
day every day is the gospel and it rocks. Well, except for right now,
because it's P-day, but hey, still always living
the gospel anyway. :) Oh and your first day here you have a pink dot
on your nametag telling everyone you're new. I can't tell you how many
times I heard, "Welcome to the MTC!" that day. So. Many. Times. Hahaha.
Here at the MTC we are split into districts, which is basically the
people we have class with. I LOVE my district! The sisters that we live
with are INCREDIBLE and we all meshed so well. It's like we've known
each other for years but it's only been not
even a week together. The Elders are rockstars. They work hard and have
such strong testimonies. There's an Elder in my district from
Louisville, too. More Texas!! All us in are district are going to
Federal Way, Las Vegas, Irvine, CA, and San Diego. COOL
THING, the other sisters in the district are all going to Vegas,
exactly where I just lived. I told them to look out for the sisters I
went on splits with and to tell them I say hi if they meet them. So cool
I was just living in some of their areas. :) I
seriously love my district so much! I know we'll all keep in touch. Or,
we better! When we first get here, the "senior district", or the
missionaries that have already been here a week and are about to head
out to the field, take care of us noobies. So there's
district leaders and zone leaders, and also STLs, or Sister Training
Leaders, who are over the new sisters. Our STL's were SO AMAZING! They
left for the field this morning and it makes me sad, but I know they
will do great things. One of them is going to the
Pocatello mission and part of that mission is the BYU-I campus so I
told her to take care of it for me. :) One of the senior district
Elders, Elder Anderson, went to BYU-I for a semester and was in
saxophone ensemble, so he knew ALL MY SAXOPHONE FRIENDS!
Jarom, Matt, Breegan... :) Ugh, it made me SO HAPPY! Love all the
connections here.
So we met with the Branch president, who is the bishop of our ward
while we are here, on Thursday night. That's when they extend callings
and such and tell who the new districe/zone/STLs are going to be when
the seniors leave. Well, guess who the new Sister
Training Leaders are...? Yeah... Me and Sister McClullen! Woah! I
couldn't believe it! When I met with one of the branch presidency
members, he goes, "You're the wise one, aren't you?" haha, because I'm
the oldest sister in the entire district and a
college graduate. It is a big responsibility to be an STL, but me and
Sis McClullen are really excited! New sisters come tomorrow!!!
So, teaching investigators was really confusing and hard at first,
even though I thought I was going to nail it because I have an education
degree...haha... but what we've learned is that you just have to let go
and let God. The spirit is the teacher.
We were humbled pretty quickly. We are teaching two investigators right
now, Jessy and Lisa, in the Training Resource Center here. They are so
wonderful! Jessy is the sweetest person I have ever met and loves the
missionaries. Lisa is a quiet spirit, but so
kind. She is learning ASL and I told Sis McClullen it would be SO COOL
to greet her in sign language in our next lesson. If only we knew how!
We are going to try to find people that know how and learn a few things
for her!! I wish Elizabeth was here, she could
show us in five seconds how to do it! I only know how to say two
things in sign language: "thank you", and "bacon." HAHA. I'll walk in
and say "bacon"....just kidding....
It's so surreal all the time to look down to my left and see that
black tag. Is this real? Am I REALLY a missionary? Wowwww... It's
incredible how God's work cannot be frustrated. He wanted me out here,
and he got me out here. We'll see why. Oh, the other
night we had a WORLDWIDE Missionary Training session from the first
presidency and the missionary presidency and it was incredible. The
theme is "Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts" Really think about that
last part! We were told how and why we do certain
things in missionary work and new ways to ask for investigators through
members. For example, instead of asking "Do you have any referrals?" we
are asked to say, "Do you know anyone who....just had a baby? ...just
moved? ...just had a huge life change?" etc
etc. It's a great way to find new people and those are the type of
people with open hearts! So cool!
I'm just learning and growing so much. For the longest time, I
thought I had learned all I could about life and that nothing could take
me by surprise or be hard anymore because I had done hard already...
Hahahah. I'm funny. Life is about continually becoming
and growing. So, of course harder is always coming. We can handle a
little, then a lot, and then we grow even more after that. This has been
hard, I've been tired, but we all help each other out and support each
other. And pray a lot.
I got my camera, but, there's no way for me to connect the camera
to the computer... I didn't get that cord from ya, Dad! Only a charger!
So might have to get a new camera. Hopefully will be able to soon! Cuz
we went to walk the temple grounds yesterday
and took so bomb pictures I wanted to show you. :( Soon! Maybe! We get
to go to the temple today, too, for P-Day, and do a session. I am SOOOO
STOKED! It's going to be great. I love that place. (It's also a little
odd having already been endowed for a year/one
month and having been a temple worker when everyone else is newly
endowed! ;) )
Well, fam, let me tell ya...
It's all about them. It's about the investigators. It's about God's
children and their salvation. This is not my work. This is the Lord's
work. It's not me that's going to convert. It's the spirit. Time to
forget myself.
I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!
Take care, all.
Love, Sister Eldridge
Sister Juliann Eldridge
FEB02 WA-FDW
2005 N 900 E Unit 108
Provo, UT 84602
