Monday, September 30, 2013

Pictures!

 My MTC District! I love these guys!

Me with my mission president and his wife.

My first week in my first area is already over! It went by so fast! We headed out to Picayune Tuesday afternoon and it was raining for the entire four hour drive. And I'm not talking rain. I'm talking heavy, pouring, can-barely-see-the-road-in-front-of-you rain. You never see rain like that in Utah! It was kind of cool (and a little scary). Since then it's been pretty sunny though. 

I am currently in a tripanionship, so that means I have two companions instead of one. There are so many sisters coming out right now that there aren't enough sisters to train them all so this is how we're making it work! Sister Nielson has been out for about four months and Sister Diehl, who is technically my trainer, has been out six weeks and isn't completely trained herself! We make it work, though. 

 
There are about 500 people in our ward but only 150 of them are active, so we've got our work cut out for us there! The people who do come to church are very friendly. Many of them supply us missionaries with bottled water (the water from the tap is a little questionable here) and food and we get fed meals pretty often. Lots of the members are very willing to be involved in missionary work which is great because since there's three of us that means we can go on splits with a member and get twice the work done! I really had no idea how vital members are to missionary work until I got out here. Seriously, there's so much you can do to help the missionaries. 

So, what are my thoughts about Picayune? It's very backwards from what I'm used to. People down here are SO southern. There's no other way to describe it. Many people in Picayune are very willing to listen to what we have to say though! We have a lot more success tracting than missionaries in some other areas. We're currently teaching several people and three of them already have baptism dates. 

Being down here has definitely been a humbling experience. Half the people in Mississippi are living off the government and most of them are high school dropouts. They're just not in very good situations. Many of the people we've taught can hardly read. It makes me so grateful for the education I've had because so many people down here didn't have that opportunity. 

I'm learning that this mission is definitely going to test my patience. Sometimes when we're teaching people I just want to shake them and say, "Why don't you understand how important this message is?!" They appreciate our religion and what we stand for but they don't think it matters what church you're baptized into as long as your baptized, even when we explain to them about having the proper authority. 
 
Well, I think that's just about everything for today, minus a few pictures! Oh, and here's my current address. Everyone feel free to send me letters and stuff! I like emails but I love letters. They're like candy out here. 

Sister Michelle Glenn

413 Bay Street

Picayune, MS 39466

A few pictures of our two story townhouse. We have lots of room! It's way nice!

Pictures From the Mission President's Wife

These are pictures that Sister Glenn's mission president's wife, Sister McDonough, sent shortly after her arrival in Mississippi. She says that Sister Glenn is currently serving in Picayune, Mississippi with her mission companions, Sister Diehl and Sister Nielson.

September 19, 2013

Well, everything's going great here in the MTC! I managed to survive my first week! It's been really hard. I think by the end of my first day I was dumber than I had been when I arrived! But they have since crammed me with much knowledge so I don't feel quite as unintelligent. I think I've learned more about the gospel this week than I have in my entire life! I don't think I've ever felt more exhausted--or humbled, for that matter. And yet I feel great! 

I was at the actual MTC for a total of about five minutes, and then I was immediately taken to the west campus located at BYU's Wyview apartments. We were told in our orientation that we had to swear never to tell the missionaries at the main campus how nice our rooms are. We get one companionship to a room rather than three, and we have a bathroom in our apartment instead of down the hall. I'd been told Wyview wasn't very nice before but if that's true the church has really cleaned it up. 

My companion, Sister Dailey, is simply wonderful. We're alike in many ways. She's also attending Utah State and is thinking about majoring in deaf education so we may see each other again when all of this is over! I also have an awesome district. I think people always say that but I truly stuck gold with these guys (I mean, Sisters and Elders--I'm working hard to break the habit of saying "guys"!) We hit it off with each other immediately. All of us sisters are going to Mississippi but the Elders are headed for Las Vegas so we'll probably never see them again! Kind of sad. 

So, the church is pretty smart. They've got everything so organized. There is, however, one thing that I think needs to be changed. I think mothers should be able to go with their daughters on their missions. Why? Well, to protect silly sister missionaries from ruining their entire wardrobe! Yep, that happened. 

Okay, not really. But, I did manage to ruin my skirt trying to iron it! I didn't recognize the material this particular skirt was made of so I just put the iron on medium and...yep. I definitely melted the material. I almost cried. If my dear mother would have been here to iron it for me that never would have happened! 

Well, I would have liked to say more, but my hour is up! I love you all! Sorry to those who sent me emails that I didn't have time to respond to today. Please know that I appreciate you keeping in contact with me and will do my best to message you back as soon as I can!

A Few Thoughts About Being Committed

For those of you who were able to come to see me speak in church yesterday, you've already heard most of this. While I was working on getting my papers in, I had a lot of people ask me what made me decide I wanted to serve a mission. Most of them were other girls who were trying to decide whether or not they should serve a mission. I was never sure what to say because the real answer to that is a bit personal and I don't feel like I can share it with just anybody yet. But here's the basic story of what caused me to decide for certain what I wanted to do, cut out straight from my talk:

Although I announced to my family only a short while after last October’s general conference that it was what I was going to do, I admit that I spent several months wondering whether or not I would really be going on a mission, even while I was in the process of getting my papers in. I had good feelings about going on a mission from the start, but certain questions and prayers I had on my mind that had so far gone unanswered made me wonder if it was the best thing for me. It reached the point near the end of my first semester at BYU Idaho that I needed to make a decision: either to stay in Rexburg for another semester and continue my education, or go home and earn the money I would need to pay for a mission. My prayers at this time went something like this: “Lord, if you will tell me what I should do, I will do it. Tell me which path is the right one, and I’ll take it.”

After still receiving no answers, I determined that I needed some extra help and received a blessing. I was told in that blessing that whichever decision I made was acceptable in the eyes of God. I admit that this was not the answer I wanted to hear. It did not make the decision I had to make any easier; in fact if anything it had made it harder. It was all well and good that both paths were alright, but I wanted to know which one was best, and I felt almost cheated that I wasn’t being told this, after being faithful and doing what I believed was everything I could do to be deserving of a proper answer. I think there are very few times in my life when I have ever felt more confused and afraid than I did during that time. I wanted to know what was ahead, and I didn’t want to make a firm decision until the tunnel was lit, so to speak, and I could see what was coming.

But as I continued on in finishing my papers and attending mission prep, I was blessed with an overwhelming feeling of love for those who were without the gospel. My mother has already told many people that when she asked what made me want to go on a mission, I told her, “Oh, I just love the people of Mississippi.” Even though I was joking, in a way this was the truth. When I began to think of the many people in the world who are in need of the light of the gospel, I knew that despite my doubts and fears, I had to serve a mission, even if the way remained unclear, even if I didn’t have all the answers or know what was going to happen. It was only after I made this commitment that answers to prayers I had been awaiting for many years finally started to come. The difference was like night and day. My doubts about serving a mission were gone. Where before the path ahead of me had seemed foggy and without direction, it was now clear.  

So I guess my best advice to those of you who aren't sure if you're supposed to serve a mission is that you just have to take the plunge. Girls, if God has something different in mind, he'll let you know before you go to far in the wrong direction. 

By the way, this is the last post I'll be writing from home! I'm headed for the MTC on Wednesday and I am SO excited! I know it's going to be hard but in a good way. A friend of mine was talking to me about his mission and he said, "I loved the downs because of the immense ups!" I really liked that. I believe if you have the right attitude and perspective the happy things will always outweigh the hard things.