Week 2

Wow! This week has been crazy!! Can't believe I've only been here for 14 days...feels like forever! But it's great! We're finally getting into the grove of things and we're all really happy here!! Thursday night we watched a mormon message called LIFT (check it out!) about a woman named Cathy who needs to be lifted in and out of bed every day. Two men from her ward come every day to help her. It was a powerful testiment to my district about the difference between service and serving with love. The men's lives were changed for the better when they looked at this inflicted blessing through the eyes of our Savior and chose to serve as He would, with love. We are all Cathy's in our own ways. Every day we need Christ to lift us up; to carry our load. What a beautiful thing the atonement and His love is. Friday we read Mosiah 4:1-6 and it struck me when it says that there's a difference between teaching others and awakening them. Christ didn't just teach people, He reminded them of the truth they'd forgotten, His truth. Oh how I love our Savior. We also talked about as a district how "he who loses his life for another will find it" and "when we turn outward there's more of us to find" what beautiful concepts. They relate perfectly to Elder Bednar's talk "Character of Christ". Please watch it if you have not already!! On Saturday I finally finished memorizing the First Vision in Spanish. It is Joseph Smith's account of when God and Jesus Christ appeared to him. What powerful words. That night Hermana McGlinchy and I went to bed really late and it was her turn to say our nightly prayer. She decided she was too tired to think in Spanish so she was going to give the prayer in English. We bowed our heads and she said, "Quierdo Nuestra Padre Celestial, gracias" and I started dying. She was so tired that she didn't even realize what language she was speaking. We couldn't stop laughing. Spanish is taking over our brains haha. On Sunday (10 days into our mission aka it feels like we still don't know anything) Hermana McGlinchy and I were called to be our zone's Sister Training Leaders (STLs), meaning we're in charge of all of the Hermana's in our zone and the one's that will enter over the next 4 weeks. Way cool but also kinda crazy. Because we're STLs we get a cellphone in case the MTC needs to get in contact with any Hermanas in our zone and we hate it haha. Based on our limited knowledge of Lord of the Rings...it kinda feels like how only one person can hold the ring for so long without going crazy, but in our case it's a flip-phone haha. It just feels weird to have one again, not that we can do anything with it anyways. We can't even call the MTC back if we miss their call! Sunday was super great though! During sacrament meeting there was a special musical number by the two departing districts and they sang "How Great Thou Art" in Spanish. I cried the whole time. The spirit was so strong. The temple walk was awesome! Saw a ton of BYU friends which was great!! I got to see Drew Bonnett and it felt like a little piece of home. Made me so happy! At one point Hermana McGlinchy and I were sitting by ourselves and these two Elders from Asia who barely spoke English came up to us to ask for a picture. We said of course and reached out to take their camera to take a picture for them but they flipped the camera around to take a selfie and had us take a picture with them. We were so confused but before we knew it they had taken the picture and were gone. haha! So funny! We guess they've never seen blondes before or something haha. At devotional there were two musical numbers and the spirit was really strong. I love the spirit that music can bring into our lives. Amazing. Monday night our teacher gave everyone in our district different "needs" and a partner. We had to figure out the others need and how baptism would help them overcome their trial. Never have I felt the spirit so strong while in the MTC. I was paired with Elder Barrett and as I was talking to him I felt God's love so strongly for this imaginary person he was representing and for Elder Barrett himself. We both started to cry. It was amazing. Then when I taught how baptism would bless his life I felt the spirit so strongly again. The church is so true people! The gospel is literally the answer to every problem we could ever have. Elder Barrett has been struggling a lot with teaching in Spanish because he can't think of what to say in Spanish in a lesson even though he's obviously the best at the language out of our entire class. I told him that maybe the Holy Ghost is blocking his mind so he can teach from his heart. The spirit told me to say those words to him and his whole expression changed when I did. It clicked for him. El Espiritu Santo is so amazing. This conversation was definitely an answer to both of our prayers. Yesterday was amazing. Hermana McGlinchy and I truly felt so happy and blessed to be in the MTC the whole day. We sat outside in the sunshine in what felt like a little oasis. It was magical. I love this church and the MTC and being surrounded by so many other people dedicating their lives to our Heavenly Father. So crazy to think that in a matter of weeks (or days for some people) we will be all around the world speaking so many different languages. CHURCH IS SO TRUE!! We had the opportunity to teach two members of the church in Spanish, they were cute old Mexican men from The Colonies! It was so nice to be able to speak in Spanish with people who already have a testimony of the gospel. We talked about how it's the little things that matter most. Prayer, Reading the scriptures, going to church, listening to the Prophet and his apostles this weekend, etc. By small and simple things, God can accomplish much. I showed them the picture of Christ that Emma Niceler drew me and showed how every little pen-stroke mattered and then talked about how every decision we make in our own lives matter as well. We are painting the pictures of our lives in every moment of every day. We also met our new investigator. Her name is Diana and she's from Ecuador. She's a student at BYU and we already love her so much. The spirit was SO strong while teaching her and Hermana McGlinchy and I both cried. Can't wait to keep teaching her!! After the Tuesday devotionals we meet as a district and talk about impressions we received or parts of the talks we liked. Brother St. Cloud from our branch presidency said something that was really powerful to me. He talked about how our missions won't be anything like we expect. They'll be better. This was so powerful and comforting to me to see this man testify so strongly about this to us. That night after Hermana McGlinchy got back from choir practice she told me the funniest story. They were doing their final practice for the night and were recording it for Salt Lake when all of the sudden...we received our first phone call. Her pocket started ringing super loudly and she started freaking out. Finally she figured out how to turn it off, recomposed herself, started singing again and then it went off AGAIN! Sooo funny!! She spent the rest of the practice with the phone open in her hand super paranoid. Haha! They have not called since. This morning we were reading our letters outside on the temple grounds (thank you for  all those who are writing me! Means the world to me!!) when this old man with a staff came up to us and explained how he's a time-traveler and even has a ring to prove it. It was a rather interesting conversation haha. We get to welcome two new districts tonight to the MTC because we're STLs! Can't wait to meet them! Hopefully we'll bring them the comfort our STLs brought us.

Here are a few things I miss...

• hearing my families voices
• mis amigos
• my birkenstocks

Here are a few things I love...

• the hymn "Tengo Gozo en mi Alma" (aka There is Sunshine in my Soul Today) because we jam out to it all the time haha
• the gift of tongues! Spanish is coming along great!! 
• teaching without notes. So much easier to follow the spirit, speak Spanish, and truly show our investigators we care about them specifically when we don't have notes prepared
• mi companera
• mi districto
• having Erin here and so many other familiar faces
• praying in Spanish
• that our district figured out how to play church hymns/mormon messages off of our rooms computer/TV
• saying goodnight to each Hermana in our zone now that we're STLs
• the many tender mercies God has put in my life through the various people we run into in the MTC 
• El Espiritu Santo
• God's love for each of his hijos
• being able to teach about His Evangelio
• saying prayers all the time

Love you all!! Hope all is well in your lives. You are all in my prayers, many of you specifically by name. Much amor!! 

Hermana Pfeil

ps. For those of you who've asked about Dear Elder...I'm mailbox 150. Not sure what else you need to know. Sorry! Please try writing me!!

pps. Still working on pictures. Hopefully they'll make it out sometime today.