Last MTC Letter!

This is officially my last email from the MTC. Next time ya'll hear from me, I'll be in Italy! AHHHH!!! Oh, by the way, I've gotten into the habit of saying Ya'll now because we're not allowed to refer to each other as "you guys" or dude or anything casual like that. But English is stupid and doesn't have a "you plural" form like every other language, so we use "ya'll" all the time now. I'm already becoming an Italian snoot, it's going to be interesting to see what I'm like when I get home haha. I'll try to suppress it. Anywho, news from the MTC!
Last Wednesday we did sealings and it was so cool! I love doing sealings, it's such a special environment. When we walked out, one temple worker told us that this is the whole reason we come to the temple as well as serve missions: to bring families together in the gospel so they can be sealed for time and all eternity. What a beautiful thing. It's such a great reminder.
Thursday we had TRC (Teaching Resource Center) where we just go in and teach members lessons to help bring them closer to Christ and pretty much just lift them up. But this week we spoke to people in Italy over Skype! Ah! We taught a very kind woman named Daniela (heehee) and I think I understood her pretty well. It's exciting to hear a native speak and notice words that we've learned because it comforts me to know that we're actually learning what people use out there, what with all the dialects and whatnot. Anywho, not sure if that made any sense... 

Sunday we had a devotional by Chad Lewis. Yeah, be jealous. We got to hear from Vai Sikahema AND Chad Lewis. And they were both in my top five favorite Devotionals that I've had while being here. But he was really passionate about the gospel and about the work.  It really got me excited to go serve the people in Italy. For Sacrament meeting, I accompanied the musical number again. Did I mention I did that last week for Sorella Bray and Sora Trebas? They sang Come Thou Fount, so beautiful. This week I accompanied for Sorella Hogan on A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief. It's a beautiful arrangement. I love accompanying! When we took our temple walk earlier that day, there were a bunch of families with their little kids out and about and when we were all leaving, one little boy yelled "Hi missionaries!" And we all got really excited and practically yelled Hi back... It made me feel so special to be that missionary that I always looked up to when I was that age. It's so awesome! GAH!
Monday it was just Sorella Snow and I in Fratello Knutson's class again and this time we taught him a lesson. Not as Antoine, actually as Fratello Knutson. It's amazing how the Lord teaches you by having you teach somebody else. The three of us all have something very much in common, so we talked about that and talked about how we can help and what we can do and it was just a great reminder to me. I love how the Lord does that.
Tuesday Elder Godoy of the Seventy spoke to us at Devotional, who happens to be the father of one of the Anziani in my zone. SO COOL. He is super funny. He was acting out stuff while he was speaking and he was super animated. So fun!
Alright, now some fun fact and other things that I either forgot what day they happened, or they're something that I forgot to mention my first week... 

So first of all, two of my roommates were in my ward at BYU! Sorella Fuller and Sorella Bray! I'm not sure if I mentioned that before... Also, one funny thing that I'm sure I forgot to mention is that Elder Lee (from home) had told me before I left that there was a Sorella Fuller that was entering the MTC on the same day as me and was going to Italy Rome and that I should look out for her. He said that she was in the ward that he had just come from in Connecticut before he came back to our ward. Turns out it's the very same Sorella Fuller who I had already known AND is my roommate. How funny is that?!
So today for our temple session, Sorella Snow's mom sent her six family names of ancestors from Italy. So all six of us roommates are going to perform the work for those six women from Sorella Snow's family! I'm super stoked! It's going to be so amazing. Also, afterward, we decided that we're going to eat in the cafeteria in the temple because any food is better than the MTC cafeteria food... 

This week we taught Antoine and he was having a really difficult time understanding why he had to make so many sacrifices to follow Christ. He said it made him happy, but it was hard because he had to sacrifice his friends, who had become his family since his family is in France. So I shared my story about how my friends had started doing bad stuff in school and I had to stop hanging out with them so much since most of the time they were just partying and drinking for fun. I shared how hard it was, but I knew that it was the right thing to do and I gained peace and comfort from that. Jesus Christ sacrificed His life so that we might be able to come return to Him. In order to do that, however, we also need to sacrifice much of our lives. Not necessarily our life in terms of dying for the church, but we definitely need to sacrifice many of the pleasures of the world, our time, and a ton of other things. But when we sacrifice those things, we come closer to Christ. We feel His love and we feel His help in everything. When we sacrifice, He is right there beside us saying He knows how you're feeling. He knows how hard it is. "But Thank you. Thank you for doing this so that you might be able to come back to me" And He is there, with His loving arms around us. He is the shoulder to cry on whenever we have to say goodbye to people who aren't good for us. Or whenever we feel alone. Because we are never alone and He knows us perfectly and loves us perfectly and wants all the happiness He can offer for us. It was such a beautiful lesson, and a beautiful reminder. The MTC truly is for us missionaries. Through teaching these fake investigators, we are teaching ourselves how true this gospel really is.
Anywho, I could just go on and on about all this, but I'm running out of time. I love you all so much. This week has been hard, I've felt myself plateauing, but not anymore. I've learned a lot of great things and this last week is going to be so fabulous. I love you all so much. Thank you for all your love and support throughout the years and your continued love and support. Vi voglio un mondo di bene!

Sorella Hawks :)