June 25, 2016

The past week has been so crazy! 

     It's been crazy with having to fix everything up on campus and making sure that everything is neat and tidy and looks nice, and wearing our best dress all the days because of all the mission presidents with their training seminar going on and general authorities being here, and getting about 1,000 new missionaries Wednesday, it's a full house. Especially since they're using our cafeteria for their conference room, so we have to eat in the gym which is on the other side of campus. Fun stuff. The past couple days (Thursday & Friday), the mission presidents were assigned to go out to different classrooms and teach us all certain principals. What a neat experience to be in a personal lesson with a mission president and his wife. Just our little district of 7 people. We had President and Sister Harris that were called to preside over a mission in Chile. I can't remember what the name of the mission was, but it wasn't Concepcion, sorry Mom. ♥

     Our Tuesday devotional we thought we were going to have President Nelson from the 12, but it ended up being Brent I. Nielsen from the 70. We were a little disappointed until we found out he served his mission in Finland as well. A couple weeks ago he was wanting to come sit in on our class because he had to go to a conference in Finland and he wanted to brush up on his Finnish, but he wasn't able to at the time. We kinda walked out afterwards the same way he might, because we wanted to talk to him. We drifted off the sidewalk a little bit because the security guards shoo'd us off cuz he was on his way. As he passed us we awkwardly all said "Terve!" and he was like, "Oh, are you all the Finns??" and he chatted with us for a good five minutes. 

     A couple weeks ago during our weekly choir practice, they asked for people interested in being in a small choir to fill out a small paper based on your choral singing experience, then turn it in. So I filled one out and gave it to them, and completely forgot about it (almost intentionally, cuz I didn't want to feel bad if I wasn't selected) but lo and behold, a couple days later, I got a letter in the mail saying that I was selected to sing in their small 40-voice choir for the upcoming New Mission Presidents Seminar. So I've been going to practice every morning for the past week and a half. It's been a little exhausting, but it's been so worth it. We had our first performance Thursday, and we sang a rendition of I Know my Redeemer Lives in front of about 170 new mission presidents, as well as the quorum of the twelve and President Eyring and President Uchtdorf. It was such an amazing experience! The Spirit was so strong in that room. We perform again yesterday and today. Friday we sang a rendition of Precious Savior, Dear Redeemer, and their theme for the day was repentance. Today we sang an arrangement of Joseph Smith's First Prayer, and their theme was missionary work and conversion. Yesterday as we were rehearsing in a small room on the other side of the building, David S. Baxter of the seventy walks in with his wife, and thank us for our service. He told us his and his wife's mother's conversion stories, and thanked us for serving. 

     We all got to shake his hand after and give Sister Baxter a hug (Only the sisters could though of course). Later that day, we decided to schedule an additional rehearsal right after lunch so we could practice our song for today. Brother Eggett (MTC Choir director) wanted us to be singing in "companionships" while we sang Joseph Smith's First Prayer, and to be able to sing it without a conductor so we could look around at the mission presidents and "teach" them the first vision. Near the end of our practice, Brother Eggett wanted us to be able to practice on the stage to make sure it would all work out. So we had to hurry over to the main building where we performed, and he hurried ahead of us and asked the people in there if we could practice for 10 minutes. Brother Eggett comes back to us where we were waiting outside and says, okay we have 6 minutes because Elder Anderson (of the twelve) is supposed to be practicing his talk. So we hurry in to practice and I end up standing right in front of Elder anderson and his wife. As we sang, I had the privilege to testify and "teach" Elder Anderson, to his face. He was probably only 8 feet away. We made eye contact a short couple times during the song, but as I sang "For he saw the living God," we made eye contact again, and absent-mindedly nodded my head to testify, and he nodded his head back. It was such a huge testimony building experience and I learned so much from it. I hope to never forget it. When we came out of the building to discuss a little more, Brother Eggett comes to find me, and says, "Sister Capps, now you can say, 'remember that one time when I taught the first vision to Elder Anderson?' awesome!" and he gave me a thumbs up.  

     This morning (Saturday) just before we were about to go into the auditorium, we were making last minute adjustments to the song, and all the sudden the Spirit in the room changes, then in walks Sister Bednar, and in walks Elder Bednar, and the Spirit grew even stronger when we realized who it was exactly. But we could tell just from the feeling without seeing who it was that someone special was going to come into the room. Elder Bednar thanked us for coming to sing and for all our hard work and dedication, and told us he is happy to be here and thanked us for choosing to serve a mission.

When we performed, the first presidency's wives and quorum of the twelve's wives were all seated in front of us. Sister Uchtdorf, Sister Ballard, and Sister Anderson were all directly in front of me and I got to sing to them and a few other mission presidents, as well. The Spirit was so strong!! It is undeniable. 

     My testimony of the truthfulness of this gospel and of the restoration and of Jesus Christ continue to grow day by day. Especially as prayers are being answered left and right, and as we learn the language of the Spirit and become more fluent in both the languages we're learning. But we still have a very long way to go in both Finnish and the language of the Spirit. But I have learned to love teaching and recognize more promptings, and have been able to follow through with them, and have seen the blessing from being obedient. I know that as we all strive to be obedient to the commandments we have been given and follow the example of Jesus Christ, we will be blessed, because it is a promise we have all been given. 

Till next week! Love you all! ♥