MTC memories

This morning, for my last time as a pre-missionary, I went and volunteered at the MTC TRC (teaching resource center, where we pretend to be investigators so the missionaries can practice teaching). In seven days, those walls in which I have been a visitor will become my home. Pretty soon I'll have my own little card to open the gate and classroom doors. How magical.

As I sat in the MTC this morning with a good friend (who I ended up being married to in today's role-play), memories came flooding back of previous TRC experiences, both good and bad. My first time there, my friend and I didn't quite understand that we needed to remain in character the whole time. So when the missionaries returned after their planning session to inquire if we'd read what they'd asked us to ten minutes ago, we honestly replied that we hadn't. (Because we HADN'T read it - I mean, they didn't even leave a Book of Mormon in the room when they left, and we weren't just going to LIE!) They were completely shocked and flustered, because we had inadvertently messed up their entire lesson plan, which had rested on the assumption that we would have read. Yeah, whoops. Sorry, Elders. Although, I'm sure they faced broken commitments a lot in the mission field, so really we were just helping them out. 

One of my favorite TRC experiences was in German. I was pleased to discover that my three years of German was sufficient to allow me to converse with boys who'd only studied the language for a few weeks. But for only a few weeks, those kids were GOOD. The gift of tongues is real. And the church is just as true in German as it is in English.

I remembered watching snow fall outside the window one night as I waited for my missionaries to come, and how peaceful it felt being alone in that mock living room. I remembered setting up 'shop' by laying out the laminated pictures of items I sold in my store, and I remembered the time that I owned a cafe. Then of course there was that time when I was role-playing a Jewish woman, and the missionaries inquired of me what I believed happens after this life . . . and I was stumped. Probably should've studied world religions harder and maybe I would have been a bit more convincing to those missionaries. 

But the best times were when the missionaries taught me something I needed to hear. There was always so much power as we knelt and prayed together. Even during the times we were role-playing, I learned and felt things I needed in my own life. And I will always remember the time when we didn't role-play, but the missionaries answered my questions and counseled me personally. Pretty sure I get more out of those teaching sessions than do the missionaries.

I'm excited in one week to be able to make a million more MTC memories. And this time I'll get to branch out from 11M.