PICTURES

Here are some pictures for everyone!! Hope that you enjoy! Sorry there is no map picture. 

I will take some on Sunday.

This is my district -

Sister Edgley, Sister Hope, Elder Reuter, Elder Owen, Sister McConkie, Sister Snider

 

 This is me and my companion, Sister Edgley.

Our old zone ( the people not in my district left last week. They all went to Boise ;)
 Oh, the fun we had with that :)

For laughs...
 

Sisters in my district.

Lots of adventures, lots of learning, and more tears than I thought there would be.

   Well, this week has been very interesting. To start, last Friday wasn't really much of a P-day. We got a couple of hours to do laundry and then email. The days here are all pretty long, and they blend together in my mind, so I don't always remember which days I did what. Also last friday, we got to start teaching. We teach our teachers pretending to be old investigators that they had on their missions. It is a little strange, but I guess it's useful.
    Me and my companion have gotten pretty good at teaching together. We have 4 investigators that we teach right now, and I would love to tell you all about them, but I don't find it that interesting. Basically all we do here is study and teach. I am pretty sure I am going to have my entire quad (scripture set) memorized by the time that I am finished with my mission.
    Saturday was evidently uneventful because I can't remember anything specific from it. Sunday has been my favorite day here by far. Our district gets the earliest sacrament meeting time, so we start that at 7:30 (And you all thought you had it bad with 8am. :) ).  After sacrament we had branch council. Since me and Sister Edgley are the Sister Training Leaders, we had to go. It wasn't really that exciting though. After that all of the sisters get to go to music and the spoken word. (they broadcast it to us in the gym). That was pretty cool, and then for relief society, we all stay together and had a speaker that we listened to. I forgot her name, but she talked a lot about our purpose and authority and getting members involved in our work.
    After that meeting we had a new sisters meeting. Basically they just talked for 40 minutes on how important dressing appropriately is. I have been surprised by how big of an issue it is. They are a little weird about some things, but it all has a purpose. They told us about the alterations department where you can go to get your skirts extended and on Monday me and the other sisters in our district brought some skirts down there. The lady that works in there was a little strange about things, and put us in our place about modesty. It was interesting because all of the clothes we brought were appropriate, we just wanted to have more moving room in them.  Oh, also on sunday night we had a devotional. It was pretty cool, but afterwards we got to watch a recording of David A. Bednar's MTC devotional, "The Character of Christ." It was life changing. If you are wondering what you can do to be a little better today than you were the day before I would reccomend looking it up.

    Tuesday we got new sisters that were internationals. One is from Australia and the other is from Samoa. They are so much fun! We got the rest of the new district on Wednesday, but we didnt get to meet them until the evening time. In the morning and afternoon we had a host assignment where we had to take the missionaries that were being dropped off from their poor crying mothers. I am pretty sure I got more emotional watching that than I did saying goodbye to my own family. (Sorry Mom :)) But being at the MTC has given me a heart or something. ;) I am pretty sure I have cried like everyday here. Usually for the silliest of reasons. Anyways, we got our new district on Wednesday night and they are all headed to Salt Lake and Denver. They are so much fun, and we love them already. 

    One of the sisters in my district, Sister McConkie (yes she is related to Bruce R.) and I have become really good friends. We have had so much fun together and have already planned things that we will do together when we get home. She is from Salt Lake, so we are going to have all sorts of adventures.

    Yesterday we had in-field orientation which is basically 8 hours of class where we learn how to talk to people that we meet and learn how to find new contacts from members and such. I learned a lot, but it was REALLY long.

    This morning we got to go to the Provo temple. It was super awesome :)

I have learned so much since I have been here and feel like I have really been able to grasp on to knowing when the spirit is talking to me and being able to act on it. It is a super awesome feeling:)

Well, I love you all, and I hope that you have had such a wonderful week!

 

Love,

Sister Hope

PS. I leave for California on Tuesday and my next Pday will be the Monday After :)

First week. Well, three days...

Hello family and friends!

I know that you probably don't even miss me yet because I have only been gone for 2 days, but here it goes anyways.

It is my first P-day here at the MTC and it has been quite the adventure. The first day was the most hectic. I said goodbye to my family and headed off to be taken on a maze of a tour that was so long. Then we went to class. There is hardly anytime to think here, but I like it okay. It is a little strange. I feel like I am learning so much, but at the same time nothing at all. We move from topic to topic so quickly, and I feel like I never have time to ponder or internalize anything which makes retaining the information more difficult. 

My companion is sister Edgley. She is very sweet and we have gotten along well.  She is from Utah, and while we don't have very many common interests, we have had fun getting to know each other better.  There is one other companionship in our district, and we are all headed to Redlands together. It is pretty exciting. We leave pretty quickly though really. It's less than two weeks that we will be here. 

Our teachers here are awesome. They help us feel the spirit so much, and we have been learning a lot about our purpose. 

You will all be surprised to hear that I am the early riser of my roommates. I share a room with my companion and the other sisters in our district. I have been the one that has to wake the other girls up so that we can be on time. Don't worry, it surprised me too. 

I have already received a calling that I will start on Sunday. Me and my companion are going to be the Sister Training leaders for our Zone. It is like zone leaders, but for the sisters. We are responsible for all the sisters in our zone and will give the new sisters the tour of the MTC next week . It is kind of cool, but I am not sure that it is really a big deal. I guess I will find out, huh?

I am no longer worried about gaining weight here. The food is all definitely what I would describe as 19 year-old-boy food. I eat, but our meals are also very close together, so I am not hungry by the time we get there. Oh well though, I am satisfied.

Well, there is not much more to talk about since I have only been gone for a couple of days, but remember that I love you and that I am doing the work that God has planned for me. 

Sister Hope :)

“You're off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, So... get on your way!” -Dr Suess

Hey Everyone!

My name is Tara Hope and I am a soon-to-be missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! I love reading and writing and swimming. That isn't really that important though. What is important is that I have a testimony of the gospel. I know without a doubt that this gospel has been restored to this earth through a true prophet, and I am so incredibly excited for the opportunity to teach the gospel to the people of the California Redlands mission!!

While I am away my blog will be updated by my lovely sister, Lisa Scroggins. I hope that I can share my testimony and experiences in a way that will be able to inspire the people that read this. 

I am serving a mission because I know that everything I have in this life is because of my Heavenly Father. I am indebted to him to render to him all that I have and all that I am (Mosiah 2:34). Serving him and helping him gather His children into His church is what I feel is right for my life.

Please write me and feel free to stalk this blog  as often as you like :) 

I'm off to great places! Today is MY day! MY mountain is waiting, So... it is time to get on my way!!

Much love,

Tara

P.S. If you would like to know more about what I will be teaching while I am out serving please check out
this link! Or, you can click on "What I am teaching!" to the top right :)