MTC - March 7, 2012

March 7, 2012

Բարև ծեզ իմ ընտանիկը-Hello my family!

It sounds like you had a good week!  Thank you so much for sharing what you discussed during family home evening and Josh-thanks for your little note.  I can't begin to express how grateful I am for all of you and all of your support! Ծեզ շատ եմ սիրում-I love you all so much! 

How exciting for Aubin and Candice-I remember that Aubin was engaged, but I had no idea Candice was-make sure you tell her congrats for me-and tell Trudy and Tim hi, of course.  That reminds me-do Story and Oscar get sealed tomorrow? If I'm remembering right?  Make sure you give them a huge squeeze for me!  We did sealing today at the temple-I LOVE seeing and feeling how perfect our Heavenly Father's plan is for us!  We are SO blessed!

I have to apologize and tell you thank you for the camera-there is a reason for the delay.  When I opened my package, I saw the box of camera equipment and I thought "oh, that'll be nice to have" but I didn't explore.  Then last week, I decided to get it out and actually look through it.  When I pulled out the camera bag-I realized it was heavier than just a camera bag, opened it, and there was the new camera you bought.  Silly me! THANK YOU SO MUCH!  The other sisters in my room had a pretty good laugh about it-as did I-I can't believe I didn't even think about it before! 

Our second full English group left this week-they came in the week that the english missionaries we started with left.  Sister Bobzien and I keep talking about how hard it is to imagine ourselves outside of the MTC-it feels like we have been here forever and like we will be here forever.  But, we've been here exactly 5 weeks today-starting our 6th week-which means we are half way :) Its hard to imagine that we'll actually be in Armenia.

Saturday, one of our teachers felt like we needed to watch a talk given by Elder Holland in 2000-it was great! I think it is called the Miracle of the Mission.  There's just a couple of things I wanted to share from it.  He talked about how since we are desciples of Christ, we agree to go through the suffering that comes with it.  There is a prices we pay for saying we stand with Christ, but we should stand tall in our sorrows and suffering because Christ gives us that power.  He suffered so much for us, so we must suffer, however little in comparison, for Him.

Then for our Sunday Fireside, Alex Boye sang and spoke.  He basically told his conversion story.  He is phenomenal (sp?)  And all of us felt SO uplifted from his message!  There's just a few little quotes he said that have stuck with me. "We become what we think about and talk about." So if we think our missions or our life is going to be fantastic, then it will be.  Attitude is everything.  "We go on missions to THRIVE, not just SURVIVE" and "Complain less, compliment more."  He closed by singing How Great Thou Art-չարմանալի-amazing!  Then we sang the MTC version of Called to Serve for him-it is SO powerful! 

Sis. Bobzien and I have been really trying to teach better in our lessons-instead of just talking at our investigators.  We've been trying for weeks, but Monday and yesterday were the first days we actually felt like it worked.  Monday, in our lesson with Հովո (Ho-vo)(Bro. White) we had asked if he had any questions-he has been "attending church" regularly since we started meeting with him, so he asked about why this Sunday was different than the others.  The Spirit guided our questions and Հովո was thinking so deeply about why people would stand up and testify about our Savior and Heavenly Father.  Describing it that way sounds so ridiculous, but it was so հրաշալի-wonderful!  Then yesterday in our lesson with Գագո (Gah-go)(Bro. Carlson) we were teaching about our purpose on earth-then towards the end his phone went off and he said he had to leave.  We weren't quite done so both of us were a little frustrated, but Sis. Bobzien testified-so strongly-she almost started to cry-and Գագո seemed to understand for the first time.  I love teaching!  But I love teaching the gospel even more!  It is SO GREAT!!

I'm running out of time-it always takes me so long to write :) We tried to print pictures to send, but the printer thing isn't working, so I'll try again-hopefully you'll have them by next week.  I don't need anything, but I was thinking-for when I leave so I can call from the airports outside of the US I'll need an international calling card-the bookstore doesn't carry those.

I love you!  I know this is Christ's church- and it is true!

Սիրում եմ քեզ  Քուիր Բրադբենթ-I love you!  Sister Broadbent

2 Nephi 31:20-21 & Moroni 7:48