Week 4

Hola!

This past week has been incredible. Although the time here is very strange. Every day seems like a week and every week seems like one day and that is the truth of it. Anyways, yesterday we sang in the choir for the world wide broadcast and got to hear from the apostles and the prophet. It was an uplifting meeting with an incredible and powerful spirirt. In the video they show the row of all my hermanas but it cut right before me!  but just know that I was in there singing too somewhere. :) The MTC is the greatest and weirdest place ever. It just weird how great everyone is so it is almost weird. Everything is fun here and everything is so exaggerated it is really funny. Showering is the best because all of the sisters in the ones around you will harmonize with you and you all sing the hymns as one big happy chorus and it is so fun and happy and then you never even see their faces but you feel like you are best friends with them and you all laugh and it is great. I also love my teachers so much I admire them so much and they have taught me everything. Only two more weeks left, and as of today we are the oldest district and now are helping everyone else and next week we will be hosting the new missionaries who are just arriving, which is so crazy because I feel like I just got here myself. This week I learned a lot about the plan of salvation and also the atonement of Jesus Christ. One of the investigators we are teaching had questions about why these terrible things had happened to him and why these bad things happen in this world if there is a God. As I was studying more about the atonement and the plan of salvation in order to help them I learned a lot of great things to help me as well. That always happens and it is great because the best way to learn is by helping or teaching some one else. I learned a lot of this from a talk by Elder Holland, he is the greatest more powerful witness of truth and he teaches me so many things.This life is hard. Missionary work is hard. I wonder how come the people don't run up to us to hear this glorious message shouldn't they be coming to us rather than us trying to find them? This is the truth. That through a modern prophet, Thomas S. Monson, God has restored knowledge about the plan of Salvation, which is centered on Christ's atonement and fulfilled by living the first principles and ordinances of the gospel. and that this salvation, truth, and joy is available to all those who will receive it! que bueno! Then I remember that it just isn't that easy, that it never was and it never will be. Salvation is not cheap. It is not a cheap experience. Salvation was not cheap, easy, or conveinant even for the Savior Jesus Christ who we testify of. How dare we ask not to feel even this teaspoon of the cup he drank, and that he drank for us. Christ carries the evidence that there is sacrifice involved in serving God. I do not know why some terrible things happen in this world but I know that when we are given trials it is the opportunity for us to respond by applying the in our life the teachings of Jesus as well as a way to come closer to Him. Without opposition in this world the plan of salvation would be frustrated, and we would not be able to progress or learn. I know that Heavenly Father is always listening to our prayers and will answer us. He knows us and will give us the power and understanding we need to do all things we will and to do His will. I know that Jesus Christ has felt and experienced everything thing that you are, and have, and will ever. In a way that I cannot comprehend but I do know that it is true and that His sacrifice was real and was for you and me and that through Christ is the only way to salvation. Without Christ we are in big trouble and there would be no hope but with Him there is all the hope in the world and all things are possible. Without Christ, we are nothing, but with Christ we will win. I know these things are true with my entire heart and everything that I am made of. I am so grateful to be a part of this work and to share this astonishing message of hope, peace, and joy with my brothers and sisters who are all children of God, In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Love, Hermana Egan

Week 3

Hola Mi Familia y Mi Amigos!

The time here is going by so fast! This is our half way mark at the MTC and i cannot believe it! I have learned so much here and this is an incredible place, but I am so excited to leave and to go out and teach the people in Ogden! I also know that I have much more to learn and I am very grateful for my time here in the MTC. I love my teachers so much and all my district. Everyone here just wants to help me and is so great and nice! Yesterday in sacrament meeting I had an interesting experience. Every sunday all of the missionaries are asked to prepare a talk and then the missionaries that speak are randomly called at the pulpit right before you speak. It is usually the last week missionaries getting ready to leave that get called so i definitely was not expecting it and this was the week the i prepared the least and i only had a few thoughts written down. (the whole meeting is in spanish of course) and so i got called up and was not expecting it at all. I just went with it and said all i could and i could do it and it was great! everyone said it was great but everyone was laughing at sometimes and i didn't know why until i found out later that when i thought i said that the holy ghost and the spirit was like playing a baseball game with God instead i said it was like a firery baseball with God. woops. i think everyone got the idea though. i was trying to explain that he is just tossing us the balls really easy like we are the little child learning to play and we keep missing the balls and he always loves us and keeps throwing them, promptings all the time but we cant always receive them but the more we practice the more we will learn the spirit and be more able to receive the promptings and the personal revelations. In the lessons we teach it is even worse there are so many words that if you change one word it means something completely bizzarre so that has been really fun. I love teaching and I love the investigators we have here so much! I am always so happy about we finish a lesson and then we all go back to our district after and everyone tells how it was and everything and it is so fun and the spirit is so strong! It is just really great here and I love being a missionary! The spanish is really coming along even if I mess up a lot. It is so fun and I love it! I am even starting to think in spanish and as I write this email i think of some of it in spanish and then have to translate it to english! so thats is really great! I have learned a lot this week about love and about Christ. I know that Christ lives. Everyone needs to know this. I know that we are on this earth because it is part of God's plan of happiness and salvation for us. I know that me and you and everyone are all God's children and that we lived with Him before this life. He knows me and you personally, loves us, and blesses us everyday. Through the atonement of Jesus Christ we can return to live with our father in heaven. Through Christ we can become clean and perfect. We can recieve strength through the atonement to do all things in this life. The restored gospel of Jesus Christ is on the earth again today and we are lead by a living prophet of God. I am so grateful for this incredible truth. It blesses me in everything I do and brings me infinite happniess. Everyone needs to know this. And so I am so excited to go out and share with anyone who is looking for this truth and purpose in life. God is there and wants to hear from us. He wants to help us and he wants all the good things and only good things for us. I love this gospel and I know these things are true with my whole soul. It is a beautiful earth we live on, and this is a great life we live.

Adios!

Love, Hermana Egan

week 2

Hola!

This week has been incredible! Last night we heard from Elder Bednar about the Character of Christ and it changed my life. I learned that the character of christ is that he turns out (to others) when you or i would turn in (to ourselves)<-the natural man. and conversion means to turn away from yourself and turn to christ through others. This is what coming unto Christ means and this is what we are striving for everyday. The spirit here is so powerful and I love being a missionary! This work is the Lord's work and it is real and powerful and amazing! I have never been happier in my life! The spanish is really coming along and it is amazing to think back to the first lesson we taught in spanish and our lessons now. We are getting two new investiagtors tomorrow and we have been preparing and we are so excited! Every prep day we get to go to the temple in the morning and it was so incredible the spirit was so strong this morning and everything lately has been an exact answer to my prayers. These last two weeks have definitely been very challenging and humbling but so incredible and cool! I know that God is our father in heaven and that he knows us. He knows my name and everything about me, and he still loves me, what a miracle and what amazing truth. I know that he loves all of his children the same and knows us. I know that he hears our prayers and I know that he will answer us and that he is involved in everything we do, whether we realized the blessings or not. To feel the spirit of god is the greatest feeling in this world and it is so real. This week I have learned a lot about love and I have so much love for everyone around me, the people i am teaching, the missionaries around me, my teachers, my companion, my family, and all of you where ever you are! I just want to let you know that you are all in my prayers and I love you! Let me know if I can help you in any way you can think of! The first picture is of my hermanas i love them all and my companion (sister barker) is on the right in the green! The next picture is of our district and they are of course great as well we are all super close and they are all great! :)

Love, Hermana Egan

Week 1

Hola!

It is definitely a new life I have started here, and it is the greatest life. I used to refer to life before my mission as real life and I now know that this is the real life. These next 18 months will be the most real my life will ever be, and I am so humbled to be a part of this amazing work. Learning spanish is so much fun, and I already love the language. From the first day when I walked into my classroom my teacher only spoke spanish and i have learned so much already. The second day we were here we taught our first lesson in spanish and it was so incredibly difficult. When I could understand the investigators question I would want to answer so much and it is such a great question but I don't know the words to answer in spanish. It is so great though that we have begun to teach from the second day because it is such a great way to learn. I still don't know much but I know that Heavenly Father has already blessed me with the gift of tongues and I know that he will continue to bless me little by little. My companion is great! We are actually complete opposites in pretty much every way aside from the gospel, but we are working together and I do already love her. There is one other companionship of sisters in our district and they are so great also! We all room together along with two english speaking sisters and we are all very close already! My companion is going to New York for her mission but the other two sisters in my district are going to Ogden as well. I love being a missionary and this last week has been the greatest and most real time of my life. I have changed so much and learned so much already and the people and spirit here are incredible. I love my teachers so much and everyone I meet. Dare mi testimonio en espanol para practicar.

Yo se que JesuCristo vive. Yo se que tenemos la potencial ser a llegar como Dios y la potencial vivir con Dios y JesuCristo y nos familias por eternidad y con felicidad. Yo se que tenemos la luz de Cristo en nosotros y podemos compartir con otras personas. Estoy agraciado mucho por la expiacion de JesuCristo porque podemos ser a llegar limpio y recibir pardon. Me agraciado por la opportunidad ser en el ccm y la opportunidad servir mi missional. Me encanta la JesuCristo y la evangelio. La iglesia es verdadero y yo se que en mi corazon. (i have little time for email so i don't have time to figure out the spanish keyboard or accents.)

Love, Hermana Egan