February 27, 2013 This time I know a half-hour is short

FAMILY! This time I know a half-hour is short, so I'll start with the most important. I love you all!! I miss having you here. There's so many times where I say "I can't wait to tell them thus and such." And then I realize that it'll be a while. :) Dad, how did your meeting go??? I asked in the letter I mailed home, but forgot to in my email. (PS...in the letter home... I got to read my email from you eventually, so don't worry about that 2nd concern.) MY medicine was taken care of here, so Mom you don't have to send that to me. But could you send (whenever, no hurry): a copy of our family pic that I could show to people, one of Dad's line of authority cards, some of those twistable coloring pencil things for my scriptures? (Last one I can get here, they obviously just hate coloring and so make it uber expensive here. haha) Also, there's a blog up of tons of MTC pics they've taken....they said they sent you guys a link in the email.

Please tell Sis Marrs I loved getting her email last week. And give her a big hug for me... I know she'll miss Alex a TON! Also, tell her hankies were INSPIRED. I'm pretty much a leaky faucet these days. And tell Aunt Robin and G and G I love them, and their letters made my day! I love hearing about home!

So, I thought I'd start this letter with excitement about the 58 new mission announced. But scratch that. Guess who came Monday night????? ELDER JEFFREY R HOLLAND> That's right. Reread it. Double check it. It's true. He came to the England MTC during the TWO weeks I was here, to talk to only 40 missionaries. It was incredible to sit at the feet of an apostle and just be fed. He talked about how his mission changed his entire life, how it sunk down into the very marrow of his bones. Isn't that incredible??? I want THAT for my mission. I'm pretty sure if they'd set us free after his devotional, we would've gone and baptized all of Preston that night. He told us to not worry about whether there was water in the pond: to just JUMP in, and trust in the Lord that there would be plenty of water, because there was. He quoted a poem by William Blake...it's a hymn called Jerusalem, and it's about the Apocryphal visit of Christ to England. It's officially my new favorite poem. I LOVE it. IF I hadn't known that we were led by latter day prophets before Monday night, there would have been no doubt in my mind after that meeting. IF you guys want more details about what he said, just let me know and I'll send you a letter. I just don't know what you want to read about!!!

And last Wednesday night, the 70 (Pres Donaldson) also gave an amazing devotional. He shared an incident where they were extending a call to someone who was "unexpected" for that position, and how he learned that the Lord isn't looking for someone who would be the perfect____, he's looking for someone to BECOME that. Which means that I just need to be willing to try my best until I become. He said that we were called to where we were because of who we were, so just bring the best you and become better over time. Love it.

Okay, now street contacting!! Last Thursday on the train, I couldn't bring up the courage to talk to the guy next to me. I knew so STRONGLY that I was there to talk to him, but I just couldn't open my mouth. So I saw the guy across the aisle had an anatomy book he was studying, so I started talking to him about his uni work for a couple of minutes. That gave me the courage to talk to the guy next to me. His name was Theo, and the anniversary of his dad's suicide was the next day. So I testified that God understood exactly what his dad was going through, and what he was too. I told him that God loves us beyond our comprehension. I could just see the peace settle on him. I gave him a Book Of Mormon, and he promised to read it. He wanted the missionaries to come over too. Holy cow. And I almost didn't open my mouth. He definitely needed the peace the gospel can bring, and I was almost too scared/selfish to share it! Street contacting was so much fun. I loved just talking to people and seeing what they knew about God, and what they were going through.

We went street contacting again yesterday....I felt so blessed to get to go at all in the MTC and practice, let alone 2 times! We met this girl named Katie. We walked up, introduced ourselves, and she goes yeah, I don't want to talk about Jesus. Umm....awkward. We started to walk away (after telling her to have a good day) when I felt like I needed to turn around and tell her something. First thing that popped into my head? I love how the blue streak in your hair contrasts with your red hair. Wow. Random. Good job Miranda. But then she let us sit there and talk to her for half an hour. We talked about eternal families, the Word of Wisdom (which show loved), and gay marriage. I feel like my main thing I tell people is just how much they are loved. At the end, she ASKED for a Book of Mormon. talk about a turnaround. And she gave us each a huge hug and said we made her day, that she needed to hear just how much she was loved.

Other than these AWESOME experiences, it's been pretty much classes, teaching, classes, teaching, eating. Repeat. I love it and I've learned so much, but it doesn't make for too much news home. :) IF you guys want, I can send you letters where I share more details. Tell me what you think of the letter I sent....if you like stuff like that I'll keep sending it. :)

I love you ALL. Also, I need an Emery fix. Pics? :) Oh! I need to tell you this. There's an Elder who doesn't want to have kids. At ALL. We were talking about it (with him, not gossiping) in our district. I pulled out my pic of Emery from my scriptures (the one from this summer where she's smiling in her sleep) and bore my testimony of how life changing love can be. I said nothing in the entire world could be worth the love I was overwhelmed by the first time she smiled at me. It was amazing to see the change that came over him after I did that. And his comp told me he now said he wants three kids. haha.

I leave the MTC Saturday morning. We were supposed to leave today, but my president is at some mission president conference, so we're staying here a few extra days (which meant we got to go to the temple again this morning). And then this'll all be real! (real-er). I haven't read you guy's emails or anything... I'll print them out and read them later. I'll try to attach some pics so you don't forget what I look like.