My District is made up of four Elders, and six Sisters. Of those ten, five of us are going to Florida Ft Lauderdale (four Sisters, one Elder). As I understand it, the Deaf Branch had closed down last year, and this is the time to send out a big group of ASL missionaries to work to re-open the Branch. It will be extremely hard and in need of a lot of love, but we are ready for it.
My companion is Sister Call and she is the only Deaf missionary at the MTC right now. I have been told I am extremely blessed to have her as a companion, and I definitely agree. She is simply amazing and so patient with me. Together, we are doing well in learning the language. Already, I have the Missionary Purpose and D&C 4 memorized. Yay! Also, our district is now able to do all our prayers in sign. For class, we split up into two groups, one with voice interpretation, and one without. As the days progress, the bigger the class gets that is sign only.
One great thing about having Sis. Call as a companion, I am really working on my interpreting skills. At times, when there is no one around to interpret, I get to help. It's thankfully nothing big like a fireside, devotional, or class (plus we are not allowed to do that yet without training); but for smaller activities, like the district discussion on the devotional, I was able to interpret testimonies for Sis. Call, then voice her testimony to the group. It was a truly amazing spiritual experience!
Okay, some information about the ASL program in the church:
~The ASL program had only 50 missionaries last year.
~No new ASL missionaries enter the MTC until we leave.
~This is the biggest district in the last year and a half (usually it is about four people). What is surprising now, the next district to come in will have 11 ASL missionaries. There is a lot of missionary work being strengthened for the deaf.
~Something else that is interesting to state, there were two Elders in our district that were originally called to the Arizona Mesa misson, but were switched a few weeks later to serve in New York Rochester and California Los Angeles Missions. That makes me curious about the Mesa area as it pertains to Deaf members.
Now, I get to share about the talks we've had so far. For the Relief Society lesson on Sunday, we had Sister Cheryl C Lant of the Primary General Presidency speak to us about teaching the children and the spirit they bring to teaching of the gospel. The devotional on Tuesday was given by Elder and Sister Holland on having no regrets and putting our all into serving a mission. Awesome talk! If they have transcripts for MTC devotionals open for the public, I really want a copy of that talk for my book.
So, all is going very well here at the MTC. Classes are great, teachers are amazing, our district is one big happy family. Even our branch created a close friendship - always eating meals together and spending gym time playing volleyball. We spend a lot of time with the Romanian missionaries who have been at the MTC for four weeks now. There are only two left (a Sister and an Elder) after a big group of them left early this week. Sora Walker (the Sister serving in Romania) is amazing, always there to help us out if we need it. She's been assigned the Branch Supporting Sister so she likes to check up on us and make sure we are all doing well here.
TENDER MERCY: I have definitely seen the Lords hand in my life this past week. I cannot believe how much He has blessed me. I have my wonderful companion, I am learning the language quickly, I have the support of the wonderful Sisters and Elders in my Branch and District, I have opportunities to practice interpreting, and I have the great opportunity to watch so many different interpreting styles as we sit and watch devotionals and firesides on the front row with the ASL interpreters. Watching those interpreters really helps me see what I want to strive for in my skills.
