Farewell Utah... Hello Boise, Idaho!

 Jambo! (Hello!)

    I'm currently at the airport, about to fly to Boise!  Finally! 

The Mission Training Center has been wonderful, but I'm excited to go into the field. There's a lot of things that I learned at the MTC. Here is a list of my top three takeaways:

1. The Book of Mormon is awesome. For the last few years, I've really been focussing on the Bible, which has been wonderful. The Bible has so much facinating stuff in it, but The Book of Mormon is "Another Testament of Jesus Christ" (Kitabu cha Mormoni ni:  "Ushuhuda Mwengine wa Yesu Kristo"). 

      It testifies so strongly of Him and His character, and has so many awesome stories about the faith of Native American individuals. My companion and I studied Mosiah chapter 4 and we both highlighted basically the whole chaper because it's so full of awe inspiring teachings.

(An assignment to share a Book of Mormon verse in Swahili that we did a couple weeks ago.)

     2. I really like dressy clothing.  As many people know, before my mission, my go to outfit was jeans and a t-shirt, or if I was feeling fancy, maybe even a long sleeved shirt!   But being here and having to wear missionary attire everyday has it's benefits. I'm so glad that Sister missionaries are now allowed to wear dress pants. So exciting!

     3. Time is a lot nicer to you if you keep a gratitude journal. I feel like with SOOO many things in the past, if I didn't like the expierence, it would go slowly, and of course when I'm enjoying somethings, it feels so short. But I've done a lot of gratitude journalling over the last 6 weeks, and I've noticed that it's been opposite. 

One of the biggest things I've been grateful for is the awesome people in my Swahili learning group.  They're so happy and positive and it was so much fun to go to class for hours a day. Here's a picture of me and my amazing companion, Sister Bickham:

Currently I'm sitting at the airport with a bag of snack mix and a Bluey coloring set, so I'll be pretty busy.

Spiritual thought: Yesterday, I made a playlist of hymns that I really like for the plane, and I highly recommend people to go listen to "Consider the Lillies" by the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square. It's such a pretty song and I love the message.

Quarantined. "Whomp! Whomp!"

 Jambo! (Hello!)

     Last week I mentioned to a few people that I was feeling not good due to allergies. That sickness got worse and worse until I finally went to the MTC health clinic and got checked. I had the flu. (Influenza B)  This is one of my roomates and I at the clinic waiting for our test results. She was sick as well.  We are both clearly very excited:

     We both tested positive, so we packed up our suitcases and moved to the quarantine dorm building until our fevers and aches were gone.

     Most of this last week was spent in quarantine, which was honestly really good, because yes, it prevented me from getting other people sick, which was awesome, but also, I got to sleep whenever I wanted, which was AMAZING. 

Also, the food was always warm, unlike some cafeteria food. It was a little odd though, when they would put your meal bag outside your door in the hallway, and then knock on the door, then you had to put on a mask and quickly open the door, get the bag, and close the door. It often felt like we had leprosy. This is the room:

Luckily, when I got out, my comp and friends came to save me and take me back to our dorm.

    So that was Friday last week through Tuesday morning. We went to a BEAUTIFUL temple this morning. It was probably the prettiest temple I've ever seen. The Provo City Center temple. Here are some pictures of the outside:

And here are some interior images:

Spiritual thought:

During quarentine, I had the opportunity to do a lot of general conference talks. Like, a LOT of them. I mostly listened to the old ones like between 1971-1990. There was a talk that I absolutly loved in April of 1989 by Marvin J Ashton. Basically his talk was on worthiness and how people self judge worthiness, when WE shouldn't be the ones judging, because that's God's job. Like how judging other people unfairly is bad, it's just as bad to judge yourself harshly.

A quote that I liked from it was "worthiness is a process and perfection is an eternal trek".

Thanks for reading, and I hope you all have a weekend filled with amani and furaha (peace and happiness).

Kwa heri!

Swahili Slang!

 Jambo! (Hello!)

It's less than 3 weeks until I'll be in Idaho, and done with the Missionary Training Center. 

    I've realized this week that the gift of tongues is real. It's wild to me how fast I'm learning Swahili.  We've only been doing language classes for a week, and yesterday we had our first conversation with a native Congan. He immigrated to Iowa ten something years ago, I think he was telling us the story of how, but I couldn't understand any of it unfortunatly.

     BUT we did manage to ask his name, where he's from, how his breakfast was, what he likes to do, how his family is, and we shared our testiminies of God and Christ in Swahili, and ended with a prayer. So I think that's a huge win. He was so sweet. I think he sensed that we were very nervous, so one of the sentances that I did understand was "Don't be anxious, you have God with you." AWWWWWW!

This week was mostly focused academically on Swahili, but also much of it was figuring out ways to use slang. We're not supposed to use slang because it's very unprofessional. But we have a loophole where if we translate the slang words into Swahili, then it's ok, because we're learning.

Here's a list of words and their appropriate usage:

Acha fujo (stop the chaos): this was the first one to be used. One of our teachers said that it was a common phrase used by parents when a kid says a bad word. We like to yell it when someone says a slang word in English.

Acha kupiga kelele (stop making sounds): can be used when people are being too noise or just annoying in general.

Ufunguo wa chini (lowkey or "key of the lower"): as in "ufunguo wa chini, the chocolate pie today was actually so good."

Wewe ni pacha wangu (you are my twin): can be used as a greeting or as a "me also" statement.

Mwongo!! (Liar!!): can be used anytime you feel like it. Very useful phrase. Usually yelled or at least loudly spoken at a person while pointing.

Kweli Saaaaaaaana (sooooooo true): used as a statement instead of "facts" or "for real" etc.

Amina! (Amen!): we were learning how to pray this week, and amina sounds so much more fun than just amen. so now we use it in everyday conversation.

Honorable mention: Ng'ombe. This word is so weird but fun to pronounce. It's translation is cow, but we just randomly say it whenever for just for fun.

Sorry there are not many pictures this week. (I didn't use my camera as much unfortunately.)

Where my companion and I do our morning scriptures study session:

Our morning view every day as we walk to class:

Flowers at the temple:

Spiritual thought:

This week we really worked hard on the "Missionary Purpose", because we memorized all of it in Swahili in just one day. (My brain hurt so bad that day! lol)  But I really like the wording of it and the emphasis on helping others to come unto Christ.

"Invite others to come unto Christ through helping them receive the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end."

Anyways, I hope you have an awesome week!

Sister McMullin

First Full Week at the MTC

 Jambo! (Hello!)

This week has gone by super fast for some reason. Maybe due to the crazy schedule. We wake up at 6:30, do breakfast, our morning class is three hours, then we take a break for lunch and usually a nap, then we go to our afternoon class which is also three hours. Basically the classes this week has been about how to teach church doctrine (in English). It's been a lot of role plays where we teach one of the other people in our class. It's been pretty funny sometimes, but I think it definitely gets us more comfortable sharing. 

Notable things that happened this week:

I found out that Utah has the most beautiful sunsets. Every single day here, I've gotten to see a clear sky with a wildly colored sunset. Here's a picture from Monday evening:

We found out the Swahili phrase for "dryer sheet" in one of our textbooks. Apparently I won't be saying that word EVER 'cause it's too long. 

There was a not so fun instance with my nut allergy. there was a stir fry and it had a nut warning, but I thought it was just peanuts, because that seems normal, and I'm not allergic to peanuts. NO IT WAS CASHEWS! Who on earth puts cashews in stir fry??? Apparently the cafeteria here. So I had a bad allergic reaction, and had to take two Benadryl then I literally fell asleep a couple times in the afternoon class. Thankfully, the teachers here are very kind and understanding.

Also something that ive learned this week is the beautiful scenery on campus here. I love my Lawrence University campus, but here is so pretty!

Spiritual thought for the week: In class as I was discussing why we like the Book of Mormon with my companion, we talked about how the Book of Mormon is very much about individuals and their faith journeys with God/Christ. I really appreciate this because generally (emphasis on generally) the Old Testament is about big groups of people doing stuff, or random weird (but fun) stories, and the New Testament is about the cool stuff Christ did and taught on earth. The Book of Mormon has countless stories about individuals who found faith, which I think is really fun to read about. 

Week 2: I made it to Utah!

Jambo! (Hello!)

Yes, after several flight delays, an exploding shampoo bottle, forgotten pajama pants, and many travel prayers, I am finally here in Provo, Utah!

                             (View from my dorm room: A random mountain.)

There were a few BIG hiccups with travel day yesterday.  I was at the Madison airport at 9:30 AM and I got to my new dorm at 9:30 PM. Originally, I was supposed leave at 6 AM, flying Madison - Chicago - Salt Lake, but that got canceled at midnight because Chicago had a massive hail storm. 

                 (The size of the hail in Illinois that re-routed all the flights - plus 4 tornadoes.)  

So THEN I had to call the missionary travel people and have them rebook a flight,  and they booked the earliest one they could get, going to Dallas Texas, and my mom, brother, and I rushed to the airport. 

                               (Slightly stressed smiles, due to the time crunch!)

I was only 10 minutes early before they started boarding the flight. Crazy times.

It was very rough not being allowed to travel with a phone, it gave me bad travel anxiety. Also it was very annoying being stuck between two teenagers on one of my flights both with phones out the WHOLE TIME, and I just had my Swahili flashcards and a nap. lol.  

 My Dallas connecting flight was delayed 5 hours, so I ate pretzel bites and read the New Testament. The Missionary Training Center did not know why I wasn't showing up on time, and sent stress messages back home to Wisconsin, wondering where I was, which they couldn't answer, because I didn't have a phone! 

I was told I would be issued one when I arrived at the training center and did get one today. Much of my afternoon was spent figuring out how to set up email, facebook messanger and duolingo on it.

It was CRAZY riding in the shuttle from the SLC airport to the Provo training center. It was very dark outside, and I could see all the city lights in the valleys. There were multiple times during the drive where I could see 3 temples AT ONCE out the window. INSANE.

 It's like everyone by Salt Lake has their own neighborhood temples. My family has to drive two hours to Chicago to go to the temple. And I literally saw 9 (yesterday I counted) on the half an hour drive to the MTC. 

Most applicable quote for yesterday goes to Mathew 6:27   "Can anyone of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your life?" 

    I actually read it in the airport and was like "Huh, well, I guess I shouldn't have my heart rate be at 120 like it has been for the past couple hours!"😏

 Anyways, I'll have more info about MTC life next week since I'm pretty new here. My goal this week is to figure out what building I am in currently, and how to get from the dorms to the classrooms and the cafeteria.  Since I came in late, I missed the group orientations, and it was all dark.  

Arial view of MTC campus

The best part of yesterday was arriving and walking into the MTC lobby, and having it look just like a temple lobby. There was the front desk, with the people sitting behind it to welcome you, and the large beautiful art on the walls, and the temple-like peaceful feeling.

 After calling home from the front desk to tell my mom I had arrived, I set up my dorm room (shared with 3 other sister missionaries who are also learning Swahili).

It's been so awesome to meet my group in person! Everyone's way taller than I thought. (We have only met on screen for zoom classes before today.) Here's a picture of my Swahili-learning group and me at a temple this morning.  It was so nice after such a crazy day yesterday!

It's so funny to see everyone's reactions when we say what city in the U.S. we're going to, but then we say "Swahili speaking!" and they're like "WHOAH!" It's so funny every time.😄

It looks like P-days (Preparation Days) are on Thursdays? That is the day we have time scheduled to email friends and call home, so more details next week!

Week 1: "Home MTC Life"

 Jambo! (Hello!)

It is the first week of my exciting life as a missionary. All my fancy name tags came last week, I'm supposed to only take them off for bed, so I'll be spending quite a lot of time with them over the next 18 months

I've had many, many online classes this week. I'm still at home, but I'll be flying out Wednesday morning to Provo, Utah. Apparently "online MTC" is a new thing, and it's supposed to make people less stressed about getting to the Missionary Training Center (MTC) because they'll know people in their group. But honestly it's just so much sitting, and so much staring at a zoom screen, and so much triple checking that I'm muted when I need to cough lol.

There's been quite a bit of classes about dress standards at the MTC, how to set goals, how best to use personal study time, etc. This was one of the prompts for the breakout room portion of one of my classes:

My 8 classmates are all Swahili learners as well. We'll all go to the same classes at the Missionary Training Center for the next 6 weeks. It's crazy to me that they're sending Swahili missionaries all over the US. Some are being sent to Washington, Iowa, Pennsylvania, one is even being sent to Wisconsin!

Here is my insane schedule. I'm booked pretty much from 8AM to 8PM with only half an hour food breaks.

It almost makes me excited to go to Provo just so that we can have in person classes instead of whatever this is.

Thursdays at the MTC will be my "preparation-day" (P-day for short). So this is the day I will have time and be allowed to send emails to people. If you want to message me, here is my new email! sylvia.mcmullin@missionary.org

I had a lot of fun yesterday because I got to go to Madison's Finale Forte competition with my family. It was so awesome to watch a live concert one last time before I leave. 

I think it's unfortunate that we as missionaries don't really go to many concerts because I feel like live music can be so uplifting. BUT I do get to bring my violin, so that will be great.

Favorite scripture of the week: 2 Nephi chapter 32, verse 3 "Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherfore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ;  for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do."

Anyways, I'll send an update weekly-ish probably.

Have an awesome week!

Sister McMullin