July 15th Week 5 in the MTC. Only 9 days left!!!

All of the Sisters with our travel plans for July 24th

July 15^th, 2017-9 Days left!

Sunday- We had a special fast for all the Elders who were injured. There are 3 of them, Elder Warner, Elder Leonard and Elder Killpack. I love how much love and feeling of family we have in our zone. It was amazing to see the faith of almost all the zone come together. Then today for choir we were learning, " Where can I Turn for Peace" and it was just perfect for what our zone was feeling.

Then for Sunday devotional we had President and Sister Thurston speak, they just got released as mission presidents. They spoke on how we can be better missionaries and that was really good. After Sunday devotionals we get to go see a movie and this Sunday my district chose to go see "Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration" and though I have already watched it before I have a renewed respect, awe and respect for Joseph and all the things he did with his life. I was really glad I got to see it here in the MTC.

Monday- We had service again. After that we had to move rooms. We used to be on the second (main) floor, but they made us move out because they opened that hall for tours while the open house for the new buildings is going on. So if any of you end up doing a tour, in room 205 the bottom bunk on the first set of beds is where little Hermana Dobson lay her head for 4 weeks ;). So we moved up a floor. We got all our bags packed and took them up.... opened the door to our new room and it was a disaster.

The girls there before us did not clean a single thing and somehow that room got missed by the cleaning crew that's supposed check and see how clean things got left. It really was so gross. There was garbage everywhere, opened candy smashed in the carpet, bloody and used band-aides and tissues. There was old and moldy food in one of the draws, all the beds were covered in crumbs. It was so gross! It looked more like elders had been living there lol. So we spent over an hour cleaning and disinfecting every surface in the room. Now that it’s clean its fine but I do miss our old room.

Then we found out that Elder Killpack was going home to get surgery. That was so sad. We had a mini testimony meeting before he left in class and there was not a dry eye at the end. My district just has so much love for each other that we all felt part of Elder Killpack's pain at having to go home. But he handled it like a champ and though he was sad, I never once heard him complain or be angry about it. I know I would not handle that situation as well as he did.

Tuesday- Was a day of Tears. Elder Killpack left this morning we all went to send him off. We met his parents and that was cool but we were all so sad to see him go. He will only be about 6 weeks behind us though so that is good. He really is only a transfer off. It was just really hard seeing someone whom you are so close with go home.

After that Hermana Hogan and I had TRC with Connie again. We were going to teach 3 commandments so we started teaching the importance of scripture study and she just started bawling. I have no idea why either. Normally I can understand about 50% of what she's saying and use context to answer her questions, but she was crying so all her words were coming out in sobs and I only understood about 1/15 words. So we just testified of the power of scripture study and challenged her to read with a question in mind so that she can get answers from god, and that seemed to answer her question but I honestly have no idea if it did or if so, how. But the spirit is the teacher not us so even though I have absolutely no idea what she needed the spirit did and he used us to help her come unto Christ.

Then for choir we performed "Where can I turn for Peace" at the devotional. I really do love that song so much. Then at the devotional Elder Bruce C Haffen and Sister Marie Hafen spoke to us. It was actually really cool. They spoke together, so like one would like for 3-5 minutes and then they would switch. I really liked that. They spoke on how to be a better missionary and member by not being to unrealistic or too idealistic. It’s kinda hard to explain but it was such an amazing devotional.

Wednesday- Not really anything happened we taught Connie again and the lesson was fine but not really worth mentioning. But it was our 4 week mark. So we have now been in the field for more than a month which is kinda crazy, cuz it does not feel like it has been that long at all.

Thursday- Is our really long day of lots of class but we did teach a TRC over skype. That was an interesting experience because we teach members as themselves and not as a role play like we normally do. But we taught this man named Pablo from Dominican Republic he was really cool we didn't even teach him a ton because he asked us lots of questions like 'why are you serving a mission?' and 'why do you think Christ needs you in New York and not somewhere else?' but it was still a really good lesson.

Friday- We taught our last lesson with Connie. It was a really good lesson. We taught her the law of chastity and eternal marriage and family. She was crying in the lesson (of course) because she wanted the blessings of the temple for herself and for her family. Then at the end she told us that we weren't on her schedule anymore. Then we explained that it was because we were leaving to go teach these same things to the people in New York and she started crying again. It was a really hard good bye but we left her our emails and told her to keep in touch. Though it was sad it made me really excited to get out in the field and teach the gospel to people and feel the love that Christ has for all of his children.

We also got our flight plans! Most of my district leaves Monday. The New York group leaves the MTC at 3:30 in the morning and our flight leaves Salt Lake at 7:30 then we have a layover and then we will be in New York! I will be in New York in 9 DAYS! I'm SO excited! I can't wait!

I love you all! Have a good week!

Love, Hermana Dobson

NEW ADDRESS as of July 24th

Sister Aubrianne Rachelle Dobson

New York, NYC North Mission

700 White Plains Rd Ste 315

Scarsdale NY 10583