Sister Alyssa Johnson: MTC - Week 8

GOOD NEWS EVERYONE! I GOT MY FLIGHT PLANS!!!!!

I am officially headed to Australia Tuesday December 27!

SLC—San Francisco is 2 hours and 8 min

SF—New Zealand is 12 hours and 50 min

NZ--Melbourne is 4 hours and 5 minutes.

so we have over 19 hours of flying time, not including our layovers... hahah including our

layovers it is over 30 hours of traveling.

This week has been a little crazy! It is been pretty nuts because this is our final week before we all leave... but it's been a pretty good week. I've cried a lot... I guess nothing has changed.

This week on Sunday I spoke in our Sacrament meeting! So in the MTC you have to prepare a talk every week on the assigned topic, and then in Sacrament meeting they call up 2 people to talk. You never know if you are talking or not until they announce it over the pulpit. This week they called me up.. so that was cool. Oh and did I mention that the talk has to be in Chinese?!?

Sunday night devotional was super good! Piano Guys came!!! They were so great. The four of them all took a couple minutes and talked to us and testified and it was so powerful. Then they played a couple songs for us and holy cow! Sooo good. I am blown away by the devotionals here at the MTC. They do such a great job and get some amazing people to come talk to us!

Hey mom thanks so much for sending those Christmas headbands.. Cahoon and I LOVE them. We may or may not have done a 20 minute photo shoot wearing them one night. We were laughing soo hard and it was so much fun. And I know that we will definitely wear them all day on Christmas so everyone in the MTC should be pumped! :)

Our zone was able to help clean the Temple today! We cleaned for 3.5 hours today.. so that was long but it was a cool thing to be able to do. We all got there and we got to wear white scrubs and our tennis shoes. We all looked way good (haha)

All the sisters from our zone went and started with cleaning the crystal from the chandeliers in the Celestial Room. It was super cool and HOLY COW THERE WAS A LOT OF CRYSTAL. But it was so pretty. But wow the temple is incredible.

Then everyone had different jobs, but we all went and cleaned the bride's room and I had to vacuum all the furniture. It took forever because there are a lot of benches and chairs. After I was done with that, I had to clean out all the fake flower bouquets with a tiny paintbrush.. they really go all out in the Temple. It was super cool to be able to help clean such a special and beautiful building.

Because I am leaving this week, I have been looking back to when I first got to the MTC (2 months ago..) and it is incredible to see how much I have grown. I still don't really know Chinese very well, but I have learned so much about myself and about my Savior Jesus Christ. I have gained such a powerful testimony while I have been here. I know that Jesus Christ lives. He knows us and He loves us more than we can comprehend. He was the only one that could go through what He did, and He did it so that He can help us and succor us. He performed His miraculous Atonement for each and everyone one of us personally. Through this we don't ever have to feel alone. I am on a mission because I know these things are true and I love my Savior. I can't wait to share this message of love and hope with everyone in Melbourne Australia.

I hope you all have a great week and a very Merry Christmas!!

LOVE YOU ALL

xoxo,

张姐妹

Sister Johnson