Monday, January 10, 2011

First Report from the MTC & Please send mail via "dearelder.com"

We get mail two times a day and it is always soo much fun to get letters. I really love it so much :). Also, it is free while I am in the MTC so I think all of my friends and family members should use it!!  So, I am absolutely LOVING the MTC!!!!!! I have had such a great experience and it has not even been a week yet.
 
My companions are Sister Pomeroy from Austin, TX and Sister Miller from Draper, UT. We all get along really well :). Sister Pomeroy taught English in China for a semester and has had a year of Chinese classes so her Chinese is getting good fast. Sister Miller hasn't had any previous experiences, so it has been difficult for her. But she is doing soo well. In fact, she can already pray in mostly Chinese. It is amazing what can happen at the MTC when the Spirit is with you.
 
Here is a journal entry I want to share from this morning:
 
"My first p-day at the mtc!! It is pretty exciting and much needed. We still follow a schedule and we still have personal and companion study. I haven't been moved to another district yet!! Yay! I am enjoying every moment I have with Sister Pomeroy and Sister Miller. It is so fun with them. I love being with them. To recount a little of yesterday--Sunday was absolutely AMAZING!  It seems busy, but it is filled with so many special activities. We were able to watch 30 min of the Spoken Word before r.s.. A sister Clayton spoke and she was just super cute. Gave us great advice on how to make our experiences the best by putting them in a positive light, thinking kindly of our comps and elders, and a few other things I have written down elsewhere. I am glad I have started to keep a good study journal! I think it will be a great help to me for the rest of my mission.
 
Probably the best thing about yesterday was the powerful mtc devotional we had. Bro Heaton (MTC admin. director) invited all the missionaries who are new converts to the church (less than two years) to talk about their conversion stories. We ran out of time for them all!! But the ones we did hear were amazing. Everytime I heard them I saw my parents. I especially saw my father since he went on a mission after only one year of membership. The Spirit was sooo strong and the Lord Testified to me that I am here because of my parents. It made me so excited for these new missionaries' future families. And it showed me when I get to be a part of."
 
I love God and I am soo excited for this opportunity to serve. I have learned a lot, made a few mistakes, and have tons of learning to go. I am supposed to be switching into a different district who will be leaving in six weeks. Things haven't really been too clear about that yet, but it doesn't matter cause I am happy just to be here. I love my companions and am excited to be with new ones too. I know the possible comps I will have, but I think they aren't sure who to put me with yet. I should know by tomorrow when class resumes. Maybe tonight!

Sunday, January 2, 2011

MY MTC ADDRESS

Hey Everyone!!

So I am going into the MTC this Wednesday--pretty crazy eh? The last few weeks have gone by soo fast! I am very excited to serve so soon! I received my MTC address this week so here it is:

Sister Melissa Brooke Smith
MTC Mailbox # 108
TAIW-TCG 0324
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793


If you have a dearelder account you can send letters to the MTC for free :). 
I love you all and would love to hear from you if you have the time. 


Thanks for all of the wonderful support!


--Sister Brooke Smith 

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

MISSION CALL!

Hello there!!

I have decided to keep this blog as an update source for all the fun things I do instead of making a new blog every time! And the next year and half of my life promises to be interesting :). 

I have been called to serve in the Taiwan, Taichung Mission!! I report Jan. 5th, 2011. Less than ONE MONTH away. Pretty crazy excited about that. 

While I can only use the internet to e-mail my family, I will have this blog maintained by my dear mother. She is going to post the e-mails I send out. This way you won't get all of those forwards (which while fun are sometimes just an inbox filler no?). So if you want to see how I am doing, just check out the blog! I will send pictures for Mom to post too hopefully. 

Along with that, every comment made will be sent to me :). So comment and I'll feel happy :). 

My current address will also be put on the blog if you would like to send some snail mail--which will be appreciated!

Love you all and keep in touch (I'd be happy with one letter sometime in the next year and half :P ). 

---Sister Melissa Brooke Smith 

Friday, April 2, 2010

Well, its been a long time ^_^

Hey All!!

So I need to continue on with my Tokyo trip with Liz (part two), but am currently not with my computer....thus now with my pictures :(. Sad huh? See, right now I am in Kakogawa staying with my dear friends Ashley and Celestia. We have been having GOOD times. I have much to say...but you'll probably just have to wait until I'm back in America....sorry!

By the way, I will be back in America on the 6th of April...soo soon!!! I cannot believe how fast time has flown by...its rather sad.

If you'd like a brief preview to the awesomeness of our Kyoto adventure, please go to this link:

http://vimeo.com/10604454

My friend Ashley is a wizard with the mac video maker and we had soo much fun watching her put this clip together, so you'd better like it!!


More later,

Loves,

Brooooooooooooooooke

Monday, March 22, 2010

[Part One] TOKYO TRIP!!!!!!!!!!!!

Liz and I have been wanting to go to the Tokyo temple since we arrived in Tokyo and so we finally went this past Friday!! We met up after work and got soo lost at first!! Luckily this really sweet Japanese woman totally helped us out and gave us directions. We had walked pretty much right passed it!! Liz looked up and shouted "MORONI!" Lol, gotta love the angel Moroni :). The temple was awesome and I actually saw someone I knew! Also a few kids from the air force base in Fussa were there too!


 This nice guy outside the temple offered to take our picture...unfortunately it was a little hard with the bad lighting :(. 


We tried again...and he was soo happy with it we didn't mind that he hadn't gotten the sign too. :P


Liz wanted the sign to feel included.


I love to see the temple!!!


Thank you Moroni for leading the way!!!

The stained glass is soo beautiful!



We are soo happy :)


After the temple, we headed to our favorite little place, Asakusa CAPSULE hotel!!! YAY! 
When we were heading out of the station, this guy turned around and said "Are you two enjoying Tokyo?" We were just kind of dumbfounded to hear English! Lol, his name was Howl and he was from Australia. We were confused because he is Vietnamese and thus we were like, Asian speaking English?? Haha, he turned out to be pretty fun and we all ate dinner together and had fun chatting. Thus we went to bed much later than we'd wanted to, but hey, it was fun!

On the way to the hotel we stopped by a kobini (convenience store) to grab something to drink and saw some awesome Engrish: 




This time there were actually a lot of people at the hotel, so we had to be really really quiet!!!


Well, I think I will finish up with part two tomorrow!! Sleepy now!

Love ya all!