Week 8 [Letter 8 - Provo MTC]

It looks like the Visas FINALLY came through! YAY!  Dayna leaves the MTC on February 29th (What a special day to leave!), so if you wanna get letters or packages to her before then, make sure they get there before her address changes! MTC address is on the right. I will update with her Spain mailbox once she leaves. In case you want to plan ahead, the address for her mailbox in Spain is below.

Hermana Dayna Petru

Spain MTC

4a. Planta

Calle del Templo #2

Madrid

28030 Alicante

Spain

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Hey everyone!!!

By this point in time I'm sure that most of you know that I GOT MY VISA TODAY!!! This is why the email is so late. I had a meeting today with the Spain Consul who delivered all the paperwork for our visas today. I wanted to wait for the news from him before I wrote so I wouldn't be leaving you on a cliff hanger and such. So the news is official. I signed my paperwork today and I will be leaving on Febuary 29. Quite the day really if you think about it. This means that the next email you get will be written from the Spainish MTC just across the way from the Madrid, Spain Temple!!!! So excited!!! My companions and I will probably be walking on Cloud 9 for the next several days until the anxiety sets in that we are actually going to a foriegn land. Anyway now on the the spiritual side.

This week we have been studying on how to teach people not lessons. It has been one of the most powerful classes and I learned alot about the spirit. How it talks to me and how I can use Him to help me bring others unto Christ. It was wonderful. I am still working hard, though I should probably work harder. My spanish is okay. I understand most of it but I am still learning how to conguate in my head. It will take time. I keep praying that I will understand. I have begun dreaming in spanish. They aren't quite nightmares. There really isn't a whole lot to report on. I'm sorry. We go to class, eat, study, class, study, eat, gym, planning and then sleep is my general schedule. I am thinking that Spain my be more exciting. I am so ready to help others come unto Christ. I know that this is my goal. My purpose states it. I feel ready to serve the Lord with all my might. I know He has prepared the way for me and I just have to givem Him my all and He will help out. I would like to share a poem that Elder Holland shared. I'm not sure where because we watch alot of the Apostles speak during class. We obviously learn from the best but here is the poem.

"Come to the edge" He said.

"No we'll fall."

COME! to the edge" He said.

"NO! we'll fall."

"COME TO THE EDGE." He said.

And so we went to the edge.

And He pushed us.

And we flew.

This is how I want to serve. I want to go to the edge where I don't think I can anymore. I want the Lord to have me all. And Alma states that if we have that desire and act upon it with faith that it will grow. That is what I hope to do.

Really cool experience on Sunday!! I almost forgot!

I have been praying that I can become the missionary that the Lord needs/wants me to become. I have prayed to know what to do and how to act. Well on Sunday our Relief society speaker talked about BECOMING!! How to become the person that the Lord wants/needs us to be. Then we met with one of our Branch presidency and he talked about having a vision. Studying out what you want to become and how to make goals to achieve you end goal. And then in Sacrament meeting we learned about the Atonement. The enabling power of the Atonement. How the Atonement can help us become what we need to become. And finally at the Sunday Devotional President Brown spoke on the 100 watt missionary. The kind of missionary that we all should want to become. Their characteristics and choices. I felt like all of Sunday was given just for me. To answer my prayer. It was so amazing. I have been working on my Vision. I want to be a Book of Mormon Missionary. I want to work like Alma, Almulek, Lehi, Nephi, Aaron, and Ammon. And so I have commenced my study of these men. picking out attributes that I want to exemplify and how I can give more to the Lord. It has been wonderful. It has given me a kick in the pants and I can't wait to go into the feild to meet and love the people. SO SO SO EXCITED.

LOVE EVERYONE!!!

Hermana Petru

P.S. Can you figure out what this is? and yes I have it memorized. YAY!!

Vi una columna de luz, mas brilliante que el sol, directamente arriba de me cabeza, y este luz gradualmente descendio hasta descansar sobre me... Al reposar sobre me la luz, vi en el aire arriba de me a dos personajes, cuyo fulgor y gloria no admitten descripcion. uno de ellos me hablo llamandome por me nombre, y dijo señalando al otro "este es me hijo amado, eschalo!"

P.P.S

To all my other beloved friends and family. I don't have much time but I love you!! Pray. Stay strong!!

Week 7 [Letter 7]

Hi all! Another letter from Sister Petru! It looks like their Visa's still haven't come through... Let's remember to keep Dayna and the other Sisters in our prayers so that they can begin their service in Spain! Also, it sounds like the MTC food is leaving much to be desired... Let's try to get her some goodies!!

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HEY THERE everybody!!!
so we are on week 7. Meaning two more weeks in the MTC. Still no visa but we have heard rumors that some visas may be coming at the end of the month. We aren't sure if they will be for us or for those missionaries already in the feild. If they don't come in then I will most likely be reassigned state side. Could be going anywhere really. Still doing the same thing I've been doing for 7 weeks now. Our schedule won't change until the last week we are here when we do in feild training.

Oh some exciting news for us. We get to be HOST sisters next week meaning we get to meet and shephard around the new sisters that come in on Wednesday. We have been looking forward to this since we got here but it is just another reminder that we are leaving soon because you aren't asked until one or two weeks before you leave. Its kind of scary to think we only have two weeks left in the MTC and then we will be expected to go out and teach Heavenly Father's children about the gospel in a language we can barely understand let alone talk back in.

My companion and I are finally feeling comfortable teaching and testifying. There is no way we could do it without the Spirit though. In most lessons I remember things in spanish that i couldn't before or can't after. The Spirit does AMAZING things. I love the Lord so much for giving me the opportunity to serve His children and to learn so many new things. Everyday I feel like my spiritual bucket is being filled. I have heard to soak it up while you can because sometimes in the feild you won't have that.

On tuesday we had a 70 come to speak to us. It was so great. I learned so much about loving the people you serve and how obedience of missionaries can make the difference for investigators, familes, and themselves. This week we talked about the Holy Ghost and following the promptings of the Comforter. Elder Bednar said some wonderful things about just doing it. Every good thought is a good thought. Just do it. He had an amazing story about giving Elder Packer a 20 mark in Germany and how Elder Packer had to use that money to get across the crossing from West to East Germany. It was an amazing story on how a young elder followed the prompting of the spirit and he had now idea why or could even remember doing it. But is made all the difference to the receiptant. Praying Daily for the spirit and then following the promptings is how you come closer to your Father in Heaven and show that you are willing to be obedient. I'm so excited for the Feild. at the same time I am so nervous because I know that I will need to step it up when I get out there. I work hard here but it will be a different type of work. I pray I will rise to the challenge.

Side Note: Bethy boo you asked if we have fun here while studying the answer is yes!!! This the first time and hopefully the last time this happens but it was really funny. We were taking showers after Gym last night. The other companionship in our district was being there normal abnormal selfs. Well one of the sisters (Sister W) accidently touch the other sister(Sister Y) with her foot. Sister Y is a huge germ a phob. So she freaked out a bit.

Well the Sister Y decided she need to do something. So she went into our room dumped the trash can out and took it to the bath room and filled it with COLD water. I am sure you can see what is going to happen next. She dumped it over the stall on to Sister W. To say that someone died probably wouldn't quite explain the scream the curddled the air. It was really funny. They laughed about it together afterwards but this is an extreme example of the fun here at the MTC.

Well my family and friends I love you all. I know this church is true. I know that you can know to, or even strenghen what you already know by reading, praying and attending church. Christ calls all to come unto Him. Pray with sincerity for strength and humility and then pour you soul out with questions. The Lord will answer in miraculous ways. It is your choice. It is our greatest gift. I thank my Father everyday for this gift and for you all. Thank you for you support and love.


Love,

Hermana Petru

P.S. Alma 12

NO TIME!! Love you all. Write when you can.

End of Week 5, middle of week 6[Letter 6 - MTC]

 Sorry this is a bit late in posting! Remember you can send letters to Sister Petru at the address in the sidebar! -----> -----> -----> -----> -----> -----> -----> -----> -----> -----> -----> -----> -----> ----->

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Well here we go again. It has been another week here in the MTC! We only have 2 more grammar principles in our spanish books before we start reviewing. It is crazy I never thought that we would make it through that book. My spanish is still pretty terrible. Working on congugating verbs is like daily life here. We have like 8 different ways and reasons to congugate verbs. It pretty much a changing of the ending vowel and all the vowels have different sounds then those in english so when I am trying to ask someone in progressive "will you read this?" it comes out in command "Read this". not really what i want to be doing but hey i will learn sometime in the next 17 months how to do this properly.

Visa NEWS:  I GOT MY VISA! Snap okay back to reality i have not.  Still waiting. It is looking more and more like i will be reassigned state side before making it to euorpe

This week we had some great speakers. i don't remember names and my notes are not right in front of me but they were amazing. This last sunday was fast sunday. We had a mission conference. The president that spoke talked about Repentance and the central role it takes in missionary work. Not only for the investigator but also for the missionary. It was very good and inspiring and reminded me of the sweet invitation from the Lord to come to Him with our guilt, sadness, heart ache and He can give you peace and solace. It was so sweet. The man cried at the pulpit beseeching all missionaries to repent and come closer to our Father and Savior so we can more fully show our investigators the way. I loved it! I must BE better. 

The president that spoke on Tuesday was kind of dry but i did like his message. He spoke on missionary work as a whole. His wife was really interesting. She likened the native american story of the two wolves to missionary work. The wolve that we feed will be the kind of missionary that you will be. feed the lazy, content, complaining missionary that  will be the missionary you are. But if you feed the driven, charitable, improving missionary that will be the missionary you are. Something that has stuck with me also this week is a question that was ask by one of our zone resource teachers. (Zone resource teacher is a teacher that does not have an actual class. they are teachers that are like tutors to help you with spanish, lessons, or planning. they also can come as memebers to your lessons and then give you feed back. AMAZING RESOURCE.) HE asked "are you doing what your mother thinks your doing?" This has up-ed my commitment to study. My name is not the tag I wear. I have my Savior's name because it the through Him and only Him that we are truly safed and I have my family's name because that is who I represent. I hope to make both proud.

My dear family please stay close to the Lord in your prayers, scripture study, and Church attendance. This three things are so simple and yet are so vitial to our spritual growth. Sister gould calls them CPR for the soul. I know this is true. The Lord loves you. I love you. the church is true. Stay strong.

Returning with honor,

Hermana Dayna Lee Petru

Sorry everybody I am out of time. I will try to write letters but we get kinda crazy on preparation day. LOVE YOU ALL.

A Full 4 weeks - A MONTH!!! [Letter 5 - MTC]

Hey Ya'll

So I have been here for a month. It goes by so fast. Nothing really abnormal happened this week. We keep doing the same things over and over. In our plan the top of it says weeks 2-8 the same schedule over and over again. BUT this week for our Tuesday devotional we have ELDER NELSON again AND ELDER HOLLAND come and speak to us for devotional. It was the 50th anniversary of the MTC. It was really cool. Both of them gave very powerful talks about how we are the current generation and everything we stand on is because we stand on the shoulders of the giants that came before us. You know those Early saints that went to english countries and bauptized others by the thousands. This gave me a strong desire to become a strong link. I don't want to break the tradition of being a stalwart, faithful, obedient missionary. I absoultely loved it.

Visa news: IT ISN"T HERE!!!! BOOOOOOO

Thank you everybody for the prayers. I know that I will be where I need to be when I need to be there. And that may mean reassignment to a US mission while I wait. I don't like the idea of being a "visa waiter" but I will do and be whatever the Lord ask me to be.

Spiritual Thought:

My dear family, please please please read the Book of Mormon. This book is true. I know it is with all my heart. I know that it's testimony of Christ will bring you closer to our Lord and Savior. Read the Introduction and Moroni 10:3-5. Follow Moroni's council. I know that his promise is still a real and relevant today as is was years ago. if you have done it before I ask you to do it again. That promise doesn't ever run out and everytime you do I know you will strengthen your testimony of the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is for our day. It is for the gathering of Isreal in the Latter-Days and as the introduction says a testimony of the Book of Mormon also builds a testimony of Christ, and Joseph Smith. I am so excited to share this "good stuff" with others. We get to do it here with members but I can't wait to see the light of Christ in someone else's eyes grow as the come closer to Christ by strenghtening their bond with our Father in Heaven. I love this Work.

I love you all.

DEAR FRIENDS: I haven't heard from any of you. Hope life is treating you well.

With lots and lots of Love

Hermana Petru