Hello

So I have a lot of really exciting news, but limited time for email, so I
bought a mini tape voice recorder to record some stories for you to listen
to. However, you might wanna buy a small mini tape player first =]. They're
not expensive if you buy them at the right place.
So, every sunday night and Tuesday night we have a devotional or fireside.
Sundays are for anyone inspirational from the church, and tuesdays are
reserved for general authorities. I am so blessed to be here at this time
because right now is the week when all the new mission presidents come to be
trained by members of the 12. Some of the campus is blocked off so the
missionaries don't annoy the quarum of the 12. Sunday night we had an
amazing speaker (which I'll tell you about on the tape). After we were all
in our residence halls and getting ready for bed the front desk made an
announcment to all the halls that everyone must be in 19M (which is where we
have all our big meetings) and seated by 8:30, the Elders must be in suit
coats. Well since this is not part of our normal schedule we got really
excited cuz obviously something big was gonna happen. So Monday morning we
eat breakfast at like 6:45, and are in and out in 2 minutes (not even
kidding!) and we go sit in 19M to await our fates. We sit there for 2 1/2
hours when finally we find out our speaker is no less than President Monson!
It was amazing. He talked about his mission and how much it meant to him and
how important the work is. Ok, so that's just the beginning. On Tuesday we
knew we would hear from Elder Holland, what we didn't know is that 5 more
members of the 12 would accompany him. That's right, we had 6 members of the
12 sitting 20 ft. away from me (cuz I'm blessed and am in a special reserved
section for the ASL missionaries...hehehe the Lord loves me =]). His talk
was on the atonement and was so powerful!!! I was trying to write as much as
I could but missed so much cuz he talked so fast. Of course I was crying by
the end. The Elder who gave the closing prayer spoke powerfully and cried as
well, so after he was done, Elder Holland gave him a hug and kissed his
cheek. AMAZING!!! Elders Holland, Eyring, Uchtdorf, Scott, Perry, and
Ballard were those who were present. After it was all over I went to talk to
my new mission president (who I met on Monday) and his wife. We talked for a
good ten minutes and by that time most of the hall was empty, then who comes
walking back in??? Elder Scott. He walks right up to our group and shook our
hands. One of my companion just started crying and couldn't even say
anything when he asked her where she was going....hahaha We just made fun of
her later =]. She cracks me up. Anyways, he said "If it were up to me I
would have all sisters go on missions. Bless you for doing this." Also,
Elder Monson (during his talk on Monday Morning) said "I firmly believe
sister missionaries are more special than the Elders, and I'm not joking.
They're more mature, and can get to places the elders can't." I thought that
was pretty amazing myself =].
This week has been so good!!! Within 2 days we saw 7 members of the 12, and
were blessed to hear from 3 of them (Elder Scott bore his testimony right
before Elder Monson spoke). So Powerful.
My district is so cool. Of course the elders don't always work as hard as
they should and get us sisters distracted a lot (when that happens we
usually go to another room to study), but they are a really good group and
will be amazing missionaries.
I love you all!!! Thanks for the emails, but just remember I love getting
letters too =]. You can write me on www.dearelder.com as well, and they send
it to us letter style =]
Love ya!
~Sister Witbeck~