Thanksgiving with Elder Holland

Wow my days blur together! But let me tell you how much I love The Mission Training Center. What a wonderful place full of loving people. My teachers are amazing. I am learning so much. I truly think I will benefit as a high school teacher because of my mission. I love my Sisters, Companion, District, and Zone. They are so amazing, fun, and strong. We are teaching acting investigators daily and I am blessed because I haven't had a bad experience yet. But I know my time will come. I am really learning out to teach through the spirit. My lessons with my companion, Sister Lamb are totally guided. We have had investigators cry, and we have set baptism dates. Our investigators have never said no to commitments because the spirit is always burning inside them and they cannot deny it. I always try to point it out to them.

Thanksgiving was the best I've ever had. We first had a Morning Devotional, and we knew one of the members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was going to speak. We didn't know which one though. Jeffery R. Holland walks in and immediately we all stood up. My heart was beating so fast, my body felt like it was on fire, and I felt like I couldn't breathe. The spirit was so strong in that room as soon as he walked in. Tears filled my eyes. What a wonderful experience. He brought his whole family and had a few of his grandchildren perform vocal, piano, and bear testimonies. His beautiful wife spoke about how we need to have a testimony so strong that we cannot control it. We just want to shout it to the whole world because we want everyone to have the blessings. President Holland spoke about how blessed we are to be in this dispensation. We are the members that will press forward. So amazing. He shared his love for his wife. What a beautiful thing to witness. Plus he was hilarious. He wanted us to tell you all that they adopted us in their family on Thanksgiving. When he left, we stood up and that same feeling came and tears filled my eyes again!

We also had a humanitarian aid project. We made 4,200 Health Kits and 4,200 Education Kits that are being sent to Mali, West Africa. What a wonderful thing for Thanksgiving. Service is how we show our love for our Savior.

We than were given popcorn and watched "17 Miracles". I cried so hard during that movie the whole row of seats were shaking and everyone was looking at me. Embarrassing. And than an Elder went to shake our hands to tell us that when he looks at us Sisters he feels so blessed. He shook my hand while it was covered in snot. Embarrassing. Hahah I couldn't contain myself!

I love you! Heavenly Father loves you! We are all blessed.

I'm Alive!

I LOVE it here! My companion Sister Lamb from Las Vegas is amazing. She is so sweet and we get along perfect. My other roommates who are in my district Sister Schrishuhn (try pronouncing that, it took me 3 days to get it right ((Shry-shoon))) and Sister Langi are so fun too. The rest of the missionaries in our district are elders. They are all fun. We make sure to sit next to each other at the meal times. We actually sit with our whole zone. I was just asked to be the Coordinating Sister. Which means I'm in charge of my sisters. I need to serve them and love them and report how they are doing to the Branch President, President Wenn. He is literally 4'9''. Maybe even smaller. Looks like a little elf. I would love for him to dress up closer to Christmas time. haha just kidding. I found out I have to get tutored...wow what a way to make myself embarrassed and feel inadequate. It's not because of reading out loud or because I don't understand what I'm reading but because my vocab isn't good. The sister missionary that quizzed me would ask me randomly what a word meant in a verse in The Book of Mormon and I didn't do very well. I think I got them all wrong. Blame my ADD. Oh well. I would like the extra help, I just don't know how I will have time for it. They keep us busy in here. I'm exhausted by the end of the night. It's a lot of studying and class time. My mind is drained. I have no extra time to think. I miss you all, but I really don't have time to think about it, which is good. I can tell some people are struggling with homesickness. I am learning how to love everyone in the matter of 5 minutes of meeting them. It makes it easy to want to serve them. My heart is locked. Promise. My teachers Brother Bacon and Brother Roberts are amazing. They are currently attending BYU Provo and devote a lot of their time for us. You can tell they prepare very well. I love them and I'm very grateful for that. The spirit is so strong here. My heart is beating our of my chest. I literally think it will explode one day. I pray a lot here. I always pray for my investigators out in the field. I know that there are people waiting to here the gospel. I hope to help them come to Christ. I had my first lesson yesterday. It went very well actually. We felt really good about it. It was Brother Roberts pretending to be an investigator. At one point he said "The world is a dark place". In my head i desperately wanted to ask him why he thought that, or what has happened in his life that makes it a dark place, but Sister Lamb was talking and I didn't want to mess up our grove. When we walked out and Brother Roberts came back into class, he talked about how we need to love our investigators so much that we need to be concerned for them and want to help them and find out if they are struggling or going through a hard time. At that moment I knew the Holy Ghost wanted me to ask that question. Darn I didn't act on the Holy Ghost! But it is a learning experience and I am soooo grateful I was at least able to recognize the Holy Ghost. Gym is so fun here! I whoop on all the elders in four square. They get mad when I throw the "spin" move. Gets them every time! I also played volleyball and they were very impressed. All those years of going to Dad's practices and getting hit by jump serves. I hope you know how much I love it here. It is truly wonderful here. The meals here are of course delicious! But I make sure to watch what I eat because I don't want to gain weight. I cant believe how exhausting the MTC is. I am able to wake up at 6:30 am and fall into bed at 10:30. I think I'm snoring as I'm crawling into bed. OH, so me and my roommates took pictures at the Provo Temple. I'm sure they posted them on my facebook. They might have even included a video of Katelyn surprising us. She flew into Salt Lake City from Colorado to see me. Oh I was so happy. It was so wonderful. I thought I was going to be a crying mess when they dropped me off but I didn't have time. I had time to give them hugs and the Elders pulled me away with my luggage. Probably a good thing. Well I don't have too much to tell you because they days literally blur together. I study, listen, and pray constantly. OH I received a package from Tiff and it was amazing! Doubled Stuffed Oreos. MMM. And the letters were wonderful. A letter to Tiff is on the way. OH. "Dear Elder" . go to that website. You can write me and I will receive it THAT day! It's even nicer than e-mail because I can only check my e-mail once a week. I would LOVE those. HINT HINT. You just need my name and my mission. Colorado Denver South. So Dear Elder me when you can. I would love that.

Shout out to my Girls: Katrina, Makaal, Katelyn. I loved the things you gave me. Katrina your blanket actually helps a lot because it's pretty cold and they don't give you much blankets. Katelyn the letter I found in my journal made my day!!! Makaal I ran into an elder here that said you showed him a picture of me and told him to find me. He did! In four square! I got him out! MWAHAHAH. I don't remember his name. He seemed like the type that just pops into cute girls apartments.

I LOVE YOU FAMILY! You are the best! Such a great example in my life!

Love,
Sister Gampe

Sister Weekend

My sisters and I planned our last visit all together before I leave for the MTC. We all went to my sister Tiffany's house in Texas. We had a blast shopping, playing games, and eating. In these photos you can see we are wearing the same necklaces. Tiffany gave us all a necklace that say on the back, "A family's love is natures masterpiece." She gave them to us all at the same time to open. I wish we had a video of it because I am getting all emotional reading this necklace, and my other sisters are all yelling that they are going to get it out of the package the quickest. I will miss seeing and talking to these wonderful sisters.

Temple

Ahhh the Washington DC Temple is so amazing. How blessed I felt to be able to go through with my parents. I remember being extremely nervous. I was scared I wasn't going to be ready mentally. But I felt so wonderful inside the temple. My fears should have never took place because it was so perfect.

Mission Call

You can tell in the first photo that I am running inside with my mission call while Makaal is jumping up and down cheering! What a fun day! I received my mission call the July 27th. It took 3 weeks from the time it was submitted. Longest 3 weeks of my life! Notice the phones lined up. Those are all on speaker phone. They each had a different sibling listening while I read that I was going to serve in the Colorado Denver South Mission.