Week 1 – Mission Training Center

Hi family and friends!

"Map picture for Mom...Pointing to SLC"

Well its official! I am a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I have the name tag and everything. Hope everyone is doing well. This week has been amazing. There have been some ups and downs but I am so excited to see what happens in the next 18 months of my life. I got here last Wednesday along with 700 other new missionaries. We are all going to separate parts of the world and it’s amazing to see where God needs each one of us. You are constantly hearing people speak the new language they are learning and sometimes I am not too sure what they say so I just smile and say thanks!

"My Companion, Sister Anderson and I"

My companion is amazing! Her name is Sister Anderson and she is pretty cool. She is from Texas and went to a year of college before her mission and studied English (which I love because she always compensates for my lack of vocabulary words haha). We laugh so much and never seem to have a dull moment together. We both got called as the music coordinators for our zone, which means we get to pick the music for sacrament on Sundays. Sister Anderson is also very musically talented so I just kind of tag along. My district is amazing! There are four Sisters and eight Elders and all of us are either going to Salt Lake City or Logan, Utah. I never knew that you could come to love people so much within six days.

The MTC is great! You are surrounded by 2400 missionaries who all have the same purpose that you do. We all are representatives of Christ and go out to invite others to create a relationship with our Savior Jesus Christ. There is always an over whelming feeling of peace because of the spirit that is present. No matter how stressed I feel because me and my companion are late to class or are trying to miss the long lines for dinner, it all goes away because I have the love of my Father in Heaven just as all of you do.

"All of us going to the SLC mission and Sister Anderson going to Logan Utah"

Missionary work is not what I thought it was. I came to the MTC thinking that I had a lot of experience with going out with the missionaries and my knowledge of this church was pretty good but oh was I so wrong. These past six days have been so humbling and I have come to know that missionary work only focuses on the love that God has for children and the love that I have for His children as well. I challenge you all to love those around you because it truly can make a difference in your life and the others that are around you. Coming into the MTC I had so many fears. I wouldn't admit that I had any but I did. I had feelings of being inadequate and messing up, but I’m human and I am going to mess up. Learning and starting to teach about the Gospel of Jesus Christ has already blessed my life so much and I am so thankful to be a member of this church. I have so much to learn still on my mission and even when I come home but when we know that Christ loves us we can overcome anything. Philippians 4:13 says, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me". Humility is so important and I have come to realize that, that is something I need to strive to be better at every day. I have never prayed so much in my life or had the time to study the scriptures as much as I have this past week but it is changing my life one day at a time and I cannot wait to get to Salt Lake in a couple weeks. There is a scriptures that I heard the first night I was here, its Moroni 8:16 and it talks about how a perfect love casteth out fear. There is no need to fear as long as we have love. I am so happy to be here and just cannot stop smiling. One week of adventures down and so many more to come.

"The sisters in my District- (left to right) Me, Sis Anderson, Sis Shultz, and Sis Ricketts"

I would love to hear from you all! You can email me or use this thing called Dear Elder. Dear Elder is pretty cool because you type a letter, they print it, and I get it that same day so that I can read them the same day.

I love this Church so much and love all of you. Talk to you next week!

Love,
Sister McCammon

"Me the Provo temple. It's beautiful"

"Sis Roberts on her last day with us. She's in the middle with the red shirt"

"The District at the temple walk on Sunday"

"The District Sisters at the Provo Temple"