Week 2

FAMILY! 

oh my goodness first let me apologize for last weeks email haha typos and all. i did not think i would be soooo rushed but live and learn right! I pre-wrote my email this time via my journal last night so i could have EVERYTHING organized and not so cluttered and to spell check and all that nice stuff. So fingers crossed this goes a little better and i'm not so scattered for time and individual emails!

First of all i forgot to mention my favorite part of my first day at the MTC (its a little late i know but the spirit still burns strong when i think about it). So all the new missionaries who arrived that day got together for alittle devotional and the song we opened with was We'll Bring The World Its Truth. We all stood and sang 

We are as the army of Helaman.

We have been taught in our youth.

And WE ARE NOW the Lord's missionaries

To bring the world his truth.

ugh how powerful right?! i got sooo chocked up singing that chorus. ALL OF US new sisters and elders singing that verse... It seriously hit me then that i had become the Lords Missionary. I felt my ta and just felt the biggest peace come over my whole body reminding me that i am meant to be here and i am meant to serve at this time.

So this is m last day in the MTC! what! that just flew bye! like a really slow airplane... haha just kidding! Its been a long list of days but super short weeks. I am getting closer and closer with my district which is bitter sweet because half of us are going to Missouri and the oher half left last night missippi. We all know that St Louis is the place to be though(; but mississippi has that Bruno Mars song though... haha every time someone asks the elders from that mission where they are serving we all just start singing "JACKSON MISSISSIPPI!" hahaha we are a singy type of group. One moment we will be rapping along to Lil Wayne then dueting to High School Musical. We are trying to break that habit though because our new Mission President in St. Louis only allows MoTab... So heres to trying! The Rest of us st louis kids we are left are getting so nervous to say bye to each other! i mean we've been stuck to eachothers hips for the pass two weeks now we are about to say goodbye! AND we can even hug goodbye haha sometimes we accidentally go in for a hug or accidentally bump arms and the "someone of the 3 party outsider with no personal interest in the matter" (if you can name that movie quote youll receive much blessings (; ) will quickly and sarcastically step in between us and yell "dont touch the sisters! virture starts here!!" hahah maybe its funnier in person.. One of my favorite elders from our district is actually at the emergency room right now so we dont know if he will b coming with us so please keep him in your prayers! that he will be comforted at this time!

Remember those "investigators" i told you all about? hat we role play but its legit? haha well i got both to commit to baptism!!! I was sooooo happy and proud of myself for actually extending the invitation in the first place! me and Sister Oldroyd left the lesson with the biggest smiles and just couldnt stop hugging and talking about how if that felt amazing we cant even begin to imagine what the real thing will like! even though its totally so real to us and the investigator! This pass tuesdaywe had a devotional to end ur night and it would be by someone "high up" rumor had it that is was Uchtdorf! and in case you didnt know Uchtdorf is my favorite of all favorite people to listen to give talks so of course i flipped a biscuit! I made my companion leave dinner 20 minutes early so we could get a spot. I WAS NOT GOING TO BE IN THE OVERFLOW ROOM WHEN UCHTDORF IS JUST A BUILDING OVER! we were the first ones there but we were stopped by security outside the building and had to wait before we could actually go in and get our spot. It may or may have not been about a hour and 45 minute wai until we got to go in...but that doesnt matter. but lo and behold we got a sport front and center! There was security everywhere! Checking for cameras, suspicous people, and even bombs. So i was like oh yeah this is def uchtdorf whose about to come in through those doors haha. then we started and he was o where to be found. Then it hit me... It was him * insert crying emoji face * I was crushed but the n my spirits where lifted when they announced the actual speaker of the night. Elder William R Walker! Part of the seventy!! I was stoked once again! He was the sweetest man on the face of the earth and him and his wife had this light to them that radiated the whole gym! I have FIVE pages of notes from him! i wan to just send you copies and copies of my study journal right now because how crammed they are with amazing lessons! i wont bore you with my person notes haha but he gave us 10 steps to be a happy successful missionary. Oh boy after that talk i was ready to dive head first into St Louis! I am sooo excited! nervous... very nervous but excited! 

Oh my goodness you guys! I cant even begin to tell you how much ive learned this pass week! I wish i could write on and on about how much ive come to know about the gospel and my relationship with my Heavenly Father! before i came here i remember i would always pray to have a relationship with my Heavenly Father because i mean i felt such a deep connection with jesus christ bu never so much god. My prayers continuted to go unasnwered ntil i came here! My relationship with Him is so new and so strong! I reall am beginning to to understand his love for me. I will never fully understand because i wont ever know what its like to feel such a deep meaningful love but im shocked everyday with how often  see his love through out the day now because i am open to learn and return that love. My testimony runs deep with how much he loves you all too! I have felt his love for all of you guys through prayer and through study. I keep each ya'll in my thoughts as i teach an think about how i could relate to you and just get so much warmth and peace when i think about gods love for you! Ugh i wish i could just repeat that again and again! GOD LOVES YOU! now i can only say it so much and so often but those are the only words i have right now. Please plase neve foret those words but most importantly seek for the confirmation of his love. Because guess what! Youll receive it! I heard the most amazing thing the other day! " our Heavenly Father had so many blessings in store for us. Hes just waiting for us to ask for them!" oooh... let that sink in.

Okay on to the fun part of the emial! (if youre still with me haha ) I leave TOMORROW for st louis! guess what time i have to be downstairs ready to hop on the bus... 3;30 am!!  goof thing the mtc has taught me a thing or two about how to survive off of no sleep and still be a nice person ahah still working on that... Oh did i meantion last week hat a roomy of mine has FULL ON CONVERSATIONS IN HER SLEEP EVERY NIGHT! hahah i seriously get like 4 hours of sleep a night but still manage to feel the spirit during the day haha with occasional visits to teach dan ( some of you will catch on to this is haha ) So i have a lay over in good ole Minnesota then ll be in missouri tomorrow nightish. Im not sure of my new address but ill be sure to send it home ASAP.  Because Guess what!!! i love letters!!! even if they are just a sentence long hahah its just so fun hearing from everyone! oh and send lots and lots of pictures please!!! everyone faces are starting to blur hahah! cant wait to call home in just a matter of hours! dad keep your phone on LOUD ill probably be calling around 7 am!

love love love,

Sister Bustillos

PS my companions really been loving my prankster ways these last couple days (; its consisted of hiding behind walls and scaring the bad words out of her and doing he whole "ZIP!" neck slice thing hahah shes also PUSHED ME INTO DARK EMPTY CLASSROOMS! haha im going to miss her so much! no other companion will ever compare! ( im not just saying this because shes in this group emial(;)

PSS D&C 60:8... cool or nah?(;

PSS Pictures coming soon

our vending machine has creamery ice cream #provodatememories

Doodling!

(Ataya is obsessed with her Mumu! haha)

Our companionship in 2 pictures

Canadians vs Americans. I'll let you decide who is who ;-)

Week 1

HI EVERYONE!!!

Oh my heck i have butterflies in my stomach just emailing you all! thanks everyone for the dear elders and packages. Im trying to write back to you all but i seriously have NO down time but im becoming really good at multitasking(;

so i know what your all thinking! Sister Bustillos hows the MTC! whose your companion? have you met your future hubby yet!? are you used to being a missionary yet? ill get to these questions all in due time(;

OK! this week has been nuts! so much stuff going on, so many classes, so many new things to get used to! but its been amazing so far! not gonna lie, these pass five days have been loooonnnnggg and s  l  o   w. but i made it through my first sunday and they say thats all you have to do right!? i still feel like im just at efy or something and you are all going to pick me up in a couple days haha. we have a joke going on in our district... it just feels like efy on steriods here! hahah. okay i love love love my district! and my companion! Her name is Sister Oldroyd ( it may or may have not taken me a couple days to remember her name haha) but she is great! so cute and so intune with the spirirt! and guess what! she has a sucky back too! so during gym time you can find us on the field doing yoga and giving each other massages(; haha we have fun together! im still getting used to having someone by me at all times and a couple times a day i here "SISTER WAIT! COMPANIONS!" haha i walk away from her with out even knowing it! my district boys ( and yes i mean boys..haha) are great! We are already so close and hang out all the time! of course we spend about 9 hours in a classroom a day BUT sit by each other at meals and walk with each other to our different buildings. we are a pretty cool group if you ask me... Id be jealous of us if i didnt have this group(; 

Okay i love being a missionary and its only the 6th day. I didnt know my testimony could grow so much in such a short amount of time. Its crazy! Ive learned more in the last couple days than i could even comprehend but guess what the lord really does bless his missionaries! I have 16 hour days of just reading the B of M and Preach my Gospel and pamphlets and hand outs and what not so of course im learning! but the words from my teachers aren't teaching me the spirit is! and thats a huge thing ive been learning, we dont teach people the spirit does, we wont convert people the spirit will. Its been so important here to be in tune with the spirit here, i cant even begin to imagine what my life would be with out it. I have felt the spirit in so many different ways here and sometimes i think Im not feeling it at all and then i all of sudden i have tears in my eyes because the spirit just hits me so hard in that moment. We have "Role Play" where our teacher acts as an investigator they once knew and we teach them from scratch. The point is though is to treat them as who they are acting as not just our teacher is acting like so&so and we are going to teach them. One of the investigators name was Jordan. Oh my goodness i could not even begin to tell you how much i love him! (at the end of the lesson when we left the room i had to remind myself like hey that was actually brother sorenson not the real jordan but during the lesson it just feels so real!) but its crazy i can just talk and these words spill out of my mouth and these scriptures come to my mind. Me and sister Oldroyd do a really good job at playing off each others testimonies and experiences. At the MTC we also have these volunteers who just hang around the residents ( we cant call it campus) and they wear these gold tags which means they are investigators and we can just go up and talk to them. Me and Sister Oldroyd saw one on our way to personal study and we both just looked at eachother and said how impressed we where to talk to this girl so we said a quick prayer ( number 1290384 of the mission so far (; ) and went over and talked to her! we did so so good! she agreed to read the book of mormon and we will set an appointment up with her soon! I know youre all probably like thats great! but its fake Sister... haha no!! well maybe haha we actually dont know if they are real non members or not but im just proud of us for having the courage to talk to her. it makes me excited for the field! One more cool story! me and sister oldroyd were doing our companion study, preparing for our first appointment today, and about ten minutes in we both were getting so frustrated because we could not think of anything to say in our lesson or what scriptures to mention. Then an idea cam to me "you didnt say an opening prayer. stop. pray and start again" so i looked to my companion and said lets drop everything and pray. I offered just a simple prayer and when we picked up again ideas and scriptures just flowed! we had so many different ideas and we analyzed scriptures so easily. We ended with a prayer and then looked at each other and just had huge smiles on our faces because we just experienced the coolest thing! it was almost like heavenly father slapping us on the wrist and saying uhm hello! you still need me here! it was so humbling and made me even more grateful for prayer!

okay i dont want to make this email too long so ill just end it here. I love you all so much and miss you all! but I'm really really happy i made the decision to come here. The church is so true and the mtc testifies of that. My relationship with our heavenly father blossomed into something that was barely a seed before i came here. I cant even imagine what else the Lord has for me to learn over the couple days left in the MTC. Please please remember to say your prayers morning and night. Heavenly Father is just waiting so patiently for you to talk to him. Dont rush it either, take your time and you'll notice that he answers them in a different way than before. Keep the letters and packages coming! ( im in the lead of who gets the most in our district (; ) love you all!! see you sooner than we know it. 

Love,

Sister Bustillos 

Sister Oldroyd and I:

Some of the sisters in my zone:

Best looking District:

The unavoidable laughing picture: