Hi friends and family!
Sorry for the novel I'm about to send. So much has happened in the last week!
I can't even begin to describe how amazing the MTC has been and how excited I am to make it into the field already! My companion is Sister Durland and she's absolutely amazing and loving and patient and I'm so grateful for her. The rest of my district is absolutely amazing as well and all the sisters and I are such close friends already. We only have two elders in our district and they're both really quiet so we haven't gotten to know them as much as we'd like, but we love them still. My entire district and a lot of my zone (which consists of three districts) are all going to Cincinnati Ohio as well! In fact, in the last week, the three missions I've heard the most people going to are Ohio, Georgia, and South Korea. Seriously, there are so many going to Ohio. Apparently they really need us there! And there's so many more sisters here than I thought there would be! It's such an amazing feeling to be constantly surrounded by other missionaries and called Sister Bliss all the time. It's still hard to believe that I'm a missionary now. I keep checking my name tag just to make sure it's still there. Elder Chidester in my zone accidentally called me Sister Love yesterday instead of Sister Bliss and it was definitely the best name mix up I've ever had.
Wednesday morning when I was dropped off, the host who led me to my bedroom and classroom was none other than Kayla Sanders from high school (for those of you who went to high school with me and know her)! I've run into Sister Sanders a few times since and it's so nice seeing someone I know and catching up with her. And for my friends who understand the dead puppies thing from high school, I told Sister Gallup about it and now she's gotten Elder Chidester and one of teachers to slip "dead puppies" into little things just to see how often they can make me laugh.
One of the first things we new missionaries did after arriving at the MTC was get in a big group and take turns talking to people as if we were teaching them. And we never knew who was actually a nonmember wanting more information or just a member acting as a nonmember. Sister Durland and I are now teaching a girl named Sadie every other day as part of our training and we don't know if she's actually a member or not either. It makes it really intimidating, but it's been such great practice. One of our teachers reminded us that even if the people we teach are actually members the things we teach them and our testimonies that we share with them can still help them. It's an amazing feeling to walk in to meet with someone and get to tell them things like how much their heavenly father loves them and that because of Christ's atonement there's always someone who knows exactly how we feel and can help us through every struggle we have.
The spirit at the MTC is amazing. I've never felt so close to my Heavenly Father and so loved and strengthened before. It's a good thing that it's as spiritual of an experience as it is because it's also really hard. Our days are packed with classes, study time, and teaching and it's easy to beat yourself up for not being a perfect teacher already. But as D&C 11:21 says, "Seek not to declare my word, but first seek to obtain my word, and then shall your tongue be loosed; then, if you desire, you shall have my Spirit and my word, yea, the power of God unto the convincing of men." It's not up to me to a great teacher. It's up to me to have a testimony and share it with others and let the spirit be the real teacher. Of course I still have to learn how to teach the lessons, but no amount of preparation beforehand will do the same good as the Holy Ghost will. During our first practice lesson Sister Durland and I stressed so much before and had this whole lesson planned but ended up going in, sharing one section of scriptures, and talking the rest of the time about God's love for her.
The first day I had that included an exercise hour was almost as exciting as P-day because running off all the stress of the days before was the best feeling, especially with all the other cute sisters in my district! But as great as our gym hour is, sadly I will be unable to enjoy it any more. Saturday night, my second time ever in the gym, I decided to join a large game of volleyball with a bunch of elders and sisters in our zone and I one of the times when I went after a ball and in the process I tripped and landed really hard on my ankle... So I've been spending the last few days with a wrapped ankle while hobbling around on crutches. I did pretty well at volleyball up until then though! 🤣 The doctor thinks it's only a sprain, but I got some x-rays yesterday and I'll get to find out the results in about half an hour now, so fingers are crossed!
Sunday I got to go to choir practice and it was amazing! I've been excited to sing with the MTC choir since I first found out there was one. We sang "Where Can I Turn for Peace", which was very fitting with Easter coming up next week. With so many hardships in our lives it's easy to wonder how we can have peace sometimes. But Christ is always there, always understanding of exactly what we all go through, and always willing and wanting to help give us that peace we're looking for. That night we watched a musical devotional of The Lamb of God and it was absolutely beautiful. I normally don't cry during musical devotionals, but most of my notes during this one were hard to write as I was looking through the tears that kept coming. Even a lot of the elders were crying, so that must say something about how good it was!
Yesterday was by far the hardest day here so far. Thanks to my ankle I was suddenly pushing myself not only mentally and spiritually, but now physically too and I started feeling physically sick and really discouraged part way through the day. But I have wonderful sisters and teachers to encourage me and prayer and sscripture study were the best things to heal me. I'm doing much better now though and it's been amazing how much I've been strengthened throughout my time here.
I could easily go on and on about everything I've learned and experienced, but I have a doctor's appointment to check on my ankle here in a bit so I should wrap things up now.
My testimony was strong before I came to the MTC. It had to be for me to want to serve for a year and a half spreading the gospel and helping people. But my testimony has grown so much in just the week that I've been here. As much as I feel like my email makes it sound like everything is all just fun, games, and stress, it's really more spiritual than anything else. I truly do know that this church is true and I feel so blessed to know I have a purpose in this life and that we have a wonderful prophet to guide and instruct us. I'm so grateful for the power of prayer and for the closeness I can feel with my Heavenly Father when I reach out to him. We pray all the time at the MTC and it's really given me a testimony of how much we really need our Heavenly Father in our every day lives. I want you all to know how much I love you and how much your Heavenly Father loves you as well! If you ever question that, just read Romans 8:35-39 because that's an amazing section that shows just how much he and Christ love us.
I thought it'd be fun to include a couple questions in my emails just for fun, and to give people an excuse to email me back 
1. What's your favorite color?
Mine's Turquoise/Teal
2. Who's your favorite person from the scriptures?
Ammon and Aaron are really cool when it comes to missionary work, but I also love Moroni because of Alma 48:17 "Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men." THAT'S the kind of person I want to be!
Lots of love 
Sister Bliss
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