Yesterday, I got a letter from Jesus Christ. (April 16)

Allo!

Can you believe this is my second to last Pday in the MTC?? Holy cow. Rachel... I mean Sister Gaines, left this morning! It's going to be weird not seeing her all the time, we ran into each other about twice a day! It was so nice, she's got a long train ride in front of her.

Mom, I am SO happy you are working at the temple now!! That is the best thing ever. Cathy starts working at the temple today too. It just makes me SO happy, because that work is SO important. I've had a marvelous week! I am so happy!

So. if you are wondering why my pictures are so weird this week, it's because I'm on such a spiritual high, that I am floating, no big deal. The best one was definitely of Sister Davis, I wish i had it. There's my classroom, if you were curious. And there's one of Sister Busath and me (we are in the same branch/zone, her classroom is next to mine, and the other sisters in my zone are her roommates, so I see her a ton!)

Relief Society was SO wonderful this week. We had Mary Edmands come talk to us. I heard she talks at a lot of church things for women. So you probably have seen her at Time Out for Women or something. SHE'S AMAZING!!! I have never felt so many emotions in one sitting. I cried, I laughed, I was so excited, and I felt the spirit so strong. She motivated me like no other. You should google her, but from what I understood she went on 4  2 year missions and only went to the MTC once. She had to learn the languages from scratch out in the field!!! craziness. She had so many promises and awesome points of missionary work. I wish that they recorded MTC devotionals and such. She had me motivated to give it everything I've got! After Relief Society, we sung a song that I've never heard before, "Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd." That's way good! and so applicable to missionary work!! Overall Sunday was great. Sacrament was based on the Suhnopfer. It was such a good reminder how important it is that we are using it all the time. And guess who gave their first talk auf Deutsch? Yeah, Sister Regnier. That was quite an experience. I felt weird because you know how I like to just talk about what I know, I am not much of a talk reader, well I read most of it. So I definitely have SO MUCH room to improve. That's okay, first talk out of the way, it can only get better right? hahah, well until I have to give like a 20 minute talk. I like what our Branch president's wife said, "The Savior has done his part, are you doing yours?" We have it so easy! We really need to make sure we are partaking of this miracle. Anyway, enough about Sunday. Class is going great. I think it's funny because going into the MTC, I thought that the teachers were going to be teaching us the language. Well A. it's the spirit that does that B. We have to be teaching ourselves too. This week we started getting into some really hard concepts, stuff I don't even know in English grammar. Anyways, I made up a more panned out language study plan. wow! It helped SO MUCH. I am so much more productive with my language study! Also, I am not wasting any time anymore, I spend more time focusing on the language. I saw this Elder sitting in front of me during the films and he really motivated me because he was studying his language scriptures while just waiting for the movie to start. That really got me thinking how much time I am wasting. So I am striving to be more like him :) I wanted to tell him how cool he was, he also did some other very impressive missionary things. But I didn't because of how much they talk to us about no flirting, and I didn't want it to look as such. Looking back on it, I regret it. Because what if me wanting to tell him what I wanted to was from the Lord. ah. disappointment. Seriously though, this flirting thing is ridiculous. It's frustrating because 1, so much time is wasted talking about it 2, that's not what we're hear to do, but SO MANY people do it. Meinie Mitarbeiterin was saying how she feels some of these girls are just wanting to "expand their network" to make sure their married when they get back. This is die Wahrheit. It's lame.

So this made me really happy this week. We talked in class about extending commitments and such. Bruder Mower was so nice, he was so complimentary to me. He was like  Sister Regnier is the best at this, I wish you could all see when she give commitments because she is so bold. I would be condemned if I told her to change that. Although this is such a little thing, it felt so good to be recognized for doing something really well in lesson. Plus that is my favorite thing to do. And testify, but that's because that's the easiest thing to do auf Deutsch and brings the spirit more than anything else. Teaching lessons is seriously my favorite thing. People get so nervous, I just really don't understand why. I love it!

I'm currently working on trying to memorize JS's vision auf Deutsch, it's super hard. My memorizing skills are the same as they were when I was younger. It's okay though, I just have to try harder. Plus it's getting easier as we learn more and more. I can get around with my vocab, its just sentence structure is killer. Thank you for all of your dear elders. I can't think if you asked any questions this time.... I forgot to reread them this morning, so I might get back to you. But thanks so much! Also, Minsun send the nicest little dearelder, please tell her thanks for me!

 This week, for a majority of my personal study, I went through the Christ like attributes chapter in PMG looking at all the scriptures and activities. I would definitely encourage this. There is a "attribute test" on the last page of this chapter. Figure out what you need to work on, and study that section! It's awesome because we have so much to improve on! Of course, my lowest score was patience.... immer. Luckily, I can already see a change prior to entering the MTC.

For meine Mitarbeiterin and my "fun goal" we are memorizing my leibling Lied! "Komme du Quelle" I don't think English has it anymore for some reason but this passes How firm a foundation, surprising I know.

Please keep me updated with life. I love getting your letters! Looks like the blessing will be flowing in through 2 very important calling to our family ( Also, were you set apart by the temple pres? or one of his counselors?)

LOVE YOU!

Schwester Regnier

With Sister Busath

Crazy things that Missionaries do in their free time!

Classroom

Yesterday, I got a letter from Jesus Christ. Check out the return address. Sam is the best :)

My man, Uchtdorf, gives the best talks (April 9)

Guten Morgen!

How's everything?! Thanks so much for your letters, I love getting them! I've had a pretty typical week here at the MTC. Well maybe not, conference was AWESOME. Plus we got two unstressful days in a whole week, what a blessing :)

I really enjoyed conference and how it focused on the family. My comp and I decided that we are glad last conference came out before this one, or else the temple would be busy with sealings instead of girls getting their endowments. Those were some great talks though! I feel that ( i think it was) Anderson's talk went perfectly with what I said at my farewell. I hope you guys are trying to give referrals to the missionaries and be missionaries every opportunity you get. I actually enjoyed the YW broadcast the most. I didn't have the best attitude going into it (I'm not in YW what possibly is going to apply to me) Oh how wrong I was, again. IT WAS THE BEST. My man, Uchtdorf, gives the best talks and sure speaks the truth! It was awesome hearing so much about Germany. My favorite part was that temple video for sure. I have SUCH a love for the temple. I have 50 min till I get to go there again. :) Conference also made me have an increase in love and gratefulness for the Priesthood. We are SO lucky to have it on the earth as we are here. My district elders gave a blessing to one of the sisters they other day, and it just makes me SO HAPPY. I've had some great lesson this week by our teachers. So I'll just try and think of my favorite things that happen.

Favorite teaching experience: We decided to teach Stefan with no notes or anything and not really anything prepared going in to it. IT WAS AWESOME. We said what we know and REALLY got the point across, but that's not why it was the best. At the end, we asked him to pray, like last time he refused. But I wasn't about to let that slide. With all the words I could think of I pretty much gave him some sass. I told him why on earth would he pass up the opportunity to speak with his heavenly father that loves him SO MUCH and wants to hear from him. After lecturing for a couple minutes, he turned to me and said okay. So all my "so called attitude" I had as a kid paid off :) I was not going to take no for an answer. And the spirit was SUPER strong.

Funniest moment: After conference, my district, sorry if I spell that wrong, in English I am not 100% sure how too ;). Anyways, we had a review of conference we asked the boys to tell us about priesthood session. Well Elder Huttenin told us that Uchtdorf had an amazing talk. He began by explaining that he talked about a "creature" that falls down a lot. He felt so sorry for this animal. After describing it, saying it's probably a mix between a turtle and a sloth, he said "I think he called it a Toddler" HAHAHA It was SO FUNNY ( remember English isn't his first language). Awesome. He's a crack up.

Best food: Yesterday we had Gyros, made me think of you mom :) they were quite good.

Most spiritual moment: this is often when Bruder Woodruff gives his testimony auf Deutsch or one of Bruder Rowleys lessons. This week I feel like they are a tie. I really liked our "plan of salvation lesson." He talked about Adam and Eve and how great Eve had to be in order to be placed side by side with Adam who helped God with so many things. We also discussed the Priesthood. it was just awesome. WE talked about the different kingdoms and how we cant even comprehend the tel. kingdom, how great the other ones might be!

Best Resource teacher lesson: Bruder Hill came in talking about his family and how starting a family is the best thing in the world. And how we've committed to put that off. It was a round about way of giving yet ANOTHER no flirting lesson. But how he lead up to it was AMAZING. I could just feel the love he had for his wife, similar to that one guy who talked in conference.

Biggest language mess-up: WE were teaching Thomas, and we though he told us he was stressed because his drinking problem. So we decided to switch the lesson and talk about how much peace the gospel gives us and how drinking is only a temporary thing. Yeah, turns out he was stressed because his friends drink a lot.... hahaha. He doesn't even drink.....

Craziest day: Well THE FIRST DAY OF TRC (the place where people can volunteer to have us teach them, auf Deutsch of course). Lets just break down this day. The day before we didn't have time to teach one of our investigators, we had to teach FOUR people in one day. It was super draining. But in the field think how happy I'll be if I have that many appointments :) Anyways, our FIRST lesson was in the TRC. We walk in and we are teaching this older lady. Turns out she speaks NO English and doesn't know ANY gospel words in German because she's lived in Italy for the last 4 years (where she was baptized). Yeah. That was SO hard. Her accent was so thick. haha.... yeah It's going to be hard to understand real german.... After that we taught another guy from Germany. He just wanted to give us mission advice in English though haha. He was cute. Our other lessons went well, it was just a lot. I never thought it would be draining caring about other people so much haha.

Oh by the way, mom, you asked the other day how studying work. We have about 6 hours a day with a teacher. An hour on a computer program and the rest is up to us. That doesn't seem like much alone study time, but we have 16 hours in the day. We have many german books and resources.

Things are going so great here. I cannot WAIT to get out in the field. You thought I was excited before I left, ha. I'm way more excited now.

Oh by the way, we got new roommates, they are going to San Paulo. I'm sad we don't get german speakers with us like the other sisters, but they are cool too :)

Well it's time to go. Thanks for your letters. Thanks so much for the shirts you gave Rachel and I. They are SUPER cute.

Ich liebe Dich!

Sis, Regnier

All of the study materials!!!

With Sister Gaines at the temple

Sunday was DER BESTEST (April 2)

Guten Morgen meine Familie!

Great news, the email time has increased, so hopefully I will not be so scatterbrained (but the timer still is counting down 30 min sooo....) Anyways, Thank you so much for the Easter Package! The best part, other then the letters, was the dried fruit. I love you guys! Thanks also for the letters you all sent me this week! Getting mail is the best feeling. Oh and Sister Peterson says thank you too! :) So the first week here took SO LONG but this week, I feel like YESTERDAY was Pday. It's crazy!

So remember when I was dumb and thought German sounded ugly? Well I have been corrected for sure. The german hymns are the BEST THING EVER. They are WAY better then the hymns we have in the US. If you have time, go look up "Immer und ewig Vereint" (the german version of families can be together for ever) and translate it! It's SO GOOD. All the songs are so beautiful though.

I seriously LOVE this language. Translations are the coolest thing. For example, a young boy and a disciple are the same word. The Apostasy is "The fall from Faith" How cool right? There are tons of those!

So one of meine leiblings part of this week was reading the first little bit of the BOM. It was so spiritual. We all did it as a class and I am so grateful! JS testimony is incredible, I typically skip over that and start with "I Nephi.." But I never will again. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE for FHE or a devotional read the intro, and all 3 testimonies. Make sure to start with a heartfelt prayer and it will be AMAZING.

Sundays are always the best, but this Sunday was DER BESTEST. SUnday night we go to a room and watch a film (of a previous MTC devotional) of our choice. It's so nice! The talks given here usually cannot be found anywhere else. So I wish I could say go look up.... but you wouldnt find it. Set-apart missionaries only ;) 

Yesterday, we had a girls meeting with all sisters from both German zones. Guess what? Meine Miterbiterin und mir are the ONLY sisters going to Alpenlaendische mission! Okay, so wow. I just think that is so cool. God must have some serious work for us to do out there that only we could do. Hopefully that means I'll see S. Peterson again! I am very curious to get out in the field and see what the ratio will be. I would be interested to know how much it has increased. We have been learning great things in my classes. At first, I disliked my new teacher. Oh by the way, Stefan turned out to be our third teacher. He didn't ever like us laughing and always stops us if we were and is really hard, especially on the sisters. The other two teachers, shower us with love and compliments. But I have come to realize his stricktly Deutsch spreken, serious, point-out-everything-wrong self is going to make us grow so much! And I know he loves us too. And I am really starting to like him as a teacher. I just have to realize his tough love methods :) 

So most spiritual experience happened at MTC so far YESTERDAY.

We were in class, and der Taufel got ahold of me. We were going over D&C4:2 ( we are memorizing all of D&C4 auf Deutsch) and I felt SO BEHIND. I didn't know the words. And then Satan took it from there and just made everything seem wrong! and I mean everything. I felt like I was on the edge of a breakdown. But whatever. I just sat there and felt sorry for myself. When a little later they asked for a volunteer undersucker. So for a second I forgot what that word was in english.... awesome. No one was raising their hand. So i decided to give it a go. Well I picked a character and they were telling me that my Heavenly Father loves me. I told them  something like (haha sometimes I have no idea what I really say) "I know he used to love me but I don't feel his love for me anymore" Then Bro Rowley was so bold and almost shouted NEIN He loves you past present and future. Holy cow! The Spirit was so strong at that moment. Everyone in the whole room felt it. But I feel like I felt it so much since I was front and center. They go on, but seriously, if I wasn't already getaufen, I'd asked to be right there on the spot. It was AMAZING. I love Meine Himmlischer Vater SO MUCH! I know he loves me and wants me to feel like I can learn all this german stuff, AND I CAN!

We taught our next investiagator, Thomas, this exact thing and about the BOM. I am so greatful for this time at the MTC. I am so grateful for the time I get to prepare myself so that when I get to the feild I can forget my self and go to work!

Das Buch Mormon is meine lieblings Buch. Wir konnen beten über Das Buch Mormon. Es ist Wahr. Ich Weissdass Gott unser Himmlischer Vater ist. Ice gebe Zeugnis dass die Wahr kirche wieder hergestellt wurde. Ich have danked für das Sünopfer und die worte der Propheten. Im namen Jesu Christi Amen.

Sorry if any y or z are switched, I am trying to practice with a German keyboard (insert smiley face, caus I cant find it, haha)

I love you all so much!

Schwester Regnier

First Email :) (March 26)

Meine Familie!

So you know when I used to get home after a first day of school, and I just wanted to talk nonstop? Well that is how I feel I have so much to tell you! So the MTC is not what I expected, for many reasons but it is a great place! Meine Metterbitten, Schwester Peterson and I get along really well. I have so much love for her and we love to work hard! She's great. We have very similiar personalities and it works well. We love to get up early and go to the early exercise class and work hard all day while having an acceptable amount of fun :) It's a relief to have such a nice companion, I was really worried. Our roommates are a 3 sister companionship. They are going to Costa Rica and leave next week! I have an AWESOME district. When I first met them, we were lectured A LOT about making sure we're not fliriting so we awkwardly avoided each other the first couple days. Now, we love each other so much! We're like best friends. We try our hardest to keep our conversations stricktly on doctrine related things, but during meals, we sometimes talk about other stuff. That is really useless information... haha. Anyways, its really fun being with them all the time. We all help  each other strengethen our testimonies and help each other with our struggles. One of the Elders might have to be going home to get surgery, and start the ENTIRE mission process over again. I really hope he doesn't need to. A sister in our branch went home yesterday becuase she was SO sick ( in and out of the hospital due to anxiety). My teachers are some of the best people I have ever met!! It's crazy! I love Bro. Woodruff and Mower so much! They both served in the Alpenlandische mission and they just teach so well, it's obvious the spirit is behind them in everything they do. I have SO MUCH respect for these teachers!

 It's REALLY hard here. Harder than I thought. I was having a really hard time, I wished more than anything that I was sent state side. I could teach the lessons so much better and really get my point across. Teaching Stefan (our first investigator) is so hard and really discouraging! So anyways, I was having a hard time, and of course Saturday night, Rachel to the rescue. Heavenly Father blessed me to be able to be here in the same time as her! She straightened me out and I was feeling happy again that I was going to Germany. Then Sunday came. Oh wow. It was so toll! All the speakers were addressing EVERYTHING I was having a hard time with! In the morning we were told to prepare a talk on Faith in Christ ( we prepare a talk every Sunday and then during Sacrement two missionaries are called).  & Oh yeah, it's in german.... So I was working on mine and I realized everyone always told me going into the MTC make sure you rely on the Lord and I knew it and beleived it. But I wasnt really showing faith because how I was letting myself feel. I know all foreign language missionaries have a hard time at first, I just feel it was hard because everyone knows German a little better than me. BUT it's great! I know I am supposed to go there. And as long as I study and pray my hardest, I'll be fine. Moral of the story, I now understand why every missionary says "if you make it to Sunday, you'll be fine" Sundays are the best!!  Sunday was also quite a humbling experience, we had interviews asking us about our leadership experiences. During our zone meeting all the Elders being called to serve in a position were called forward. My mitterbieten and 2 other sisters were called forward. I know right before I left, I realized that "positions" no longer mattered to me. This proved me wrong. haha. I got all excited as the other sisters got called to a hymn calling and knew that left us up for Cordinating Sister.... haha. My Pride is rediculous. My meterbeiteren got the position, leaving me to feel ashamed that I was so excited to get it. Well now that I've said all these things, I hope you don't think I am not doing good. Cause I am. I am growing in understanding of my Saviors love for me. I couldn't even handle the MTC if he wasn't right behind me in everything I do. Things are looking up as I realize just how much I've learned in 6 days! My german is great!! ( I just can't compare ;) ) I am SO excited to go to the field! Fun fact. There are 3,000 people here at the MTC " Drei Tousand!" at the end of the summer, there will be 7,000!!! wow! These people in here are great! I am so blessed to be around all these people that are just as excited I am to change people lives. There testimonies are so so great! Wow, I can't believe how fast that time passed! I guess I am a slower typer that I thought. I'll try and send some pictures! Thanks for sending those goodies. My miterbieten and I love them. Especially the dried apples :)

I'm super busy here, but today ( my Pday) hasn't been too busy so I'll try to write a letter too :) also, fun saying Germans say "das is hammer" or "Sie ist hammer"   Literally calling you a hammer is cool :)   

LOVE YOU!

 also, I wasnt able to look at my german spelling... so it's wrong.... they expect me to spell in german when I can't even spell in english... funny.

Miranda's Companion: Sister Peterson

My District

Farewell Celebration Video

Miranda created this on our drive to Utah!

Thank you so much for all of the support that she receives!

Mission Preparation

Preparing for my mission has been a joyous process. Since the time I have turned my papers in, my testimony has grown from what I thought was a large tree into a towering redwood. I know that this has occurred because I have been attempting to put the Lord first in everything I do. I have now seen with my own eyes, when prioritizing the church, everything gets better. 

When I got my call and saw March 20th, I was extremely discouraged. I thought I was going to be sitting at home, like a lame duck. However, this is not the case. I have benefitted from my time preparing for my mission. I received a calling in my home ward, to teach the CTR 4&5 class. I have grown to love the children of the church more than imaginable. I feel a special connection to my primary kids, and although they are not "mine" I love them so much and feel a minuscule portion of the love the savior has for them. They have taught me many things. While being home, I have had time to serve in the Oakland temple. This is, without a doubt, the greatest thing I have ever done in my entire life. I have never felt so close to the savior. I also have never been so motivated to wake up at 4 in the morning. I have very much enjoyed spending time with the missionaries. I love going out with them, they radiate the spirit and have shown me exactly who I want to be. I have also loved the opportunity to spend more time with my family. I feel that we have grown closer in a spiritual way. Being in communication with my friends on missions has been exciting. I love hearing from them and the adventures they have been taking on. They were good at making me a bit jealous (but mostly excited ;) ). 

Overall, I really benefited from being home. I was forced to be patient, probably because Heavenly Father knew I couldn't learn to much patience on my own. I learned a lot of lessons that will be able to help me on my adventure. Now as I set off to enter the MTC I am filled with excitement as I know Heavenly Father has taught me what I needed to know prior to entering the MTC. Now it's my job to continually listen, because he is continually my teacher. 

I know there is no better place for me to be then in Europe for the next 18 months of my life. I know this church is true. I know the gospel is the only way to true happiness, and this is what I want to share with others. I know I can make a difference in the lives of those german speakers, so they better get ready, cause I am teaching them whether they like it or not! 

Here's some quotes I REALLY like:

"In Germany, Switzerland and in Austria there will be hundreds of stakes, HUNDREDS! And we want you to count on that, look forward to it and help with it. In Europe there can also be dozens of temples if you start to prepare yourselves and the people around you." - President Spencer W. Kimball

"In the name of Jesus Christ, I prophesy that among the Germans there is a great work to do. Bigger than in all other countries and in a short time this work will have more converts to the Kingdom of God than in any other nation." -Orson Pratt