Chelsea's Last Letter from the MTC!

*As of now, Chelsea is now in the DC South Mission Area! We don't know what area she will be serving in first, but it is very exciting that she is has officially started her mission!*

Dear Family,

My e-mail time is almost expired so I'm going to try to make this short, quick and to the point!! I am seriously loving being here so much! I cannot even describe the happiness I feel here! I feel so close to the Lord and I feel my Heavenly Father, watching over and strengthening me. Things are still hard at times, but the good definitely outweighs and overcomes the bad! I have learned so much in these past two weeks, and I hope grown far more than I realize. I already feel my desires changing, and I feel Heavenly Father helping me to become a better person. I never had a desire to do bad things before, but I just feel like I want to do His work always. Things that used to be really important to me, and that I used to waste a lot of time on, are no longer on my mind. This could be because I just don't have access to them anymore, but He is still is helping me not to miss them. I already think it is going to be hard to come home. I know it is a long ways off, but there is nowhere else I'd rather be at this time.  I bet in 18 months, I will be ready to go however. I cannot wait to go to Northern Virginia, and I long to be there. I also feel like I'm being blessed with that. I haven't been homesick at all yet, but I know it will be a joyous reunion when I see you all again!!

During the week, little things happen that I always cannot wait to tell you. It feels like when I start writing though, that my mind draws a blank and I suddenly don't know what to say. I guess this was a particularly exciting week though, because I moved up in the adult world. You are now receiving an e-mail from your not 21, but 22 year old sister!!! I do not feel 22 a lot of the time, but then when I'm with the 18 year old elders, I do :)  I also can't believe that I'll be 23 1/2 when I get home from my mission! I'll start by telling you about my birthday eve, fourth of July, and then move to the big day!! So fourth of July was actually really good here. I did miss home a little more on this day, so I'm glad we were busy. There was an excitement on campus even though, we were all just doing the typical day to day things! That evening, we had a special 4th of July celebration with all the missionaries! I'll be honest, I had a terrible attitude going into this meeting. I thought that we were going to have speakers the whole time, which are great, but I was not feeling it that night. However, it ended up not being too bad. We sang a lot of patriotic hymns, and I even tried my hand at signing the hymns because my companion and I were sitting in the ASL section! We then had ONE speaker, who was actually a really powerful speaker! We then got to watch the movie, 17 Miracles! The excitement of watching an hour and 40 minute movie kind of goes away though, when you just have to sit there, upright in a sturdy chair, in a dress. I also felt really bad for all of the leaders that had to stay there with us, to the point where I couldn't concentrate. I decided to write some letters during it instead to distract myself, because I felt so restless. After the movie, we all ran, yes, literally ran, out to the fence to watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks, so that we wouldn't miss them. It was pretty fun and as many of you know, the fireworks were pretty incredible! They even let us stay up late that night to watch them, which we all talked about was a blessing and curse. It was fun to stay out, but we were also all so tired and tired the next couple of days after. Staying up late has just all of its savor here, and I can't wait to go to bed when the time comes!

So my birthday, I know you were all waiting to hear about it! Also as a sidenote, thank you all so much for the birthday letters, e-mails and packages! It was honestly, probably my favorite birthday I have ever had! First of all, I felt very cute that day, which is just really nice on your birthday (I promise I have not turned into a shallow person-I'm just stating a fact).  Then as soon as we got to breakfast, the district leader gave me two Utah's Best Cookies (that's the brand name) and peanut M&M's and they all said happy birthday. My cereal was exceptionally delicious that day, class was really good and studying was as well. For lunch, I had one of the best salads I have ever had here, then more class, in which they sang happy birthday at the end, and then gym time. My gym time workout was also really good, and I did a circuit/run thing. Then they had a birthday surpise/miracle for dinner- Papa John's Pizza!!! We actually get Papa Johns pizza quite often here, but it just felt right to eat pizza on my birthday! After dinner, the elders gave me a signed picture of the Washington DC Temple during a song practice we had which was really nice. Then, after planning that night we had a little impromptu birthday party in our classroom! We played Mormon Charades, a crowd favorite, and it was so much fun! During the middle of the game, one of the companionships came in, turned off the light, and came in with a brownie tower that had a candle on the top of it. They sang happy birthday, I blew out the candle, we chatted for a bit, and then we had to go back to our residences because it was curfew. It was honestly such a good day, and I was soo happy! Another fun thing, was that the district leader, Elder Richards, and his companions, said happy birthday every time I saw them. They just all really went all out to make it good. Also another sidenote, I am not looking to get married here nor do I try to flirt with the elders or look at them in that way and I am striving to stay focused. However, if I were to marry any of the elders here, it would be Elder Richards. He's a farm boy from a little town by Tooele (Urta or something - he's said it a thousand times but I can't get it stuck in my head). He is 18 however, but the most mature of all the 18 year old elders. He was also the one who gave me the blessing that one night. Again though, I am not flirting with them or pursuing them-that's just an observation!

The rest of the week was full of class, study and overall gospel learning. Oh, I had an experience on Saturday that I wanted to tell you about. We go to this place called the TRC, where we meet with "fake" investigators.  We met with these two investigators who are in Utah on a church trip right now. They belong to a non denominational church in Louisiana, and they were honestly pretty intimidating. They knew their Bible super well, and they came in asking a lot of obscure questions, like what we believe about angels, Kolob, etc. We tried to steer it away from these things, and I actually it ended up going pretty well. I felt like we invited the Spirit and I bore testimony at the end, and the Spirit was so strong.  We were definitely helped through it. They said one thing that really stuck out to me. They asked me how I knew that the Book of Mormon was true. I told them that honestly, the only thing I could tell them was that I received a witness from the Holy Ghost. They went off about it, saying that the Bible has all this evidence that it's true, but that the Book of Mormon didn't. This other girl in there who was LDS and their friend, started saying that the Book of Mormon had Biblical evidence as well, which I don't think was needed at all. This really made me ponder on how I came to know that all of this was true, and it was through the Holy Ghost. It was through experimenting on the word and trying it out for myself, and then feeling that Spiritual confirmation. I know that this gospel is true beyond a doubt, and that is something I can't deny!

I love you all sooooo much!!! I will be flying out tomorrow aroung 9:00 or 10:00 am and we have a direct flight there! I will see you all in less than 18 months now!!!!

Love you all!!!

Sister Chelsea Marie Akin

P.S. I can't get any of my pictures to load, so I'm sorry for the lack of pictural documents!!!