Ants vs. Deet

maggie.carnahan@myldsmail.net

So yesterday at the MTC was soooooooooooo much better!!!! 

I have started to get way more serious and spiritual. Although I still joke with the elders all day long.... But, I think that you might enjoy this story mom: I had gotten some cheetos and chips from the vending machine in our building and ate them in my room, and  the next day there was a colony of ants that came and I freaked out when I saw them and didn't know what to do.  So, I grabbed the deet spray that you so adamantly insisted that I bring and sprayed all the ants with it, and guess what?!?!?!?! THEY DROPPED DEAD!! Who would've known that deet would kill ants instantly? It's like this amazing trick that I found!! I was sooo excited so I sprayed the carpet with it, then got the vacuum and sucked up all their dead bodies and the deet, and no ants have come back since!!!  I am so excited that I made this discovery about deet, mosquito repellent!!!  Also mom, you will be ever so happy to hear that they have irons, vacuums and scales on our floor in our residence hall!!!
Now you can sleep soundly at night. :]

So, I know the first day was a little difficult because I was just thrown in with someone I didn't know and was not used to, but the second day I had a few heart changing experiences. We were in a little tiff about where to go to study and so she suggested rock paper scissors, and I swear for the first like 9 times we kept shooting the same thing!!! Either rock, paper, or scissors and I just felt like it was just a nice little sign from the Lord that my companion and I are so much more in tune with each other and in sync than I realized. Also, that same day, we were doing personal study and when we came together to do companionship study, we realized that we had both studied the same exact chapter and verse of the Book of Mormon!! I just felt like it was another sign from the Lord of how in sync we become if we just work harder to be a better companionship. 

You might be excited to hear that I have seen Chase!!! I keep looking for him whenever we go into the cafeteria and finally I was in line for dinner last night and this voice came up behind me and was like "hello sister Carnahan" and I swear I screamed so loud and almost lept out of my shoes!!!! I was so excited to see him finally!! To see a face from back home!! and I just wanted to hug him so bad that I just stood there shaking with joy to see him!!! ^.^ It was fun.

I don't know what else to tell you except  that we are teaching investigators already!! We taught one girl this afternoon and she's from LA and works on film editing for the show Modern Family!! She was telling me a little bit about it. The actors/actresses are so nice but the kids on the show are a little spoiled.... I just thought that mom would really enjoy hearing that!! hahahahah. I have some pictures, I'll send them in later becuase I left the cord in my room all the way down five flights of stairs!!!! :( But, I love it here!! I love the unity here. 

Maggie 

First day at the MTC

Once upon a time . . . I finally arrived at the MTC, (missionary training center).

So, my first day at the MTC was sooooo intense! Right when you guys dropped me off, I got super overwhelmed and they took me to my class and I was super shy at first and didn't talk to anyone at first. My class is made up of 6 elders who are going to the Salt Lake City mission and there is one companionship who are already my best friends!!! One is from Missouri and he just pokes fun at me all the day long, and we have an on-going little joke that we do whenever we talk to each other that just annoys my companion to death!! So maybe I might need to work on that...  There are two elders in our district from Georgia and Alabama, so we make them all talk in their southern accents all day longgggggg cuz its just so fantastic to listen to!!! Our district is suuuuuuuuuuuper close and suuuuuper tight. We eat every meal together because the elders keep saving seats for us at dinner so now its just tradition that we all sit together every meal and I just love it. We are so tight and so close already every single one of us!! My companion is from Logan Utah and is a mediveal fencer who sews her own renaissance clothing and is a theater major at SUU! I never knew her because she is a year younger than me. I'm the second oldest in the district, the oldest is one of the elders and although we are the oldest ones there, we are by far the silliest goofiest and least mature of all of them!! hahahah. 

One of the elder's reminds me so much of DJ! He is just such a little pill but he's sooooo humorous and he gets all of my movie and tv references!! We share a room with two other sisters who are also going to Cincinnati and who are in our district obviously. They are the sweetest girls in the whole world and I would hang out with them more if it weren't that we get split up a lot during the day and put into groups with a bunch of elders a lot. The other two girls are so also the ones that I met on facebook and it was soooooo funny, one sister told me that when she met me on facebook she thought that I was really actually widowed because that is what it says on my facebook page!!! hahahahahahha  

I may have been a little too rambunctious the first night because dinner was not very healthy... I was still not very hungry so I didn't eat what they were serving. Instead I just went and got a bowl of fruit loops and then I heard that they had ice cream instead, and also that there was a salad bar. So I went over with my companion to go get some salad, but when we got back to the table, I was carrying the biggest bowl of ice cream instead, and the elders asked me "what happened to the salad?" and I looked at my companion and was like "oh no!! I totally forgot about salad!!" They just started laughing so hard! I think that is when all of the joking started. The rest of the night was kind of a huge party... I really need to start being more spiritual and more reverent! But they played the most amazing most beautiful piano rendition of Come Thou Fount for the first meeting when we got there that first night, and it just filled me with so much spirit!! What are the odds that they played that song, that very night that I got into the MTC??? It was divinely inspired. I think the Lord inspired them to play that song to remind me to get more spiritual and more serious. What a tender mercy!! So that was my first day. :} I love you all!!! 

An Early Pioneer Day

Once upon a time... The saints were sent into the Salt Lake Valley, and shortly after were sent to settle other parts of Utah.  The third temple built in Utah was built in Manti and then dedicated in 1888 by those settlers. 
So, today in honor of Pioneer Day (which will be in two days), I traveled up and went through it today! The Manti temple was the most beautiful temple of all the temples!! And even though I say that literally every time I come out of a temple that I have visited, I really do mean it this time! :] The session we attended was just like in all the old temples, (instead of a video, there were live teachers), so that was truly an interesting experience. The inside of the temple was so beautiful words cannot even describe. Everything was antique and made to replicate the original, if most of it was not already an original piece, which to my knowledge a lot of it was actually.  I decided that was the temple I will get married in, it was so big and amazing I just could not understand why anyone would get married in any other temple! :P and as I jokingly told my parents while we were inside, "I want this venue for a future wedding" hahahaha Anyways, the size of the building and it's structure in all its magnificence and it's glory stood as a testimony to the world of what can be accomplished by even the poorest, when people put their heads together and all work hard they can complete something, even such a grand edifice as this temple! 
      When we were leaving I wanted to go down to the baptistry to see it, of course, because I always like to see the baptistries at all the temples I have visited. But when I got down there, there were about four old men working at the welcome desk and when I told them that I had never been to this temple before, and I had just finished a session upstairs and I just wanted to see the font, they were a little hesitant to let me in. I even showed them my recommend and everything, then my grandma and my mom came in, and my grandma told one of the men that I was a missionary going into the MTC tomorrow and I had been visiting all the temples I could in Utah before I got there. At that point, all the little old men wanted to do was sit and talk to me because they were so happy and excited for me, but all I wanted to do was go in and see the font!! So finally I spoke up and said "you guys are like the guards at the gates of heaven, or something!" Hahah cuz all I wanted to do was run in real quick and see it! And, as my grandma put it "that just tickled them all to death!" Hahaha but seriously, it made me feel safe, because unlike at the other temples, they weren't that quick to just let someone wander in and behold the beauty of what was inside. I actually liked that they were not so quick, because it made me feel like the temple was guarded and secure and that was a testimony to me of the sacredness of the temple and I just loved it! After that "guards" comment, they finally let me in and it was worth it! It was spectacular and it reminded me of the Mesa temple because of a huge mural on the wall that spanned around the entire room, and there were doves painted on the ceiling. It was just great! When we left, one of the old men who had been "so tickled" told me to come over to the desk so he could look me in the eye and wish me luck on my mission and he told me to keep doing something, I forgot what it was but I remember I told him right back to keep being such a great temple guard! Which I could tell he liked very much. He must have felt a great honor to be called a temple guard :] I think anyone should be honored to be named a guard for the house of The Lord. So, that was my day! Best day in Utah yet! And a very happy day full of happily ever after! 
The end :] 

Today Was Sunday

 Once upon a Time, today was sunday. Not a very eventful day... We didnt go to any temples for the first day in five days!! It felt a little weird.. I will definitely miss going to the temple every day when I am up in Cincinnati! We went to church and then we went to visit some of my parent's friends and some nice people from my ward who are also up in Utah right now. Its nice to see a couple people before I leave. This week has truly, truly been the biggest blessing in more ways than I can even recount to you!! The Big Guy in the Sky really does know his stuff I guess :P And I must remember to thank the Lord daily. For absolutely everything. Because the Lord has granted me soooooo many things, even breath and no matter what I do or how much I thank him, I will still be indebted to him forever and ever. Just like when we came home, and it was raining and we sat inside with the back door open, because my grandma has a tin roof over her back porch, and there is nothing like the sound of rain on a tin roof!! Its beautiful, even a thing as small as that and we should be incredibly grateful even for that. For the beautiful sound that the rain makes on a tin roof. So today has definitely been a very happily ever after day!! ^.^ 

Day Six

    Once upon a time it was day six on my mission and my mom had just gotten into Utah from Phoenix. So we went up to the Draper temple to do sealings because my mom had never done them for other people before! She didnt know how fun they are. I kind of like doing them for children because I can not think of any other kind of happiness than that of being able to be rejoined with one's parents. My parents are my bestest friends in the whole wide world and such strong, enduring people. They mean so much to me and I can not even imagine not being with them. I know it sounds so cheesy and cliche but I really can't! But anyways, I think that the Draper temple may be my favorite so far. Although I do say that about all the temples I visit.. :P But I think this time was more special because it was jsut me and my mom. Me and my bestest friend. Im only ever my truest, truest self when I'm with my mom. We joke and laugh all the time! Whenever we're together. So we went in to do the sealings and the sealer turned out to be a stake president from Cincinnati! It was a sign!! Just like yesterday when I was getting lunch at the food court, and I got change back, and one of them was an Ohio state quarter!! It was a sign! haha so back to the sealings. Me and my mom were only able to do a couple names each because we left the sealing session a little early... hahah because my mom kept sliding off the bench when she got up to kneel at the alter, and I just could not stop giggling at her!! Neither could she. So we decided to leave before we got too irreverent and disruptive... :P And we thought that we would have to go through a session to see the celestial room, but the sealer was so nice and generous, he walked us all the way over there and let us in!! The celestial room was very very small, but the chandelier was just gorgeous! I loved being in there the most of any of the other temples, I think because me and my mom were the only ones in there except for a temple worker. And it was just so fun! I loved being in there with just my mom we had a lot of fun :] We were sitting on a couch and it was so quiet that our voices echoed even though the room was relatively small, and then my mom heard a sound outside from the hallway maybe, that sounded like someone crying. My mom was like "do you hear someone crying?" I was like, "yeah... oh! maybe its someone wailing. Maybe a couple is getting married and an ex-girlfriend of the groom came in wailing, crashing the wedding!" hahahahhaa and me and my mom just started laughing so hard! At the thought of such a dramatic scene in the temple! Count on me to think of something so nutty, even in a place as sacred as the celestial room of the temple! So then we decided to leave before we became too loud in there as well! Later we found out that the wailing sound was a very small baby that had gone in to be joined with its parents! ^.^ Just before we left the temple though, we went down and saw the baptistry. It was just huge in all its magnificence  and glory! Biggest baptistry I've ever seen! But anyways, that was a very happy day. A day fashioned after the manner of happiness!! The end! ^.^ 

     

Fifth Day

   Once upon a time, it was the fifth day of my mission. Me and my dad went up to the Mt. Timpanogos temple. It was soooooo beautiful! I feel like every time I go to a new temple, it just gets prettier and prettier! And there were so many cars parked around outside and so when we got inside we learned that it was because of all the weddings that were happening that day! And it just made me so happy because I was thinking of all the beautiful brides sealing their happily ever afters in the exact same building as me! How beautiful that thought. :] Then after that we went home and my grandma and I went visiting teaching. That was fun, I finally felt like I was doing something more missionary-like! Then that night, we went and saw a program put on by the tabernacle choir in the conference center. It was a program celebrating pioneers, however they sang mostly songs from musicals and broadway and they had a special guest who came and sang by the name of Santino Fontana. You may not think that you know him, but trust me, you do. For he was the man who lent his voice to Prince Hans in the movie Frozen!! and he came in and sang multiple songs with MoTab. It was so much fun!! ^.^ He was so funny and so very silly and cute and nowhere close to the character portrayed in the movie. He even took a selfie on stage with his back to the audience because he wanted a picture of himself with all of us! hahaha They sang a song from the musical Cinderella and I just remember sitting there thinking what a fabulous way to start my fairytale mission!! ^.^ it was perfect! So then we went home and lived happily ever after until the next day. The end! 

  

It Was A Day of Revelation!

The fourth day was a very nice day. So I have decided that while I am in Utah, I am going to go and visit as many temples as I possibly can before I go into the MTC next wednesday! So me and my grandma drove up to the Bountiful temple. I love going to all the different temples every day. Each one has its very own architecture and with it, each its own story. And I love looking at the chandeliers in each temple because each one is different as well. Also, I always make a new friend in the temple every single time I go. Mostly old ladies, but old ladies are the very best! ^.^ They touch my heart every single one of them, and I'd be best friends with every old lady in the whole world if I could! So thats why else I like the temples so much, cuz all the old ladies there. :] Then we went home and did scripture study for the whole rest of the day. Which leads me to my mission them "Once Upon A Time" Let me explain because it may seem very silly to you before you understand why :] So I was reading my Book of Mormon. Im reading it for the second time before I go into the MTC, and I came across 2Nephi 5:27 and it said "And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness." It was one that I had never caught before, yet the moment I read it, I was screaming in my mind so excitedly, "and they lived happily ever after!! and they lived happily ever after!! its right here in the Book of Mormon that they lived happily ever after!!" I swear I have never been so excited and so enlightened with a scripture before in my whole life. I wanted to dance around the room. So later when my grandma asked me if I had a scripture for us to read and talk about I showed it to her. And she said, "well now Maggie, did you choose this scripture because it was so short??" I was like "no, grandma! Listen, 'we lived after the manner of happiness' doesnt that sound like happily ever after?? is not that proof that happily ever after does exist, its right here, in the Book of Mormon!" and then she smiled and said of course. Of course only I would find happily ever after in the scriptures. And so from the moment I found that scripture, I decided to make it my mission theme. Happily ever after is real, and it is possible, for life is a fairytale and my mission is but a dream come true!! ^.^ And yes there will be hard times, there are always hard times in fairytales, always, but as long as I work hard and keep myself grounded in faith, enduring to the end, then I will always be able to find my happily ever after! And so thus begins my fairytale! And I hope that everyone in Cincinnati that I meet can find their fairytales! and their happily ever after. :] And even though my mom doesnt think that I should relate my mission to fairytales, thats just how it clicked for me. So i do apologize if I offend anyone with this. That is not my intention, but I just want everyone to be happy. And the gospel brings happiness and to me happiness is happily ever after :] Cuz im a dreamer and I like fairytales and thats just how I relate. 
      The End. 

Third Day

Then came day three. The third day of my mission has probably been one of the funest days yet! So me and my grandma woke up at 5 am to get ready to go to the temple because she has a 6 hour shift over there from 6 am until noon. My grandma helps officiate in the special ordinances in the Jordan River temple of South Jordan Utah. So we got up and got down there, she lives so close that the temple is basically her backyard, but she doesnt have a back yard because she lives in a little condo community full of elderly people. :] So anyways we were down at the temple even before the crack of dawn! It was  just barely light outside, but of course the temple was wide awake. It was all lit up as if even the stone bricks used to build it were glowing themselves! ^.^ My grandma showed me, it was so funny, so at their temple they have special designated parking for "general authority" hahah. I thought it was so funny! I'm not sure if all the temples have that or not, but I thought it was cute :] Maybe only the ones in Utah do. I spent all 6 hours at the temple that day with my grandma and I just loved it! I didnt want to leave. I was just drinking in every moment of it, because the temple is so neat, and being there is special. I loved being able to participate in the ordinances that my grandma could officiate. It made them even more special and meaningful to me, even though I was doing them on behalf of other people. :] And then I spent about an hour or two in my new favorite place to work in the temple... The laundry room!! :] I loved it in there. You can just go in there and sit and fold clothing all day long and its a good peaceful time to sit and ponder about life. :] Then we came home at noon and my grandma was so tired from being on her feet all day so we just laid around and did a lot of scripture study for the rest of the day. 
      

Day Two

 The second day was the most terrible day of my whole life! I swear I almost called off my entire mission, the second day in. I was sooooooo bored, nothing to do and I was experiencing some pretty nasty withdrawls from my Netflix, and Facebook and from my phone. I remember just laying down on my grandma's carpet so dramatically next to my dog Buster, for I was so incredibly bored out of my mind! I really was not sure if I could even go on! So then my grandma called the Jordan River temple where she lives right next to, and where she works at every week, and asked them if there was any sessions or groups that a "set apart" missionary could participate in. They said I could go do sealings! But I could only do them for children to their parents, I couldn't go in as a wife to her husband. So when we went up to the temple to do sealings, my entire second day was just completely flipped up side down and then I remembered that this would all totally be worth it! What was I even thinking?? And my grandma is the best though, I love her to death. She has really taken this companion thing VERY seriously. She wakes up with me and gets ready with me and she wears skirts around and no one in my house has even turned the tv on this WHOLE WEEK!!!! I dont know how these people are even living. Crazies! My family must really love me! :P
      

First Day Out!

   Day one of my mission: I spent my first day drivin in the car all day long to Utah to stay with my grandma for 9 days before I entered the MTC. I really couldn't imagine any better way to start my mission, and after being here a week now, I have come to an understanding of what a true blessing that being here with my grandma before I leave, has actually been! 
So the first day was incredibly fun and easy because I was just in the car sleeping for 12 hours, and then when I got to my grandma's house here in South Jordan, all I wanted to do was go to the temple!! But it was closed for obvious reasons (I mean, it being 8 pm on a Monday night). Ever since I got set apart, I have this new found energy to go and do work, and it just fills my whole being! :] I cant wait to see what day two brings now! 
      

Disclaimer!!

Dear World, 
So after many a night contemplating if I should let my parents put up a blog of my mission I have finally decided to allow them to do so. I just didn't think that there were very many people who would care enough to read it, but after my farewell, I realized that there really are. I just thought that they were so cheesy and cliche but I guess if there are enough people who would read it, then I guess I should... So here goes nothing! :P