Our First Sunday at the Mission Training Center

Sunday in the MTC has been a very special experience. We went to two Sacrament meetings. One was with our Senior Missionary Branch, we think, and one was with a special German Branch. It was very special for each time. After the first sacrament mtg. we went to the large meeting hall in the Lorenzo Snow building where we viewed "The Spoken word", which was very special to us, since we normally can't get it in Ohio. Then the sisters and Elders separated for R.S. and Priesthood. I don't know much about what happened in Priesthood, but in Relief Society we had a lesson on how influencial music can be to teach the gospel and bring in the spirit. We even had Hillary Weeks come and sing to us and Janice Kapp Perry also came to tell us how fulfilling it has been for her to create songs that the church and especially the children can sing and learn from. She also led us to sing a medley of her songs, which was very special. Now I want to tell of a special experience that Hillary Weeks told us about. She said that she was assigned to sing at one of the "Time Out for Women" conferences and when she was to go do it she had a terrible cold. She was coughing a lot, running nose, etc. But she didn't want to back out on her assignment so she asked the Lord to help her get through it. Hillary said she sang most of the songs well, but on her next to the last song she began coughing and had to quit for a few minutes, then finally finished that song. Her last song was to be "I Am A Child Of God" and the leaders told her just to lead the song having the audience sing it instead, which she did. A short time later word got to her that a sister in that audience had a non-member friend with her who asked her member friend, after they sang "I Am A Child Of God" together, "When did the group get together to practice that song?" Her member friend said: "Oh, that's just one of our favorite songs we all know." Then her friend told her that if a church teaches their people songs like that, she wanted to find out more about it. Sister Weeks said that the Lord had used her illness to help out that particular non-member friend to see and learn of our music. It was a real testimony to us all.