13 February 2013

This week was great! I have now been in MTC mode for over 8 weeks and
am finally in my last week. From what I have heard, I will be leaving
to El Salvador on a bus on either next Monday or Wednesday. Crazy! At
times I feel ready but most of the time I dont. Oh well. I will just
put my trust in the Lord. Because it is our last week, my district is
trying to speak as much spanish as possible. On Monday we had a
complete english fast. It was hard, especially to plan lessons but it
actually went better that I thought it would. I guess there is hope
for me yet. :)
It has been
an interesting time to be in the MTC and CCM because I have gotten to
witness the changes that are coming from the age change. This new
group of latinos are the first here to only have two weeks in the CCM
instead of three. I was one of the very last missionaries to get to
experience both MTCs. Now all north americans come here straight from
home. The capacity of the CCM is 88 and we now have over 150 people
here right now. 51 of them are sisters which is more than ever before.
All of the north american sisters actually got moved out of the CCM
this week. There just werent enough beds so now we live in this really
big nice house that is across from the temple. It normally houses
temple patrons who come from far away so it is equipped with tons of
beds and bathrooms. It is very nice but a bit of a walk from the CCM.

I have been trying to
recognize the spirit more this week. It is interesting because I
almost never feel the specific feeling that I connect with the spirit
here. I know that I am doing my best and being blessed though so the
spirit has to be with me. The trick is just being able to identify it.
I am recognized a few new ways or feelings of the spririt this week
and it has been really cool. On Tuesday we watched a film of a
devotional given by Elder Scott. The last ten minutes of the talk
really struck home to me but what was most interesting was during this
talk, two really specific experiences came to my mind that we kind of
related to what was being talked about. I didnt think too much about
it but later decided to write down some of my thoughts. By the time I
was done writing about the experiences and thoughts that came to my
mind, I knew without a doubt that these specific two experiences had
come to my mind because of the spirit. The Lord was trying to teach me
something about these experiences. It was way cool!

Some of you probably remember my experience
in the Spanish branch where I experienced the interpretation of
tongues. It was a really isolated event where I was trying so hard to
understand the talks that day but knew so little spanish that I
couldnt catch many words. But as I tried, I heard a few familiar
words, and thought to myself, oh they are probably talking about this.
I did this with every talk and after sacrament I asked Dad what had
been said. I had been dead on with what the people we talking about.
That was one day,one very isolated experience. I honestly feel like I
have this gift of the spirit every day. Sacrament meeting here is
exactly the same way: I can catch more words but I still cant catch
them all but with every talk I understand their message and feel the
spirit of what they are saying. Even in my normal conversations with
some of the latino sisters, they talk so fast and use vocab that I
dont know but most of the time I can get the jist of what is being
said. This just makes me realize how much my Savior is helping me!

Elder James B Martino from
the 2nd quorum of the seventy who is over the central america area,
spoke to us last night. It was so good! He talked about so many good
things and it was especially good because I am so close to actually
going to the field. He said the hardest thing that he had to teach
while being a mission president was not the language, it was how to
work hard. He said that we need to learn how to work hard even when we
are tired. He also said that if we are going to hot places we should
be grateful. The hotter it is, the more that the people are outside
their houses, and the easier it is to find people to teach. We cant
change the weather so we should just be grateful for it. I loved this
because it reminded me of Polyanna and always finding good in every
thing, never complaining. This is the kind of missionary I want to be!

I really enjoy sports
time here. I have even started playing basketball and surprisingly I
have a blast every time. It helps that the elders that play with us
sisters dont take it too seriously. I am really going to miss being
able to play like this in the field.

Well it is once again time to go. I love you all. Happy
Birthday Adam, and Brandon. and happy anniversary Holly and Allen!