It's that time again

O my! I can't believe it is already Friday. The weeks are flying by. Not so much the days, but the weeks are. Funny how that works.

Ok so before I begin...It doesn't look like I willl be in Brazil for at least a couple more months so that means I need some warm clothes...Some of my sweaters, some tights (brown, black, etc). And while you are sending me things I could use some of my shorter skirts since the sister missionary dressing standards are pretty much amazing now. And I need jeans. And my shoes I left.

That is all. :)

No more sweets though...I sit on my butt all day long...So you can imagine what that is doing.

The beginning of this week was kind of sketchy. I watched a video (pretty much was reality TV for missionaries) that showed me exactly what I was getting myself into in a few weeks. Let's just say it is nothing like the MTC. I've been here for so long that you start to think this is the mission. It isn't.

But I snapped out of it pretty quick. Never mind that I have no idea where I will be ina few weeks. It will all be okay.

My testimony of prayer has grown so much since being here but especially this week. We pray soooo much here.

When we wake up- individually.

When we wake up- as a companionship.

When we start personal study.

When we end personal study.

When we start companion study.

When we end companion study.

Start of Language Study.

End of Language study.

When one teacher comes.

When one teacher leaves.
When another comes.

And when another leaves.

Before all our meals.

When my district starts throwing things at me.

When a certain teacher starts to drive me crazy.

When we start planning.

When we end planning.

When we do something well.

When we do something horribly.

When we end the night-as roommates.

When I end the night.

You get the picture?

So basically, ya'll are getting a lot of prayers.

The awesome thing is that I always want to pray more. Before coming on my mission, I rarely prayed as I should. I did it more out of routine. Here, even though I do it far more often than I ever did before, I pray because I want to and because I need to. I pray for more specific things. I pray in a way that I am seeking communication. It is awesome.




God hears our prayers. Every day I see evidences of his answering of them. For instance, I've been praying that Elder Thompson could receive an answer to one of his prayers. He has really been struggling with being here. He was here because his mom wanted him to be and that was not enough for him. I've watched him struggle with this our entire time here and I watched him slowly become more and more frustrated. But the other day Elder Russel M Nelson came to our Devotional (I know awesome right??) and gave a great lesson. It was things I had heard before and to be honest it didn't stick out to me in anyway. But afterwards Elder Thompson shared with us how everything Elder Nelson said answered his prayers. It made me so happy to hear him testify that he knew God loved him. That he knew him. That he wanted to be here. Afterwards all the Elders got up and gave him a hug. I wanted to as well...but I guess that will have to wait for later.

It is so amazing watching my district grow. It is so amazing that 19 year old boys are here at all doing what we are doing, but even more amzaing seeing them actually wanting to be here. I'm so blessed to know so many great people. To spend so much time with them. To learn so much from them.

I finished the New Testament this week. What an amazing book. It truely is the word of God. Everytime I read it I feel the love God has for his children. Everytime I read it my faith in this Church is strengthened.

Sister Stahly and I have so much fun with each other. She seriously has become one of my dearest friends. I can't believe I have only known her for 42 days. She pushes me to be so much better. And I know I am able to do the same. There is something in knowing that, that strengthens a relationship all the more.

How lucky I am to be here.

One of the Christlike attributes that I am trying to work on obtaining is patience. It is something I very much struggle with. James said, "the trying of your faith worketh patience." When I read that, I was struck with what a strong tie those to words have to one another. We are patient because we have faith that everything will work out the way it is suppossed to be. That has made me reflect a lot about these past couple of years. There were a lot of things that happened that were not exactly as I had planned my leg, Chad, school, my visa, and such. And in the midst of it all I have stressed and worried a lot. But looking back at it all, I see that was because my faith has not been as strong as it should have.


Everything has worked out exactly as it should have. Looking back (even on these last two months) I see that I have been exactly where I needed to be and gone through exactly the things I needed to go through to learn the lessons that God needed me to learn. God has a plan for each and every one of us. Why do we try so hard to fight it? Why do we make choices that lead us away from what He wants us to do? Why do we worry? It is because we lack faith.

That is something I'm working on this week.

I love each of you. Thank you so much in supporting me in this.This is the best decision I have yet made. And I couldn't be here without ya'll,