WOW
The drawings on the board are us having some fun. Elder Thomson is in my district, and it's not a bad drawing of him.
The picture I'm next to is a portrait Elder Richey drew of me, pretty profound.
This week has been absolutely amazing!
I have TONS of pictures to send, and I'm going to tell about my week along with the pictures
The first picture is of my zone at lunch time. It's not with all the Missionaries in my zone, but a lot of them.
The picture with the older couple and me in it is my Zone with Brother and Sister Dowdle. They're in my branch presidency. Brother Dowdle is a semi-famous guitarist, like all he does for a living is play guitar, which is neat. One of the elders in my district semi-adores him.
The picture with the missionary with the bubble wrap on his head is Elder Goold. He and his companion are such gentlemen, they NEVER let the sisters take their own trays at the cafeteria, but they're still 18 year olds and we still goof off if bubblewrap is involved and I love that picture of him.
The first picture is of when we locked Hermana Jeffery outside in the snow for about 2 minutes. Elder Jones thought it was pretty funny.
The next two are from when we found a snowman and put a tie and a nametag and other accessories on it. Someone who worked at the MTC, Jason, who is kissing the snowman, helped us out a bit.
The drawings on the board are us having some fun. Elder Thomson is in my district, and it's not a bad drawing of him.
The picture I'm next to is a portrait Elder Richey drew of me, pretty profound.
The picture of me and my companion sitting down is us waiting for Choir to start. We were in the MTC Choir on Christmas Eve. We sang Far Far Away on Judea's Plains and one of the 70 spoke.
These are my Christmas Pictures! We spent Christmas on main campus, and the first picture is me and Hermana Hokanson in front of a Christmas tree in the main lobby. It was so much fun.
Christmas was mostly music, but there was a bit of talent show with things like people playing the piano upside down and yiddish bottle dancing. There was a magic show starring a mongolian missionary, and I couldn't help but think of my Mongolian friends back in Arlington.
The picture of the missionary with the sunglasses is Elder Buchholz. With the exception of Hna Hokanson and Hna Burnett, he's probably my best friend in the MTC. He's going to Argentina on his mission. I feel like that picture describes his personality perfectly. By the way, those are my sunglasses.
The picture of me with the brazilian missionary is me with one of my friends I met on the way down to the MTC. She's serving her mission in temple square, and when we met she spoke spanish and portuguese but no english, and I spoke no spanish. We could barely comunicate, but when we saw each other on Christmas we were able to have a real conversation in Spanglish! Pretty awesome!
Yesterday, Hna Burnett and I, along with a few other missionaries, had to go to Vegas to get our Visas at the mexican consulate. That was absolutely amazing!
Other missionaries did fabulous too with sharing the gospel. One of the Elders was talking to this one guy and by the end of the conversation the guy was like, "Can I give you my email? I want to keep in contact with you!" and he gives him a Book of Mormon and the guy was like, "I can keep this? Are you sure? Thanks! I'm definitely going to read it!" Like it was the greatest thing in the world, which it is, of course.
The picture of me in front of the Womens Room is in the Las Vegas Airport, and that is the greatest smelling restroom I have ever smelled in my life. As we were walking towards it, we were like, What is that awesome smell? Turns out it was the bathroom.
The rabbit is also from the airport.
The skyline is Vegas from the airport.
For dinner yesterday, we had dinner in the airport and we got to talking to the waitress, a woman named Valerie. We gave her a Book of Mormon and left her a note, along with an adorably folded up tip, with some scriptures on it about charity and love. We told her the Book of Mormon would make her happy, and she said, "But I already am happy" and Hna Burnett, who was recently baptized, was like, "Honey, you haven't read this book!" Hna Burnett and another Hna went back to talk to her later and she was on her break and she was crying she was so happy and touched by our gift! My only regret is that we didn't get her information so we could send her missionaries and we didn't invite her to baptism, but she said she was definitely going to read the Book of Mormon! Yay!
Also random people would pay for our food, once without telling us! One person stopped us so he could bear his testimony to us! One of the people who worked at the LV airport took time on her break to take pictures of us all send them to our moms. It was so nice! So much fun!
In the salt lake airport, we talked to a woman named Maria and long story short she accepted the inivitation to be baptized if she came to know the church was true and she gave us her phone number and address so we could send missionaries to her house! And that was ALL in Spanish too, she didn't speak English!
Other missionaries did fabulous too with sharing the gospel. One of the Elders was talking to this one guy and by the end of the conversation the guy was like, "Can I give you my email? I want to keep in contact with you!" and he gives him a Book of Mormon and the guy was like, "I can keep this? Are you sure? Thanks! I'm definitely going to read it!" Like it was the greatest thing in the world, which it is, of course.
The picture of me in front of the Womens Room is in the Las Vegas Airport, and that is the greatest smelling restroom I have ever smelled in my life. As we were walking towards it, we were like, What is that awesome smell? Turns out it was the bathroom.
The rabbit is also from the airport.
The skyline is Vegas from the airport.
For dinner yesterday, we had dinner in the airport and we got to talking to the waitress, a woman named Valerie. We gave her a Book of Mormon and left her a note, along with an adorably folded up tip, with some scriptures on it about charity and love. We told her the Book of Mormon would make her happy, and she said, "But I already am happy" and Hna Burnett, who was recently baptized, was like, "Honey, you haven't read this book!" Hna Burnett and another Hna went back to talk to her later and she was on her break and she was crying she was so happy and touched by our gift! My only regret is that we didn't get her information so we could send her missionaries and we didn't invite her to baptism, but she said she was definitely going to read the Book of Mormon! Yay!
We also talked to an Iranian woman who was having a hard time learning English and so Hna Burnett gave her a Book of Mormon and was like, "I'm really struggling to learn another language too and when I read this book in that language it helps me so much and I know if you read this Book it will help you to learn English."
Also random people would pay for our food, once without telling us! One person stopped us so he could bear his testimony to us! One of the people who worked at the LV airport took time on her break to take pictures of us all send them to our moms. It was so nice! So much fun!
I forgot! Elder Bednar spoke to us on Christmas, but it was not just any devotional.
First his wife spoke. Then when he got up, he says, "We're going to do a question and answer session, but not the normal way. I have a magic ipad up here and you are going to text me your questions and I'm going to pick and choose which ones to answer. Now I know you all don't have cell phones, and so we're going to pass out 200 cell phones and give you the number to text, and don't you dare text your parents or I will hunt you down and do bad things to you."
He literally did say "I will hunt you down and do bad things to you."
And so a few thousand missionaries from every missionary training center in the world except for 2 started texting an apostle. Absolutely amazing!!!!
I remember the first question was "Why do I feel so inadequate?"
He said, "Because you have some sense of what you have been called to do"
He also said, "Get over yourself! Your mission is not about you!" He also said that the BEST protection from temptation is a correct understanding of who you are. We asked about how to get prayers answered and his wife said that you're more likely to get your prayers answered when you're praying for someone else.
It was just absolutely amazing. Sorry no pictures, but you can't take pictures in that setting.
First his wife spoke. Then when he got up, he says, "We're going to do a question and answer session, but not the normal way. I have a magic ipad up here and you are going to text me your questions and I'm going to pick and choose which ones to answer. Now I know you all don't have cell phones, and so we're going to pass out 200 cell phones and give you the number to text, and don't you dare text your parents or I will hunt you down and do bad things to you."
He literally did say "I will hunt you down and do bad things to you."
And so a few thousand missionaries from every missionary training center in the world except for 2 started texting an apostle. Absolutely amazing!!!!
I remember the first question was "Why do I feel so inadequate?"
He said, "Because you have some sense of what you have been called to do"
He also said, "Get over yourself! Your mission is not about you!" He also said that the BEST protection from temptation is a correct understanding of who you are. We asked about how to get prayers answered and his wife said that you're more likely to get your prayers answered when you're praying for someone else.
It was just absolutely amazing. Sorry no pictures, but you can't take pictures in that setting.
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